Times of India
Nearly 400 Taliban soldiers, including some field commanders, have reportedly defected to the Northern Alliance, even as the ruling militiamen suffering heavy losses beat a hasty retreat. Russian media reports say the soldiers defected to the opposition Alliance, which holds 5-10 percent of Afghan territory, near Mazar-e-Sharif, known as the northern capital of Afghanistan. "The Taliban army is reported to be suffering heavy losses at the hands of Northern Alliance and retreating fast in panic without putting up a strong resistance," said the TV-6 correspondent from Afghanistan.
Heavy fighting is on under the command of General Rashid Dostum near Mazar-e-Sharif, which has strategic importance. "It would be easier to take on Kabul after this town falls," say Russian military observers.
General Fahim is getting ready for leading the battle to Kabul. Northern Alliance claims to exercise control over four provinces. Another unconfirmed report said the Taliban's airbase at Bagram, the main base in the country, has fallen to the Northern Alliance. More than 100 Taliban soldiers have been killed during the battle for Bagram, which was the main Soviet airbase in 1980s.
Burhanuddin Rabbani, who heads the Afghan government-in-exile and supports the Northern Alliance, has called the Taliban to "lay down arms" and "promised them a peaceful life, if they do so." He has also started mobilising men in alliance-controlled areas to strengthen his army's striking power. Rabbani said no U.S. military operation will be conducted in northern Afghanistan without his coalition's permission.
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09/26/2001 09:52 pm ||
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BBC
Taleban forces and the opposition Northern Alliance are reported to be engaged in further heavy fighting in northern Afghanistan. Both sides have reported clashes in the northern province of Balkh, near the strategically-important city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which is currently under Taleban control. The Northern Alliance, which controls about 10% of Afghanistan, also says there has been fighting in the northern province of Takhar. Fighting has intensified across northern Afghanistan in the past week, following the threat of a military strike on the Taleban.
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09/26/2001 09:52 pm ||
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AFP
Thousands of demonstrators Wednesday set fire to buildings within the compound of the vacant US embassy in Kabul amid chaotic scenes here, witnesses said. The demonstrators, protesting possible US military action against Afghanistan, broke into the compound and set fire to some abandoned cars to create a huge blaze which spread to outbuildings but not the main embassy building. Taliban firefighters were attempting to bring the blaze under control and Taliban soldiers were trying to bring the protestors under control. The embassy has been vacant since before the Taliban seized Kabul in September 1996. The demonstration was the biggest show of anti-US anger in Kabul since the current crisis started with the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
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09/26/2001 09:52 pm ||
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Molly Moore and Kamran Khan Washington Post
Pakistan warned the United States today against forging an alliance with rebels fighting the Taliban movement in northern Afghanistan, signaling the first public rift between Washington and Islamabad as plans move ahead for a possible attack on Afghanistan.
In a statement clearly intended to warn the Bush administration not to adopt an Afghan strategy based on toppling the Taliban and replacing it with a rebel coalition known as the Northern Alliance, Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar told reporters: "We must not make the blunder of trying to foist a government on the people of Afghanistan. We fear that any such decision on the part of foreign powers to give assistance to one side or the other in Afghanistan is a recipe for great disaster for the people of Afghanistan."
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09/26/2001 09:57 pm ||
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Michael Kelly, The Washington Post
Pacifists are not serious people, although they devoutly believe they are, and their arguments are not being taken seriously at the moment. Yet it is worth taking seriously, and in advance of need, the pacifists and their appeal.
It is worth it, first of all, because the idea of peace is inherently attractive; and the more war there is, the more attractive the idea becomes. Second, it is worth it because the reactionary left-liberal crowd in America and in Europe has already staked out its ground here: What happened to America is America's fault, the fruits of foolish arrogance and greedy imperialism, racism, colonialism, etc., etc. From this rises an argument that the resulting war is also an exercise in arrogance and imperialism, etc., and not deserving of support. This argument will be made with greater fearlessness as the first memories of the 7,000 murdered recede. Third, it is worth it because the American foreign policy establishment has all the heart for war of a titmouse, and not one of your braver titmice. The first faint, let-us-be-reasonable bleats can even now be heard: Yes, we must do something, but is an escalation of aggression really the right thing? Mightn't it just make matters ever so much worse?
