-Caveat Lector- From http://www.observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,556573,00.html }}}>Begin War on terrorism: the countdown The march to the brink of battle As rumour and tension swept Pakistan and clerics debated in Kabul, Bush and Blair steadied a coalition of unlikely allies. And as troops mobilise, the time for talk is running out War on terrorism - Observer special Guardian Unlimited special: terrorism crisis Ed Vulliamy and Anthony Browne in New York; Peter Beaumont in Washington; Kamal Ahmed in Brussels; Jason Burke in Peshawar; Luke Harding and Rory McCarthy in Islamabad Sunday September 23, 2001 The Observer The snow had not yet started falling in the Hindu Kush mountains, but a chill had crept into the night air. The leaves were turning yellow with the arrival of autumn, and people knew winter would soon be upon them. Children in ragged clothes made the most of the daylight hours, playing football with screwed-up balls of cloth and grass just beyond the bus station in Kabul. Beggars sat in pot-holed roads, their arms outstretched for s craps of food. Women, covered from head to toe in sky-blue burqas, hurried between the tottering ruins of the bombed-out capital of Afghanistan, stopping to haggle for bread and tea with hawkers on the road. At night, the residents retired to the few cellars that had not been destroyed by a decade of war. Dozens crowded into rooms with no heating, electricity or sanitation. Outside, nothing much stirred: there was no rubbish to blow down the streets. In a city with nothing, even the waste is treasured. To an outsider, life seemed to be going on as normal in Kabul last week. But there were signs that not all was well: the weekly executions at the football stadium, which always drew a good crowd after Friday prayers, had been cancelled, and the bakeries run by Western charities had closed. Nobody knew where the staff had gone. There was another, more telling sign: all through the day last Wednesday a steady procession of Toyota pick-up trucks had started streaming into the city, packed with men brandishing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade-launchers. Behind tinted black windows sat the religious clerics who continued to support the Taliban's fundamentalist regime which has systematically outlawed all Western indulgences, including televisions and m usic, and banned women from working. Across thousands of miles, from the dry, bleak provinces of Wardak, Ghazni and Nangahar, Afghanistan's religious clerics had travelled across mountains and riverbeds and desert dustbowls to reach the capital for talks abo ut God, glory and war - and decide whether to agree to the United States' ultimatum to hand over Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man. Mullah Mohamed Omar, the one-eyed leader of the faithful, was not present at the old presidential palace, a huge rambling complex of yellow painted buildings that have served as barracks for all the various factions which have controlled Kabul in the last decade. Terrified of attempts on his life, Omar remained in his simple, mud-walled house in a small village outside Kandahar, the southern desert city that is the spiritual and administrative home of the Taliban zealots who swept to power in 1996, stringing up their opponents from trees on the way. Instead, he sent a message. 'Our Islamic state is the true Islamic system in the world, and for this reason the enemies of our country look on us as a thorn in their eye and seek different excuses to finish us off,' he declared. 'Osama bin Laden is one of those excuses.' >From the wastes of a country that had never been defeated in war, Omar decreed that >bin Laden could stay in Afghanistan. The cleric, and his people, would rather go to >war than cower under the threat of oblivion from Amer ica. He told the country the news in a radio address: 'Osama bin Laden will be the last person to leave Afghanistan.' The young boys stopped playing football; men, women and children rushed to the bus station in the hope of escaping across the borders into Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan. The journey would prove futile: the borders had alr eady been closed. Camp David, Maryland: the war cabinet meets A world away, President George Bush was at Camp David in the rolling hills of Maryland, the place where American leaders have traditionally met and where some of the most monumental peace accords of recent times have been forged. Yet peace was not uppermost in the minds of Bush and Dick Cheney, his deputy, when they landed on the helipad last Sunday morning. Hours earlier, Bush had gone on television to tell the world: 'We are at war. You will be asked for resolve¿ You will be asked for your strength because the course to victory may be long. Those who make war against the United States have chosen their own destruction.' The nation was festooned with flags and flowers, and churches across the country were crammed with people saying prayers for the dead. Cheney appeared on the Face the Press chat- show to tell the nation about his role holding the fort in Washington after Tuesday's devastating attacks in New York and Washington, while Bush zig-zagged around the country, adding spine-chilling details about how the President had ordered the air force to s hoot hijacked airliners out of the sky. He also