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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Trumptown who wrote (1981)	9/14/2001 12:43:07 PM
From: Tadsamillionaire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27666

Russia forbids use of Central Asian states for U.S. military strikes By Shlomo Shamir (NY), Natan Gutman (Washington), Ha'aretz Correspondents and Agencies Russia's armed forces' chief of staff said on Friday that Moscow was unlikely to join in any U.S. retaliatory strikes following the terror attacks in New York and Washington, Interfax news agency reported. "The United States has armed forces powerful enough to handle the task by themselves," General Anatoly Kvashnin was quoted as saying. At the same time, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov discounted the ex-Soviet Central Asian states being used as a springboard by the NATO alliance for military strikes against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. "I don't see any basis for even hypothetical assumptions of the possibility of launching any NATO military operations in the territory of Central Asian countries which are members of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)," Ivanov told reporters in the Armenian capital Yerevan. The remarks appeared to squash speculation that Russia would join the United States and its NATO allies in a military action against the Taliban using the ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia as a launching pad. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, all members of the Russia-led CIS, border Afghanistan. Tajikistan is a member of a separate Russian-dominated security body and Uzbekistan consults closely on such issues, though Turkmenistan does not. On Thursday U.S. diplomatic sources said that the American government was discussing plans to carry out a military operation against terror bases in Afghanistan, an operation that would ultimately include the assassination of Osama bin Laden. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell confirmed Thursday that Saudi national bin Laden was the prime suspect in Tuesday's attacks in the United States. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday that the United States had yet to decide whether Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. According to diplomatic sources, the operation under discussion is a "massive retaliatory attack." Aside from a cruise missile attack on terror bases in Afghanistan, they added, the government was also debating a ground attack on the country using elite forces. A plan to use select NATO forces in such an assault was also under discussion. Deputy Defense Minister Paul Wolfowitz said Thursday that the United States would respond to the terror attacks with a prolonged military operation. He said the United States would not be satisfied with one attack, even if it was very dramatic. "The retaliation would be continued until the roots of terrorism are destroyed. These people try to hide. They won't be able to hide forever," Wolfowitz said. "They think their harbors are safe, but they won't be safe forever. One has to say it's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism." Wolfowitz refused to state the targets of the attacks and the military possibilities being considered. The Congress and the White House agreed Friday to allocate $40 billion to strengthen U.S. military readiness for the fight against terrorism and other uses related to Tuesday's attacks. This sum is twice the sum requested by Bush on Thursday. Sources in New York said that besides plans to fire missiles at terror bases in Afghanistan, the U.S. administration was also considering a wide land operation in Afghanistan, using elite unites. And perhaps even elite NATO units. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld requested to call 50,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve to active duty in the next few days, a defense official said Thursday. The last presidential call-up was in January 1991 when 265,322 reservists were federalized for the Gulf War. The soldiers are to initially be used in patrol assignments in Washington, New York and other sensitive areas. United States lays heavy pressure on Pakistan Pakistan's President Farwaz Musharraf officially told the United States on Thursday that, should the need arise, Pakistan would give the U.S. wide use of its airspace. News agencies were also reporting Thursday that senior members of the Taliban government had left their homes and offices for hidden locations in the state, probably for fear of an American strike. The United States is pressuring Pakistan to assist in obtaining information about the whereabouts of bin Laden. The United States is also trying to make the Taliban government in Afghanistan stop supporting him. Wendy Chamberlin, U.S. ambassador in Islamabad, met with Musharraf, accompanied by diplomats from other countries. Musharraf promised the ambassador to assist the United States in its war against terror. Musharraf reiterated his country's willingness to help Powell too. Pakistan is one of the three countries that have relations with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which supports bin Laden, and therefore it is an important member in the coalition the United States is building to fight terror. The relations between the United States and Afghanistan have slumped since the nuclear tests Pakistan carried out a year ago, and Musharraf's take over of the government did not improve relations. The United States is now conditioning the improving of relations on its willingness to assist the West in its fight against neighboring Afghanistan. If Pakistan refuses to do so, the United States will consider it to be cooperating with the Taliban and will no longer be viewed as a friendly state. test.haaretzdaily.com

To: Trumptown who wrote (1981)	9/14/2001 12:45:07 PM
From: moufassa7	Respond to of 27666

Boston police have closed Federal St. Bomb squad trucks are in the street.

To: Trumptown who wrote (1981)	9/14/2001 12:46:06 PM
From: Teresa Lo	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 27666

If you want to open up the discussion on a theoretical basis, we can go there. I am posting my current thoughts and posing questions that we might wish to consider. The people who have died in the name of freedom have not died in vain. We are living proof. The Free World is living proof. Democracy is living proof. We already have our freedom, and we will continue to defend it. But we need to examine why we want to go over there. Are we going to set millions of oppressed people "free"? Is that the mission? I don't think so. The mission is to capture and punish the perpetrators of the crime, but how do we do that without sacrificing more lives, making more widows and orphans? We can't. And if we do catch the perpetrators and kill them, they will be dead, living in glory forever more - and we cannot bring back those who are already gone. And our actions might bring reprisals - more suicide bombings, maybe biological/chemical weapons, and more horror to our shores. This might be a never-ending vicious cycle that we get ourselves into, as we have seen in the Arab/Israeli conflict. Are we prepared for seige so that all the children of our future generations might actually never enjoy the freedom in their own homeland, freedom that was bestowed upon us by those who sacrificed their lives? This is why we might seriously consider taking care of the nation and the security of the citizens first, by sealing off the border and restoring a sense of safety first. All IMHO, and food for thought. T.