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09/26/2001 09:53 pm ||
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Lenny Savino Knight Ridder Newspapers
Two weeks after the attacks on the Trade Center and the Pentagon killed more than 6,000 people, intelligence and law enforcement officials are asking themselves why no one connected the dots. "Somehow, it fell between the cracks," said one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the Pentagon and World Trade Center investigations, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We had red flags all over the place."
Officials say they never had enough intelligence to predict or pre-empt the Sept. 11 attacks, but concede they had enough pieces of the puzzle to be more alarmed about whether bin Laden was planning to use some kind of airplane as a bomb. "We've had indications this was coming for some years," said Rusty Capps, a retired FBI counterterrorism chief.
There were other signs, Capps said. In 1994, a team of Algerian Islamic terrorists hijacked a commercial airliner, intending to attack the Eiffel Tower. Quick-thinking pilots convinced the terrorists, who lacked the flying skills of this month's hijackers, that the plane needed more fuel to reach Paris. After it landed in Marseilles, a SWAT team stormed the plane. Thirty-seven of the Sept. 11 hijackers and their associates, all affiliated with bin Laden, took flying lessons in the United States, according to Capps.
The FBI had learned in the late 1990s that Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted of masterminding the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, had wanted to fly a private plane full of explosives into CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., according to court documents.
Analyzing and assessing terrorist threats is the responsibility of the government's Counter Terrorism Center, located at CIA headquarters but staffed by officials from the intelligence community, the FBI and other agencies. The center was created in the mid-1980s, but since 1996 its top targets have been bin Laden and his al-Qaida (the Base) network of terrorist organizations. In fact, after bin Laden issued an edict that year urging all Muslims to take arms against American soldiers, the center has had a bin Laden task force.
The CIA and FBI declined to comment on events preceding the Sept. 11 attacks and what mistakes may have been made, but privately a number of intelligence officials conceded there was an intelligence and analytical failure of what one called "Pearl Harbor proportions."
This article starring:
RAMZI YUSEF
al-Qaeda
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09/26/2001 09:53 pm ||
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CNN Jesse Jackson said Wednesday that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has asked him to lead a "peace delegation" to the region. The civil rights activist said he has not decided whether to accept and remains reluctant to do so. But he suggested he is open to making the trip if his involvement could prevent the deaths of innocent Afghan civilians during a U.S. military campaign against terrorism. "We must weigh what this invitation means. We're not going to be precipitous," Jackson said. "If we can do something to encourage them to dismantle those terrorist bases, to choose to hand over the suspects and release the Christians rather than engage in a long bloody war, we'll encourage them to do so."
Jackson said he spoke with Secretary of State Colin Powell, who repeated the Bush administration position that it will not negotiate with the Taliban but did not urge Jackson not to go.
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09/26/2001 09:53 pm ||
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ALLISON LINN AP Business Writer
The head of a Brooklyn ambulance company said Tuesday that the president of Starbucks has personally apologized after rescue workers in New York were forced to pay a Starbucks shop $130 for water to treat victims of the terrorist attack. Midwood Ambulance Service President Al Rapisarda said he received a hand-delivered reimbursement check -- and a personal call from Starbucks president Orin Smith -- after reports of the incident became public. ``It was a misunderstanding with Starbucks,'' Rapisarda said after talking to Smith.
