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(07/25/02 8:23pm)
WASHINGTON -- A New York woman believed suffering from anthrax struggled for her life Tuesday, triggering fresh concerns the disease was spreading beyond the intersection of the postal service and the news media. Postmaster General John Potter said several billion dollars will be needed to safeguard the nation's mail system. \nThe nation's capital struggled with fresh evidence of contamination as officials shut down a second post office and said it would take two weeks to decontaminate an anthrax-plagued office building that houses 50 senators. \nRep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., whose office was found to be contaminated last week, said he had been told by investigators that the letter that carried the spores into the Hart building, addressed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, contained two grams of anthrax, amounting to billions of spores. \nFederal and local health officials said they were particularly troubled by the illness of the 61-year-old New York woman, who works in a stockroom at a health facility. "There's no clear linkage with the mail," said Dr. Steven Ostroff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. \nBut later in the morning, Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, head of the CDC, suggested one possible link. He said that at the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital where the woman works, the mail room and the stock room were combined until a remodeling undertaken over the past two weeks. \nNew York Health Commissioner Neal Cohen said the woman was "struggling for her survival." He said other hospitals in the city had been alerted "to take precautions ... and share their findings with us." \nNot counting the woman hospitalized in New York, authorities have tallied 15 confirmed cases of anthrax nationwide since early this month. They include eight cases of the inhalation form of the disease, three deaths among them, and an additional seven people with the less severe skin form of the illness. \nKoplan told reporters that the number of Americans taking antibiotics as a precaution was counted in the tens of thousands, and the government is attempting to track reports of adverse side effects. \nPotter testified before a Senate committee that pressed him on his agency's response to the outbreak of anthrax through the mail. \nAsked about efforts under way to safeguard the system, he said, "I can tell you for certain it will be several billion dollars." \nHe also said the paper contained in the anthrax-tainted letter Daschle was more porous than the paper inside two other letters known to have been spiked. \n"I think there was a different type of paper," he said. That "allowed the anthrax to move through the paper. That's my assumption. I don't consider myself an expert but that appears to be the case. \nAll three letters were dated Sept. 11, the day hijackers killed an estimated 5,000 in terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. But the mail to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw and the New York Post bore postmarks of Sept. 18, while the mail to Daschle was postmarked Oct. 9. \nThe Daschle letter is believed responsible for part or perhaps all of the contamination from the main postal facility in the nation's capital throughout the city, affecting more than one dozen federal facilities and forcing the closure of yet another post office earlier Tuesday. \nPence's statement that the letter contained billions of spores suggested it could have spread infection widely. Dr. David Sullivan, a Johns Hopkins University expert on anthrax, said two grams of the substance could mean up to 20 billion spores, depending on the purity and the moisture content. Other officials have said previously that inhalation of between 8,000 and 10,000 spores is needed to cause illness. \nIn New Jersey, officials confirmed that a 51-year-old Hamilton Township woman not linked to the postal service was suffering from the skin form of anthrax. The source of the infection also was unknown, but officials said it could have come from contact with a piece of mail. \nThe circle of anthrax contamination widened as new traces of anthrax spores were found in the Capitol Police office of the Ford House building, which was already closed because of positive tests in its mail room. Anthrax also was confirmed late Monday in a downtown Agriculture Department office mailroom and technicians were considering a plan to pump a fumigating gas into the shuttered Hart Senate Office Building to kill any lingering anthrax spores there. \nIn Washington, officials closed the Friendship post office after anthrax spores were found. Postal workers there were advised to start antibiotic therapy. \nOfficials said the source of the latest New Jersey anthrax case was uncertain and the case was under investigation. \n"I don't think it is appropriate to draw conclusions about what this latest case may imply," said the CDC's Ostroff. \nActing New Jersey Gov. Donald DiFrancesco ordered anthrax spore testing at 44 post offices in seven counties. All send mail to the Hamilton processing center. Some of these post offices had been tested earlier. \nThe Hamilton center handled anthrax-tainted envelopes delivered to Daschle's office in the Hart building and to the New York offices of NBC News and the New York Post. \nAnthrax escaping from a letter opened in Daschle's office on Oct. 15 forced closure of the Hart building. Environmental Protection Agency officials said Monday they hoped experts would approve a plan to pump chlorine dioxide gas throughout the building to snuff out any remaining anthrax. The process could take 16 days, but would enable the nine-story building, where 50 senators have offices, to reopen in mid-November.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
