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MONDAY SEPTEMBER 24 2001
America Aims to Topple Taleban
FROM ROLAND WATSON IN WASHINGTON
THE Bush Administration stated for the first time yesterday that it was exploring ways to topple the Taleban regime in Afghanistan.
Condoleezza Rice, the President’s National Security Adviser, said that the Afghan people would be better off without the “very repressive and terrible” Taleban and that Washington was examining “what means are at our disposal to do that”.
Her admission marked a significant change of emphasis as Washington began to address publicly the military hurdles involved in fighting the Taleban.
Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, said that the Taleban army was dispersed and ill-equipped — “but it is a force that one would have to take seriously because of their experience in the kind of warfare that is typical of Afghanistan”.
The White House insisted last week that overthrowing the Taleban was not a goal of any military action aimed at bringing to justice Osama bin Laden, Mr Bush’s chief suspect for the suicide hijackings.
The Administration — which has offered a $25 million (£17 million) reward as part its efforts to apprehend bin Laden and other leaders of the his al-Qaeda network — yesterday dismissed claims by the Taleban that the Saudi-born millionaire had disappeared. Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, called the statement “laughable” and “not credible”.
General Powell said that government lawyers were checking whether killing bin Laden would contradict laws banning state-sponsored assassination.
He said that he hoped in the near future to be able to publish a document “that will describe quite clearly the evidence that we have linking him to this attack”.
He also stressed that the target of any American action would be bin Laden, not the people of Afghanistan, after Pakistan yesterday underlined its own concerns about potential civilian casualties.
President Bush took a significant step towards building his global coalition against terrorism by lifting American sanctions against India and Pakistan, imposed in 1998 after each country had carried out nuclear weapon tests. Mr Bush said retaining the sanctions was no longer in American interests. Both countries welcomed the move.
One setback for the US was the apparent reluctance of Saudi Arabia to allow the Americans to use the huge Prince Sultan air base, south of Riyadh, to command airstrike operations against Afghanistan.
Mr Rumsfeld also had to concede that the US had lost one of its unmanned Predator spy planes over Afghanistan. But he would not confirm Taleban claims that it had been shot down.
thetimes.co.uk |
