Echoing comments from other senior officials, the US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that "there is no question" Saudi-born militant leader Osama bin Laden was involved in Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
A delegation of senior Pakistani officials will go to Afghanistan today to demand that the ruling Taliban militia hand over bin Laden to the US, a top Pakistani government official said.
The delegation, which is traveling to the Taliban's headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar, will issue an ultimatum to the religious militia: either deliver bin Laden, the leading suspect in the attacks, or risk a massive retaliatory assault, the official said yesterday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The Taliban will be told that the international community has been mobilized to attack Afghanistan if the Taliban, a devoutly Muslim militia that rules roughly 95 percent of the country, refuse to turn over bin Laden, the official said.
There was no indication that the Taliban had been given a deadline to decide, although CNN reported Washington sources as saying that they had three days.
Bin Laden, the exiled Saudi millionaire already indicted in the US on charges of masterminding the bombings of two US embassies in Africa in 1998, has been living in Afghanistan since 1996.
The Taliban have steadfastly refused to hand him over despite two rounds of UN sanctions that have cut off funds to the national airline and isolated Taliban leaders.
The Taliban say bin Laden is a guest. The Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has said in the past that delivering bin Laden to non-Muslims would be akin to betraying a tenet of Islam.
Also Sunday, the Taliban called an "urgent" meeting of clerics from throughout Afghanistan. At that meeting the clerics voiced their support for the Taliban, condemned the US and demanded proof of bin Laden's involvement in the airborne attacks on the World Trade Center's twin towers and the Pentagon.
Word of the Pakistani delegation's trip came a day after Pakistani military and diplomatic officials said Islamabad has agreed to a list of US demands for a possible attack on Afghanistan, including a multinational force to be based there.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who joined President George W. Bush and other officials at Camp David, Maryland, thanked Pakistan on Saturday for its willingness to cooperate in any military action the US may take in the region.
Powell said the US is winning support for a global anti-terrorism coalition. The State Department urged foreign envoys to impose travel bans on terrorists and cut off their money channels.
Rumsfeld said yesterday the "terrorist network" responsible for the attacks on America is "bigger than one person" and the US will go after countries that harbor "terrorists" and their organizations.
"We have no choice," Rumsfeld said on the Fox News Sunday program. "Either the United States acquiesces to the terrorists and becomes isolationist, turns inward, gives up our freedom ... We can't do that."British Prime Minister Tony Blair also warned yesterday that "we are at war with terrorism" after the devastating attacks against New York and Washington.
He urged caution as to how the US should retaliate, warning it was premature to talk about the exact nature of any military response.
"It is a time for cool heads, calm nerves," he said. "What happened on Tuesday was an attack not just on the United States, but an attack on the civilized world."
He added: "I can assure you, the whole of Europe will stand together" with the US.
Blair confirmed that the death toll of Britons, probably 200 to 300, among the dead would be the highest in any attack since the end of World War II.
Asked about building widespread support for possible military strikes, the prime minister went on: "This is something obviously we discussed with the American president.
"Secondly, there has to be an agenda we construct at an international level to dismantle the machinery of international terrorism."
Also see story:
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
RSS