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Alliance slams Pak for meddling in Afghan affairs NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Slamming Pakistan for "meddling" in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, Northern........more Fears heighten as 5 more NEW YORK, Oct 14: Five new cases of exposure to the deadly anthrax disease were diagnosed in the ....more US food aid causes ripples KHOJA BAHAWUDDIN, (AFGHANISTAN), Oct 14: Abdul Basir clings tightly to three bright ....more Okinawa’s economy hit hard KADENA, (JAPAN) Oct 14: The blue ocean and the pine trees of Okinawa are a world away from the......more |
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LTTE preparing
for talks with future UNP Govt COLOMBO, Oct 14: The LTTE is preparing to hold direct peace talks with the Sri Lankan.......more Pak city sealed, as ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Authorities arrested hundreds of militant Muslims and sealed an entire south.....more Al Qaeda’s strategy WASHINGTON, Oct 14: The Al Qaeda has developed a new strategy that transcends terrorism and ......more Osama will never LONDON, Oct 14: Terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden is hiding in a cave in Afghan mountains ......more |
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Northern
Alliance slams Pak for meddling NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Slamming Pakistan for "meddling" in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, Northern Alliance has asserted Islamabad had "no right" to decide about the future dispensation there, as it said an agreement had been reached with former King Zahir Shah on the formation of the alternative Government in the event of overthrow of Taliban. "Pakistan has no right to say who should and who should not rule Afghanistan," Acting Ambassador of the Burhanuddin Rabbani Government here, Syed Sardar Ahmadi, told PTI referring to President Pervez Musharraf’s statement that Northern Alliance should not form Government in the event of ouster of the Taliban regime. Asserting that Pakistan had "no right" to talk about the internal matters of Afghanistan, Ahmadi said "Afghans do not need suggestions from anybody, particularly Pakistan." "Only Afghan people will decide who should rule them. We know how to decide about our future and we will take decisions by ourselves," he stressed. He accused Musharraf of attempting to divide the population of Afghanistan through "propaganda" and by making "irresponsible statements" and said "Afghans are aware as to who is their enemy and who is a friend." "The problems in Afghanistan are creation of Pakistan and even former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has acknowledged it publicly," Ahmadi said. "Everyone in Afghanistan knows who brought the Taliban into Afghanistan and with what intention," the Afghan diplomat said. Ahmadi said India had been very helpful, particularly in terms of providing help, food and facilitating studies of Afghans here. "We hope the humanitarian support from India will continue". He said the Northern Alliance had sent a delegation to Rome to hold discussions with Zahir Shah and other prominent Afghans and an agreement has been reached on formation of a council of national unity. The 120-member council, having 60 members from Northern Alliance and rest from Zahir Shah’s side, will prepare the ground for Loya Jirga (grand council) where more than 1000 prominent persons will take a decision on the kind of Government in the event of ouster of the Taliban regime. "We want to form a broad-based Government having representation from all the tribes of Afghanistan including Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks," Ahmadi said. On the war front, he said the Taliban commanders and troops were defecting in large numbers and joining the Northern Alliance. "So far 40 Taliban commanders along with 1200 personnel have joined us," he said. "We are expecting more Taliban commanders and forces to join us," he added. The Northern Alliance is peeved that Pakistani forces are still helping the Taliban regime in terms of logistics planning. (PTI) |
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Fears heighten as 5 more test positive for anthrax NEW YORK, Oct 14: Five new cases of exposure to the deadly anthrax disease were diagnosed in the United States this weekend, heightening fears that the country could be facing a bioterrorism campaign. Five more employees of a Florida publishing company, where a man who died of anthrax last week and two other people that were exposed to it all worked, tested positive for anthrax exposure, law enforcement officials said yesterday. In New York, network executives and local officials said a second employee of the NBC Broadcasting Network was showing symptoms of anthrax, a day after it was revealed that one of her colleagues was ill. