2001 News

Bin Laden in Pakistan-Afghan military spokesman

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden is in hiding in Pakistan under the protection of supporters of a radical Islamic leader who helped to create the fundamentalist Taliban, Afghanistan's Defence Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

"Osama himself is under the protection of Maulana Fazalur Rehman in Pakistan, but we don't know for sure in which part," Mohamad Habeel told Reuters.

"He lives in areas which are under the influence and control of Fazalur Rehman supporters. I cannot say from which sources we have received this information," he said.

"Bin Laden and his men are no longer here (in Afghanistan)," he added.

Rehman, who is under house arrest, is head of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party, a long time supporter of bin Laden, head of the al Qaeda network that is blamed for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Habeel said bin Laden's support in Afghanistan had collapsed completely.

"His supporters have no presence... any more. There may be individuals here who have hidden, but altogether we can say that his resistance is over. His last remaining forces have fled to areas along the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.

Habeel said pressure should be put on any country that had given refuge to bin Laden.

"Attack is permissible on any country, be it Pakistan or any other which gives protection to Osama. We support that type of attack," he said.

In a videotape apparently recorded by bin Laden possibly earlier this month and aired on Qatar's al Jazeera television on Wednesday, bin Laden said the U.S. air campaign against Afghanistan in pursuit of al Qaeda proved the United States and the West loathed Islam.

But Habeel said the Afghan Defence Ministry saw no link, and condemned his statement.

"This... has no link and justification in terms of Islam. We reject and condemn it," he told Reuters.

10:00 12-27-01

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Clerics say Britain a hotbed of Islamic extremism

By Ed Cropley

LONDON, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Britain's crackdown on Islamic firebrands after the September 11 attacks may not be enough to prevent follow-up atrocities because police have turned a blind eye to extremism for years, leading clerics said on Thursday.

Abdul Haqq Baker, who runs the south London mosque where alleged British "shoe bomber" Richard Reid worshipped, said warnings as far back as 1996 of Muslim extremists recruiting agents had gone unheeded.

"We've indicated to the police about this extremist element setting up around Brixton for about four or five years now," he told BBC radio.

Reid was arrested in Boston on Saturday for allegedly trying to blow up an airliner on its way from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes. It is not yet known if he was acting alone or as part of a wider plot.

The Times newspaper quoted Baker as saying "hundreds of Richard Reids" had been recruited in Britain.

Baker said he had become so concerned about the hardline nature of some Islamic teaching he had recorded meetings and offered to hand tapes over to police.

"We said our tapes are available if you want to learn about what their beliefs are as regards jihad (holy war)... We can give you pointers as to who these people are," Baker said.

Baker said that despite his protestations the matter was handled by local police rather than the specialist anti-terrorism branch, who said only that they would "monitor" the situation.

London police said they were aware of Baker's remarks but declined to comment because the issue was sensitive.

Baker's comments come as Britain tries to shed its international reputation as a soft touch for Islamic radicals with a crackdown on extremists in the wake of the September 11 suicide hijack attacks on the United States.

Authorities have stepped up their monitoring of self-styled Islamic clerics such as Syrian-born Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, who has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, ordering the death of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The government has also rushed through sweeping new police powers targeting people it believes to be "international terrorists."

Eight unidentified foreigners were rounded up under the new anti-terror legislation shortly before Christmas.

Zaki Badawi, the principal of the London-based Muslim College, said the number of "after hours" schools run by militant groups teaching children a radical brand of Islam was on the rise, and called on the Home Office (Interior Ministry) to step in.

"The government should close these schools down," he said.

Brixton, the scene of racial unrest in the early 1980s, was also the temporary home of Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, who now faces conspiracy charges in the United States in connection with the events of September 11.

09:45 12-27-01

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Afghan Girls Return to School

By RAVI NESSMAN
.c The Associated Press

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) - The news was broadcast on television and radio. Mullahs announced it in the mosques. Teachers even went door to door to spread the word personally.

School is back in session for the girls of Mazar-e-Sharif.

More than three years after the Taliban banned female education, schools for girls in this northern Afghan city reopened Saturday to an almost euphoric reception.

Dozens of girls, many of them formal students for the first time in their young lives, fidgeted on cracked wooden benches during an assembly in the shattered remains of the Fatima Balkhi school, which serves students of all ages.

There were no chairs, no desks, no notebooks, no pens. But the students must come every day - no excuses - math teacher Sahira Kholmi told the smiling girls.

``These schools are open now and there are few obstacles in our way. So we should learn,'' she said.

When the hard-line Taliban took control of the city in 1998, they banned education for women under their harsh interpretation of Islam and forced the closure of Fatima Balkhi.

Then, as if seeking to ensure the 80-year-old school would never reopen, they methodically gutted it.

Light sockets were ripped from ceilings and electrical outlets pulled from walls. Chairs, desks and blackboards were smashed and dumped in the stairwell. Doors were ripped off their hinges and at least half the panes in windows and doors were smashed. Even chunks of plaster were gouged with the ceilings.

But learning did not disappear from Mazar-e-Sharif. It simply went underground.

Kholmi, like most of Fatima Balkhi's teachers, began giving private lessons in her home. When the Taliban found out about such tutoring across the city, they outlawed that, too.

``I did not accept their order,'' Kholmi said. ``If I closed my home to the students, they would not learn.''

So she continued to teach. Her students told anyone who asked that they were visiting a relative, and she made sure they left her house one by one, so they did not attract attention.

Sunya Haslami, 16, said the clandestine lessons scared her, but she had to keep learning.

``Now there is no problem. Our education will be very good. Now we will study,'' she said.

As the girls sat in the near-freezing assembly room, blown by wind gusting through broken windows, two U.S. special forces soldiers walked in.

One kneeled, and through an interpreter, asked some of the girls their names and ages, if they knew their ABCs and how to count to 10.

The other took snapshots.

The soldiers, who declined to give their names, took notes about the school's desperate needs and handed out notepads.

``This is just a small token so they can get started in the school,'' one told the teachers before he left.

Saturday was more for students to register and celebrate their restored right to learn. Formal classes begin Sunday.

Everyone will be tested. Those who pass will skip the grades they missed. The others will receive remedial instruction.

Zarmina Karimi, the assistant principal, worries what the lost years in education will do to her students.

``These small girls who didn't learn anything, what kind of future will they have?'' she asked.

But other teachers radiated optimism, despite the building's dilapidated condition and their total lack of supplies.

``This is a new beginning for us,'' Kholmi said.

AP-NY-12-22-01 1237EST

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Excerpts from speech by Afghan leader Hamid Karzai

KABUL, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Following are excerpts from a speech by Afghanistan's new leader Hamid Karzai, who was sworn in as head of a U.N.-backed interim government at a ceremony in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday:

• "I pay homage to my great brother and shaheed (martyr) Ahmad Shah Masood and other martyrs who lost their lives for the sake of Islam and freedom of their great country."
• "I pay respect to the hard work of our brothers who have fought for the freedom of our country over the last 23 years. I thank them. God help them all. And their patience is really greatly appreciated.
• "I hope God will give our country a bright future. What our country and its people have suffered over 23 years cannot be described or written."
• "Today we are happy that we can see the sun rising again on our land. I think a wave of peace and unity is coming to our country."
• "After all these interventions and invasions, our country has become a grave for killers and international terrorism. After the September 11 attacks, the United States and United Nations came to a resolve to root out terrorism from Afghanistan."
• "After the end of Taliban government, it is the duty of this interim government to invite a Loya Jirga (grand assembly)."
• "Although I was busy in my country at that time to take out the roots of the Taliban from our country, to the people who were busy in Bonn for this agreement, I am proud and thank them for giving me this great opportunity and believing in me."
• "I would like to promise you that I will fulfil our and my mission to bring peace to Afghanistan, that we cannot see again the chains and fighting and shooting in our country."
• "In this very important moment when the motherland is looking to us we should put our hands together to be brothers, to be friends, to be together, to forget the painful past and as brothers and sisters enter a new Afghanistan."
• "Our country is nothing but a ruined land."
• "Oh God! the journey is long and I am novice. I need your help."
• "God bless Afghanistan."

Karzai outlined a 13-point plan for the new government:

1. "First, we will respect all Islamic rules in our country. (This was greeted by shouts of "God is great" from the audience)
2. "Second, we will protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Afghanistan and fight terrorism."
3. "Freedom of speech and belief is the right of every and each Afghan and this is our responsibility.
4. "Laws and regulations must be obeyed. This is what can bring peace and security."
5. "We respect Afghan women who are half of our country's population (applause) and we give the rights to them under the country's law."
6. "Security and peace are our main duties and responsibilities."
7. "All the (government) posts in the country should be given to professional people on the basis of merit."
8. "We hope that our brother and sister Afghans who are exiled outside the country will help in the reconstruction of the country."
9. "We should not misuse public finances. I would like everyone to pay attention to this."
10. "We need the national army for the security of our country."
11. "The government has a duty to reconstruct the education system by using the professionals from primary schools up to universities and academics."
12. "Afghanistan is a member of the international community and respects all U.N. resolutions. We thank the United Nations for providing security and helping the reconstruction of Afghanistan."
13. "Afghanistan is a member of the international community and respects all countries, especially its neighbours, and this government wants to have good relations with all neighbours on the basis of mutual respect."

06:44 12-22-01

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US Takes Campaign Beyond Afghanistan

By BARRY SCHWEID
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is expanding its war against al-Qaida and terrorism beyond Afghanistan's borders. ``We're going to continue to use every tool at our disposal,'' Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said Tuesday.

The dual campaign - against Osama bin Laden's group and terrorism in general - includes Pakistan, where American investigators are quizzing al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who managed to cross the Afghan border.

In Yemen, the Arab country at the Gulf of Aden, special forces trained with U.S. help battled armed tribesmen in an attempt to capture suspected members of bin Laden's terrorism network hiding in remote areas.

At a private meeting in late November at the White House, President Bush asked President Ali Abdullah Saleh to turn Yemen's cooperation on terrorism ``to results.''

``It's important for all of us to go after terrorism period,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday.

While the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban ``still has a ways to go,'' it is only part of the president's intention to go after terrorism wherever it exists, Boucher said.

Iraq also has been identified by Bush and other senior administration officials as a potential target - despite warnings by Egypt that Arab countries were unlikely to approve of a U.S. attack against another Arab country.

In Iraq's case, Bush has stressed President Saddam Hussein's refusal for three years to admit U.N. inspectors to hunt for weapons of mass destruction.

Wolfowitz, at the Pentagon, said the campaign against terrorism does not end in Afghanistan.

``The war against terrorism is about more than one man,'' he said. ``It's about the whole complex of global terrorist networks that interact and support one another.''

And so, Wolfowitz said, ``we are going to continue to use every tool at our disposal, not just the military, to go after these cells around the world.''

The Philippines, Somalia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Tajikstan and Uzbekistan all, at one time or another, have been mentioned by administration officials as countries with terrorism problems.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, the Bush administration began pressuring Pakistan to seal the border with Afghanistan and keep American authorities advised if al-Qaida and Taliban personnel are intercepted.

Powell underscored the request in a visit to Pakistan in October.