WASHINGTON -- The United States has a "modest number" of troops inside Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday in the Pentagon's clearest acknowledgment yet of the American ground presence in the anti-terror war. \nThe troops are doing liaison work with anti-Taliban fighters and helping with resupply for those groups, as well as pinpointing targets for U.S. bombers. \n"We do have a modest number of troops in the country," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon press conference. He declined to be more specific about the number. \nHe said some of the uniformed American troops are in the north, where the main Taliban opposition is fighting, and that others have "come in and out of the south" of Afghanistan. \nAbout half of the U.S. bombing effort also is going to help the opposition, Rumsfeld said. \nTuesday, 80 percent of the effort was aimed at front line Taliban troops arrayed against opposition known as the northern alliance. \nMeanwhile, in the air campaign, U.S. planes swept through the skies over the front lines north of the Afghan capital throughout the day Tuesday. A huge explosion at front lines about 25 miles north of Kabul sent a mushroom cloud at least 1,000 feet high. The origin was not clear, since no airplanes could be seen overhead. \nGen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. operation in Afghanistan, met Tuesday with officials in Uzbekistan, where about 1,000 soldiers with the Army's 10th Mountain Division have been deployed at an air base at 90 miles from the northern Afghan border. \nIn the subject of ground troops, Rumsfeld has only hinted previsouly at their presence in Afghanistan. And he and others have said repeatedly that it would take more than an air offensive to go after Osama bin Laden and Taliban leaders who support him. \nOfficials also have said future U.S. commando raids or other ground fighting against Taliban and al-Qaida troops might be based from an airfield inside Afghanistan. \nMonday, Pentagon officials said setting up a U.S. base at an Afghan airfield is one of several possibilities the Defense Department is considering. \nTroops on the ground probably will be needed to deal with bin Laden and other leaders of his al-Qaida terror network, but past wars in Afghanistan, notably the former Soviet Union's failure after 10 years of fighting, have shown the high cost of a conventional large-scale ground invasion. \nAppearing with Rumsfeld, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said it would be unwise to announce in advance whether there will be a pause or limiting of air strikes during the holy month of Ramadan. \nRumsfeld on Monday cast doubt on whether the United States would heed some of its Muslim allies' request to wrap up the Afghanistan campaign before Ramadan. \nHoon has said previously that a pause was under consideration. And Islamabad's daily newspaper The News said that in a meeting with Pakistan officials, Gen. Tommy Franks offered "some assurances" that bombing during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan could be stopped or limited to Taliban targets away from civilian areas.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Eleven years after losing power in an election, former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega has a strong chance to regain the presidency in voting Sunday despite U.S. efforts to dent his campaign. \nFormer U.S. President Jimmy Carter joined thousands of local and foreign monitors scattered across Nicaragua to watch as polls opened, often hours late, in a country where political passions still run high in the wake of a civil war that ended in 1990. \nOnce a socialist revolutionary who wore olive green uniforms, Ortega, 55, campaigned in pink shirts and with the slogan "the path of love." \nIt was meant to help overcome the bitterness many still feel toward his earlier government, which confiscated property, jailed opponents and drafted tens of thousands to fight U.S.-backed rebels while trying to bring jobs and food for all. \nHe faces Enrique Bolanos, 73, of the governing Constitutionalist Liberal party. The former vice president saw most of his property confiscated by the Sandinistas during the 1980s. \nOfficials said first results might not arrive until after midnight. The law bars release of independent exit polls or quick counts before official results are offered. \nWith polls showing the race in a dead heat, the election atmosphere was tense and there were organizational glitches. Many voting places opened long after the planned 7 a.m. start, causing enormous lines. \n"I've been here since 5:30," said Ivan Herrera, who waited impatiently in line at nearly 9 a.m. "I have a mechanic shop. I have work to do." \nClaiming a threat of Sandinista violence, President Arnoldo Aleman said he "will not hesitate" to decree a state of emergency if disturbances break out. \nOrtega suggested Saturday that Aleman could be preparing to annul the elections if they go against his party. \n"We ask God to enlighten the president to avoid causing fear in the population," Ortega said as he voted. "I call on our brother Sandinistas to not let them provoke us" to violence. \nThe rumors were serious enough that Carter told a news conference that it "is not acceptable" to declare a state of emergency if there is merely a close vote. \nBut the former U.S. president, who also monitored the 1990 and 1996 elections here, said, "My prediction is that there will be a fair election." \nBoth Ortega and Bolanos also have promised to revise the constitutional amendments that put the supreme court, electoral council and other agencies in partisan political hands and that blocked most of the country's political parties from reaching the ballot. \nOrtega, too, has vowed to respect private property and free speech and said that the vice presidency, foreign ministry and attorney general's posts would go to prominent figures who were imprisoned by the Sandinistas in the 1980s. \nBut U.S. officials openly tilted against him, expressing concern about his party's past ties to terrorists and recalling its socialist policies of the 1980s. \nWhile the overall economy has grown over the past three years, little of that has reached the poorest Nicaraguans. Millions live on about a dollar a day. \nWhile Aleman's government has increased foreign investment, it remains saddled with a $4 billion foreign debt and is unlikely to meet financial targets agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund as a condition for more debt relief. \nTop income sources, coffee, tourism, assembly plants and money sent from Nicaraguans working abroad, have all slumped recently. Foreign reserves have dropped sharply, leaving Nicaragua with less than three weeks of reserve coverage for imports.