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said yesterday that the first NBC employee, indentified by the media as Erin O’Connor, was infected after she opened a threatening letter containing a powder that contained anthrax. It was the first time the source of anthrax has been pinpointed since a scare over the illness emerged last week, and it came as anthrax spores were also found on a letter sent to a microsoft office in the state of Nevada. The second NBC employee to develop anthrax-like symptoms, who has not been identified, is on antibiotics after developing a rash, fever and swollen lymph nodes and is responding well to treatment, officials said. It was not however immediately clear if the new cases detected among employees of American Media Inc. (AMI) — a publisher of tabloid newspapers — in Boca Raton, Florida were related to the three earlier exposures. Law enforcement sources said signs of anthrax were detected in the blood of the five workers, indicating they had come into contact with anthrax bacteria at some point, but not necessarily recently. "These are presumptive results," a source cautioned, adding that further tests were underway. FBI agents and health officials wearing biohazard suit have been searching the AMI building after anthrax spores were found on the keyboard of photo editor Robert Stevens, 63, who died of anthrax on October 5. Nearly 1,000 people who spent time in the AMI offices have been tested and given antibiotics. While nine exposures to anthrax have now been confirmed, only two people — Stevens and O’Connor, who is suffering from the less serious skin anthrax and is expected to make a full recovery — have been confirmed as infected. The FBI said there was no evidence to link the anthrax scare with the September 11 attacks. Announcing yesterday that the letter sent to NBC had tested positive for traces of anthrax, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani tried to calm nervous residents. "There is no indication of any kind of the spread of anthrax ... And we can have confidence in that because we have tested many people," he told reporters. New York FBI chief Barry Mawn said the letter contained a "brown granular substance." It was sent to NBC anchor tom brokaw on September 18 and opened by his assistant, the 38-year-old O’Connor. Some 358 people who may have come into contact with the letter at NBC, including brokaw, have been tested for anthrax exposure and put on antibiotics as a precaution. (AFP) |
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US food aid causes ripples in North Afghanistan KHOJA BAHAWUDDIN, (AFGHANISTAN), Oct 14: Abdul Basir clings tightly to three bright yellow packs of American food, slapping at tiny hands which try to snatch away some of his goodies. Basir, 12, dressed in a dusty shirt and trousers and pink skull cap, pulls out his peas in tomato sauce, crackers, strawberry jam and peanut butter — with no knowledge of what he is carrying or where it comes from. "I’ve eaten a little bit and it’s tasty," Basir said, pushing off another little boy who tries to see what is inside the yellow bags emblazoned with the words "a food gift from the people of the United States of America". "I will take it home and my father can have some but not that much... I found it in the field over there," he says, pointing across a field of large clumps of earth. Silver wrappers sparkle as far as the eye can see in fields outside the town of Khoja Bahawuddin, the remains of a US air drop of food rations. The town is in an area controlled by forces of the Northern Alliance, a coalition of mainly ethnic minority Afghans fighting against the hardline Islamic Taliban rulers. They control less than ten per cent of the country, but have been emboldened by US-led air strikes against Taliban targets as part of the American campaign to track down Saudi-born fugitive Osama Bin Laden. The raids have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis caused by over two decades of war and a more recent drought. Aid agencies say up to 1.5 million Afghans may be on the move inside the country in search of shelter or food. In tandem with bombing raids, the United States is also airdropping food supplies — a move criticised by many aid agencies. Inevitably, some of the food reaches people who don’t need it and traders have started selling supplies at the Bazaar in Khoja Bahawuddin after Afghans trucked their supplies into the town. Nakhib, 13, sits on ripped-up cardboard boxes in the field where the aid landed. "I came too late," he said, nibbling a bit of his toasted pastry. "I wanted to find more, but didn’t get here on time." Men on bicycles pull up, ringing their bells, also too late to find the food, which was dropped during the night and soon disappeared. Zaman Udin, 11, sucks on his packet of jam, tearing sheets of cardboard to sell as packaging at the market. The US air drops