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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dealer who wrote (42089)	9/18/2001 6:59:34 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Rumsfeld Hints Attack May Have Been State-Backed Tuesday September 18 5:24 PM ET By Charles Aldinger WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested on Tuesday that Washington had reason to believe one or more nations provided support for last week's devastating attack on America. But at a Pentagon (news - web sites) news conference, he paused and stopped short of saying that evidence was at hand. ``I know a lot, and what I have said as clearly as I know how is that states are supporting these people,'' Rumsfeld replied when asked directly if he had evidence of state support for the well-coordinated strike using hijacked airliners. The secretary paused dramatically for several seconds after being pressed by reporters on the issue. ``I think I will leave that to the Department of Justice (news - web sites) -- they and the FBI (news - web sites) and the intelligence-gathering agencies,'' he said, adding that ``what constitutes evidence and who wants to present it at what time, I'll leave to the people in that business.'' President Bush (news - web sites), Rumsfeld and other senior U.S. officials have vowed to conduct a diplomatic, financial and military campaign to strike back at anti-American guerrillas and states that support and harbor them. One U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters on Tuesday there was so far ``no compelling evidence'' of direct state sponsorship for the attack. 'BITS, THREADS, HINTS AND NUGGETS' ``There's lots of little bits and threads and hints and nuggets out there,'' the official said. ``However, is there some compelling evidence of state sponsorship? Not at this time. Are we looking at that? Sure -- among a thousand different things.'' One U.S. government source said on Tuesday that Mohamed Atta, suspected of being one of the hijackers aboard the first plane that struck the World Trade Center, had met earlier this year with an Iraqi intelligence official in Europe. But sources pointed out that just because Atta met with the intelligence official did not necessarily mean that the Baghdad government had supported the attacks that demolished the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon. The United States has for years listed a number of countries -- including Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya -- that it says support ``terrorism.'' U.S. officials have cautioned since last week's strikes, in which hijacked airliners hit the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center, leaving nearly 6,000 dead or missing, that Afghanistan (news - web sites) and its Taliban leadership could face military attack. A VERY NEW CONFLICT The Taliban has refused to turn over to Washington accused guerrilla mastermind Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), a wealthy Saudi-born dissident believed to living in Afghanistan. The United States says bin Laden is a prime suspect in the attacks. ``As we have said, and I don't think it can be repeated enough, this is a very new type of conflict, or battle, or campaign, or war, or effort for the United States,'' Rumsfeld told reporters. ``As a result, we are moving in a measured manner as we gather information. We are preparing appropriate courses of action. And as I have suggested, they run across the political and economic and financial, military, intelligence spectrum,'' the secretary said. He also stressed again that the battle would be a long one, requiring perhaps years. Rumsfeld said it was true that Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest and most hostile countries geographically, would be a difficult military target for any nation. ``Several countries have exhausted themselves pounding that country and fighting,'' he said. ``And as I think I've mentioned, it has a gross domestic product per capita of something like $700, $800, $900 per person a year,'' Rumsfeld added. ``So there are not great things of value that are easy to deal with. And what we'll have to do is exactly what I said: use the full spectrum of our capabilities.''