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- After four weeks of U.S. attacks, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban are no longer "functioning as a government," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday. But an opposition attack on a key northern city was reported faltering only hours after it was launched. \nThat raised doubts whether the factious, poorly armed northern alliance opposition could exploit U.S. airstrikes and topple the Taliban without the assistance of American ground troops. \nMeanwhile, U.S. jets struck the front line about 30 miles north of Kabul, according to Atiqullah Baryalai, deputy defense minister of the northern alliance. In the Afghan capital itself, American bombs hit near the Intercontinental Hotel, set on a hill in the southwest part of the city. \nThey also struck the northeast town of Taloqan, which the opposition lost to the Taliban last year. \nRumsfeld, on a tour of front line states in the war against terrorism, sought to dispel fears that the air campaign, now in its fifth week, was failing to crack the Taliban's grip on Afghanistan. \n"The Taliban (are) not really functioning as a government," Rumsfeld declared after meeting Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key Muslim ally in the anti-terrorism campaign. \nRumsfeld, who later Sunday went on to India, said the Taliban were "using their power in enclaves throughout the country" and were "not making major military moves." \n"They are pretty much in static positions," he said. Rumsfeld said the Islamic militia was using mosques as command centers and as ammunition storage sites to spare them from American attack and "actively lying about civilian casualties." \nEarlier Sunday, in Uzbekistan, Rumsfeld gave an assessment of the military campaign's success to date. "The effort to deal with the problem of terrorist networks is proceeding," Rumsfeld said. "It is, we believe, proceeding at a pace that is showing measurable progress." \nA key element of the U.S. strategy has been to attack Taliban positions facing the northern alliance, especially on the front north of Kabul and on positions defending the Taliban-held city of Mazar-e-Sharif. \nOn Sunday, opposition spokesman Nadeem Ashraf said alliance forces launched a three-pronged offensive south of Mazar-e-Sharif in strategic Kishanday district in Balkh province, which borders Uzbekistan. The spokesman said the attack began after U.S. jets softened up Taliban positions by heavy bombing. \nHours later, however, Ashraf said one of the three opposition columns, led by Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum, was making no progress and the offensive was faltering. He said Dostum's forces numbered only about 700 to 1,000 fighters and had "no high morale." \nHis assessment could not be independently confirmed. However, it points to ethnic rivalries within the northern alliance that have long hampered the opposition's ability to mount an effective challenge to the Taliban. \nThe other troops in the Mazar-e-Sharif front are commanded by a close ally of the northern alliance's titular leader, former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, and by Shiite Muslim warlord Mohammed Mohaqik. \nOpposition commanders around the other major front, north of Kabul, have said they are preparing for a major offensive toward the capital after days of heavy U.S. airstrikes. However, there have been few signs that a major push toward Kabul is in the offing. \nPresident Bush ordered the airstrikes Oct. 7 after the Taliban repeatedly refused to surrender Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the September terrorist attacks that killed about 4,500 people in the United States. \nDuring the past week, U.S. attacks have shifted from cities to Taliban positions facing the northern alliance. But opposition forces are poorly armed and outgunned, and the approach of winter is making resupply of its front-line positions more difficult. \nIn Washington, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that the U.S. military is "settling in for the long haul." \nThe Taliban "have a substantial force left, but at this point that's exactly what we expected," Myers said on NBC's "Meet the Press." \nHe said a couple more teams of special forces were placed in Afghanistan in the last day or so to work with opposition leaders and better coordinate airstrikes. \nMyers and Army Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in the war, declined to say whether it would take a major deployment of U.S. ground troops to topple the Taliban. \nAppearing on ABC's "This Week," Franks was asked whether he would rule out the use of a large number of ground forces. "Absolutely not," he replied. \nIn Pakistan, Rumsfeld addressed the issue of a pause in the bombing campaign during the Islamic holy month Ramadan, which begins around Nov. 17. Bush has ruled out any pause, despite appeals from Musharraf and other Muslim allies. \n"The reality is that the threat of additional terrorist acts is there," Rumsfeld told reporters. The United States will be sensitive to the views in the region, he added, but he declined to outline the U.S. military plans. \nIn other developments: \n• The U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan brought his search for a broad-based government for Afghanistan to Iran on Sunday, where he met with Afghan exiles. \n• In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair scheduled a meeting with key European leaders Sunday to discuss the war on terrorism, his office said. Blair was also expected to brief allies on his efforts to shore up Muslim support for the campaign.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Backed by heavy U.S. bombing, Afghan opposition forces claimed the capture Tuesday of several key towns on the road to Mazar-e-Sharif in their first reported significant advance against Taliban defenses. \nThe northern alliance's claim could not be independently confirmed. Even if true, it would mean opposition forces were several dozen miles away across mountainous terrain from the strategic northern city, with winter closing in. \nBut after seesawing battles south of Mazar-e-Sharif in recent weeks, the opposition said intense strikes by American planes helped open the way for Tuesday's advance. The alliance had complained earlier that U.S. bombing was not heavy enough. \nU.S. jets also hit Taliban positions on another main front of the war, north of the capital, Kabul, dropping more than a dozen bombs and raising black smoke over the valley. \nAt the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said U.S. military planners hope that American help to the opposition alliance, including weapons and ammunition, will unite its factions so "that we will see more success" on the ground. \nPresident Bush launched airstrikes against Afghanistan on Oct. 7 after the ruling Taliban militia refused to hand over Osama bin Laden for his alleged role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. \nIn other developments: \n• Bush pledged "to keep relentless military pressure" on bin Laden and the Taliban, saying it is essential to keep terrorists from acquiring nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. \n• Germany said it would commit 3,900 troops for the U.S. war on terrorism, opening the way for the nation's widest-ranging military engagement since World War II. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said there are no immediate plans to deploy ground troops. \n• Rumsfeld said the United States extracted Hamid Karzai, a southern opposition leader, from Afghanistan over the weekend. Taliban forces had been chasing Karzai as he tried to rally support among ethnic Pashtun tribes for an alternative to the Taliban. \n• The Bush administration said it will help Pakistan stop smugglers from trucking weapons across its porous border with Afghanistan, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan said. \nThe northern alliance, which launched a three-pronged attack Sunday toward Mazar-e-Sharif, seized Ogopruk and two other towns in a pre-dawn assault, said Ashraf Nadeem, an opposition spokesman. The area is 45 miles south of Mazar-e-Sharif. \n"We attacked while the Americans were bombing," Nadeem said in a satellite telephone interview. "It was not only us who killed. It was mostly the Americans." \nIn recent weeks both sides have taken and lost villages around Mazar-e-Sharif. Retaking the city, which the Taliban captured from the opposition in 1998, would likely lead to the collapse of the Islamic militia's power in the northern region. \nNadeem claimed 300 Taliban defenders died and 300 defected to the opposition during Tuesday's fighting. Five opposition fighters were killed and nine wounded, he said. His account could not be independently verified, and there was no comment from the Taliban on the claims. \nThe towns' capture allowed opposition forces to push Tuesday toward Shol Ghar, and heavy fighting was reported about 30 miles southeast of Mazar-e-Sharif, Nadeem said. \nRumsfeld declined to confirm the claims of an opposition advance. "There are so many reports about this village or that village," he said. "I like to let the dust settle and see where it is at the end of some period of time after there has been a pause." \nThe United States wants the Afghan opposition, a loose coalition of fighters dominated by ethnic minority Tajiks and Uzbeks, to make significant gains ahead of winter. Fighting traditionally tapers off then because snow closes roads and hampers the resupply of troops. \nAt the front line north of Kabul, U.S. jets targeted Taliban-held territory Tuesday near the Bagram air base and later the villages of Khan Agha and Barikab, and black smoke blanketed the area. \nOn the ground nearby, shots rang out on each side of the front. Opposition fighters say Taliban fire has lessened in recent days, but some say the lull is a sign the Taliban is saving ammunition to repel a large opposition advance. \nBeyond a row of abandoned buildings, Taliban soldiers in baggy shirts and pants could be seen pacing, Kalashnikov rifles slung over their shoulders. \nZaubet, a 19-year-old opposition fighter, said he had seen the Taliban bringing in men and supplies in pickup trucks in the past few days. \nIn Kabul on Tuesday, Taliban gunners opened fire at what appeared to be a small U.S. spy plane that cruised over the city at mid-afternoon. \nLater, puffs of black smoke could be seen in the southern outskirts of the city. Taliban gunners fired repeated bursts of anti-aircraft rounds, but it was unclear whether they hit anything.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
WASHINGTON -- Trace amounts of anthrax have been discovered in five more Senate offices in the same building where a letter containing the bacteria was opened Oct. 15. \nCapitol Police Lt. Dan Nichols said the latest findings were not unexpected. Police believe letters delivered to other offices in the Hart Senate office building may have been contaminated by the anthrax-filled letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. \nAnthrax spores were found in the offices of Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Russ Feingold, D-Wis.; Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.; Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.; and Arlen Specter, R-Pa. Nichols said Sunday. \nAll are in the same general area of the Hart building as Daschle's offices. \nDr. John Eisold, the Capitol physician, said the trace amounts of anthrax pose no health risk and no further testing or treatment is necessary for office workers or visitors. \nBaucus spokesman Michael Siegel said, "We are extremely grateful for the quick action of Capitol Police and health officials." Siegel said all of Baucus' staff have remained on the course of antibiotics that they began taking when the letter was first discovered in Daschle's office. \nSpecter spokesman Bill Reynolds said: "We haven't been in the office since the initial closure. Everybody's been tested, some are on antibiotics and some aren't. But we're fine. \n"It's really a non-issue as far as we're concerned," Reynolds said. "All of our people are safe and we're just anticipating getting back to work in our offices." \nIt was reported on Saturday that trace amounts of anthrax had been found in the Hart building offices of Larry Craig, R-Idaho; Bob Graham, D-Fla.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Spores were also found in the offices of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., in the Longworth House office building. \nAlso Saturday, the Postal Service moved mail-processing operations from its Brentwood facility to a location on V Street in northeast Washington. \nOfficials discovered the Brentwood facility -- which processed the Daschle letter -- is so badly contaminated that it will probably take months to remove the anthrax. Two mail handlers at Brentwood died from inhaling anthrax. \nThe Postal Service had hoped to open a mail-sorting center in neighboring Prince George's County, Md., but County Executive Wayne Curry put a stop to it last Wednesday. \nCurry said he believed that facility was meant to be a decontamination center for mail addressed to Congress. Postal officials said that was not so.