have been criticised by aid agencies for failing to target those who are most needy in Afghanistan and also because of the mixed signals that US planes are dropping both bombs and food. Cyril Dupre, coordinator in Afghanistan for the French aid agency acted, said the air drops could do some good for a population lacking food due to ongoing war and drought, but could also harm vulnerable people. "It can be very useful to use air drops in regions which are inaccessible," he told Reuters. "The perverse effect is that you can never guarantee they will be targeted at the most needy population — women and children — and you can get fighting (over the food)." Dupre said the air drops can also harm local aid agencies’ efforts to build relationships with the population while delivering much-needed food and help. "There is a risk of destabilising the existing balance and the work that local NGOs are doing," he said. Earlier Afghans scrambled around a truck, which carried the packages into town, climbing over its sides to get to the packets. Many were ripped open immediately, peanut butter was tasted and then thrown to the ground. "The food is bad," one man said. "And the raisins are off." (REUTERS) |
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Okinawa’s economy hit hard by post-attack caution KADENA, (JAPAN) Oct 14: The blue ocean and the pine trees of Okinawa are a world away from the rugged mountain ranges of Afghanistan, but the US-led strikes taking place there are having a profound effect on this tropical island. US bases in Okinawa, reluctant host to the bulk of the US military presence in Japan, have been on high alert since the September 11 attacks. Tokyo this week sent around 400 riot police to beef up security at the bases. Japanese police now stand shoulder-to-shoulder with US military personnel at the main gate of Kadena Air Base, the US Air Force’s largest base in Eastern Asia. Local residents, however, are less concerned with the outward signs of stepped-up security than the resulting blow to livelihoods. The US bases — together with tourism and public works —have long been a pillar of the economy in Okinawa, one of the poorest prefectures in the country. "It’s just awful. I would say business is down by about 50 percent," said Masanobu Uehara, 40, who runs an electronic appliances store just outside Kadena’s main gate. Uehara said fewer US military personnel were leaving the base due to heightened checks at the gates. That has hit his business hard, as around 80 percent of his customers are affiliated with the US forces. Fuko Shimoji, 36, who works at a bakery across the street from Uehara’s shop, said the situation was similar at her store. "The regular customers from the base, who used to come about four times a week, have not shown up. Apparently, it’s a hassle to leave the base because of the stricter checks," she said. Island of bases As the image of a tropical island gives way to that of an island of bases, visitors are staying away. Okinawa, whose number-one industry is tourism, is a favourite destination for school excursions due to its climate and because teachers see it as an appropriate place to learn about Japan’s involvement in World War two. Okinawa was the site of fierce fighting between US and Japanese troops during the final days of the war, which resulted in heavy civilian casualties. But many schools are heading elsewhere out of fear that Japan’s southernmost prefecture may be the target of terror attacks. Around 78,000 group tourists have cancelled trips to Okinawa since the suicide strikes in New York and Washington, according to the local Government. That figure includes 281 schools, or 21 percent of the number of schools that visited last year. "I think people are overly concerned about the presence of US bases," said Shinji Nakamura, who heads the tourism section at the prefectural Government. "Is Okinawa really high on the list of targets by terrorists? would they not choose a NATO member or countries near Afghanistan that are providing bases for the United States?" he added. On Wednesday, Okinawa Governor Keiichi Inamine visited Tokyo, 1,600 km to the north, to ask Central Government to provide support for the island’s tourist industry. He played down concern about safety in Okinawa. "Other than the checks at naha airport and the US bases, nothing is different," Inamine told reporters. Dilemma over US presence For many Okinawans, the current tribulations are magnifying the long-running dilemma they face over the presence of the US military. While the Island chain accounts for less than one percent of Japan’s land area, it houses about half the American military and 75 percent of US bases in the country. The bases provide much needed jobs in Okinawa, which has one of the worst employment rates among prefectures. "So many people are associated with the bases in one way or another. The best way and the only way is coexistence," said Shimoji at the bakery. But others say Okinawa is shouldering an excessive burden, a sentiment bolstered by a recent string of crimes involving US servicemen in Okinawa. "The bases are concentrated in Okinawa. I have had unpleasant encounters with US soldiers," said Shinji Katsuren, 33, who runs a camera store outside the Kadena base. "They should leave and we should find a way to manage (the economy) without them." (REUTERS) |