On Tuesday, a senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that American officials were directly following leads in Pakistan and in other instances Pakistani officials were conducting the investigations.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, likened the operation to a police investigation, or gumshoe work, trying to put bits and pieces of information together. Some cases wound up to be a dry hole, others did not, he said.

Under questioning in Afghanistan, al-Qaida forces have verified that Osama bin Laden was trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction and also the technology to produce them, the official said.

Reviewing the results of the interrogations, U.S. officials have come to no hard conclusions on whether the campaign succeeded, the senior U.S. official said.

It is possible al-Qaida tried to get chemical weapons outside Afghanistan, and that is easier to accomplish than to acquire and conceal a nuclear warhead, he said.

AP-NY-12-18-01 1633EST

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Germany bans radical Islamic network

BERLIN, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Germany banned a roughly 1,100-strong radical Islamic group on Wednesday, accusing it of threatening domestic security.

Interior Minister Otto Schily told a news conference the ban on a group known as the Kalifatsstaat (Caliphate State) was necessary to stop what he called their extremist activities.

"The so-called Kalifatsstaat stirs up its members against democracy, against those of other beliefs and against the Republic of Turkey. Particularly offensive are its anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli tirades," he said.

"It endangers domestic security as well as the important -- in particular foreign policy -- interests of Germany."

The Kalifatsstaat consists of a central group led by Metin Kaplan, known in Germany as the "Caliph of Cologne," a foundation linked to his group called "Servants of Islam" and 19 subsidiary groups.

Kaplan, is serving a jail term for calling for the murder of a rival religious leader. He wants to establish an Islamic state in his home of Turkey.

Police said they had conducted 200 house searches in seven different German states in connection with the ban and seized the headquarters of the group in Cologne.

"We are currently searching the building and securing the group's finances," a Cologne police spokesman said.

The operation carried out by several hundred officers was ongoing, but no arrests had been made, he said.

SEPTEMBER 11 FOCUS

The ban comes after sweeping security measures approved by Germany's centre-left coalition after the September 11 attacks. Legislation that allows the waiving of constitutional protection of religious groups if they are suspected of inciting violence or undermining democracy came into effect last week.

Germany has been a focal point for investigations into the September 11 attacks on U.S. landmarks as three of the suspected plane hijackers lived for years in Hamburg.

The government has said members of the al Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden or similar Islamic groups might still be operating in Germany, warning that extremist "sleepers" could be lying in wait ready to conduct new attacks.

Schily called on other Muslim organisations in Germany to help uphold democracy and the rule of law and fight extremism.

"They must make clear that Islamic extremism and terrorism have nothing to do with the practice of religion, but are criminal activities," he said.

Kaplan is wanted in Turkey, which accuses him of ordering followers to crash an aircraft laden with explosives into the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular Turkish state, in 1998.

Extradition proceedings are running against Kaplan, but Germany first wants assurances from Turkey that he would not face torture or the death penalty if he were sent back.

A close aide to Kaplan was detained in October on suspicion of planning murder and belonging to an extremist organisation, but was later released for lack of evidence.

Germany is home to around three million Muslims, the majority of them Turks who were invited to the country to help rebuild its shattered economy after World War Two.

08:43 12-12-01

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Top Egypt cleric - suicide bombers are "martyrs"

ABU DHABI, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The top cleric at one of Islam's most respected seats of learning considers Palestinian suicide bombers as martyrs, his deputy was quoted on Tuesday as saying.

Mahmoud Ashour, the deputy of Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi of Cairo's al-Azhar, said Tantawi did not consider bomb attacks by Palestinian militants against Israeli targets to be suicide -- a mortal sin in Islam.

"When certain scholars in some Arab countries had issued edicts saying that whoever blows himself up has committed suicide, the sheikh of al-Azhar said that was the highest form of martyrdom and was legitimate struggle," Ashour said in a lecture in Abu Dhabi.

A copy of his remarks was obtained by Reuters.

Palestinian militant Islamic groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have championed suicide bombings against Israel to avenge the deaths of Palestinians.

A recent spate of suicide bombings in Israel that killed 29 people has prompted the fiercest Israeli air attacks against Palestinian Authority targets since the start of a Palestinian uprising 14 months ago.

At least 760 Palestinians and 223 Israelis have died in an uprising against Israeli occupation.

06:45 12-11-01

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Saudi women get I.D. cards for first time

DUBAI, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has started issuing identity cards to women for the first time to make their lives easier and help prevent fraud, the interior minister said on Monday.

"The issuing of identity cards to women was dictated by the requirements of modern life to enable a woman to carry out all her activities with ease and also to prevent forgeries and trickeries committed in the name of women in the absence of identification," Prince Nayef told the Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi women are currently listed as dependants on their father's or husband's card.

They are issued with passports but are not allowed to travel unless accompanied by a male legal guardian or with written permission from a male relative.

Prince Nayef said the cards would stop people claiming false identities when banking, checking into hotels, paying for medical treatment or sitting university exams. He did not say how widespread such fraud was.

The authorities started issuing the cards at the beginning of December, accoring to Saudi residents.

Saudi women are generally barred from public life. They do not drive, and schools and universities are segregated.

But Saudi Arabia has recently indicated it will grant more rights to women. Many are highly educated, own property and work, mostly in education or their own business.

Amnesty International has repeatedly slammed Saudi Arabia's record on women's rights, saying women continue to face severe discrimination and rights violations even though the kingdom had signed up to a U.N. convention on women's rights.

Saudi Arabia joined the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women last year, but said it was not committed to any clauses that contradict Islamic sharia law.

It has consistently said Islam is the best guarantor of women's rights.

09:51 12-10-01

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Video ties bin Laden to Sept. 11 planning-US

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Top U.S. officials said on Sunday they had viewed a videotape purporting to show that Osama bin Laden had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 suicide hijacking blitz in what could be the strongest evidence yet of his alleged link to the attacks -- a link he has denied.

Vice President Dick Cheney described the Arabic-language tape as a kind of smoking gun in which bin Laden showed "significant knowledge of what happened and there's no doubt about his responsibility."

President George W. Bush's administration -- concerned both about managing perceptions in the Muslim world and any signals that bin Laden might be trying to send followers -- was still mulling whether to release the tape, Cheney said on the NBC program "Meet the Press."

"We have not been eager to give the guy any extra television time than he could obtain for himself," he said. "But I think we'd probably rely on the experts as to whether or not it'd be a good idea for us to release it."

Another hitch was protecting the intelligence "sources and methods" used to obtain the video so as to maintain access to possible additional evidence, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on CNN's "Late Edition."

FIERCE FIGHTING

Fighters of bin Laden's al Qaeda network were locked in a "very, very fierce" battle on Sunday with U.S.-backed Afghan forces in the mountainous Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan, their last holdout, said Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"The al Qaeda forces that we think are ensconced up there, in some respects trapped up there, are fighting for their lives," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Citing U.S. officials, NBC News reported U.S. planes had dropped one of the most powerful weapons in its arsenal on Tora Bora, the 15,000 pound (6,804 kg) "Daisy Cutter" bomb. The Daisy Cutter can devastate everything within a 600-yard (metre) radius. A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command was not immediately available for comment on the report.

As many as 80 to 85 strike aircraft flew missions over Afghanistan on Saturday, up from 75 to 80 on Friday, the Pentagon said on Sunday.

On the ground, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance said bin Laden was personally leading 1,000 al Qaeda troops dug in to defend mountain hide-outs.

Asked whether the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan would be deemed a failure if bin Laden escaped death or capture, Wolfowitz said he did not think so.

"We could catch bin Laden tomorrow, and we still have months and years of work to be done," he said. "And I suppose it is at least theoretically possible that he could take plastic surgery, disguise himself as a woman, and hide somewhere in the mountains of Chechnya, and it might be a long time before we find him."

"DISGUSTING"

Asked to describe bin Laden's bearing in the video clip allegedly tying him more closely to the Sept. 11 attacks than previously documented, Wolfowitz replied, "I'd say it's disgusting."

"I mean, this is a man who takes pride and pleasure in having killed thousands of innocent human beings. And it confirms everything we've known about him already," he added in an interview on ABC's "This Week."

A U.S. official who declined to be identified told Reuters the homemade video showed bin Laden, at a dinner last month, supposedly amused that some of the hijackers "thought they were just taking part in a hijacking," not a suicide operation.

The Washington Post, the first to report the existence of the tape, said it showed bin Laden describing damage around New York's World Trade Center -- where the twin towers and other buildings were leveled -- as much greater than he had anticipated.

The 40-minute tape was found in a private home in the eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad and featured language indicating bin Laden was familiar with the planning of the attacks, the Post said, citing senior U.S. officials.

"It's further confirmation, and hopefully maybe we'll stop hearing any more of these insane conspiracy theories that somehow the U.S. has made this up or somebody else did it," Wolfowitz said.

UNCORROBORATED THEORIES

Among uncorroborated theories that have circulated, particularly in the Muslim world, is that Israeli intelligence somehow carried out the attacks to spark a U.S.-led war on militant Islam. Nearly 3,900 people were killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania, where a fourth hijacked airliner crashed.

Bin Laden, a Saudi-born exile, has denied a role in the attacks. On Sept. 12, the day after the assaults, a bin Laden aide told an interviewer from al Jazeera television over a satellite phone that the al Qaeda leader "thanked Almighty Allah and bowed before him when he heard this news," but that bin Laden had no "information or knowledge about the attack."

In a tape prepared for release after the first U.S. missiles and bombs fell on Afghanistan on Oct. 7, bin Laden praised those "vanguards of Islam ... (who) destroyed America, adding, "I pray to God to elevate them and bless them." He did not claim responsibility for the attack.

20:43 12-09-01

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Taliban Fall In Two Short Months

By KATHY GANNON
.c The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - In the five years that the Taliban ruled, the Islamic militia became inextricably linked to Osama bin Laden. He financed their warriors, built their roads - and, eventually, brought about their collapse.

The Taliban, whose name means ``students,'' began in 1994 as religious vigilantes committed to ridding this war-wrecked land of banditry and lawlessness.

Preaching an austere and uncompromising brand of Islam, they swept to national power in the mid-1990s, welcomed by many Afghans who were fed up with the collection of feuding warlords who ruled after the collapse of a pro-Moscow government in 1992.

The Taliban seized the capital, Kabul, in 1996, throwing out the warring factions led by Burhanuddin Rabbani. Their hardline interpretation of Islam was like a magnet for militant Muslims worldwide.

Bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan from Sudan several months before their sweep through Kabul. He was quick to swear allegiance to the Taliban and began to pump money and manpower into the movement, according to one of its founders, Mullah Mohammed Khaqzar.

A movement founded on the principle of law and order was transformed into the patron of a worldwide terrorist network, setting the stage for the showdown with the United States after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

``People should look at the Taliban as a mix of good and bad,'' said Khaqzar. ``They brought security and peace, but they imposed too many restrictions and pressure on the people and allowed foreigners to take control of our country.''

Bin Laden's money and fighters bolstered the authority of the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, to impose a brutal mix of strict Quranic interpretations and tribal customs.