(11/12/01 6:13am)
WASHINGTON -- Osama bin Laden likely has some chemical or biological weapons, and U.S. forces have bombed some sites in Afghanistan that could have been involved in producing them, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday. \nRumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials said they doubt bin Laden's al-Qaeda network has a nuclear weapon, as bin Laden told a Pakistani journalist in a recent interview. \n"I think it's unlikely that they have a nuclear weapon, but on the other hand, with the determination they have, they may very well," Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face the Nation." \nThe defense secretary and other officials said they were worried, however, that al-Qaeda network could have weapons of mass destruction that possibly include radiological weapons — mixtures of conventional explosives and nuclear material designed to spread radiation without a nuclear detonation. \n"We have every intelligence operation practically in the world on the problem of al-Qaeda and the Taliban and their weapons of mass destruction at this point," the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said on ABC's "This Week." \nThe United States has identified several sites in Afghanistan where al-Qaeda may have been producing weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld said. Some of them have been bombed, some of have not and others have not been found, he said. \n"If we had good information on a chemical or biological development area, we would do something about it," Rumsfeld said on CBS. "It is not an easy thing to do. We have every desire in the world to prevent the terrorists from using these capabilities"
(11/12/01 6:09am)
JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan -- Opposition forces claimed to have the Taliban on the run across much of northern Afghanistan on Sunday, as the ruling Islamic militia abandoned stronghold after stronghold in a withdrawal south toward the capital, Kabul. \nThe foreign minister of the northern alliance, Abdullah, claimed the opposition had seized half the country in the past two days and dealt the Taliban a severe blow as a fighting force. U.S. officials warned that a counterattack was possible. \nAs Taliban fighters fled south, President George W. Bush urged the opposition not to take Kabul before a new, broad-based government could be formed. \nBut Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged Sunday that "we don't have enough forces on the ground to stand in their way\" if the northern alliance tried to seize the capital. \nAt a press conference here, Abdullah said the opposition had recaptured its former headquarters, Taloqan, and three other northern provincial capitals since Mazar-e-Sharif, linchpin of the Taliban defenses in the north, fell to the alliance on Friday. \nBut in Washington Rumsfeld said that while the opposition had "effective control\" of Mazar-e-Sharif, "there are pockets of resistance within the city.\"\n"There could always be a counterattack,\" he said. The city's airport had not yet been secured, he added, though he thought it would be soon. \nTaliban officials acknowledged their forces were in a "strategic withdrawal,\" apparently toward Kabul and the ethnic Pashtun strongholds to the south. The alliance is dominated by Tajiks and Uzbeks, while Pashtuns -- the nation's largest ethnic group -- form the core of Taliban support. \nAbdul Hanan Hemat, chief of the Taliban's Bakhtar news agency, denied claims that Taloqan had fallen. \nThe reports could not be independently confirmed. Foreign journalists do not have access to many of the front lines and have been speaking to opposition commanders by satellite phone. \nThe opposition's Abdullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, said some 200 Taliban fighters were killed in fighting for Taloqan and other towns. Both sides have exaggerated claims in the past.