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LTTE preparing for talks with future UNP Govt COLOMBO, Oct 14: The LTTE is preparing to hold direct peace talks with the Sri Lankan Government, if the opposition United National Party wins the December 5 general elections, a media report said today. LTTE chief V Prabhakaran has told his aides to prepare a basis for negotiations, which would be headed by guerrilla groups political wing chief S P Tamilchelvam, the ‘Sunday Island’ reported. In a significant shift in strategy, the rebels would be holding direct talks with the Government and would not need the facilitation of norway, it said. The LTTE is confident that the Peoples Alliance of President Chandrika Kumaratunga would be defeated in the parliamentary polls, it claimed. The UNP, which has said that it would work with Tamil and Muslim parties and PA defectors in the elections, is in an upbeat mood after Kumaratunga dissolved Parliament last week and called for fresh polls. The LTTE has repeatedly indicated in the recent past that it does not want to do business with the PA regime which, in its view, has undermined peace initiatives and pursued the military option while paying lip service to its stated objective of arriving at a negotiated settlement. The PA’s government-saving accord with the Janatha Vamukti Peramuna (JVP), which prolonged the regime only by a month, contained a clause that barred devolution of powers to the Tamils for one year. The LTTE cited this clause as a major hindrance to the pursuit of any negotiated settlement. The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), meanwhile, has formed a coalition with three smaller parties to contest the election in the Tamil-majority north and east of the country. The Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) and a faction of the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Organisation (EPRLF) are in the alliance that is expected to have an electoral arrangement with the UNP front. A common aim of the Tamil coalition and the LTTE will be to ensure the defeat of the pro-Government Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), which won four seats in the October 2000 elections. The EPDP, headed by former militant leader Douglas Devananda, is still an armed group and, in LTTE’s view, is a party of traitors. The EPDP’s rise and its prominent role in ensuring normal life in the Government-controlled areas of the Jaffna Peninsula make it a strong rival to the TULF, which has often alleged that the armed presence of EPDP cadres made Jaffna a hostile terrain for opposition political activity. Stock market sentiment seems to be in the UNP’s favour, as Colombo’s Milanka index soared soon after Parliament was dissolved, in anticipation of a change of Government. The UNP is seen as business-friendly, while the PA, with already two small left parties in its coalition, caused some discomfiture in the industry by striking a deal with the JVP to survive in office. (PTI) |
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Pak city sealed, as militants
vow suicide ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Authorities arrested hundreds of militant Muslims and sealed an entire southern Pakistan city today after leaders of an influential Islamic Political Party vowed to attack an air base where US personnel are said to be working. A spokesman for Pakistan’s powerful Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party said thousands of followers were massing this morning and would move toward Jacobabad air base. "Body bags will be sent to America," said Riaz Durrani, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam spokesman. "Then they will realize the misery." Interior Ministry officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 292 members of that party and other militant organizations were arrested to "prevent them from attacking and carrying out suicide operations" at the air base. Pakistani officials confirmed Thursday in condition of anonymity that the country has allowed US military aircraft to land inside its borders and has granted the United States use of at least two air bases during air strikes inside Afghanistan. One base, they said, is Jacobabad’s. The officials emphasized that the Americans were not ground forces and did not characterize them as US military personnel. Islamic religious parties sympathetic to the Taliban are outraged that Pakistan has