US will not back Jesse Jackson peace mission to Afghanistan [but to go anyway]

US will not back Jesse Jackson peace mission to Afghanistan

The United States has no interest in backing a proposed mission to Afghanistan by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson who said Thursday he had been invited to the country by the Taliban to mediate peace with the regime accused of harboring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden.

"We're not interested in a dialogue," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said. "We're interested in action and no negotiation. The demands are not subject to dialogue."

Armitage, speaking on NBC television, said the Taliban appeared to be stalling on turning over bin Laden who the United States has said is the prime suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

"It seems to me they're trying to delay making a decision on their own," he said, adding that Jackson had spoken with Secretary of State Colin Powell about the Taliban suggestion.

Powell, Armitage said, told Jackson that the demands laid on the Taliban by President George W. Bush were "not negotiable" and that if the militia wanted to avoid possible retaliatory strikes it must hand over bin Laden and eliminate his al-Qaeda network.

Armitage said that while Washington would not stop Jackson from making the trip to Afghanistan, he would not have any support from the US government.

"I personally wouldn't, but I don't think it's my decision," Armitage said when asked whether US officials would encourage Jackson to go. "I think he'll make his own decision."

Jackson said earlier that Mohammed Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban at their embassy in Pakistan, had asked him to lead a peace delegation to Afghanistan.

"I was surprised that I heard from them," Jackson said.

"I really don't want to go," he said of the mission, emphasizing that if and when he went, the trip would not be "a personal issue" and should be carried out by "a very credible delegation with sufficient intelligence."

The Taliban, however, said the mediation offer had come from Jackson and had been accepted.

In Islamabad, Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, denied the mediation request had come from Afghanistan's rulers.

"We have not invited him, but he offered to mediate, and our leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has accepted this offer," Zaeef told the Afghan Islamic Press, a Pakistan-based private news agency.

"He has ordered the authorities to extend cooperation if Jesse Jackson visits Afghanistan. We will have no objection."

I posted this last night on another thread about this insanity:

Colin Powell didn't urge him not to go? What the HECK is going on here? I know it's all fun to talk about letting him go and then starting the bombing, but let's think about it realistically for a moment.

This idiot gets an invite and runs it by the Bush administration.
They do not forbid him or urge him not to go.
Once he goes under those circumstances it will be played up as a tacit approval by the administration.
Any action we're talking about taking would be hamstrung by his presence there.

Surely someone will come to their senses.

Good grief.

If we allow him to go it's a clear signal that no action is forthcoming where he is. Stupidest thing I've ever heard.

Hope they remember how his last attempt at negotiating turned out.:

Friday August 31 10:46 AM ET

Jackson: Zionism Criticism to Come Out
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) - The Palestinian delegation has agreed to drop criticism of Israel and Zionism in a final declaration for the U.N. conference against racism, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Friday.
Following a three-hour meeting with Yasser Arafat, Jackson said the Palestinian leader had agreed to oppose efforts to criticize Israel and Zionism, and to recognize the Holocaust as the worst crime of the 20th century.
The Palestinians were not immediately available for comment.
Jackson presented reporters with a handwritten draft of the document signed by Arafat in which he said he did not want the U.N. conference to derail over criticism of Israel.
The racism gathering has been overshadowed in part by anti-Israel language in a draft of the conference document. The United States decided not to send a high-level delegation to the conference because of negative references to Israel and the Zionist movement.
Shortly after making the announcement, Jackson spoke to Secretary of State Colin Powell by telephone to explain the statement Arafat had signed.
Jackson criticized the Bush administration for not sending Powell, noting that he was able to resolve the controversy simply by talking to the Palestinian leader.
.
Friday August 31 12:20 PM ET

PLO's Arafat Blasts Israel as 'Racist' State
DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat used a United Nations conference on Friday to blast Israel as a ``racist'' state and accused it of ethnic cleansing.
``Condemnation of the Israeli occupation and its racist practices and laws, which are based on racism and superiority, is considered today an urgent demand by our people,'' Arafat said at a panel meeting of leaders assembled at the U.N. World Conference Against Racism in the South African port of Durban.
``This brutality and arrogance are moved by a mentality of superiority that practices racism and racial discrimination, that adopts ethnic cleansing,'' Arafat said.
Arafat spoke in Arabic and the remarks were an official Palestinian translation.
The Durban talks have been mired in controversy since attempts by Arab and Islamic states to equate Zionism with racism and to single out Israel as a ``racist'' state.
The United States threatened to boycott the event, which opened on Friday, because of ``offensive'' language against Israel in the conference's draft declarations.
Washington sent a delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Southwick with instructions to seek changes in the language on Israel. It said it would decide on whether to take part, and at what level, depending on the outcome of negotiations.
``This historical conference represents a decisive historical turning point in the position of all humanity vis-a-vis racism, discrimination and racist practices which are all incorporated in the Israeli occupation of and settlements in our homeland, Palestine,'' Arafat said.
``Our Palestinian people; who are suffering as a result of this severe occupation, cancerous settlements and racial discrimination; look forward toward this conference to stand on their side,'' Arafat said.

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