Posted on 11/13/2001 10:37:57 AM PST by Dirk McQuickly
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- The United States is closed to achieving its objective in Afghanistan: capturing suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and others responsible for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, diplomatic sources in Islamabad said Tuesday.
Reports from Afghanistan recount lightening victories for the Northern Alliance, which had captured more than 40 percent of Afghanistan by Tuesday afternoon and were now moving toward the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
"The fall of Kabul earlier Tuesday has sealed the fate of bin Laden and his protector, Mullah Omar, the so-called supreme leader of the Taliban," said a western diplomatic source in Islamabad.
"We will not be surprised if there is an uprising in Kandahar soon and people capture bin Laden and Mullah Omar and hand them over to the opposition forces," he said.
According to that source, U.S. intelligence officials in Afghanistan are now working with the opposition forces and Pashtun rebels in southern parts of the country to ensure that "the two fugitives are caught alive. They fear that angry opposition forces or others may kill them as soon as they are captured."
Hopes for a rapid collapse of the Taliban in Kandahar increased after an uprising against the militant group in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. Most Afghan experts expected the opposition forces to face some resistance in Jalalabad as it is a Pashtun city and most Taliban rulers are also Pashtuns.
"But such events show that the Taliban were not popular anywhere. People were just afraid of them. Now that the process has started, it will be difficult for the Taliban to prevent similar uprising even in Kandahar. We expect Kandahar to fall soon," Western diplomatic sources in Islamabad said.
Note to the media for the next war.
I may take heat for this, but I think it nonetheless important to say.
If OBL is captured alive, the civilized and correct way to treat him is to put him on trial, with the Nuremberg trials as precedent. It should be done in an Islamic country, perhaps Saudi Arabia, but with international judges. The trial should establish beyond a doubt that acts of terrorism are evil, that they do not come under the definition of "acts of war", and their punishment is that of a murderer. Doing this openly will shore up the public relations problems that are dogging the U.S. effort to establish our legitimate grievances.
And when the trial is over, then the convicted murderer is executed publically in accordance to Islamic law for murderers: sword to the neck. And such a death is not rewarded with eternity in the warrior's paradise.
You could serve:
And this is bad...how?? These two clowns need to be ejected from the land of the living ASAP. NA forces are more than capable of handing these men a strong dose of the swift justice they deserve in their own special way. God forbid OBL and/or Omar are captured by U.S. forces and some military attorney is called in. What a circus that would produce.
There are several ways mentioned on this thread to kill them, I can live with any of them. My preference, however, is to have our special forces put a single bullet in their heads in such a way so that positive identification can be made by Saddam when he receives the pickle jar containing same.
Not on a pike!
Hung from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to welcome visitors to New York Harbor for a few hundred years, to remind all arriving to our shores what happens when you f*ck with us.
OK?
Ditto. Both of them.
I hate to admit this; but, I'm rooting for the opposition forces. Dead is better for this guy; he will only become a focal point if left alive and brought over to the U.S. for trial.
One .308 from an anonymous and invisible special forces sniper. I'm sure there would be no shortage of volunteers.
Not a bad idea. Dehydrate him and enclose him in see though plastic, huh?
Exactly. Many terrorist attacks of the last few decades involved kidnappings, etc., in order to free imprisoned or detained comrades.
Death, preferrably at the hands of native Afghanis is the best outcome.
"And Abu races down the field with Bin Laden across the saddle...OOOh, Rashid smashes into him and tries to seize the Bin ball but just rips off the head instead!"
As far as you or I or the rest of the world would know...he's dead.
You're only a "martyr" if others know you are not talking. No one will ever know and no one will ever hear from OBL again.
Now, that doesn't mean we can't actually keep him for as long as it takes to extract the information we need.
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