Afghans were forbidden to listen to music, watch television, admire artwork. Men had to wear beards as long as their fists. Women were banned from most work and from going to school. They had to gaze at the world - always with a male escort - from the tiny netted hole of a burqa.

Children could not keep pet pigeons, play chess or fly kites. By the end of Taliban rule, women were not even allowed to wear shoes with hard soles. The sound was considered provocative.

After the Taliban leadership refused to hand over their ``guest'' bin Laden to the United States, President Bush launched an air campaign Oct. 7, throwing America's military might behind the opposition northern alliance, a collection of warlords and ethnic minorities.

For the first month, the attacks produced few results. After relentless bombing of Taliban front lines, militia defenses around the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif collapsed on Nov. 9.

Within 10 days, the Taliban had fled Kabul and most other major cities, running away in chaotic retreats to the place their movement was born, the southern city of Kandahar.

Taliban leadership agreed to surrender Kandahar on Thursday. By Friday morning, when opposition forces moved into the city, most of the Taliban were already gone.

It was unclear where the Taliban had gone or whether they would try to fight on as guerrillas against the new, U.N.-backed administration. Omar was nowhere to be found.

As a political force, however, it was clear the time of the Taliban was over.

``The Taliban rule is finished,'' Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's new interim leader, said Friday. ``As of today, they are no longer a part of Afghanistan.''

Afghanistan still faces major obstacles before it becomes a decent place for its people to live.

Tribal feuding threatened the Kandahar deal within hours of its creation, and gangs of bandits or fighters - the distinction is often unclear - continue to roam the countryside, robbing and killing passers-by. Women in Kabul remain shrouded in their burqas; they aren't confident enough to remove them yet.

But with the support of international powers, the new government will have money and legitimacy that Afghanistan hasn't seen in years. The Taliban, it appears, will not play a role.

AP-NY-12-07-01 1350EST

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Taliban abandon Kandahar, Omar "disappears"

By Sayed Salahuddin and Andy Soloman

KABUL/QUETTA, Pakistan, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The Taliban abandoned their last stronghold of Kandahar on Friday as the militia that had imposed harsh Islamic law on Afghanistan disintegrated after weeks of pulverising U.S. air strikes.

But any hopes opposition tribal groups or the United States may have had of collaring Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar went up in smoke -- an Afghan news agency said he had "disappeared."

The battered country's new designated leader, cutting through earlier uncertainty about how he would treat the one-eyed Omar, said he must be brought to justice.

Anti-Taliban forces said they had captured the main base of Osama bin Laden in the rugged Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan, but failed to find the Saudi-born militant blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

U.S. Marines on patrol from a desert airstrip in Kandahar province killed seven "enemy forces" overnight in their first ground attack since they seized the base almost two weeks ago.

"Last evening we successfully engaged enemy forces along road networks near Kandahar, killing seven and destroying three vehicles," Marine Captain David Romley told reporters, adding that there were no U.S. casualties in the clash.

Under a deal negotiated on Thursday with Hamid Karzai, designated leader of a new Afghan interim government, the Taliban in Kandahar were to turn in their guns to a group of local figures led by Mullah Naqibullah, a former Mujahideen commander.

One of Karzai's key Pashtun tribal allies said the Kandahar surrender deal was flawed.

"Hamid Karzai, the new prime minister, the new leader, has made a very, very wrong decision in Kandahar by himself. He did not consult the elders or anyone else," said Khalid Pashtoon, spokesman for former Kandahar governor Gul Agha Sherzai.

CHAOTIC SCENES

"Now the city is in chaos, there is street by street fighting, looting is going on," Pashtoon told Reuters by satellite telephone from near Kandahar airport.

But the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said the surrender was completed on Friday with forces laying down arms to a joint commission of tribal elders.

"Everything was done peacefully, (and) Kandahar city is peaceful and quiet," commission member Haji Bashar was quoted as saying.

AIP also quoted Bashar as saying Omar was no longer in the city. "...Omar has disappeared from Kandahar and it is not known where he has gone," he said.

Karzai told CNN the Taliban no longer held Kandahar, saying that according to his information "the Taliban authority is effectively finished." He said he was trying to contact Mullah Naqibullah and another commander to ask them to move forces in.

Karzai said Mullah Omar must face trial after missing his last chance to renounce terrorism and repudiate bin Laden.

"For the higher-ranking Taliban, if there is a case against them they must face trial," he told Reuters by satellite telephone from Shahwali Kot, north of Kandahar.

Karzai said on Thursday he was granting an amnesty to rank and file Taliban, but insisted Omar must denounce terrorism and cut all ties with bin Laden's mainly Arab al Qaeda network.

U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld responded that any negotiated surrender has to meet U.S. requirements, stipulating that leaving Omar to "live in dignity" was not acceptable.

PAKISTANIS "CAN GO HOME"

Karzai offered leniency for the many Pakistanis who fought with the Taliban, saying they could "go back to their homes."

South of Kandahar, Pashtun tribal leaders took over the border district of Spin Boldak from the Taliban, whose forces headed out westwards into the Registan desert, witnesses said.

Achakzai tribesmen took over the border crossing point with Pakistan, while Nurzai tribesmen moved into Spin Boldak town.

In eastern Afghanistan, anti-Taliban forces said they had seized bin Laden's main stronghold in the cave-riddled Tora Bora area after fierce fighting, but failed to find him.

"The last and main base of Osama in Tora Bora was captured last night," Mohammad Habeel, a spokesman for the militarily dominant Northern Alliance, told Reuters.

"Our troops led by commander Hazrat Ali said that we have taken almost all of Tora Bora and its main caves. We have staged a mopping up operation to clear remaining parts of Tora Bora."

He said Arab family members, including women, had been captured, along with weapons and vehicles. "Osama was not in Tora Bora during the past days of fighting and if he had been, he has probably slipped into Pakistan," Habeel said.

AIP said six anti-Taliban fighters had been killed and five wounded. U.S. jets were still bombing targets in the area.

With the Taliban in their death throes, Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing: "I do not think there will be a negotiated end to the situation that's unacceptable to the United States."

He said he doubted that Karzai would make a deal that cuts across U.S. interests and would lose U.S. support if it did.

Rumsfeld said Mullah Omar was "the principal person" who has harboured bin Laden's al Qaeda network in Afghanistan, adding: "He does not deserve the medal of freedom."

As Taliban power collapsed, rival factions battled for control of Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, 120 km (75 miles) south of Kabul, AIP said.

It said at least two people had been killed and several wounded in the clashes that began overnight between fighters loyal to Bacha Khan Zadran and unidentified opponents.

Zadran, who was a delegate at the conference in Bonn which produced a power-sharing accord for Afghanistan this week, heads the Eastern Shura (council), which gained control of Paktia and Khost provinces from retreating Taliban forces.

09:07 12-07-01

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Pro-Taliban Pakistanis say war on U.S. will go on

By Andy Soloman

QUETTA, Pakistan, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Pakistani supporters of Afghanistan's vanquished Taliban said on Friday the war against the United States would go on and the hardline Islamic movement would rise again.

The Taliban relinquished their birthplace and last bastion in the southern city of Kandahar to their fellow-Pashtun tribal opponents on Friday after weeks of punishing U.S. air strikes.

"The war has not finished yet, it has just started," Hafiz Hussain Ahmed Sharodee, a senior official with the militant Jamaat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), told Reuters in Quetta.

"It is not a war between personalities, but between two ideologies, and the new ground for this war could be changed. It might be America, it might be Europe, it might be Russia."

Violent protests rocked Pakistan after the United States began bombing Afghanistan on October 7 to punish the Taliban for shielding Osama bin Laden, main suspect in the September attacks that killed up to 3,900 people in New York and Washington.

But demonstrations organised by militant Islamic groups, usually after Friday Muslim prayers, have since waned.

On October 8, the day after the U.S. air strikes began, thousands of people clashed with police in Quetta. Several protesters were killed and buildings, including banks and the offices of the U.N. children's agency, were set on fire.

But recent protests after Friday prayers in this teeming, crime-ridden frontier city have dwindled, attracting only hundreds of demonstrators, rather than thousands as before.

Speakers still savagely denounce U.S. President George W. Bush, but no longer elicit roars of "Death to America."

Rahmatullah, a student at a JUI-run Islamic school, or madrasa, squatted in swirling dust with around 400 others at a weekly pro-Taliban rally, the signature Taliban black turban wrapped around his head.

"The Taliban surrendered in favour of the ordinary people because the American bombing was harming the people. Now the Taliban are waiting for the bombing to stop and they will then rise again and take control," he said.

"Our madrasas are full. The day they (the Taliban) announce that the war continues, we'll all go back to Afghanistan," he added, saying he had returned from fighting there a month ago.

FERTILE BREEDING GROUND

Religious schools, which spawned the Taliban in the early 1990s, have provided a fertile breeding ground for Islamic radicals, pushing out thousands of youths mesmerised by the notion of battlefield martyrdom and jihad, or holy war.

Haji Mir Dost Mohammad Hanifi, a senior JUI official, said there was no shortage of people to promote the values of the Taliban, who imposed strict Islamic law on Afghanistan.

"Now the Taliban will watch the groups imposed by America to rule Afghanistan and see whether they will bring an Islamic system or not," he said, referring to an interim Afghan administration due to take over in Kabul on December 22.

"Our motive is a pure Islamic system, and whoever brings it, we are with them," he said. "We won't support the American system, and even if my brother in my home supports it, I will be against him and resist this to the end of my life."

Hanifi and others said the Taliban, who swept to power in Kabul in 1996 after four years of factional fighting among rival Mujahideen groups and warlords, had brought peace to Afghanistan.

"It's very clear, the old people are back. They have captured the area again and they don't want peace," Hanifi said. "History is being repeated now, and wherever the Taliban are withdrawing the robbers are returning to resume looting and violence."

09:22 12-07-01

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Franklin Graham: Muslims Not Evil

.c The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - The Rev. Franklin Graham, responding to criticism of his comments about Islam, said he doesn't believe Muslims are ``evil people'' but laments evil done in the religion's name.

Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, was criticized by several groups for saying earlier that Islam ``is a very evil and wicked religion.''

In a column in The Wall Street Journal, Graham said he had been ``greatly misunderstood'' and wanted to create ``a more complete picture'' of his views.

Graham wrote that he does not believe Muslims ``are evil people because of their faith. But I decry the evil that has been done in the name of Islam, or any other faith - including Christianity.''

But he also wrote in Monday's column that ``the persecution or elimination of non-Muslims has been a cornerstone of Islamic conquests and rule for centuries.'' The Quran, he wrote, ``provides ample evidence that Islam encourages violence in order to win converts and to reach the ultimate goal of an Islamic world.''

Several interfaith and Muslim groups have criticized Graham for his past comments. In October, Graham said: ``We're not attacking Islam, but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.''

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said Graham's latest remarks didn't improve the situation.

``When people are in deep water they shouldn't open their mouths,'' council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said Tuesday. ``It's obviously an attempt to deflect criticism ... but he uses that platform to make new attacks on Islam.''

Hooper said his organization hadn't heard from Graham about a meeting the group requested, but hoped they could talk to him. ``This is why he needs to meet with Muslims so he can get real, objective, accurate information.''

Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, referred reporters to the column while in Charlotte on Monday at an annual rally where he announced that 150,000 gift-filled shoeboxes would be given to Afghan children. In all, 5 million boxes were to be shipped to children around the world.

AP-NY-12-04-01 1227EST

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Afghan Women Summit Calls for Rights

By CONSTANT BRAND
.c The Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Women leaders from Afghanistan and around the world on Tuesday pledged to work together to achieve a greater say for women in how the country is run after years of repression by the Taliban.

The summit, coinciding with talks in Germany on Afghanistan's future, opened with statements of support for Afghan women from women prominent in the United Nations and the European Union.

``We are here to show solidarity,'' said Mary Robinson, U.N. high commissioner for human rights. ``Whatever government emerges from the talks in Bonn, we must ensure full participation'' of women, Robinson said.

The three-day gathering was organized by European and U.S.-based women's groups. Robinson said she expects it to culminate in a formal demand for the inclusion of women in an interim government in Afghanistan.

``One woman would be only a token,'' she said. ``Women must be in there, that is the measure of success.''

Anna Diamantopoulou, the EU commissioner for social affairs, said the international coalition built by the United States to fight terrorism should also combat inequalities.

Women in Afghanistan were already living a kind of ``gender apartheid'' when the Taliban came to power, she said. During the Islamic militia's five-year rule, ``women suffered what could be likened to gender cleansing,'' she said.

Much of the Taliban's reputation for rigidly interpreting Islam stemmed from the restrictions they placed on women, which included banning formal education and curbing women's movement in open society.

Diamantopoulou said the EU would revise its foreign policies by next year to ensure that nations seeking trade deals with the 15-nation bloc respected equal rights for women.

She added it was ``vital'' for women to participate in any new government in Afghanistan.

While many of the women at the summit live in Afghanistan, several were exiles who have been active in publicizing the plight of women back home.

``We have vested our hope on the moment and the day that Afghanistan is no longer divided,'' said Leila Enayat-Seraj, an Afghan woman who left her country in 1993, before the Taliban came to power.

She now lives in Geneva, where she promotes the preservation of Afghan art and culture and campaigns for equal rights for Afghan women.

``For the last 20 years we have lost our identity ... I want to see women have a strong position in the government,'' she said, adding that women did have a say before the Mujahadeen and Taliban took power.

In a video, Queen Noor of Jordan praised the efforts of Afghan women in their fight for equality, but urged them to find a balance between traditional Islamic values and modern Western values.

``We offer you our hands, our hope and our prayers,'' she told the summit. ``It is your time to stand up in the light of freedom.''

AP-NY-12-04-01 1030EST

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Three Taliban Claim to be American

By ROBERT BURNS
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Three people who claim to be American citizens and who fought on the side of the Taliban militia are now under the control of U.S. forces or allied opposition forces in northern Afghanistan, senior defense officials said Monday.

A man identified as John Walker is receiving medical care from U.S. forces after being discovered among captured Taliban troops and al-Qaida fighters who had holed up in a fortress in Mazar-e-Sharif. CNN reported that Walker, a convert to Islam, had suffered grenade and bullet wounds.

In an interview posted on Newsweek magazine's Web site, his parents identified him from photos as John Philip Walker Lindh, 20, of Fairfax, Calif.

Two other people who claim to be Americans are under the control of the northern alliance, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official knew few details about these two, whose identities have not been established and whose physical condition could not be determined.

Asked about Walker, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, the deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he could not say whether Walker is considered a prisoner of war or whether he would be returned to the United States.

Stufflebeem said Walker's status has ``not yet been defined.''

``The only thing that I can say about this individual is that this is somebody who claims to be an American citizen,'' he said. ``That claim is being respected for the moment, until facts can be established.''

On the 58th day of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, which President Bush undertook in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. officials said American special operations forces are now in northeastern Afghanistan near the Tora Bora mountain base where Osama bin Laden may be hiding.

The officials said the U.S. special forces are working with local Afghans to collect information they hope will lead them to bin Laden and his top lieutenants. U.S. special forces have been operating in most parts of Afghanistan for several weeks, but U.S. officials had not previously disclosed their presence near Tora Bora, a mountain base that veteran Afghan fighters describe as an impregnable fortress.

Stufflebeem said the U.S. special forces are not conducting a cave-to-cave search for bin Laden. The main focus of the U.S. effort in that area, he said, is bombing targets believed to be linked to bin Laden. He denied reports that U.S. bombs had mistakenly struck villages in the Tora Bora area.

``This is an area that is pretty well-known'' to U.S. military planners as ``an area where Taliban and al-Qaida forces have been and in numbers,'' he said. ``We have heard anecdotal reports that this is an area where Osama bin Laden has been using some of his wealth to buy local village chieftain support.''

The other main focus of U.S. bombing in Afghanistan is Kandahar, the southern stronghold where Mullah Muhammed Omar and other senior Taliban leaders are believed to be holding out against opposition forces.

Stufflebeem said U.S. pilots are reporting seeing portable surface-to-air weapons fired at them around Kandahar. He said these may be Stinger anti-aircraft missiles or Russian versions of them.

A contingent of more than 1,000 U.S. Marines has set up a base about 70 miles southwest of Kandahar and has been conducting armed reconnaissance patrols. One of their missions is to interdict supply lines leading to and from Kandahar and to shut off potential escape routes for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. As of Monday the Marines had not undertaken such a mission, officials said.

Stufflebeem there are at least four ``pockets of resistance'' in northern Afghanistan - two east of Mazar-e-Sharif and two west of that city. In one, in Balkh province, about 2,000 Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are holed up and trying to work out a surrender arrangement, a senior defense official said.

AP-NY-12-03-01 1805EST

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New Islamic stamp on sale U.S. Postal Service 'has no plans' of discontinuing 'EID'

By Diana Lynne

© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com Just ten days before the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon reportedly linked to Islamic militants the U.S. Postal Service issued a new stamp celebrating Islam.

Islamic commemorative stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

The postage entitled "EID Greetings" may appear to some as a sinister spoof, given that, when read backwards, EID spells "die." To the contrary, officials say it reflects the agency's real efforts to "reach out to all of our diverse populations." Postal officials say the EID stamp recognizes 7 million Muslims in America. According to the USPS website, the EID "commemorates the two most important festivals in the Islamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha." Eid al-Adha, continues the website, "was celebrated on March 6, and Eid al-Fitr will be celebrated on December 16. The first of the Muslim lunar month of Shawwal, Eid al-Fitr signifies 'The Feast of Breaking the Fast' and marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Eid al-Fitr is observed by offering special alms with prayers, feasting, exchanging gifts, and visiting family and friends." The stamp was designed by Mohamed Zakariya of Arlington, Virginia.

According to the website, the "Eid mubarak" phrase featured in Islamic calligraphy can be paraphrased as "May your religious holiday be blessed." "It's a very popular stamp," remarks Cathy Yarosky, spokesperson for the Postal Service. Yarosky dismisses any suggestion of bad timing for the stamp's release, stating her office hasn't received any complaints about it. "It's a part of our commemorative stamp program. It's on sale now. We're aware of the events that took place, but we have no plans to take it off the series. We don't understand why we would," Yarosky tells WorldNetDaily. The Holiday Celebrations series has been around for many years. In 1999, the Postal Service added Kwanzaa and Hanukkah stamps, which commemorate African-American and Jewish holidays. A much-heralded Cinco de Mayo stamp, which commemorates Mexican Independence was kicked off in 1998 at joint ceremonies in San Antonio, Texas and Mexico City. The Mexican Postal Service also launched a commemorative stamp that year based on the U.S. design. Still to come this year according to Yarosky, are Thanksgiving and Santa stamps. According to Yarosky, the EID has been in the works for approximately three years.

She further explains that a 13-member citizen advisory committee meets four times a year to review approximately 50,000 stamp suggestions that come into the agency. The committee reviews the suggestions and "compares them with certain criteria" in making a decision whether to go forward. 76 million EID stamps have been printed. That compares with 65 million for the Hanukkah stamp, 95 million for Kwanzaa, 100 million for Uncle Sam and 110 million for the recently released Lucille Ball stamp, commemorating the late comedienne. In response to WorldNetDaily's inquiry as to the impact of last week's attacks on sales of the EID and whether adverse sales would cause a discontinuation, Yarosky responded that the agency doesn't track individual stamps. "We're a service for the American people. We're not supposed to make a profit." The EID can be purchased at local post offices across the country.

Diana Lynne is a news editor for WorldNetDaily.com

Religious stamps spark disapproval
By Clay Lambert, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
A continuing controversy over the U.S. Postal Service's new stamp commemorating Islamic holidays has rekindled a more basic question: Should a government agency be in the business of selling religious icons of any kind? The first Christmas stamp -- a depiction of the White House Christmas tree -- appeared in 1962. It would be more than 30 years before the Postal Service honored Hanukkah with a likeness of a menorah. A Kwanzaa stamp soon followed and this year postal officials added the Eid stamp to commemorate a pair of Islamic religious feasts. But the venerated Christmas stamp is the only one that gets a regular face lift with new images coming almost every year. While there are sticky standards on the right corner of Christmas cards everywhere, not everyone is convinced such stamps are such a good idea. "The feeling of a lot of dealers is that the Christmas stamps ought not be put out," said Arnold Zenker, treasurer of the Palm Beach County Stamp Club. "It's a violation of church and state." "I've always been against it," added Benjamin Ladin, president of the Boca Raton Stamp and Coin Club. "They have no part in postal history, to be honest with you." The Eid stamp, issued Sept. 1, has done nothing to soften that impression. The stamp commemorates Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, two of the most important festivals on the Islamic calendar. The words "Eid mubarak," which translates literally as "blessed festival," are written in gold Arabic characters over a blue field. This month the Postal Service apologized after some Muslims complained that the stamp was left off of holiday promotional posters that had been sent to most of the nation's 40,000 post offices. The posters are now being replaced with new ones that include the Eid stamp along with others recognizing Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. "Our position has always been that these are cultural events as much as they are religious events," postal spokesman Joseph Breckenridge said. One prominent Muslim organization agrees. Faiz Rehman, spokesman for the American Muslim Council, is scheduled to appear on the cable news network CNNfn at 10:25 a.m. today to talk about the Eid stamp. Aminah Assilmi was a member of the Council's board of advisers when she spearheaded an effort to develop the stamp, Rehman said. "These stamps have more to do with culture than anything else," Rehman said. Breckenridge defended the new Christmas offerings, which this year include an image of Madonna and child as well as new Santa Clauses. For one thing, Christmas is a federal holiday, he said. "Christmas is the dominant winter holiday in the United States," he said. "That is just a fact." It is also a fact that Muslims -- generally placed at less than 7 million in the U.S. -- are a decided minority. Their minority status was reflected in a philately newsletter called Mekeel's & Stamps Magazine, which this month called for Muslims to purchase the "United We Stand" stamp instead of the Eid stamp. "I have no particular quarrel with the millions of good Muslims in this country," wrote magazine publisher John F. Dunn in a Nov. 2 column. "But I am not a Muslim, my country was attacked by fanatics who happened to be Muslims, so I don't see any particular reason for using the Eid stamp."