(11/12/01 4:31am)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Osama bin Laden said he had nothing to do with the anthrax attacks in the United States, and declared he would never allow himself to be captured, in the second part of a newspaper interview published Sunday. \n"America can't get me alive," bin Laden was quoted as saying. "I can be eliminated, but not my mission." \nBin Laden granted the interview Wednesday to Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who said he was blindfolded and bundled into a jeep in the Afghan capital, Kabul. He said he was driven five hours to a cold, mud hut where he spoke with bin Laden for two hours. \nIt was impossible to independently verify Mir's account of the interview. \nMir's newspaper, Ausaf, published part of the interview Saturday and included additional excerpts Sunday. Mir, who has written a biography of bin Laden that will be published soon, said the terror suspect declined to answer many of his questions. \nWhen Mir asked if bin Laden was responsible for the anthrax attacks, he laughed and said: "We don't know anything about anthrax." \nBin Laden did claim in the portion of the interview published Saturday that his al-Qaeda organization had nuclear and chemical weapons and would use them if the United States employed such weapons on him. \nMir wrote that when he asked bin Laden where he allegedly got the mass destruction weapons, bin Laden replied: "Go to the next question." \nThe United States says it has no evidence that bin Laden possesses nuclear weapons. Intelligence experts believe al-Qaeda has experimented with crude chemical weapons at a training camp in Afghanistan. \nFBI officials say there is no direct link between anthrax attacks in the United States and any cell or network, including al-Qaeda. \nMir said bin Laden vowed that if his Taliban allies lose Kabul and other cities, "we will move to the mountains. We will continue our guerrilla warfare against the Americans"
(11/12/01 4:29am)
WASHINGTON -- "Palestine'' entered the U.S. government lexicon with President George W. Bush's speech to the United Nations. \nSecretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that it reflected the administration's vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, side by side. \nUntil now, U.S. officials have referred to the possibility of a "Palestinian state,'' but have never called it "Palestine.'' \nPowell said Bush's use of "Palestine'' in his speech Saturday was deliberate. \n "If one is moving forward with a vision of two states side by side,'' Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press,'' "it's appropriate ... to call those two states what they will be, Israel and Palestine.'' \nBush told the U.N. General Assembly that the United States is "working toward the day when two states -- Israel and Palestine -- live peacefully together within secure and recognized borders as called for by the Security Council resolutions.'' \n"No Republican president has ever made (such) a statement,'' Powell said. \nNo Democrat, either. \nFormer President Bill Clinton carefully parsed his historic speech in 1998 to Palestinian legislators: "For the first time in the history of the Palestinian movement, the Palestinian people and their elected representatives now have a chance to determine their own destiny on their own land.'' \nUntil now, the State Department has used "Palestine'' only to describe the British-controlled territory that existed before Israel's establishment in 1948. Israel assumed some of the territory; the other parts were controlled by Jordan and Egypt until they were captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. \nAlthough Israel has accepted the existence of a Palestinian state as an outcome of peace talks, calling it "Palestine'' has been a sensitive issue. It has raised concerns that it would imply a Palestinian presumption to all the pre-1948 territory, including Israel. \n"The only objection we would have to the use of the term 'Palestine' would be where it is meant as an alternative to Israel, in order to undermine the legitimacy of the Jewish state,'' said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. \nPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who met with Powell Sunday in New York, said Bush's use of "Palestine'' was "very important,'' and significant that it came before the world body. "We thank him from the bottom of our heart.'' \nAn aide said the Palestinians still awaited a comprehensive American plan for the peace process, as well as a first Bush-Arafat meeting. \nBush wants to bolster Arab and Muslim support for the U.S.-led war against suspected terrorists and their protectors in Afghanistan. His statement was warmly welcomed by Arab delegates for referring to "recognized'' borders, and for suggesting that Security Council resolutions implied statehood. \nSharon has suggested an interim recognition of Palestinian statehood without recognized borders. Israel understands U.N. resolutions as calling for an exchange of territory for peace, but not necessarily leading to statehood. \n"That was music, that was outstanding,'' Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Ahmed Aboul Gheit said after the speech. \nBefore the Sept. 11 attacks, the administration's approach to the yearlong Israeli-Palestinian violence was notable for its lack of involvement. Bush said he thought the Clinton administration had been too involved in the region, disappointing some Arabs who had hoped Bush would balance what they perceived as Clinton's pro-Israel tilt. \nThe shift since Sept. 11 has unnerved Israelis, and Sharon last month wondered whether the United States was sacrificing Israel's security interests to building a coalition against terror. \nAdministration officials stressed they were still keeping a tough line with Arafat.