decided to help the US in its attempts to destroy terrorist installations in Afghanistan that belong to Osama Bin Laden, top suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States. The Government issued a formal denial Thursday that "us armed services personnel and aircraft" were in Pakistan. Residents said otherwise today. "People have seen American aircraft landing and taking off during the past couple of days, and especially yesterday," said Rashid Bijarani, a farmer in Jacobabad, who said he himself saw them. Others in Jacobabad also spoke of seeing US-marked craft. Saeed Akhtar, Jacobabad’s police chief, confirmed that some protesters had attempted to reach the base today. "But we have stopped them," Akhtar said by telephone. He said he was optimistic that no militants would even be able to enter the city. Intelligence sources said all major roads leading to Jacobabad have been closed, and anyone trying to reach the city is being checked thoroughly. The city is sealed to outsiders, the sources said. Dozens of militants blocked a road to Jacobabad this morning, burning tyres, a city police dispatcher said. Authorities quickly restored the normal flow of traffic, the dispatcher said. Abdul Ghafoor Hydri, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader, said at a news conference last night that the party had called for followers to attack the air base and even stage suicide attacks to destroy American aircraft. The party’s Jacobabad leader, Mohammed Khan Bijarni, said today that 10,000 activists are ready to help. Troops from Panu Akoil, a nearby major military base, were on the scene at the air base to ensure security, Interior Ministry sources said. (AP) |
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Al Qaeda’s
strategy emphasises on damage WASHINGTON, Oct 14: The Al Qaeda has developed a new strategy that transcends terrorism and goes beyond the psychological impact of inflicting fear in people, according to a United States (US) consulting firm on geopolitics. Terrorism is a simple tactic that aims to frighten a population into forcing its Government to abandon or alter a policy. It is a psychological technique, and it is difficult to find a case in which that technique has worked, the Texas-based strategic forecasting (Stratfor) said. However, the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon caused substantial damage to the US financial and transportation infrastructures. The attacks shut down air transport for days and disrupted it for weeks. They closed and then battered the US stock market. The economic effects of the attacks will last well into next year, it said. The war on terrorism declared by the US, especially the military campaign targeting the Al Qaeda network, could also be a tactical asymmetric nightmare, it said. While the groups and individuals involved in Al Qaeda are present in some 60 countries, active combatants number only in the tens of thousands, Stratfor said. To target Al Qaeda is to take on such intractable struggles as Kashmir, Chechnya, Mindanao and Israel. Each of these conflicts is more than the Governments involved have been able to solve. The United States now seeks to confront them all, Stratfor further said. The Al Qaeda’s wide dispersal and minimal physical infrastructure minimizes the amount of overall degradation the United States can inflict on it, it said. Even the available targets are rarely appropriate for the US military’s preferred weapons and tactics, and each strike requires the deployment of massive amounts of political and military resources. On the other hand, Al Qaeda’s tactics, deployment and nature make further attacks inevitable but extremely difficult to predict or defend against, Stratfor said. The organisation is a collection of autonomous groups, which operate in autonomous cells, are already deployed in target countries spanning the globe. As an organisation capable of mustering 19 suicide attackers for a single coordinated operation and simultaneously bombing targets in multiple countries, Al Qaeda has demonstrated its capability for tremendous operational secrecy, and it has carried out effective disinformation and psychological warfare campaigns, Stratfor said. The Al Qaeda’s unconventional, small-unit actions can cause disproportionate damage while exposing only a small portion of the group to retaliation. The wide dispersal of Al Qaeda and its supporters also makes any attempt to fight it extremely costly. Besides assistance in intelligence gathering and bases and access, it will need political support from countries, Stratfor pointed out. This marks a major reversal from the first half of this year, when the United States pushed ahead unilaterally with controversial policies that drew the ire of friends and foes, Stratfor said. "The rest of the world is well aware the United States now needs assistance, and it is already drawing up the