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Christian allies of Bush attack Islam

By Alan Elsner, National Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush has told Americans that Islam's teachings are "good and peaceful" but some of his close allies in the Christian evangelical movement beg to differ.

While many U.S. politicians have followed Bush in preaching tolerance and understanding with Muslims, some leading Christian evangelists have quietly been telling their own followers that Islam is inherently evil.

The most prominent to step forward was the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham, who gave the benediction at Bush's presidential inauguration last January.

In comments last month, Graham, who is about to take over leadership of his father's vast ministry, referred to the Sept. 11 hijack attacks on New York and Washington which killed some 3,900 people as inspired by Islam.

"We're not attacking Islam but Islam attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God," he said. "He is not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion."

In his autobiography, Bush credited the senior Graham with inspiring him to return to Christianity and get his life back on track after years of drifting and excessive drinking. The Graham and Bush families have been close for many years.

When Franklin Graham was asked to clarify his views, he refused to back away from them. He told MSNBC, "I don't believe this (Islam) is this wonderful, peaceful religion."

Bush himself, who received powerful political and financial backing during his presidential campaign from evangelical Christians, has been at pains to reach out to Muslims and convince the world that his war against Osama bin Laden is not a war on Islam.

He visited an Islamic school, invited Muslim leaders to the White House and recently hosted a traditional Ramadan fast-breaking meal for ambassadors from Islamic nations.

In his speech before Congress a week after the Sept. 11 attack, Bush said, "The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics -- a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam."

"Islam's teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself," Bush said.

BUSH ADVISER AGAINST ISLAM

But Marvin Olasky, a personal friend and former campaign adviser to Bush who is credited with inspiring his slogan of "compassionate conservatism" recently wrote that a religion can be evil while still bringing comfort to those who follow it.

"Anyone who believes in Christ should be willing to say that Islam is wrong in its conception of who God is. But Islam becomes theologically evil when its leaders do not give those they control the liberty to explore for themselves the truth about God," he wrote in World, a Christian magazine.

Chuck Colson, who heads a Christian ministry for prisoners that has influenced Bush, also recently spoke out against Islam as a religion of tolerance in columns and radio spots widely syndicated in the Christian conservative community.

"Belligerence towards people of other faiths and cultures is, arguably, inherent to Islam. In contrast, while Christians have mistreated non-Christians, a fair examination of Christian history and doctrine shows this conduct is in violation of Christian beliefs, not in their furtherance," he said.

Gene Edward Veith, a humanities professor at Concordia University, a Baptist institution in Wisconsin, recently argued that whereas Christianity was concerned with saving souls, Islam was concerned with imposing Koranic law on willing or unwilling people.

"As those who work with international college students know, Islamic students who come to the United States often have big behavioral problems. Having been brought up in a society that tries to make bad behavior impossible with Taliban-like restrictions, when they find themselves in a society without those external restraints, they often go wild, indulging in all kinds of debauchery," he said.

One Christian evangelist, Anis Shorrosh, found himself in a confrontation with Muslim students in September when he appeared at Houston Baptist University and told them that their God was the devil and they would all go to hell.

Some leading Christian evangelists look at the events of Sept. 11 as an opportunity to reach out to Muslims and try to convert them.

The Christian Broadcasting Network headed by former Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson, recently urged Christians to pray throughout the Islamic holy month of Ramadan for the spread of the Gospel in the Muslim world.

Despite the Christian evangelists' efforts, in recent years Muslims have had more success in converting American Christians, especially blacks, than vice versa.

Among the 2 million Americans held in prisons and jails, some 30,000 convert to Islam each year.

11:34 11-28-01

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Libyans say Taliban asked them to broker surrender

TUNIS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - A Libyan charity with a record of mediating between Western nations and Islamic militants said on Tuesday that Taliban officials asked it last week to broker a surrender by their fighters in Afghanistan, many of them Arabs.

The charity, run by a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, said it had in turn asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for help and was also seeking help in repatriating Arab fighters.

But it was not clear the Libyans were still in touch with Taliban leaders, who have retreated rapidly in recent days.

"We received a message from the embassy of the Emirate of Afghanistan in Pakistan, dated November 20, one day before it was closed, asking us to intervene and supervise disarming 'Arab Afghans' and Taliban in Afghanistan," the Gaddafi International Charity Organisation said in a statement reported by the Libyan official news agency and monitored by Reuters in Tunis.

"The Taliban movement accepted the safety guarantees offered by the Gaddafi International Charity Organisation to those who give up their weapons," it said in a letter to senior officials of the United Nations and ICRC.

U.N. and ICRC officials had no immediate comment.

Pakistan closed down the Taliban's one remaining foreign embassy last Thursday after the radical Islamic militia had lost control of most of the country in the face of U.S. bombing and advances by their Afghan opponents of the Northern Alliance.

On Monday, a Taliban spokesman in the movement's bastion of Kandahar said their army would fight to the death. In battles over the past few days, many foreign Taliban, including Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens, have been particularly unwilling to surrender, even against hopeless odds, for fear of reprisals.

The Libyan charity, headed by Gaddafi's son Seif el Islam, said it had asked U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, his special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, and the director-general of the ICRC, Paul Grossrieder, to help mediate a surrender.

The charity secured the release in the Philippines last year of Western tourists held hostage by Muslim rebels who Washington says have links to Osama bin Laden, the Taliban ally it blames for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

14:34 11-27-01

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Iraqi Kurds say clashes with Islamists kill scores

TUNCELI, Turkey, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Scores of Islamist guerrillas and Iraqi Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters have died in an outbreak of clashes in northern Iraq, an Iraqi Kurdish group said on Tuesday.

A Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) official told Reuters "very intense" clashes between his PUK and Jund al-Islam guerrillas had killed at least 50 on each side since fighting broke out on Saturday near the town of Halabja.

There was no independent confirmation of the battle but Kurdish media have reported heavy clashes over the past few months around Halabja, the site of a chemical weapons attack by the Iraqi government forces that killed thousands in 1988.

The PUK told Reuters in September it had wrested control of Halabja from Jund al-Islam, which it claims trained for years in camps in Afghanistan run by Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.

Jalal Talabani's PUK is one of two major Kurdish groups that have run northern Iraq since it split from Iraqi government control. The other group, led by Massoud Barzani, has offered to cooperate in Talabani's fight against the Islamist groups.

Barzani's group holds the Islamists responsible for the killing of a senior party figure in February.

The PUK says Jund al-Islam is linked to bin Laden, prime suspect for September 11 attacks on the United States.

But foreign observers tracking northern Iraq, which has been outside the control of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein since the 1991 Gulf War ended, say it is difficult to confirm the link.

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Afghan women march in Kabul for right to work

By Michael Steen

KABUL, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Wearing a headscarf and leading 11 women covered in blue head-to-toe burqas, Afghan women's activist Najia Shirzad tried to spark a revolution in Kabul on Tuesday by staging a rally for the right to work.

But like a demonstration the week before, it did not really take off in a city where, despite the departure of the hardline Taliban, the overwhelming majority of women still wear the burqa and say they are fearful of being more assertive.

"We wanted to march through town at 10 o'clock (0530 GMT)," said Shirzad, throwing a contemptuous glance at a policeman shooing her group off the dusty road and back onto the pavement.

"But how can we communicate? We don't have a press centre to call the women together. Our only office is here in the street."

Her fellow marchers said they had planned to take off their burqas for the demonstration, but decided against it when other protesters failed to materialise.

One young woman briefly threw back the lace mesh covering her face, turning her burqa into a headscarf acceptable to mainstream Muslims, but replaced it once the group moved on, heading for the United Nations office.

"The situation is not clear yet," said Hasina Mujahid, a former teacher speaking English through the mesh of her burqa. "Once we go back to work, we will put away these veils."

The United Nations has urged the Northern Alliance, which seized Kabul two weeks ago, to allow women to play a greater role in society.

But on the ground little has changed. Only those women who used to work for international organisations, such as the U.N., have returned to their jobs.

TRADITIONAL DRESS ENFORCED BY TALIBAN

Although the burqa has been worn in Afghanistan for centuries, it was not until the Taliban seized power six years ago that the more cosmopolitan women of Kabul were forced to cover themselves up.

Taliban rule forbade them to leave their houses unaccompanied or work outside their homes. That edict was all the more harsh in a country where war has created a nation of widows -- there are 50,000 in Kabul alone.

U.N. figures show that in pre-Taliban times 70 percent of all teachers and half of all government workers were women.

"We were also fighting the Taliban under our burqas," said Shirzad. "And now we need economic help, we need jobs."

She accused the U.N. of failing to match rhetoric with practical action. "We cannot use vehicles, we have to walk. That is why we are heading to the United Nations office, to demand jobs and action," she said.

Women's faces remain a rarer sight in Kabul than veiled ones would be in the West. The market swarms with blue burqas -- other colours are acceptable, but blue is in vogue in Kabul.

At Zamari Burqa shop trade is down.

"Before the change of government I used to sell 30 or 40 burqas a day, now it averages about three or four," said the owner, Zamari.

Many women, such as 20-year-old Benafsha, who sews and irons the delicate folds of burqas at home, says she will not give up what she sees as part of her culture.

"It was always in our tradition," she said. "I will always wear one because it shows respect for Islam."

(Additional reporting by Heleen van Geest)

07:27 11-27-01

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Iraq Tops List of U.S. Terror Targets

By EUN-KYUNG KIM
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Iraq tops the lists of countries where the United States might take its war on terrorism next. Some other places - Somalia, Sudan, Kashmir - could also face military attacks if Osama bin Laden flees there.

Beyond that, America's next steps probably won't involve bombing runs. Instead, U.S. officials will work with police and armies to find suspects, as they've done in the Philippines and Germany, work to cut off money for terror, as they have in Somalia and Saudi Arabia, and urge governments to end support of terrorists as they have with Syria.

In all, the United States will turn, after Afghanistan, to another 40 to 50 - perhaps even 60 - countries where global terrorist networks operate, top Bush administration officials say.

``Any government that supports or harbors terrorists should be very worried right now,'' Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the main Bush administration supporter for hitting Iraq, said recently.

In recent days, Wolfowitz and other top officials, including national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, have again hinted that Iraq may soon be a target, regardless of whether the United States can definitively tie the nation to the Sept. 11 attacks.

That has led America's Arab allies, including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to once again warn that they could not support a strike on a fellow Arab country, because they fear it would further agitate the volatile Middle East.

U.S. officials had put any consideration of hitting Iraq aside for weeks, while the military concentrated on disrupting the Taliban and bin Laden's network inside Afghanistan.

But earlier this week, the United States identified Iraq and five other countries as states that are developing germ warfare programs, and said it worried one might help bin Laden acquire biological weapons. They called the existence of Iraq's program ``beyond dispute,'' stopping just short of making a direct link to bin Laden.

U.S. intelligence is looking into - but can't substantiate - reports that Saddam has offered bin Laden and Taliban leaders sanctuary in his country, said a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. While Saddam rarely passes up a chance to anger the United States and its allies, taking these leaders in would have ``grave consequences,'' the official said.

