Washington officials say today that a severe attack of last-minute cold feet by some key Arab members of the coalition caused President Bush to postpone the operation. The waverers are Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Oman, and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is embarking on an urgent mission today to strengthen nerves in these countries ... Two senior US officials have told reporters that until yesterday the Saudis were firm in their offer to provide assistance for strikes, including use of a state-of-the-art command centre at the Prince Royal Sultan Air Force Base. Then the situation changed. One US official told Knight Newspapers: "That is no longer true. We fear there is something deeper here."
They waved Taliban flags, clobbered an effigy of George Bush and vowed death to all Americans. It felt like Afghanistan. In fact, Tuesday's demonstration was in Pakistan, the United States' ostensible ally in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, who is accused by the Bush administration of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The thousands of people who took to the streets here, urged on by a radical mullah, wanted to show the fragility of Pakistan's official support for the United States. "America murda abad! America murda abad!" they chanted - roughly, "We hate America! We hate America!"