(11/05/01 5:03am)
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Osama bin Laden is waging a war against the world and does not represent Arabs and Muslims, senior Arab officials said Sunday during a gathering of foreign ministers in the Syrian capital. \n"I think there is a war between him (bin Laden) and the world," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters before the meeting of Arab League foreign ministers. \nArab League Secretary General Amr Moussa also reproached bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, saying he "does not speak for Arabs and Muslims." \nBin Laden and his al Qaeda organization have called on Muslims to wage holy war against the United States following the Oct. 7 launch of U.S. airstrikes against Afghanistan, where the Taliban rulers have refused to hand over bin Laden. \nThe comments by Moussa and Maher followed Saturday's broadcast of bin Laden's latest televised statement, in which he denounced the United Nations and criticized Arab leaders as "infidels" who consider using the world body to negotiate for peace. \nThe statement, the fifth communique from bin Laden or his al Qaeda organization broadcast by Qatari television station Al-Jazeera since Oct. 7, appeared to be aimed at Arab leaders who have called for international efforts to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. \nBin Laden's "been trying to take advantage of Islam, distort Islam, to take on moderate regimes in the Middle East, to take on civilized society in the West and in different parts of the world," Nabil Fahmy, Egypt's ambassador to the United States, said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." \n"But it's a distortion. I don't agree with the argument. Islam has nothing to do with what he is propagating," Fahmy added. \nMoussa later reiterated the Arab League's opposition to the U.S.-led campaign inside Afghanistan spreading to include any Arab nation. \n"Any attack against an Arab country means the international alliance (against terrorism) will break off," Mousa told reporters at the close of the two-day meeting. \nThe Arab League committee meeting in Damascus included Moussa and the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Yemen. \nThe committee was set up a year ago, shortly after the start of Palestinian-Israeli clashes, to garner support for the Palestinians. \nSyria on Sunday likened Israeli action against Palestinians to terrorism and said the United States could not accuse others of terrorism while supporting the Jewish state. \n"It is absolutely unacceptable (that) who protects Israeli terrorism accuses others of terrorism," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa told the foreign ministers, who met to discuss ways to support the Palestinians and revive the Mideast peace process. \nAl-Sharaa demanded that "a just and comprehensive" Mideast peace be achieved, saying that would rob terrorists of a cause they have used as a cover. \nMoussa told a press conference following the committee meeting that the ministers agreed to guarantee the Palestinians more financial aid from the beginning of 2002. He did not elaborate on the value of the proposed assistance. \nThe Arab League committee was expected to travel to Brussels soon to meet with the 15 European Union foreign ministers.
(11/05/01 5:01am)
KEY WEST, Fla. -- The Florida Keys were ordered evacuated Sunday as meteorologists warned that the chain of islands likely would be brushed by Hurricane Michelle. Rain spread into the state as the eye of the hurricane blasted down on the south coast of Cuba. \nForecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami issued a hurricane warning for all of the Florida Keys, projecting that winds of 75 mph or more could reach the area Sunday and remain into Monday. Gusts, up to 52 mph in Sobrero Key, and heavy surf were already pounding the area's beaches. \nBennie Sweeney, who owns a Key West T-shirt shop, opened his store but only to prepare for the storm. Sweeney said he was going to hang a picture of a rabbi on the window. \n"We went to the synagogue, we prayed. We came here just to make sure nothing happens," Sweeney said. \nMonroe County officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for all the Keys early Sunday and Miami-Dade County officials ordered the evacuation of a portion of the county. Public schools in both counties will be closed Monday. \nThe evacuation orders came a day after Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency. \n"It appears that the storm has veered to the east, thankfully," Bush said Sunday. But, "It's still a very powerful storm ... clearly there's going to be some impact." \nHeavy bands of rain with tropical storm force winds, which range from 39-to-73 mph, were spreading across the Florida Straits and the Keys, and were moving toward the southeast coast of Florida. \nThe center of Michelle should pass over Cuba by midnight Sunday and head into the eastern Florida Straits, said Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center. \nUp until Monday afternoon, parts of the Keys and South Florida will experience brief periods of heavy rains and strong winds, with the hurricane's closest approach to the state at dawn, said Rappaport. \n"It's going to take a while before conditions improve," said Rappaport. \nCraig Fugate, director of the state's Division of Emergency Management, said the "all-clear" could not be given to people in the Keys until Monday. \nThe Keys, a chain of some 40 islands stretching 128 miles, have a little more than 80,000 permanent residents, plus visitors. They are connected by highway bridges, but only two spans connect the first island, Key Largo, to the mainland. \nBy Sunday afternoon, traffic heading out of the Keys was moderate, and there was still some light southbound traffic, said Highway Patrol Lt. Ernesto Duarte. \nSome 75 residents of the Keys arrived at a hurricane shelter at Florida International University, said American Red Cross officials. It was unclear how many people were expected to show up. \nIts top winds at 135 mph, Michelle was not expected to strike Florida directly. If the hurricane were to deviate slightly to the north, off its projected track to the central Bahamas, the Keys and South Florida could be pelted with heavy rain and strong winds. \nMichelle's speed increased to 13 mph Sunday, after hovering at about 3 mph most of the previous day. Forecasters said the storm had probably peaked in intensity and was expected to weaken over the next 24 hours. \nIn Key West on Sunday, some gas stations doubled their business as people headed out of town. But others took the storm in stride. One woman rode her bike to work four miles in the wind. \n"I almost didn't have to pedal, my poncho acted like a sail," said Lyn Hazel, a book store clerk.