``We do not need the events of September 11 to tell us that (Saddam Hussein) is a very dangerous man,'' Rice said. She called the Iraqi president ``a threat to his own people, a threat to the region and a threat to us, because he is determined to acquire weapons of mass destruction,'' and added: ``We'll deal with that situation eventually.''

For now, U.S. officials insist they have not planned any operations beyond finding and destroying bin Laden and the Taliban - first in Afghanistan, and then wherever they might flee, including Pakistan, Kashmir, Chechnya, Somalia or Sudan.

In addition, the United States will seek new areas where it can clamp off al-Qaida support.

It already has sent military advisers to the Philippines to train troops to fight Abu Sayyaf, extremists supported by bin Laden. Last week, the group released seven of the last 10 hostages they seized earlier this year.

Al-Qaida operatives also are known to be active in Egypt and Uzbekistan, and bin Laden has been linked to groups in Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria, Yemen and other Arab countries.

Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States is working with more than 40 countries to shut down terror cells. Wolfowitz said it's up to 60 countries.

``We'll be prepared to use military action should that be required in order to close down these operations,'' Cheney recently said.

The United States also is busy with non-military efforts - and could expand that further. It recently froze the assets of the Palestinian groups Hamas and Hezbollah, which fight against Israel.

American intelligence also is in close communication with officials in Germany, Spain and Italy, where terrorist cells - many with bin Laden links - have been uncovered, and working with friends like Saudi Arabia to cut off the money flow to al-Qaida from sympathizers there.

Countries such as Iran, Syria and Libya also support terror. But they have proved useful to the United States in pursuing bin Laden, and thus aren't seen as likely U.S. targets.

Iraq, in contrast, has continued to shoot at U.S. aircraft patrolling no-fly zones. And last week, international observers reported that Iraqi forces fired a mortar shell into neighboring Kuwait.

U.S. intelligence has uncovered no credible evidence linking Iraq to the Sept. 11 attacks, but is aware of several meetings between Iraqi officials and bin Laden aides in recent years.

AP-NY-11-23-01 1455EST

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Islamic Group Wants Graham Meeting

.c The Associated Press

BOONE, N.C. (AP) - A Muslim advocacy group wants to meet with evangelist Franklin Graham to discuss his recent statement that Islam is ``a very evil and wicked religion,'' a group spokesman said Tuesday.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the group hasn't heard from Graham since its executive director faxed Graham a letter on Monday.

``Negative impressions of Islam are most often based on a lack of accurate and objective information,'' CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said in the letter.

Graham didn't have an immediate comment on whether he would meet with CAIR officials. He has been traveling and just returned to his North Carolina office Tuesday, spokesman Jeremy Blume said.

Hooper wondered about the implications of Graham's comments.

``If that is his belief, what does that say about him being accepted in mainstream Christian thought?'' Hooper said. ``You've got everybody from the president to the pope saying Islam is not evil and wicked.''

Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham and heir to his father's ministry, prayed at President Bush's inauguration. On Sept. 17, Bush called Islam ``a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world.''

But on Friday's ``NBC Nightly News,'' Graham said: ``We're not attacking Islam but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.''

In a statement released Sunday, Graham said his calling is not to analyze Islam, but added that he was concerned about Muslim treatment of women and ``the killing of non-Muslims or infidels.''

Graham is his father's successor as the chief executive of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He also is founder of the international relief organization Samaritan's Purse, headquartered in Boone.

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Abdel-Rahman Son Reported Captured

.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The son of Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian Muslim cleric serving a life sentence in the United States for conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks, reportedly was captured or killed in Afghanistan as he fought alongside other Arab allies of the Taliban.

The London-based Arabic newspaper Al Hayat quoted unidentified Islamic militant sources Sunday as saying that Ahmed Abdel-Rahman was captured by American soldiers on Friday as he was trying to leave the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Another London-based Arabic newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, quoted unidentified Islamic militant sources in London as saying Ahmed Abdel-Rahman was killed along with Mohammed Atef, a close aide to suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

Neither the capture nor the death of Ahmed Abdel-Rahman could be independently confirmed.

His older brother, Mohammed, was reportedly in Kandahar.

A third brother, Abdullah, who lives in Cairo, told The Associated Press that the family had only seen the newspaper reports and had not been officially informed that Ahmed Abdel-Rahman was dead or in U.S. custody.

Ahmed and Mohammed Abdel-Rahman left for Afghanistan in the late 1980s to take part in the war against the Soviet occupiers and stayed on after the Soviets retreated in 1989. The anti-Soviet war drew thousands of Arabs eager to help the Muslims of Afghanistan; many stayed and are now allied with the Taliban.

The elder Abdel-Rahman had clashed repeatedly with Egyptian authorities and was considered the spiritual leader of Egyptian Islamic militants. He left Egypt in 1990 with, U.S. prosecutors have said, the goal of spreading his ``holy war'' to the United States.

In 1995, a U.S. federal jury convicted him of plotting bombings and assassinations meant to force a change in the United States' Middle East policy. Now 63, he is being held in a federal prison in Rochester, Minnesota.

AP-NY-11-18-01 1540EST

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Mrs. Bush Decries Taliban Oppression

By SCOTT LINDLAW
.c The Associated Press

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - Laura Bush decried the Afghan Taliban militia's ``brutal oppression'' of women Saturday, opening an administration campaign meant to discredit the collapsing regime.

Mrs. Bush took over the microphone for President Bush's weekly radio address and gave what aides said was the first such broadcast delivered entirely by a first lady. Predecessors Nancy Reagan and Hillary Rodham Clinton had shared airtime with their husbands.

``That regime is now in retreat across much of the country, and the people of Afghanistan, especially women, are rejoicing,'' Mrs. Bush said.

``Afghan women know, through hard experience, what the rest of the world is discovering: The brutal oppression of women is a central goal of the terrorists.''

The first lady offered a catalog of examples of mistreatment of women and children, an account bolstered by a State Department report on their plight released Saturday.

``With one of the world's worst human rights records, the Taliban has perpetrated egregious acts of violence against women, including rape, abduction and forced marriage,'' the report said.

``Women have been denied access to doctors when they're sick,'' Mrs. Bush said. ``Life under the Taliban is so hard and repressive, even small displays of joy are outlawed - children aren't allowed to fly kites; their mothers face beatings for laughing out loud.''

She emphasized that her remarks were not aimed at most other Muslim nations.

``Only the terrorists and the Taliban forbid education to women. Only the terrorists and the Taliban threaten to pull out women's fingernails for wearing nail polish,'' she said.

But women face harsh treatment in some other Muslim countries, including key U.S. allies.

In Saudi Arabia, religious police financed by the Saudi government instruct women appearing in public to cover their hair and all of their faces with a black cloak, called an abaya, except for a slit revealing the eyes - much like the Afghan cloak called the burqa. If they disobey, they can face possible fines or even jail.

Girls can go to school, but women in Saudi Arabia are prohibited from many professions including law and engineering. The monarchy that runs Saudi Arabia imposes a style of Islam that does not allow women to drive or travel alone.

In Kuwait, which the United States defended against Iraqi invasion in the Gulf War, women cannot vote or run for office.

However in Iraq, it's not uncommon to see women in skintight pants or short skirts. Iraqi women hold high ranks in the governing party, run newspapers and train for war.

Other countries, such as Yemen and crucial U.S. ally Pakistan, have deeply conservative tribal areas where women are essentially required by local traditions to stay at home, to not work and to stay fully covered.

The administration has said its effort to highlight the Taliban's record on women is meant to secure women a better place in whatever new government emerges in Afghanistan.

``I hope Americans will join our family in working to ensure that dignity and opportunity will be secured for all the women and children of Afghanistan,'' Mrs. Bush said.

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Aid Workers Detail Afghan Captivity

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
.c The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Two American women held captive for months by the Taliban spoke at a news conference Friday, offering thanks to government and aid officials who helped free them and details about their time inside Afghanistan.

Christian aid workers Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry described endless hours of waiting inside Taliban prisons and weeks without any contact with the outside world. Nights were often chilly, and they could hear the sounds of the U.S. assault on Kabul.

``Our building was shaking, our prison was shaking, all we could do was sit in the hallway and pray with all our hearts that the building wouldn't be damaged in any way,'' Mercer said.

They and six other aid workers - two Australians and four Germans - were swooped up from an Afghan field Thursday by U.S. special forces helicopters and airlifted to safety.

Mercer called it ``a Hollywood rescue.'' Curry said that the night the Taliban abandoned the capital city, they were taken away in a truck, perched atop rocket launchers.

``I just know that it was through the prayers of the people that we were able to come out alive,'' Curry said.

The women said that when they first were detained, they were thoroughly interrogated. But they were well-treated in custody, and allowed to pray.

The aid workers landed at Chaklala air base on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. All appeared in good health after three months in captivity - the last two hours of which they spent in a fetid jail in Ghazni, about 50 miles south of Kabul.

The aid workers for Shelter Now International, a German-based group, had been accused by the Taliban of preaching Christianity, a serious offense under the Taliban's harsh Islamic rule.

As the Taliban were fleeing the Afghan capital Kabul early Tuesday, the eight thought they were about to be freed. Instead, the Taliban put them in a vehicle and began driving them south.

The Taliban ``put us all into a steel (shipping) container,'' said Georg Taubmann, one of the freed Germans. ``It was terribly cold. They wanted to lock the container and leave us in there until the morning. We had no blankets. We were freezing the whole night through.''

On Tuesday morning, the six women and two men were removed and placed in the jail in Ghazni.

They soon heard bombing by American war planes. An hour later, an uprising against the Taliban began. Shortly afterward, bearded gunmen ``broke into the prison. They just opened the doors, and we actually were afraid the Taliban were coming and taking us to Kandahar. We were really scared,'' he said.

But the men shouted ``Freedom!'' and let the aid workers out onto the streets of Ghazni, where Taubmann said they were treated like conquering heroes.

``We walked into the city, and the people came out of the houses and they hugged us and they greeted us. They were all clapping,'' he said. ``They didn't know there were foreigners in the prison.''

``It was like a big celebration for all those people,'' Taubmann said.

The soldiers provided protection for the aid workers until three U.S. special forces helicopters picked them up in a field near Ghazni in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday.

Taubmann said the women burned their burqas - the all-encompassing robes the Taliban requires females to wear - so that American helicopter could find them in the darkness.

``It was very dramatic right until the end,'' he said.

In addition to Taubmann, Mercer and Curry, the other aid workers are three Germans, Margrit Stebnar, Kati Jelinek and Silke Duerrkopf; and Australians Diana Thomas and Peter Bunch.

Also, 16 Afghan employees of Shelter Now International, who were detained along with the foreigners, were freed when the northern alliance forces entered Kabul on Tuesday, said U.N. officials in Islamabad.

Tilden Curry was standing in line at a church supper Wednesday when he heard his daughter was free. Dayna Curry called her father later and they spoke for about 15 minutes.

``It was overwhelming to hear her voice,'' he told Nashville television station WSMV.

Mercer's mother, Deborah Oddy, said she spoke with her daughter for 45 minutes by telephone Thursday. Oddy said her daughter seemed to be in good health and spirits.

``There were good days and there were bad days. Overall, she was treated very well,'' Oddy said on CNN's ``Larry King Live.''