told America to expect further attacks. The President had slept well on Saturday night. After a three-mile early morning run, he made phone calls to the leaders of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and India. The Cabinet assembled after lunch around a teak table in the me eting room. The first to speak was Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. To Bush's left was Colin Powell, the Secretary of State. Wolfowitz and Powell had clashed before; they were old enemies over military intervention - first in the war that made Powell famous, the Gulf War, and later those in the Balkans. In short, they hated each other. Cheney was no fan of Powell either. Cheney had been appalled by Powell's speech when he accepted office from Bush in Texas, talking about racial equality and military matters. Wolfowitz told the meeting he favoured early and wide-ranging military strikes ag ainst terrorist targets across the Middle East and Asia. This was the moment, he said, to attack not only terrorism but all the regimes that nurtured it, its roots, training camps, cells and operative bases. Wolfowitz said the US should attack the Beqaa Valley, from where the Hizbollah 'Party of God' militants attacked northern Israel. He also singled out Iraq for punishment, saying that no campaign against terrorism could ca ll itself serious while Saddam Hussein was in power. The tensions worsened. Powell listened in silence; he disliked war without objectives. Bush asked a few questions. Rumsfeld said nothing. Wolfowitz pressed his case; Powell became angry; he raised his voice beyond its usu al calm and said: 'If you go this way, you will wreck the alliance.' Bush rounded on him: 'The US has the right to defend itself.' The meeting broke up. Bush boarded his Marine One helicopter and returned to Washington, landing on the South Lawn. He played to both flanks of the argument that had just taken place: one in private, one in front of the c ameras. Barely had the whir of the rotors subsided than he used a word which would echo around the Muslim world: he declared a crusade on terrorism. Then he went inside. Later, at his desk in the Oval Office, Bush called Powell and assured him that he had no intentions of rupturing the alliance, but reserved the right to act in any way he chose. All day, members of the National Security C ouncil and other aides had been in touch with Arab allies and their missions, pressing the US case. For their part, more than a dozen Arab ambassadors had met on Friday night at the home of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the S audi Ambassador to Washington, anxious that a 'crusade' against Islamic terrorism would draw attention away from Israel. Bush headed for the Pentagon, where as many as 200 people had died eight days earlier when hijackers cut the throats of stewardesses, killed the pilots and aimed an American plane at the military heart of the world's last remaining superpower. As Bush walked through the cafeteria, one soldier started singing 'God Bless America.' Other staff joined in. Bush started singing too. As Americans went on television and radio to howl for revenge, Bush made a nationwide address, declaring that bin Laden was wanted 'dead or alive', adding: 'We're gonna get 'em running, find 'em and hunt 'em down'. In the car on the way to his next stop, an aide told Bush he had perhaps 'gone a bit far'. The American public did not think so: polls yesterday showed 91 per cent supported their President. More importantly, Bush had to get the rest of the world on side too. His strategists were hard at work. Arab allies were still deliberating over how - and how far - to back the coming war. They needed a clear sign from th e President that this was not a crusade against Islam in any way, but against terrorism. At the same time, the first reports of serious violence against Arab Americans and other immigrants were arriving in Washington. An Indian had been shot dead in Arizona, and the homes of two Afghan immigrants attacked by the same gunman. There were further attacks in Ohio and Kentucky. Sikhs were picked on because their turbans were confused with Taliban headgear. 'That's not the America I know,' said Bush, 'that should not and will not s tand in America.' After Sunday's brunch at Camp David, Powell and his staff at the State Department began working on the coalition without which the Secretary saw no victory over terrorism. It was not only a coalition of countries, but a b attle of many fronts: a 'long-term campaign' which would be 'legal', 'political', 'diplomatic' as well as military. Powell sat with his deputy, Richard Armitage, for word of the Pakistani mission to Kabul, and arranged to see Prince Saud Faisal - Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister - after revelations that 14 of the 19 suspected hijackers had connections to the kingdom. At the White House, staff briefed the President for a dinner with his French opposite number, Jacques Chirac, and the new Indonesian President, Megawati Sukarnoputri, whose government, like Pakistan's, was vulnerable to Islamic fundamentalists. Exactly one week on from the devastation of the World Trade Centre, two things happened simultaneously. In Kabul, a Pakistani delegation trying to negotiate the surrender of Osama bin Laden was rebuffed by the Taliban; on the South Lawn of the