The September 11th attack
Source: Taliban mulls bin Laden extradition
By Amir Shah
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's Taliban rulers discussed conditions for possibly extraditing Osama bin Laden to a country other than United States, a Pakistan government source said today, hours after the Taliban urged Afghans to prepare for a holy war.
The conditions, including international recognition of the Taliban government and lifting of U.N. sanctions, were discussed in a meeting yesterday in Kandahar, headquarters of the Islamic militia that rules most of Afghanistan, the official said on condition of anonymity.
No final agreement was reached, he said. But the Pakistan delegation, which is currently in the Afghan capital of Kabul, had delivered a blunt message to the Taliban: Either hand over bin Laden or be sure to be attacked by a multinational military force, led by the United States.
A grand council of Islamic clerics was gathering today in Kabul to discuss the ultimatum. But the ruling Taliban said bin Laden has been wrongly implicated in last week's terror attacks in New York and Washington, and they have been preparing Afghans for the worst.
"If America attacks our homes, it is necessary for all Muslims, especially for Afghans, to wage a holy war," Mullah Mohammed Hasan Akhund, the deputy Taliban leader, said yesterday, according to the state-run Radio Shariat. "God is on our side, and if the world's people try to set fire to Afghanistan, God will protect us and help us."
Since taking control of most of Afghanistan in 1996, the Taliban have declared holy wars against the northern-based anti-Taliban alliance, Russia and Iran, but never the United States.
Hundreds of Islamic clerics were converging on Kabul.
"About 300 ulema (clerics) have already arrived. We expect about 700, and we hope we can start later this afternoon," said Mullah Hamdullah Nomani, the Kabul mayor and convener of the grand council of Islamic clerics. The council includes clerics from across the country and is summoned whenever the Taliban government wants help in making key decisions.
Throughout Afghanistan yesterday, the Taliban leaders were sending a message to their people: "Stay united and prepare for jehad against U.S. invaders," The official Bakhtar News Agency reported today.
Bin Laden, who also is wanted by the United States in connection with the 1998 bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa, is the prime suspect in last week's airborne assaults on New York's World Trade Center twin towers and the Pentagon in Washington.
"The accusations against Osama bin Laden are baseless and a pretext to attack Afghanistan," the state-run new agency said.
Within hours of the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, the Taliban's foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, condemned the violence and said that it would have been impossible for bin Laden to carry out the assaults because he doesn't have the facilities for such an elaborate operation.
Since then, the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who has declared himself head of the Muslims, has defended bin Laden and accused the United States of pointing the finger in his direction because its investigators have been unable to come up with a real suspect.
Bin Laden, a Saudi dissident, has been living in Afghanistan since 1996 and is accused by Washington of running a global terrorist network from his bases inside the war-ruined Central Asian nation.
The Taliban, a hard-line Islamic militia that rules according to a strict interpretation of the Quran, have been placed under economic sanctions twice by the United Nations to press the earlier U.S. demand to hand over bin Laden for trial.
The Taliban have consistently refused, calling bin Laden a "guest" and saying that to hand him over to non-Muslims would betray a tenet of Islam.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said today that the U.S. government has authorized its nonessential embassy staff members and their families to evacuate Pakistan amid fears of possible violence and terrorist strikes against Americans. Several multinational companies also have evacuated their international staff because of concerns over possible violence.
The U.S. State Department said that while Pakistan has expressed its full support for America's call for an international campaign against terrorism, there is "some public sympathy and support for the Taliban, as well as for bin Laden."
However, the U.S. Embassy and its consulates in Pakistan, an Islamic nation of 140 million people, were to continue their normal operations.