Sue Fuller, Dayna Curry's stepmother, said the family never lost faith that she would survive her ordeal.

``Every time we heard from her, she let us know that she would get out safely,'' she told Larry King.

President Bush hailed the dramatic turn of events, and said he spoke Thursday morning with the two Americans - both natives of central Texas.

``They both said to say thanks to everybody for their prayers,'' Bush said at Crawford High School, near his Texas ranch. ``They realized there is a good and gracious God. Their spirits were high and they love America.''

Bush had rejected several attempts by the Taliban to use the aid workers as bargaining chips.

The Taliban had agreed to turn over the aid workers through the International Committee of the Red Cross, two senior administration officials said. The Red Cross was going to get them into the hands of U.S. troops. But before the exchange could be accomplished, the anti-Taliban northern alliance overran Ghazni.

The Red Cross said in Geneva that a local military commander contacted the ICRC, saying he had rescued the eight foreigners and wanted help transporting them out of Afghanistan.

The aid organization said it relayed messages between the commander and the U.S., Australian and German governments, but said it was unable to say which ethnic or military group the commander belonged to.

Bush said only that the Red Cross and other ``people on the ground facilitated'' U.S. troops' ability to rescue the aid workers.

The president said he had been worried that the Taliban might put the aid workers in a house that might be bombed accidentally, and said the U.S. military had been working on plans for a secret rescue if needed. He did not elaborate.

The co-director of Shelter Now International, Joachim Jager, said in Germany that the eight aid workers planned to take two or three weeks to recover from their ordeal at a place he did not name.

In Australia, Joseph Thomas, brother of aid worker Diana Thomas, said Thursday his prayers had been answered. He also gave credit to the Taliban for their humane treatment of the aid workers.

``If you look at the facts, since they've been captive, they've been looked after and they've been given everything that they have wanted,'' Thomas told a Sydney radio station.

Taliban Supreme Court judges had indefinitely postponed the aid workers' trial, saying they feared their anger over U.S. airstrikes could hamper their ability to make a fair ruling.

Curry said that before their arrest, the workers for Shelter Now, a German-based aid group, traveled freely in Kabul and regularly held talks with Afghans, who would discuss Islam and ask the foreigners about Christianity.

Of the Taliban accusations, ``Eighty percent of the charges against us were false,'' Curry said.

She acknowledged that at the request of one Afghan family she had come to know, Curry made photocopies from a book about Jesus, and also showed the family a ``Jesus film,'' actions that apparently caught the notice of the Taliban religious police.

In addition to the two Americans, four Germans, two Australians and 16 Afghans were arrested. The Afghans were also freed Tuesday, when the Taliban pulled out of the capital, abandoning the jail.

The Taliban interrogated the aid workers for 22 hours over the first three days of their captivity, the Americans said. Conditions were harsh, but the Taliban never mistreated them, they said.

The Taliban allowed, and even encouraged them to pray and sing, asking only that they be quiet during the Muslim prayer times.

However, Afghan prisoners were routinely abused, they said.

``We saw some pretty atrocious things,'' Mercer said. ``Women were being beaten until they bled. Women were being arrested because they ran away from their husbands who beat them.''

As the Taliban fled the Afghan capital early Tuesday, the eight thought they were about to be freed. Instead, the Taliban put them in the steel container and began driving them to Ghazni, about 75 miles south of Kabul.

``I was in the fetal position all night'' trying to stay warm, Curry said.

On Tuesday morning, the six women and two men were removed and placed in the jail in Ghazni, winning their freedom two hours later when the anti-Taliban forces stormed the town.

``All of a sudden we looked out the window and saw all of the Taliban running out of the city, fleeing,'' Mercer said. ``We thought that was the Taliban coming back and this was the end of the road. All of a sudden an opposition soldier comes in with reams of ammunition around his neck and he just started screaming, `you're free you're free.'''

The commander took the aid workers to his home and contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross, which passed word to U.S. officials.

While the eight were waiting to be picked up by the helicopters, the women burned their head coverings, providing a beacon that helped the aircraft locate them in the pre-dawn darkness Thursday.

Arriving at a Pakistani air base just outside Islamabad, Curry hugged her mother Nancy Cassell, while Mercer raced to embrace her father John Mercer.

``The first thing we did was get our hair done, because it was a mess,'' Curry said. They went to a party at the German Embassy on Thursday night, and had a 10-minute phone call from President Bush.

They plan to leave Pakistan on Sunday and return to the United States after spending some time in Europe. Both women said they remain deeply attached to Afghanistan.

``We pray that the world continues to keep its eye on Afghanistan,'' Mercer said.

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Muslims Pray for America's Demise

By ADNAN MALIK
.c The Associated Press

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Worshippers from Saudi Arabia to Jordan prayed Friday for America's demise and Osama bin Laden's safety and victory on the first day of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting.

``The Americans are digging their own grave and, God willing, our holy warriors in Afghanistan will bury them soon,'' said Ahmed, a 25-year-old Saudi from Khobar, who only wanted to be identified by his first name.

But the prayer leader at a Khobar mosque, Sheik Mohammed al-Tawwash, was more cautious in his sermon. He called on God to ``protect the innocent Muslims and give them victory over the infidels and enemies of Islam'' but made no mention of the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah had urged Muslim clerics to be cautious in their pronouncements, saying they had a responsibility toward their faith and government.

``You know that we are now passing through critical days and our duty requires that we be mindful ... because you are now a target for those who are biased against the Islamic faith,'' Abdullah said in remarks carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi Arabia - Washington's closest Persian Gulf ally - is mindful of maintaining close U.S. ties while also appeasing Saudis who see the airstrikes as a war against Islam.

During Ramadan, observant Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex between sunrise and sunset. The month, which officially began Friday in most Arab nations, commemorates the time when God began revealing the Quran, the Muslim holy book, to the Prophet Muhammad some 1,400 years ago.

In Jordan, a preacher at an Amman university mosque prayed for God to seek revenge from ``Americans, Jews, their allies and whoever stands behind them.''

``God, disperse them and grant victory to the mujahedeen (holy warriors) in Palestine, Afghanistan and Chechnya,'' Abdul-Wahab Kassasbeh said.

In Lebanon, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a senior Shiite Muslim cleric, railed against what he called U.S. attempts to establish a ``strategic base'' in Central Asia.

``Muslims, Arabs and the entire world should know that America does not care for the interests of the entire world but it is working in the context of the international coalition against the so-called 'terrorism' to serve its interests at the expense of the others,'' Fadlallah said in a sermon at a Beirut mosque.

In northern Afghanistan, thousands of men crowded into the main mosque in Taloqan to hear a new northern alliance-appointed prayer leader, Sadiq, who promised to bring Afghanistan good government and peace.

``We will give the rights of women and the rights of educated people, and bring a real Islam,'' he said, urging alliance members to keep fighting terrorism.

Prayers at the main mosque in the Gulf state of Bahrain included no mention of the strikes on Afghanistan.

``He who fasts in Ramadan, with faith and introspection, his sins will be forgiven,'' said Sheik Adnan Gattan. ``The holy month of Ramadan is an opportunity for Muslims as peoples and societies ... to replenish our blessings and to cleanse our souls of sin.''

He called on God's help for Palestinians, Afghans, Chechens and Kashmiris, saying: ``Oh God, remove their calamities and their sadness.''

In Damascus, more than 10,000 Syrians prayed for rain as the country braced for its fifth straight year of drought.

``This drought is a disaster God has inflicted on us because we - leaders and peoples - are disobeying him,'' Sheikh Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Boutti told worshippers.

AP-NY-11-16-01 0901EST

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Veil lifts for women of Afghan capital

By Rosalind Russell

KABUL, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Leyla is 19 and ambitious.

Denied an education and the right to work because of the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam, the young Afghan girl started her own business in secret two years

ago. In the tiny back room of her mother's house in a poor suburb of the Afghan capital Kabul, she set up her own beauty salon.

Friends and neighbours queued up have their hair styled, nails manicured and elaborate make-up applied.

"I was bored. Our school was closed down and I was just sitting in the house all day," Leyla said. "So I decided to start my business. All my friends liked it and I had clients every day."

Just two months ago, Taliban militia, patrolling the streets looking for violations of the movement's strict religious code, raided the salon, confiscating mirrors, make-up and a precious hair-dryer.

Her family was terrified and Leyla thought her business was doomed. But this week's dramatic events appear to have given her a second chance.

On Monday night, Taliban forces fled Kabul after opposition Northern Alliance troops broke through their frontlines north of the city.

Now the Alliance is in control, promising, among other things, full rights for women. The head-to-toe burqa is optional, and women will be allowed to study, work and vote.

Already the women of Kabul are walking the streets alone, a few abandoning the heavy blue burqa for headscarves and long dresses or trouser suits.

The Alliance has called on female doctors, teachers and civil servants to return to their jobs.

"I can't believe things have changed so quickly," said Leyla, her long brown hair pinned up in diamante clips. "Now we can do what we choose."

Afghan pop music blaring from a battered cassette player, Leyla and her younger sister Navila are revamping the salon with previously banned posters of Indian pop stars and snapshots of heavily made-up clients.

A customer drops by for a manicure, and they discuss Leyla's plans to go back to school.

"I am 19, but I have the education of a child," she said. "I have this business, but I know if I study I could do something even better."

08:18 11-15-01

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Saudi asks clerics to avoid embarrassing kingdom

By Mariam Isa

RIYADH, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's crown prince has asked clerics to tone down their sermons to avoid embarrassing the kingdom or aggravating anti-Muslim sentiment around the world following the September attacks on the United States.

"I hope you appreciate your responsibility before God, your people and officials, so we do not land in an embarrassing situation... We are a moderate nation and there should be no exaggeration in religion," Crown Prince Abdullah said in remarks published on Thursday by the English-language Arab News.

"Brothers, you know we are going through difficult days ... Now you are a target for those against Islam," added Abdullah who is Saudi Arabia's day-to-day ruler.

The government has urged official clerics to issue statements making clear that the kingdom condemned the attacks, blamed by Washington on Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden.

But some clerics have recently stepped up anti-Western rhetoric in their Friday sermons, sharply criticising non-Muslims and denouncing supporters of the U.S.-led military strikes on Afghanistan as non-believers.

Several dissident clerics have also said that Muslims should have as little contact as possible with Christians and Jews.

The daily gave a fuller account of Abdullah's presentation on Wednesday to senior religious and judicial officials than a report issued the same day by the Saudi Press Agency.

Diplomats in Riyadh said the request by Abdullah was significant because the government was acknowledging for the first time its concern about Saudi Arabia's image abroad as an Islamic state that fosters extremism, following the attacks on the United States.

BIG STEP BY GOVERNMENT

"They have been sending this message privately but this is the first time they have done it publicly -- it's a big step," a Western diplomat in Riyadh said.

"It's a serious effort to control public opinion here and to make clear that intolerance is not to be favoured at this stage," he added.

Saudi Arabia has condemned the attacks and pledged support for efforts to combat terrorism, but it has come under fire from U.S. media and senators for allegedly being too soft on "terrorism" and for "exporting" its austere brand of Islam.

