Even more forbidding than rocks and snow are the locals, a bewildering array of tribes and clans known collectively as the Pashtun, who number more than 25 million and are sometimes referred to as the Pakhtun, or Pathan. Living on both sides of the border, the Pashtun share a language (Pashtu), a love of guns and jokes, a deep suspicion of outsiders, a passion for the green chewing tobacco called naswar, and belief in a strict and ancient code of honor, called Pashtunwali. One tenet of this code - nanawateh, or sanctuary - is particularly vexing to bin Laden's hunters. It means that every Pashtun is duty bound to help anyone who comes knocking at his door seeking refuge, even if it's his worst enenmy. A Pashtun is expected to give his life defending a guest, and many have done so.
I recall a conversation with the urbane Col. Mohammad Yahya Effendi, one of the Pakistani spymasters who ran the Afghan rebels, or majahideen, during the Soviet war in the 1980's. The Pashtun "can act with nobility and yet be absolute rascals," Effendi told me. "They'll do all sorts of treacherous things - even betray their fathers. But they're bonkers when it comes to giving sanctuary. It's like a sacred mission."
Anyone who hands bin Laden over to the Americans might be 25 million dollars richer in reward money, explained Effendi, but the digrace would hang over this person, along with his family, clan, and tribe, for many generations. "Osama's a major Islamic hero," he added. "Whoever betrays him, why, his life wouldn't be worth an onion."
OTTAWA (CP) - Defence officials have signed a $2.9-million deal with a U.S. firm to develop an anti-anthrax inhaler that could be available for civilian as well as military use.
Aradigm Corp. of California will spend the next few years developing and testing a puffer to counter the effects of anthrax and other biological warfare agents. The inhaler, conceived by Defence Department researchers, will contain the powerful antibiotic ciproflaxacin. "The initial target population was military use," said Maj. Don Van Loon, a bio-science officer.
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