(10/31/01 5:55am)
WASHINGTON -- House Democrats lost an effort Tuesday to add money to a program aimed at keeping Russian nuclear weapons away from terrorists.\nBy voice vote, House lawmakers working with senators to craft a compromise energy and water spending bill rejected an effort by Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, that would have added $131 million to a $173 million program that helps Russia guard its nuclear facilities.\nThe $173 million is the same amount that was provided for the program last year.\n"That's business as usual," Edwards said after the meeting. "We're faced with a war against terrorism, and the terrorists have declared war on us."\nOpponents objected to Edwards' plan to take the money from a separate program for nuclear-armed cruise missiles. But they also agreed that nuclear nonproliferation efforts must be strengthened and told him they look for extra money in future bills.\n"There's no question we should be helping the Russians," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees energy and water spending. "It's really in our interest to help them."\nOverall, the bill contains $803 million for nuclear nonproliferation, including money for other programs that create jobs for Russian nuclear scientists so they won't be tempted to work for terrorist groups. That is $69 million less than this year, but $29 million more than President Bush requested.\nThe bill has a $24.6 billion price tag, $573 million more than last year and $2 billion above Bush's request. The measure must now be approved by the full House and Senate.\nThe legislation includes $60 million for new water projects, a favorite of lawmakers, and extra money for renewable energy research and cleanups of Energy Department nuclear waste sites.\nBargainers also decided to drop House-approved language that would have blocked the Army Corps of Engineers from seasonally altering water flows on the Missouri River, a battle that has pitted upstream and downstream business interests against each other.\nA Senate-passed provision, which remains in the bill, lets the Corps study various alternatives. The battle will be fought again next year.\nHouse-Senate bargainers also adopted a second spending bill, a near $3 billion measure to finance Congress' own operations. It is $245 million higher than was spent last year, and $13 million more than Bush sought.
(10/29/01 3:46am)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Grizzled comrades-in-arms of slain Afghan guerrilla Abdul Haq gathered at his family's home on Sunday to pay their respects and weep over what they saw as their old commander's abandonment by the United States. \nHaq had ventured back into Afghanistan on a maverick mission to encourage defections among the ruling Taliban. Instead, he was captured, despite a last-minute U.S. effort to protect him, and was executed Friday as a spy. \n"We all hate America, all of us," said Dad Mohammed, a one-legged Afghan war veteran, wiping tears off his face. "They always want to use us and our people, and then they abandon us." \nHaq's mission ended early Friday in an Afghan mountain canyon, where Taliban forces ambushed, surrounded and captured him. The Taliban say they executed him and two companions within hours, under a religious edict authorizing death for U.S. spies. \nAfter initially saying they would turn over the corpse of the outgoing, heavyset 43-year-old ex-guerrilla to his family in Pakistan, the Taliban told relatives Sunday that they had buried the body in his home village of Surkhrud, in Taliban territory. \nSunday, a week to the day after Haq's mission started, relatives and other Afghan exiles across the border in Peshawar mourned his death and vowed to continue the fight. \n"We lost our brother, but our war will persevere," din Mohammed said. "We renew our promise to fight for Afghanistan, and the people of Afghanistan." \nDespite the brave words, the death of Haq dealt a major blow to the opposition cause, cowing both the opposition in exile, and likely any Taliban thinking of switching sides. \nIn interviews with reporters and conversations with colleagues, Haq said he believed he could get a hearing from former war comrades now in the Taliban's higher echelons. \nU.S. officials say they neither endorsed nor supported Haq's mission, simply wished him good luck. However, the CIA sent a missile-armed drone to protect Haq as he tried to evade the Taliban. The unmanned plane fired and hit a suspected Taliban convoy, but failed to save Haq. \nOn Saturday, Richard McFarlane, Ronald Reagan's former national security adviser, said a U.S. plane intervened after people traveling with Haq frantically called supporters in the United States from a cell phone and asked for help as Taliban forces were closing in. \n Like Haq, the United States has sorely wished for opposition to emerge to the Taliban on their own territory. \n Three weeks of U.S.-led bombing, while incurring civilian casualties that have increased anger here and in Afghanistan, have failed either to break Taliban control of Afghanistan or spur top defections. \nAfter his capture, U.S. officials lauded Haq's aims. \n"Throughout his life, this gentleman has been a voice for the establishment of broad-based government for his country," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday, before word of his death was confirmed. \nSunday, Mohammed, the veteran, recalled how he and Haq fought against Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers in the 1980s, when Mohammed was a teenager. Now a wrinkled, stooped and graying 36, he said Haq had recently warned him to be ready for a new call to arms. \nIf he could, Mohammed said, he would follow his comrade into Afghanistan and avenge his death. \n"If I did not have this," he said, gesturing at his artificial leg, "I would wrap myself in bombs and go kill"