Many Saudis were among the suspected hijackers who carried out the attacks on New York and Washington.

"I ask that you not be swept away by emotions or be incited by anyone," Abdallah said, adding that Riyadh would handle foreign affairs judiciously, carefully and without hasty decisions.

He was addressing top cleric Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh, top judicial official Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Luhaidan, the Islamic affairs minister and other officials. The meeting was also attended by Defence Minister Prince Sultan.

Okaz newspaper quoted Luhaidan as replying that clerics had a duty to listen to the country's rulers.

"Our duty to our guardians is to listen and obey properly within the limits forced on us by God and to hold our tongues properly except for that which brings benefit to our country and Islamic nation," he was quoted as saying.

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Freed Aid Workers Land in Pakistan

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
.c The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Eight foreign aid workers, including two Americans, were airlifted by U.S. military helicopters to freedom in Pakistan Thursday after three months in Taliban captivity for preaching Christianity.

The two Americans, two Australians and four Germans landed at Chaklali air base on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, said Mark Wentworth, a U.S. Embassy spokesman.

A German embassy car was seen leaving the base with a haggard, bearded man who smiled and waved from the window. It could not be immediately confirmed if he was one of the aid workers.

The Taliban militia had agreed to release the aid workers but instead left them behind in the flight from advancing northern alliance rebels, a senior U.S. officials said.

Three U.S. special forces helicopters picked up the aid workers in a field near Ghazni, about 50 miles southwest of Kabul, about 4:40 p.m. est Wednsday, Defense Department officials said.

The aid workers were flown to Pakistan and some were quickly reunited with waiting family members. All appeared to be in good health, officials said.

``They're on their way here. I'm happy and I want to get ready to go where they come in,'' Nancy Cassell, the mother of U.S. aid worker Dayna Curry, said Thursday as she left for the air base before dawn.

President George W. Bush hailed the dramatic turn of events.

``I'm thankful they're safe, and I'm pleased with our military for conducting this operation,'' Bush said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Bush had rejected several attempts by the Taliban to use the aid workers as bargaining chips.

The Taliban had agreed to turn over the aid workers through the International Committee of the Red Cross, two senior administration officials said. The Red Cross was going to get them into the hands of U.S. troops. But before the exchange could be accomplished, the anti-Taliban northern alliance overran Ghazni, prompting the Taliban and the workers' guards to flee.

Bush said only that the International Red Cross and other ``people on the ground facilitated'' U.S. troops' ability to rescue the aid workers.

The ruling militia were driven out of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday by U.S.-backed rebel forces.

The president said he had been worried that the Taliban might put the aid workers in a house that might be bombed accidentally, and said the U.S. military had been working on plans for a secret rescue if needed.

``We thought of different ways to extricate them from the prison they were in,'' Bush said without elaborating.

Bush said the rescue of the aid workers ended one chapter in the five-week-old U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, but the mission remained to topple the Taliban - already run out of the north by rebels - and to root out Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.

``We still want al-Qaida and want to make sure Afghanistan is no longer a safe haven for terrorist activity,'' Bush said. ``This could take a while and I'm patient and ... our military and our troops on the ground are on the hunt until we can accomplish our objectives.''

At nearby Waco, Texas, at the Antioch Community Church, several people gathered in front of a television set to listen to the news about the two Americans, Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, who are church members.

Senior pastor Jimmy Seibert thrust his arms into the air when news aired that the aid workers had been released.

``Thank you, Lord,'' he shouted. ``It is more exciting than we could have imagined. The great thing I learned is that prayer works.''

In Australia, Joseph Thomas, brother of aid worker Diana Thomas, said Thursday his prayers had been answered. He also gave credit to the Taliban for their humane treatment of the aid workers.

``If you look at the facts, since they've been captive, they've been looked after and they've been given everything that they have wanted,'' Thomas told a Sydney radio station.

``They've fed them, there's many times they could have shot them, and so I think they've done the right thing,'' he added.

The eight workers are employees of the German-based Christian organization Shelter Now International. They have been held since Aug. 3 on charges of trying to convert Muslims, which was a serious offense under the Taliban's harsh Islamic rule.

Taliban Supreme Court judges had indefinitely postponed their trial, saying they feared their anger at the United States over the airstrikes could hamper their ability to make a fair ruling in the case.

Earlier Wednesday, the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said he was confident the eight would be released soon.

Seif el-Islam Gadhafi, chairman of the Gadhafi Foundation for Charitable Organizations, told The Associated Press that his nongovernmental organization had been in touch with the Taliban for about two months in efforts to win their freedom.

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The rise and fall of the Afghan Taliban

By Jane Macartney

ISLAMABAD, Nov 13 (Reuters) - They banned music and television. Women could not work or girls go to school. Men were not allowed to trim their beards and executions took place by the goalposts of a football pitch. They also eradicated drugs and cleaned the land of guns.

These are the Taliban.

Their movement swept out of Pakistani religious schools and to power in war-ravaged Afghanistan in 1996 in a lightning capture of Kabul from the south as their mujahideen, or holy warrior, opponents raced out to the north.

On Tuesday, the tables turned. The mujahideen fighters who now compose the opposition moved into the city from the north.

Taliban tanks, armoured personnel carriers and troops packed into battered Japanese pickups streamed out all night toward their powerbase in southern Kandahar.

They are now targets of the precision bombs of the world's most modern air force as the United States punishes the Taliban for harbouring Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the suicide plane attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and sliced through the Pentagon on September 11.

The Taliban were fiercely proud of their achievement in imposing on their country a religious-based administration modelled on the Utopia of a 1,300-year-old Islamic system after emerging as a force only in 1994 in the southern city Kandahar.

But their religious fervour, their insularity, their awkward and inexperienced handling of diplomacy -- and the absence of something as basic as television -- may have sealed their demise.

The Taliban's spiritual leader is the reclusive Mullah Mohammad Omar, son of a poor Afghan peasant family who has never travelled further than neighbouring Pakistan and is only known to have met two Westerners in his 44 years.

The former guerrilla, who lost an eye fighting the Soviet occupation, banned education for girls and women may not work.

NO ICONS

Television and photography of any living thing were prohibited because Islam forbids icons. Music - except for acappella religious chants - was also forbidden.

Men were forbidden to trim their beards or women to go out in public unless swathed from head to toe.

Islamic sharia law was strictly enforced with the hand amputated for theft, and executions carried out in public.

The feared religious police, under the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, prowled city streets to force people to attend prayers five times a day and ensured women did not leave their homes without a male blood relative.

The economy and infrastructure is in ruins, with the United Nations estimating that after 23 years of war and the worst drought in three decades up to a quarter of the 24 million population are fully or partly dependent on food aid.

The Taliban were harsh and effective.

They eradicated cultivation of opium poppies in a land that until two years ago was bathed in a sea of pink and white flowers and whose harvests supplied the vast majority of the world's heroin.

In a country where a man is a man when he carries a gun, the Taliban cleared tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of firearms out of the hands of ordinary people to try to restore law and order.

SAVIOURS, AT FIRST

The former theology students were hailed almost as saviours when their black-turbaned fighters swept north from Kandahar into Kabul in 1996, toppling the warring mujahideen groups whose bloody squabbles over the capital after the Soviet-installed government fell had destroyed much of the city.

Many of those groups now make up the Northern Alliance, or United Front.

Barely a shot was fired as the Taliban raced into the city, in many cases buying off mujahideen commanders with funds provided by Pakistani military intelligence -- eager to see peace on its western border.

The most prominent casualty of the fall of Kabul was former president Najibullah and his brother who were dragged from the U.N. compound where they had sheltered for four years, and beaten and hanged from lamp posts in the city centre.

But the Taliban, which in the Pashto language means justice seekers, or students, failed to gain international recognition.

Few governments were ready to deal with the Taliban after the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions last year as punishment for their refusal to hand over bin Laden for earlier terrorist attacks.

The United Nations still recognises the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the opposition Northern Alliance and president when the Taliban seized power. The Afghan seat on the Organisation of Islamic Conference sits vacant.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut links as it became clear that the Taliban would not hand over bin Laden.

Their only diplomatic mission remained in Pakistan.

The Taliban's destruction in March of two ancient giant Buddha figures in the central province of Bamiyan - bombing the magnificent sculptures to smithereens - further alienated international opinion and provoked worldwide outrage.

This has had little impact on Mullah Omar, known officially by the Islamic title of Amir al-Momineen or leader of the faithful, in which capacity he is effectively head of state.

He has shown no sign of being ready to surrender bin Laden. Indeed he may be unable to do so. The outside world understands little about the relationship between two of the most secretive men on earth.

But Mullah Omar became increasingly dependent on bin Laden not only for financing but to shore up his own rule since bin Laden took shelter in Omar's near-pariah state in 1996. They may not have been able to survive without each other.

And that symbiosis appears to have sounded the death knell of the Islamic movement that Mullah Omar built from nothing through religious faith into the state that was his ideal.

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Taliban crumble in Afghanistan, UN urged to step in

By Sayed Salahuddin and Rosalind Russell

KABUL, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The Taliban's hardline Islamic rule of Afghanistan appeared to be in tatters on Tuesday after the opposition Northern Alliance took control of the capital Kabul and other key areas of the country.

With the Northern Alliance defying international pressure to stay clear of the capital until a new broad-based government is agreed, world leaders called on the United Nations to step in.

As the Taliban retreated in droves to their southern stronghold of Kandahar, witnesses arriving in Pakistan said thousands of anti-Taliban tribal fighters had seized an airport in the former royal capital and were advancing on Kandahar.

The father of one of eight Western aid workers held on charges of promoting Christianity, quoted Taliban diplomats in Pakistan as saying all eight were taken to Kandahar.

In the United States, transport officials said early information suggested the crash of an American Airlines Airbus in New York with the death of all 260 people on board on Monday was an accident -- and not a terror attack like the ones that prompted America's war on terrorism.

BLOODY POWER STRUGGLES

Kabul residents, who harbour painful memories of bloody power struggles from the last time the Northern Alliance controlled the city, emerged from their homes to find the Taliban had gone.

"We have taken Kabul," shouted one jubilant fighter as he and fellow soldiers stood in a group on a street in the city centre on day 38 of the war the United States launched following the September 11 attacks that killed about 4,500 people in America.

Some Arab and Chechen fighters loyal to Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden, main suspect in the U.S. attacks, clambered into trees in the city to fire on advancing opposition soldiers. They were shot and their bodies hung in branches or lay sprawled on the ground.

Many of Kabul's Taliban rulers appeared to have slipped away under cover of night, abandoning a city they had held since winning a civil war in the mid-1990s and imposing their own strict interpretation of Islam on the country.

While the green, white and black flag of the Northern Alliance, was tacked to ministry gates, in one city park the bloody bodies of seven black-turbaned Taliban militia lay dead, apparently executed with bullets to the head. Bank notes were stuffed in their noses and ears and children spat at the corpses.

MUSIC PLAYED, BEARDS SHAVED

For the first time in five years, music was played. Some young men shaved off the beards or wore jeans, actions forbidden by the Taliban's feared religious police who banned music and Western dress and made beards compulsory for men.

The Taliban plundered Afghanistan's main currency market before fleeing in the night in a convoy