Midwood Ambulance Service alerted Starbucks to the incident in an e-mail, which was obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Smith said Tuesday he did not know why the coffee shop near the World Trade Center towers charged the rescue workers. ``It's totally inconsistent with the kind of behavior we would have expected from our people, so it has been very upsetting to learn of this,'' Smith said in an interview with The Associated Press. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attack, rescue workers rushed into a nearby Starbucks store to get water to treat shock victims, Rapisarda said. Ambulance company workers said employees in the shop demanded they pay $130 for three cases of bottled water. The workers paid cash, out of their own pockets. Reached by telephone, the manager of the shop, the Battery Park Plaza Starbucks, declined to comment.
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09/26/2001 10:02 pm ||
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BBC
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has caused a domestic political storm with comments about the superiority of Western civilisation. During a visit to Germany Mr Berlusconi said the West guaranteed respect for human rights and religion - something he said did not exist in the Islamic world. "We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed - in contrast with Islamic countries - respect for religious and political rights." One prominent member of Italy's centre-left opposition, Giovanni Berlinguer, accused Mr Berlusconi of launching into eccentric and dangerous calls for conflict between civilisations. But Mr Berlusconi's spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, said his critics were taking his words out of context.
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09/26/2001 09:54 pm ||
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Reuters
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says his country will provide no help to the United States in any attack on Afghanistan after Washington accused his country of practising terrorism. "Iran will provide no help to America and its allies...in an attack on suffering, neighbouring, Muslim Afghanistan," Khamenei told a group of war veterans and their families. Excerpts of his speech were carried on state television on Wednesday. "We do not believe America is sincere enough to lead an international move against terrorism. America has its hands deep in blood for all the crimes committed by the Zionist regime," he added, referring to Israel.
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09/26/2001 09:53 pm ||
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BBC
Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov has reportedly indicated that he is willing to hold talks with the Russian authorities. A statement, published on a rebel Chechen website, comes a day after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, made an unprecedented offer of talks to the rebels in Chechnya - but only after they laid down their arms. The text, attributed to Mr Maskhadov, said he had named an special envoy to conduct possible peace negotiations with Moscow. But a senior official in the Putin administration said that any talks must take place wihout intermediaries. The ITAR-TASS news agency also said there were no reports so far of rebels handing over their arms to the Russians.
This article starring:
ASLAN MASKHADOV
Chechnya
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09/26/2001 09:52 pm ||
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Reuters
A previously unknown Yemeni group has threatened to attack U.S. "infidel" targets in retaliation for any possible assault against Muslim Afghanistan. "Let America and its allies know that they are facing a force they cannot defeat and...that a crushing violent war will be waged by several parties on several fronts, God willing," the self-styled Islamic Army for the Liberation of Islamic Sanctities - Yemen, said in a statement. "The Islamic Army has vowed to launch attacks and raids against all American and colonialist targets and strike with an iron fist against all (military) bases and crusader fleets in the region," it said. The statement could not be immediately authenticated and Yemeni journalists said they have never heard of the group.
This article starring:
Islamic Army for the Liberation of Islamic Sanctities - Yemen
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09/26/2001 09:59 pm ||
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NY Times
In an interview on French television on Monday, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt spoke in specific terms about the threat, saying that "on June 13 of this year, we learned of a communique from bin Laden saying he wanted to assassinate George W. Bush and other G8 heads of state during their summit in Italy." "It was a well-known piece of information," Mr. Mubarak added in the interview broadcast by the network France 3.
Separately, he told Le Figaro, a major French daily newspaper, that Egyptian intelligence services had told the United States about the threat and that the warning included a reference to "an airplane stuffed with explosives."
Several days before Mr. Mubarak's interview, in an appearance on Italian television, Gianfranco Fini, the Italian deputy prime minister, discussed parallels between the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and warnings his government had received before the Genoa meeting in July. "Many people joked about the Italian Intelligence Force," Mr. Fini said, "but actually they had information that in Genoa there was the hypothesis of an attack on the American president with the use of an airplane. That is why we closed the airspace above Genoa and installed antiaircraft missiles. Those who joked should now reflect."
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09/26/2001 09:54 pm ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