White House, the entire White House staff hung its heads in silence. Donald Rumsfeld, soon afterwards, made one of his few appearances outside the enclave in which he had buried himself within the Pentagon. Rumsfeld assembled a group of aides and called Wolfowitz. He had reached the conclu sion, he said, that the difficulty in identifying targets within Afghanistan had led him to conclude the inevitable: units of ground troops from special operations divisions would have to be deployed. One official described Rumsfeld as 'starting to look like something out of Nightmare on Elm Street the harder he thinks about this - but he is thinking in the right direction.' The plan Rumsfeld now favoured was the establishment and securing of bases on the ground, using air cover, from which Special Ops would mount 'in-and-out' attacks, using mastery of camouflage and disguise, a variety of sm all arms, stun grenades and even knives and piano wire, rather than the high-tech video-game weaponry of the Gulf War. The commandos could operate using echelon bases in Pakistan, former Soviet front-line states, and territory controlled by the Afghan opposition forces, the Northern Alliance. Even President Bush, it emerged, had admitted he did not think it would be possible to eliminate bin Laden using Tomahawk cruise missiles, the military's weapon of choice since the Gulf War. The ground units would, of cou rse, be backed by massive conventional air and sea power, ready to subject the enemy to a lethal barrage at a moment's notice. Rumsfeld was engaged in his own alliance-building: two-way talks with the Pakistani military about upgrading medical facilities, roads, bridges and other essentials along the wild, rugged border with Afghanistan. And there was a stark message for Colin Powell in one of Rumsfeld's throwaway lines. The State Department had all week been following every thread in the investigative tapestry being woven by the FBI in its hunt for the k illers. The Department desperately needed proof of a connection to bin Laden so as to bring an attack on Afghanistan within international law. This was crucial to the binding of an alliance, and a matter the Arab nations had brought up over and over again. However, such a connection need not be proven if the United States was acting in self-defence, which allows for legal, unilateral action. 'I think of this in the sense of self-defence,' said Rumsfeld, 'and there is nothing that inhibits the United States of America from defending itself.' An axis close to Wolfowitz was lobbying the President. They wanted the removal of Iraq's Saddam Hussein as the precondition to the coming war. Powell and his staff drafted a memorandum to the President, sent to the White House on Tuesday afternoon. It reminded the President that even the precarious loyalty of the pivotal power in the region could only be secured at a price. That price would have to be the dropping of sanctions on Pakistan which the US deemed essential to the stability of the Indian sub-continent; a ban on exports of weaponry that followed Pakistan's insistence on continuing nuclear tests, and economic and other sanctions arising from the fact that the general whom the US now courted had deposed a democratically elected President. These were minor concessions, even if they meant resuming military supplies to a dangerous nuclear power. There was a risk: if Pakistan's loyalty should provoke a pro-Afghan revolution against General Pervez Musharraf, an d should that revolution win the day, the succession of events that began in New York on 11 September would have created the world's first fundamentalist Islamic nuclear power. Powell won an assurance from Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov that Moscow would not object if the US used former Soviet front-line republics in Central Asia for the campaign. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan would provide important logistical bases and support, and Russia itself could serve as a fund of crucial intelligence material - as well as cautionary tales. Other, stranger, alliances were being forged: the US has long accused Iran of being a dangerous backer of the Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, but officials said Tehran was now 'cooperating fully' and had seal ed its border with Afghanistan. The EU is being used as a broker for what the State Department hoped would grow into closer ties with what was once America's arch-enemy. Powell's aides were also trying, as one put it, 'to walk the high wire between India and Pakistan'. Backstage, an embryonic deal was struck: the sanctions against Pakistan that were about to be lifted would cease to apply to India too. President Bush rose at six on Thursday, and worked out. He had a big day ahead. He also had a good friend and ally to welcome. Elysée Palace, Paris: Blair steadies nerves At 6am London time on the same day, as the first grey of dawn cut into the dark sky, a fleet of cars drew up at the heavily fortified VIP suite at London's Heathrow airport. Inside were four men. In the boot of one lay a battered set of secure briefcases. On the gate, yellow-jacketed guards glanced into the windows and waved the men through. In the terminal building the men checked their luggage, discussing who would be responsible for each briefcase. On the tarmac a few hundred yards away a