Posted on 09/12/2001 9:31:35 AM PDT by McGruff
KABUL (Reuters) - Fears mounted in Afghanistan (news - web sites) on Wednesday that Washington may unleash retaliation on the country for hosting Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) who is suspected of masterminding the worst attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor.
Security was noticeably tightened in war-ravaged Kabul, although officials of the ruling Taliban movement told a news conference within hours of the attacks that Washington had no reason to retaliate against Afghanistan.
Foreign aid workers -- fearing they would become victims of local revenge if the United States does attack Afghan targets linked to bin Laden -- began to leave on Wednesday.
Experts forecast an early strike on Afghanistan if evidence hardens the exiled Saudi guerrilla chief was behind the attacks.
Senior U.S. officials said initial evidence points to bin Laden's organization, blamed for the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa and other anti-American attacks.
President Bush (news - web sites) has said the United States would go after not only those behind the attacks but those nations which harbored and supported them.
ACTS OF WAR
Addressing the nation on Wednesday, Bush called the attacks that killed possibly thousands of people ``acts of war.''
Non-governmental aid organizations, which had already felt Taliban pressure in recent months, advised staff to keep a low profile and many were joining the exodus from Afghanistan.
``I think the fear is there, particularly after the evacuation of the aid workers,'' said Reuters journalist Tahir Ikram in Kabul. ``But I don't see any sign of panic yet.''
Taliban authorities in Kabul on Wednesday beefed up security at government offices, thoroughly checking vehicles entering government compounds, witnesses said.
Kabul's airport was closed after an overnight rocket attack by anti-Taliban forces based north of the Afghan capital that initially spawned fears a U.S. retaliation had already begun.
Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, repeated the fundamentalist movement's position it could consider extraditing bin Laden if provided proof of his involvement.
``It is premature,'' Zaeef said in Islamabad when asked if his radical Islamic movement would consider expelling bin Laden, believed to be holed up in mountainous Afghanistan.
``If any evidence is presented to us, we will study it.''
BIN LADEN DENIAL
Concerned over a repeat of U.S. reprisals on Afghanistan that followed the 1998 embassy attacks in Africa, the ruling Taliban issued hasty denials that the man they describe as their guest was capable of mounting such a vast coordinated conspiracy.
The Urdu-language Khabrain daily in Pakistan said bin Laden had told the newspaper through ``sources close to the Taliban,'' he was not involved in Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon (news - web sites) in Washington.
``The terrorist act is the action of some American group. I have nothing to do with it,'' he was quoted as saying in the newspaper, which has a reputation for sensationalism. The report could not be independently confirmed.
But experts said few besides bin Laden -- who honed his guerrilla skills in the 1980s commanding Arab fighters funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) -- have the cash or expertise to mount such attacks.
``A lot of things point to him,'' said Sen. Richard Shelby, vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.
The tall, bearded 44-year-old, who sees himself in a holy war, commands Islamic militants willing to die attacking the United States, which they see as the ultimate enemy.
FIVE ARAB MEN
Two Boston newspapers reported that authorities in Massachusetts had identified five Arab men as suspects and had seized a rental car containing Arabic-language flight training manuals at the city's Logan International Airport, where two of the hijacked planes originated.
Investigators found a copy of the Koran, a videotape on how to fly commercial jets and a fuel consumption calculator in a pair of bags meant for one of the flights that crashed into the World Trade Centre, the Boston Globe said.
The Boston Herald said the suspects entered the United States from Canada. Two of the men were brothers whose passports were traced to the United Arab Emirates, and one was a trained pilot.
The Taliban's opponents in the Northern Alliance, which now controls only the northeast corner of Afghanistan, have accused bin Laden of taking an increasingly prominent role in the Taliban fight for control of all the country.
On Wednesday, the alliance ambassador in China accused the Taliban, bin Laden and Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency of being behind the attack on the United States.
``We believe that this is a triangle between Osama bin Laden, ISI, which is the intelligence section of the Pakistani army, and the Taliban,'' Abdul Basir Hotak told Reuters.
Pakistan, which denies it is providing military support to the Taliban, issued a stiff condemnation of the attack and has not commented on suggestions of links to bin Laden or the Taliban.
They have sowed the wind ... now they are going to reap the whirlwind.
Well, gosh, that's reasonable. And I think we should be reasonable in return - they hand over bin Laden, we cease fire...
The Pakis aren't the only ones - intel offices all over the Mideast are burning the midnight oil and their directors defecating masonry. We trace the funding to a formal government, and we're going to be looking for a nice fat unmoving land target. In Iraq the intel offices were the first to go.
Without a declared war, this will only be the begining, with escalating terrors yet to come.
They need to be afraid..VERY AFRAID!
Yep. Just as those hi jackers had people with cell phones call families to tell them that they are going to die. Was this a move to show their humanity? Obviously not. It was designed to mount more fear and terror, to cause more psychological fear, not just to the people on the planes, but to their loved ones, that would then know in advance what was going to happen.
They should be afraid....VERY AFRAID!
At least someone is having an intelligent response!
To be fearful is rational, in their circumstances.;^)
Of course, this little stunt has probably been the source of much of the info that is currently leading us to where they lived, their cars, etc...
Another report said that one of the stewardesses used a a cell phone and called the airport and let them know about events too.
Another report pertaining to the Pittsburg crash was that they have recovered items that indicate that the pilot deliberately crashed the plane in a low residence area, once he realized they were doomed anyway.
Another report was that a man in Mass, when getting to the airport for an earlier flight had an altercation with some Arab men in the parking garage. When this man got to his destination, and heard about the attacks, he recalled the Arabs in the garage and called authorities. This is what led to finding the car with the passport identifying one of the terrorists and linking them with the United Arab Emirates and flight training book in Arabic. They = the brothers, that were involved, that we are hearing about.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.