-Caveat Lector- U.S. counterterrorism expert thinks Cole bombers in Afghanistan By BARRY SCHWEID The Associated Press 12/13/00 7:31 PM WASHINGTON (AP) -- Several suspects in the bombing of the Navy destroyer USS Cole apparently fled to Afghanistan to hide out in that "haven of lawlessness," the State Department's counterterrorism chief said Wednesday. In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee's crime subcommittee, the official, Michael Sheehan, did not identify the "numerous people" who, he said, immediately left Yemen for Afghanistan after an explosives-laden skiff rammed the Cole in Aden harbor, killing 17 American sailors. He told the subcommittee he lacks "full information" on who planned and carried out the bombing plot in October. "We do know," Sheehan said, "that numerous people immediately left Yemen for Afghanistan, the safe haven where they could hide out with little fear of Taliban intervention." Sheehan promised an all-out diplomatic, political and economic pressure campaign to isolate Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia from the world community. "The Taliban's control over most of Afghanistan has resulted in a haven of lawlessness, in which terrorists, drug traffickers and other criminals live with impunity," he said. The United States and Russia already are trying to impose U.N. sanctions against the militia, which rules 95 percent of Afghanistan, for refusing to turn over expatriate Saudi terror suspect Osama bin Laden for prosecution in the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Sheehan named bin Laden and 10 other suspected terrorists who are sheltering in Afghanistan, training their forces there or being financed by the South Asian country. The list "gets longer all the time," Sheehan said. Yemeni sources in San`a, Yemen's capital, told The Associated Press that the most senior of six jailed suspects in the Cole attack have identified his prime contact as a man he met in Afghanistan. The jailed suspect, Jamal al-Badawi, said Mohammed Omar al-Harazi, an ethnic Yemeni born in Saudi Arabia, telephoned him from the United Arab Emirates with instructions for the bombing. Al-Harazi is at large. Al-Badawi said they met in Afghanistan in the 1980s while fighting to drive out Soviet invaders. Sheehan said Afghanistan has been at the heart of U.S. measures to counter terrorism. Central to the U.S. campaign is the U.S.-Russian drive for sanctions from the U.N. Security Council. They would include embargoes on arms sales and the export of chemicals used to manufacture heroin. Sheehan said Afghanistan's opium crop accounts for 72 percent of the world's illicit opium, and cultivation of the crop is increasing. The sanctions are intended to compel the Taliban to hand over bin Laden, who is alleged to have masterminded the attacks. On other fronts, Sheehan said the United States was trying to rally support for Afghanistan's neighbors in fighting terrorism and the drug trade and is considering adding to the 29 foreign organizations designated as terrorist groups. Also, Sheehan said, President Clinton has asked the Senate to approve an international agreement designed to make it more difficult for terrorist groups to raise or transfer money. Additionally, the State, Justice and Treasury departments and the FBI are developing training courses for foreign officials to help detect and curb terrorist fund raising. The courses will begin early next year, Sheehan said. "We will continue to put political, diplomatic and economic pressure on the Taliban to make them realize that they will not be an accepted member of the international community until they comply with internationally accepted norms on terrorism," Sheehan said. A year ago, the U.N. Security Council froze Afghan assets and imposed an embargo on the Ariana Afghan Airlines, controlled by Taliban. Some humanitarian groups say the sanctions would make life more difficult for Afghanistan's poor. Sheehan denied that. Some in the United Nations also expressed worries about a potential backlash against aid workers in the country. Afghans are suffering from the impact of 20 years of civil war and the worst drought in decades. Sheehan said, however, an explosion of poppy cultivation under the Taliban has reduced agricultural land available for food crops. Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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