British Airways Boeing 777 sat, floodlights playing on its tail-fin, preparing for take-off. The men would fly to Paris to meet the Prime Minister before travelling to New York. One of the men was General Tony Piggott, head of operational advice at the Ministry of Defence. Along with the chief of the defence staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, and Simon Webb, MoD head of policy, they had been told how to help catch the men in the shadows: Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda organisation. At 7am the flight left for Paris. At the front of business class the four men, Piggott, two other members of the MoD operation force and a senior MI6 adviser, sat together and discussed the case they were going to put bef ore the Prime Minister. Two hundred miles away in the French capital, Blair got into the back of an armoured car for the short journey from the ambassador's residence to the Elysée Palace where he was meeting the French President, Jacques Chirac . The night before, in the sumptuous Stuart Room of Sir Michael Jay's residence, Blair had again been briefed on France's position. Much of the talk of French 'wobbling' over its support for the coalition had been overblo wn. Much of it, in any case, was for domestic consumption only. Chirac was solidly behind America. The French President had arrived from Washington that morning after a meeting with the US President. Over coffee and croissants, the two men discussed 'fine tuning' the military operation, possibly only days away. America would take the military lead with Britain and France in support. Russia would offer logistical and intelligence support. The countries would make up the backbone of the alliance to attack Afghanistan. Sir David Manning, Blair's foreign policy adviser, was also there. There was a need for a 'calm and measured' response. George Bush was under a huge amount of public pressure to attack. This was a historic opportunity to settle many issues in the Middle East. The night before Blair had dined with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the leader of Germany. On the eighth floor of the new chancellery building in Berlin, Blair, Schröder, Manning and a senior official from the German gov ernment had eaten pink lamb and spoken of the constitutional difficulties Germany would have providing military support to any operation. Since the Second World War, the country's military capabilities have been strictly curtailed. Schröder's coalition government includes the Greens; the Chancellor said he would be able to offer strong political support but little more. Chirac was more forthcoming. French special forces were likely to be involved. But Britain had also to remember the wider implications for France, a country with historic links in the Middle East and the Arab states of No rth Africa. A wider war against terrorism, involving Iraq and even Egypt, would be increasingly difficult to maintain. Blair knew the message he had to take to America on his remarkable 60-hour diplomatic journey. He travelled between Berlin, Paris, New York, Washington and Brussels in two-and-a-half days. The international coalition woul d have to hold, or tension between the West and the Middle East would rise to levels where world security could be at risk. Blair was playing his part in squaring the world for war. At 10.30am Blair's flight left Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Back in London the Downing Street switchboard, the fabled 'switch' which could connect Number 10 to any telephone number in the world, started setting up a r emarkable four-way conversation. Journalists and Downing Street staff on the Prime Minister's plane were told to refrain from using the satellite phones because 'an important call' was about to be made. Half-an-hour into the flight and the call was ready. On the line was Blair, the Foreign Office, Downing Street and the office of President Mohamed Khatami in Tehran. It was the first time a British Prime Minister has spok en to the leader of Iran since the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. Blair and Khatami spoke for 15 minutes. The Iranian President said that Afghanistan was no friend of his country. More than two million Afghan refugees were on the border, creating a humanitarian crisis. Blair thanked him for his support and said that this was a battle not between the West and Islam but between civilisation and terror. Blair's first diplomatic moves had been successful. >From the plane Blair also spoke to Lord Robertson, the secretary general of Nato. In >an interview with the Wall Street Journal that morning, Robertson had admitted that >his organisation was still in the dark over America 's military plans. 'The next step is up to the US,' he said. 