Replies to post #4798 on Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Taliban told US in 1998 to liquidate Osama

* Taliban could have been overthrown if Osama expelled
* Wakil suggested cruise missile attack

By Khalid Hasan

Washington: During a meeting between an American diplomat and a Taliban official in 1998, the latter suggested that one way of dealing with Osama Bin Laden “would be for the US to kill him or arrange for Bin Laden to be assassinated”.

This is one of the revelations found in US government documents released last week. The US diplomat who met Taliban official Wakil Ahmed, an aide to Mulla Omar, was Alan Eastham Jr, the No 2 man at the US embassy in Islamabad. More than one meeting took place between the two in November and December of 1998, three years before the 9/11 attacks.

In their meeting on December 19, Ahmed said to the American diplomat, referring to the bombing of American embassies in East Africa, “It is unbelievable that this small man did this to you”. When Ahmed suggested that the US kill Bin Laden, he added that if Washington decided to go ahead and did it with a cruise missile or other means, the Taliban could do little to prevent it. He also suggested that the US could provide the Taliban with cruise missiles to have “the situation resolved in this way”.

Expulsion of Bin Laden, it was feared by the Kabul man, would result in the Taliban regime being overthrown. Ahmed also “urged the US not to bomb Afghanistan again” as it had done after the East Africa embassy bombings. Ahmed “instead asked for a new US proposal aimed at resolving the matter,” the documents said. Referring to the cruise missile attack on Afghanistan ordered by Clinton, Ahmed said, “If Kandahar could have retaliated with similar strikes against Washington, it would have. I consider you as murderers of Afghans. The US said Bin Laden had killed innocent people, but had not the US killed innocent Afghans in Khost too? Was this not a crime?”

An October 1998 State Department cable said the best way of getting Bin Laden would be through Saudi Arabia, which “maintains significant prestige in Pakistan and Afghanistan”. It called an upcoming trip to Pakistan by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah a “ready-made opportunity for the Saudis to press the Pakistani government to exert pressure on the Taliban concerning Bin Laden”. The State Department advised, “The US should appeal to the natural trading mentality of many Afghans - and perhaps some Taliban - by setting out what the Taliban stand to gain by expelling Bin Laden as well as what they stand to lose”.

However, there were no illusions in Washington as to the Taliban and how far they would be willing to go. One of the cables sent out from Washington said, “The fact is that the leader of the Taliban appears to be strongly committed to Bin Laden. It is questionable whether US or Saudi efforts can influence Omar’s decisions”.

When Eastham asked Ahmed why the Taliban would not hand over Bin Laden to Washington, he replied that the Afghan people “would not understand why the Taliban had expelled a man who was regarded as a ‘great mujahid’ … during the war against the Soviets. They would reject the Taliban if the Taliban took this action”. Eastham responded by telling Ahmed the Taliban had to recognise “that the role of political leadership is to shape public opinion, not to decline to act because they think opinion is otherwise”.

After the meeting, it was clear to the Americans that the Taliban did not consider the Bin Laden matter resolved in the wake of the Afghan Supreme Court decision absolving Bin Laden of wrong doing.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_21-8-2005_pg7_5

[Amaunet]

Taliban step up a gear
By Breffni O'Rourke

Aug 24, 2005

Afghanistan's parliamentary elections on September 18 - the first for nearly 30 years - are viewed as key to establishing a functioning institutional system based on the rule of law.

On the same day, provincial elections will also take place, giving Afghanistan democratically elected levels of government ranging from provincial councils to the national parliament to President Hamid Karzai.

Political analyst Christopher Langton of the London-based International Institute for Security Studies says these polls are critical. He says they will demonstrate whether the people really believe in a new, democratic Afghanistan, and whether the government will finally be able to move forward.

"Firstly [they will] show how much support there was for the election in the country as a whole, and then, what is the result - I don't just mean in the voting, I mean, [they will show if] the government will now begin to deliver on social and economic reforms," Langton said.

Afghanistan's Islamic militants, primarily the ousted Taliban militia, have been quoted as vowing to disrupt these elections. And they have left a trail of increasing bloodshed in recent months. They have been targeting pro-government Islamic clerics, officials, electoral workers and foreign aid workers, as well as Afghan and coalition troops.

In one of the latest attack on clerics, Taliban guerrillas on August 21 claimed responsibility for shooting moderate mullah Abdullah Malang, deputy head of the religious council of Panjway district in Kandahar province.

Malang is the fifth pro-government mullah to be killed in recent times. The Taliban says such clerics have defied the jihad, or holy war, declared against the Western-supported Karzai government.

However, a Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, now says the organization has no intention of attacking polling stations. Hakimi spoke by phone to Radio Free Afghanistan. "We have never said that we want to disrupt the upcoming elections. It is not important for us to disrupt the elections. All claims that we want to disrupt the elections are fabricated by the press. They want to defame our struggle. We didn't attack election centers before, and we won't start now," Hakimi said.

Given their record in the past few months, it's hard to take the Taliban comments at face value. Kabir Ranjbar is the head of the Afghan Lawyers Association and an expert on Afghan affairs. He told Radio Free Afghanistan that Hakimi's comments may mean the Taliban is seeking a future political role.

"They want to join the political process and that is why they have suggested [this move]. They published this statement and this is their first step to show to the Afghan people and the government that they will take more steps in that direction," Ranjbar said.

The Taliban were driven into the mountains after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, but have reemerged as an active guerrilla force. Analysts don't agree whether this is a last spark before the movement is extinguished, or whether the Taliban have been able to regroup and remain a viable threat.

Analyst Langton in London says a clue to that may well lie in how the Taliban deploy during the coming winter: "They are relatively well equipped, and of course they are well motivated. It will be interesting to see, when winter comes - starting at the end of September, shortly after the elections - whether they plan to [retreat] back to the border areas near Pakistan, or whether they are going to stay where they are, having come down [from the mountains] this year," Langton said.

Certainly, US troop casualties have sharply increased in recent months, making this the bloodiest year for the American military in Afghanistan since 2001.

US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore, speaking in Kabul, said the US was not deterred in its task of bringing security to the Afghan people.

"Four US forces were killed and three were wounded [while they were] conducting operations south of Dai Chopan in Zabul province. The three wounded soldiers were transported - medically evacuated - to a forward operating base for treatment. Certainly, these type of attacks strengthen our resolve to continue operating with the Afghan security forces to ensure peace and prosperity and security for the Afghan people," Moore said.

Just three days before that, a US Marine was killed in fighting in Kunar province. The previous day, two US soldiers were killed in Kandahar province. In total, 65 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan this year.

Apart from the insurgents, another danger for Afghan democracy lies with the existing political arena. Warlords of dubious democratic credentials are seeking to dominate the voting patterns. It they can bribe or intimidate enough voters to back them, they can wear a cloak of legitimacy and consolidate their power.

Copyright (c) 2005, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20036