bill. It will not be cheap, nor will it be simple to pay." Stratfor said India and Pakistan are prime examples. Before the attacks, the United States was courting India as a strategic partner because it was emerging as the dominant power in the Indian Ocean basin. India was quick to offer intelligence and bases for US retaliatory strikes on Afghanistan. However, for an effective attack on Afghanistan, the US needed the support of Pakistan — a country with little to offer but an amateur nuclear program, hordes of Taliban recruits and the keys to Kabul. If the United States were to accept Indian aid at the expense of Pakistan, it risked losing the support of other Muslim countries throughout the Middle East. "In short, the price for just a portion of only the first battle in the war on terrorism is the potential loss of a valuable strategic ally, India," Stratfor pointed out. As for Russia, President Vladimir Putin is ready to offer the use of bases, intelligence, logistical and possibly even military support, and access to the Governments of Iraq, Iran and Syria in return for a free rein to suppress the Chechens, no NATO expansion into the baltic states or Ukraine, and no national missile defense programme. Even Washington’s NATO allies see the US predicament as a chance to contain Washington’s unilateral foreign policy. Sources indicate they have already begun to resist US requests for intelligence support, stratfor said. It said Israel posed the biggest dilemma for the US. Washington needs Israeli intelligence, but it also needs Israel to maintain a low profile so as not to drive away Muslim support for the US campaign. "Israel sees this as an opportunity to lock down unambiguous US backing for its actions against the Palestinians. To offer such support, however, would only exacerbate one of the core sources of opposition to the United States in Muslim countries." The Muslim states, likely battlegrounds in this war on terrorism, present another problem. Support for Al Qaeda and its agenda runs deep among the populations and sometimes within the Governments of these countries. Support for the United States risks inflaming domestic opposition or exposing official complicity in Al Qaeda’s actions. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, both critical to the campaign, are particularly at risk, it said. (UNI) |
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Osama will never be found: Son LONDON, Oct 14: Terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden is hiding in a cave in Afghan mountains with 300 of his elite commandos and the US and British forces will never be able to capture him, a media report quoting his 18-year-old son said. "America and Britain will never track down my father. He has vanished...He has become invisible," Bin Laden’s son Abdullah Laden who fled Afghanistan a week ago said in an interview with the `Sunday Mirror’ in Islamabad. Though Bin Laden has claimed that he had no involvement in terror strikes in New York and Washington, he had left for the cave shelter on the day of the attack. "No matter how many planes bomb our homeland. Afghan earth will never give up my father. He has vanished into the landscape. Dad has become invisible," Abdullah was quoted as saying. In the interview, Abdullah said one of his father’s most trusted advisers came to him in Sept 11, and "told me my father had gone by horse to the mountains with 300 of his commandos." "There, they will be completely safe. No one can find them. Their home in the caves is very secure. The adviser said that a convoy of around 60 trucks filled with computers and satellite equipment had left Kabul at the same time." The same night Abdullah and his family were ordered to leave the house, the report said. They moved to a giant nine-mile-long bunker on the outskirts of the Afghan city of Jalalabad, where they lived for three weeks. Then last Sunday night - shortly after the first wave of allied air strikes - they drove for four hours to cross the Pakistan border. The Sunday Mirror correspondent Dominic Turnbull said Abdullah Laden granted him an exclusive interview last week, becoming the first member of Bin Laden’s family to comment on the events of Sept 11. The interview was arranged by a Taliban agent and finally took place at a guarded compound in Islamabad’s diplomatic quarter. Like his father, Abdullah is unbowed by last week’s ferocious bombing strikes by the allied forces on Afghanistan. "I am not worried that my father will be caught. He has outsmarted the Americans for many years. But, in my heart, I do not know when I will see him again," Abdullah, one of Bin Laden’s 42 children, said. His mother, Sabiha, 45, is the fifth of his five wives. He has three siblings - his brother Abdul Malik, six, sister Samina, two, and an older brother who has remained in Afghanistan. (PTI) |
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