Taliban say it's time to "forget" about Sept. 11 attacks

Cleveland.com ^ | November 21, 2001 | Haroon Rashid

[Mr. Mulliner]

Taliban say it's time to "forget" about Sept. 11 attacks

By HAROON RASHID
The Associated Press
11/21/01 9:11 AM

SPINBOLDAK, Afghanistan (AP) -- It is time to "forget" about the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, a Taliban spokesman said Wednesday, as they have been superseded by the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan.

Syed Tayyad Agha, spokesman for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, also told a news conference that the Islamic militia doesn't know where Osama bin Laden is.

"You should forget the Sept. 11 attacks because now there is a new fighting against Muslims and Islam, and the international and global terrorists like America and Britain, they are killing daily our innocent people," he told journalists in the Afghan border town of Spinboldak.

He said the Taliban have lost contact with bin Laden and that he is no longer under the militia's control.

"We have no idea where he is," Agha said. "There is no relation right now. There is no communication."

Agha said he knew of no members of bin Laden's al-Qaida network in areas under Taliban control and that contact with them had been lost "due to their communication problems."

Agha also said the Taliban would defend territory they still control after a week of retreats across Afghanistan, including their home base, Kandahar.

"They have decided to defend the presently controlled areas," he said. "We will try our best and we will defend our nation ... and we will not give any chance to anybody to disturb our Islamic rule in Kandahar and other provinces."

President Bush launched the military campaign against Afghanistan on Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden for his alleged role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed 4,000 people in the United States.

However, Agha told a group of foreign journalists in this southern border town that Sept. 11 was "America's problem" because it was carried out by people in the United States and that the Taliban was not responsible.

"This is the problem of Bush and (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair," he said. "This is not our problem."

Agha said the Taliban have no plans to abandon Kandahar and denied reports that local elders had asked them to leave, saying, "No tribal elders have contacted us."

"How could they ask for such a thing against the Taliban?" he added.

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[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

"This is the problem of Bush and (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair," he said. "This is not our problem."

Well, given how you are left to conduct your propaganda broadcasts out in the sticks, as opposed to your once-impregnable capital, I'd say it damn sure is your problem.

[RBroadfoot]

Forget? FORGET?!?!?!????

I rather like what Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz said:

"We won't soon forget September 11th, but the world will soon forget about the Taliban."

[ChemistCat]

If I make it to that nursing home and barely know my name,
If I forget my family's faces and wear a diaper with no shame,
If like Reagan before me I can't play the simplest game
I will never forget five thousand dead. Bin Laden was to blame.

[return_fire]

Yeah, We will forget when they are all dead.

[Doc On The Bay]

"Forget Sept 11......"

That's like asking a parent to forget the day his 6-yr-old child was killed by a Drunk Driver; or like asking a parent to forget the night his/her 14-yr-old daughter was raped!

These "Taliban" are TOTALLY DISCONNECTED with normal Human life!

Doc

[PoorMuttly]

My God. They really are that stupid.

[PoorMuttly]

We will NEVER forget.

[PoorMuttly]

We will forget THEM, however.