US President George W. Bush has approved a covert effort to strengthen a diverse array of groups fighting the Taliban, administration officials said Sunday.
Separately, Bush has authorized US$100 million in new relief aid to Afghan refugees, as part of an effort to quell resentment in Pakistan as thousands pour over the border each day.
Administration officials are also actively considering a plan to air-drop food into Afghanistan to forestall starvation as winter approaches, though military planners are hesitating because they have not yet figured out a way to ensure that the food does not fall into the Taliban's hands.
The administration's program of covert support for anti-Taliban groups has emerged as a key element of its plan to oust a government that Washington has accused of sheltering Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network.
The aid is not only intended to help the Northern Alliance, the opposition group that operates from bases in northern Afghanistan. It is also aimed at stirring up resistance to the Taliban among Pashtun tribal groups in the south.
"The purpose is to enhance their ability to their move against the Taliban," a senior official said. "It is not limited to political support."
Administration officials indicated that the assistance included financing, but they declined to say how much money would be spent or to provide details of the effort. The money could enable the rebels to buy weapons, to recruit new fighters, to bribe Taliban commanders to switch sides or to undertake other efforts to weaken the regime.
American officials have previously suggested that if fighting broke out, the rebels could provide intelligence data and serve as proxy fighters in a US-led effort to track bin Laden and target the Taliban.
Encouraging defections in the ranks of the Taliban is also a prime goal. In the 19 days since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, one administration official said Sunday, the US has been in contact with "people who are loosely affiliated with the Taliban and have separated from them" or are likely to switch sides if they believe the regime's days are numbered.
Administration officials declined to say whether Bush had signed a presidential decision directive -- a secret document that would specifically authorize covert activity. But one official said, "appropriate legal authority exists" for a full range of activities in Afghanistan.
Even though the Bush administration has been quietly encouraging the effort to form a broad anti-Taliban coalition around the former king, the statement asserts that Washington was not taking sides about who should lead the fractious nation.
"The Taliban do not represent the Afghan people, who never elected or chose the Taliban faction," the Security Council's statement said. "We do not want to choose who rules Afghanistan, but we will assist those who seek a peaceful, economically developing Afghanistan, free of terrorism. The international community must devote itself to stabilizing Afghanistan. The whole world will benefit from a stable Afghanistan."
By giving aid, the administration wants to show that its military campaign is not directed against the Afghan people. And it wants to reassure Pakistan that it is sensitive to the refugee burden.
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