Reuters. 24 September 2001. Taliban: Killing Bin Laden Would Not End 'Terrorism.'; Taliban Seize U.N. Offices, Food Aid in Afghanistan. Combined reports. ISLAMABAD -- The United States cannot win its "war on terrorism" by killing Osama bin Laden and should focus instead on withdrawing from the Gulf and ending its bias in the Middle East, the Taliban leader said Monday. Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive spiritual leader of the hard-line Islamic movement ruling Afghanistan, said in a statement that Washington faced a "vain and bloody war" if it did not change its Middle East policies. Signs were emerging that the one-eyed Mullah Omar was engaged in delicate political maneuvering to try to stave off attack by the world's mightiest army without being seen by his followers -- and the Muslim world -- to be abandoning bin Laden. The most wanted man in much of the world -- with the United States raising the price on his head -- is venerated by many purist Sunni Muslims who see him as striking back against U.S. imperialism. Taliban men were still trying to find the Saudi-born fugitive to pass on to him the verdict of clerics who demanded last week that he leave of his own free will and in his own time in the face of retaliatory attacks by Washington, said Abdul Hai Mutmaen, the Taliban's chief spokesman. Even if bin Laden was found, the Taliban would not hand him over without proof of his guilt in the attacks this month in the United States that killed nearly 7,000, Mutmaen told Reuters from his leader's base in the southern city of Kandarhar. "It is not permissible to send him against his will. When we find him we will deliver the verdict and it is entirely up to him whether he wants to go or stay, but so far we have failed to track him down," he said. "We rule out the possibility of his handover to America without substantial evidence." In a message relayed simultaneously in Kabul, Islamabad and the Gulf, Taliban officials also said they were reinforcing their army with an additional 300,000 men. "America should not mislead itself. It cannot emerge from this crisis by the murder of myself and Osama bin Laden," said a statement issued by Mullah Omar's office in the southern city of Kandahar. "If America wants terrorism to end, it should withdraw its forces from the Gulf and end its partisanship in Palestine," said Mullah Omar, who has given shelter in Afghanistan to bin Laden since 1996. "All detachments of the national defense ministry are ready for the defense of their religion and country with full vigor and order," Defense Minister Mullah Obaidullah said in a statement sent to Reuters in Kabul. In Qatar, al-Jazeera television broadcast an interview with a Taliban Foreign Ministry official, Mohammad Qasim Halimi, saying men were begging Kabul to arm them to defend the country. In Kabul, hundreds of youths drove around the city shouting anti-U.S. slogans and waving protest posters in a rally against the expected U.S. attacks. "Death to America!" one of the protesters said. "We will fight this devil if it attacks us. We will not sit idle." "The flame of the fire will burn the lap of the United States and its supporters," he said. Meanwhile, the ruling Taliban have shut down the U.N. Afghan communications network, taken over its office in Kandahar and seized 1,400 tons of U.N. food aid, crippling the world body's aid operations in the country, U.N. officials said Monday. ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