'What do they want the allies to do?' The next day the US deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, arrived at Nato's headquarters in Brussels and was shown to the main briefing room. There, he told the Nato ambassadors that the alliance's role would be li mited. Sharing intelligence would be the key, that and allowing US planes to fly over their countries. Nato's cumbersome decision-making process meant that it would not be closely involved. As the Boeing touched 44,000ft, Blair's most important hour began. The four men in business class were called forward. The Prime Minister, in seat 1A of the First Class cabin, listened to the latest intelligence reports. A copy of the Koran sat on a table next to him. Around him were banks of computers as the Downing Street staff, known as the 'gardening girls', kept the PM in touch with the world. Intelligence sources said that the British Government now knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding. They were focusing on the terrorist camp in the northern part of Afghanistan where they believed he was now seeking shelter. The plan was taking final shape. Bombing campaigns over the camps, followed by limited ground force insurrection, would be the most effective way to capture bin Laden, security officials said. The scheme was fraught with difficulties, particularly the possibility of an open-ended commitment to forces in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister's plane touched down in New York eight minutes late. Manhattan traffic was gridlocked, just as it had been every day since the World Trade Centre had been crushed into a pile of rubble. At St Thomas's C hurch, Fifth Avenue, the service of remembrance was also delayed. Blair arrived 45 minutes late. The UN's role in backing the 'war against terrorism', was revealed for what it was in a back room off to the left of the nave. Blair spoke to Kofi Annan, the head of the United Nations, for precisely three minutes. Blair spoke to the families of British victims for 10 minutes. He had to go: the plans for war were pressing him on. Andrews Air Force Base welcomed the British Airways Boeing 777 at 4.45pm. A convoy of black Lincoln Town Cars swept into the city. In 'Sedan 1' were Blair and Manning. In 'Sedan 2' were Jonathan Powell, Blair's chief of staff; Anji Hunter, his political secretary, and Alastair Campbell, head of strategic communications. Manning had been the ambassador to Israel and Nato before moving into Downing Street. He was becoming the lynchpin of Blair's whole operation. The party were ushered into the Blue Room at the White House. Blair and Bush split off from the main party, and at a window overlooking the Washington Monument spoke of the momentous events ahead. Blair was told of a spee ch Bush would be making to Congress later that night in which the President would use the fateful line that would force governments to make a choice: 'Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.' White House officials had started briefing the American press about Bush's speech before Blair arrived. Although Number 10 had been told of the broad themes of the speech beforehand, this was not a negotiation. Downing Street knows its position. It is only by hanging onto the US's billowing coat-tails as it marches across world politics that Britain can hope to have any influence. 'They are the most powerful nation on Earth,' Ca mpbell said. But No 10 also knows its strengths. British and French intelligence in the Middle East far outstrips the skills of America. The US also wants to use British and French ground forces in any future attack. In the gilded surroundings of the state dining room the men and women who would lead the coalition against Afghanistan dined on scallops. On one side of the table sat Blair, Campbell, Manning, Sir Christopher Meyer, Briti sh Ambassador to Washington, and Jonathan Powell. On the other were Bush, Colin Powell, Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, Bush's National Security Adviser, and Dan Fried, European adviser on the National Security Coun cil. Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's hawkish Defence Secretary, was not there. Bush then invited Blair to his apartment where he ran through his speech one more time. History was tapping on his shoulder. Blair had little idea o f the 40 minutes about to follow. The two men travelled by car to Capitol Hill. There, Blair was taken to what is known as the 'heroes' gallery' where he was seated next to the First Lady, Laura Bush, and Tom Ridge, Bush's new head of 'homeland security'. The speech was remarkable, punctuated by 31 spontaneous standing ovations. Each time the Congress members stood, their chair seats flipped up creating a flutter of noise. 'Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it do es not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.' Congress rose, bang, bang, bang. 'I'm so honoured the British Prime Minister has crossed an ocean to sho w his unity with America ... Thank you for coming, friend... This is a world's fight. This is civilisation's fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.' Bush's two mentions of Blair was a deliberate signal. As in Kosovo and Iraq, the United States has relied on Britain for support and has made it clear it will do so again. Amid all the diplomatic posturing and journeys across the Atlantic, the military men who are now doing the 'fine tuning' are increasingly at the very sharp end. With their secure briefcases and unknown faces, they understand it is now a question of military options. One Whitehall official, watching Blair's diplomatic mission zig-zag the world, said: 'There is a point at which the politics stops and the military takes over. That seems only a few days away.' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 End<{{{ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. 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