October 29, 2001

14th-century Muslim sage has much to teach us By Daniel Johnson

Battlefield of guns and prayers By Anthony Loyd

Osama Bin Laden and Salafi Islam Michael Fredholm

Anatomy of a 'terrorist' NGO By Pepe Escobar

Rumsfeld says raids will continue despite civilian concerns
By Charles Aldinger and Deborah Zabarenko
Tuesday October 30, 8:46 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military will continue bombing Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and al Qaeda hide-outs, despite mounting concern in the region over civilian casualties

Rumsfeld defends amount of Northern Alliance aid
October 29, 2001 - CNN
U.S. jets struck Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar and Taliban positions facing the opposition Northern Alliance on Monday as officials on both sides of the Atlantic urged patience with

India, Germany attack Taliban for Afghan humanitarian crisis
NEW DELHI, Oct 29 (AFP) - Germany and India on Monday blamed the looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan on the country's ruling Taliban militia and pledged unstinted support

US military strikes in Afghanistan will continue through Ramadan: envoy
Tuesday October 30, 12:59 AM
BOMBAY, Oct 29 (AFP) - The US military strikes on Afghanistan are likely to continue through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Washington's Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill said here Monday.

US bombs Taleban targets in north
BBC News
American aircraft have bombed Taleban front-line positions along Afghanistan's mountainous northern border with Tajikistan for the first time.
The attack was carried

Russia Rejects Moderate Taliban in Any Afghan Govt
Monday October 29 4:32 PM ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov ruled out Monday the participation of all members of Afghan's ruling Taliban movement, however moderate

Taleban tell tribesmen to wait
BBC News
The Taleban have told thousands of armed Pakistani tribesmen waiting across the border not to enter Afghanistan. The tribesmen say they want to join the Taleban's "holy war" against the US.

Improved US-Iran ties would help war on Taliban: Afghan opposition
AFP
The war against Afghanistan's Taliban would be better coordinated if the United States and Iran brushed aside their years of mutual antagonism, a senior Afghan opposition leader has told AFP.

Iran urged to talk to U.S.
October 29, 2001 - CNN
TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian parliamentary committee has called for direct talks with the U.S. on setting up a new Afghan government, a parliamentary official has said. Iran has had no diplomatic

Hekmatyar will not return to Afghanistan: Afghan opposition
JABAL SERAJ, Afghanistan, Oct 29 (AFP) - The Afghan opposition has received guarantees that Iran is not preparing notorious exiled warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar for a comeback

U.S. Warns Afghans of Yellow Cluster Bomblets
Monday, October 29, 2001 7:52 PM EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. radio broadcasts into Afghanistan now include a safety warning: airdropped food parcels are square, unexploded cluster bombs are can-shaped

Haq's family vows to pursue peace
By Alan Johnston in Peshawar - BBC
When news broke that the Taleban had executed Afghan opposition commander Abdul Haq on spying charges, it had been thought that his remains would be brought back to his home here.

Escape from Kandahar
BBC News
With impeccable timing, a Russian air crew have published a book about their flight from Taleban capitivity called Escape from Kandahar.
The story began in August 1995

Pakistani Intelligence Had Links to Al Qaeda, U.S. Officials Say
By JAMES RISEN and JUDITH MILLER - NY Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 ¯ The intelligence service of Pakistan, a crucial American ally in the war on terrorism, has had an indirect but longstanding relationship with Al Qaeda, turning a blind

Diplomats Met With Taliban on Bin Laden
Some Contend U.S. Missed Its Chance
By David B.Ottaway and Joe Stephens
Washington Post - Monday, October 29, 2001
Over three years and on as many continents, U.S. officials met in public and secret at least 20 times with Taliban representatives to discuss ways the regime could bring suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden to justice.

Group says Alliance guilty of past atrocities
By Richard S. Ehrlich - THE WASHINGTON TIMES - 10/29/01
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan ¯ A respected human-rights group is warning that Northern Alliance forces allied with the United States have a history of committing atrocities and should be prevented

Information on Haq's trip was leaked
Gulf News (United Arab Emirates) October 29, 2001 - Lahore
Acute intelligence attention is focussing in the country on the execution by the Taliban of an anti-Taliban Afghan leader, Abdul Haq, last week with Washington said to be "very concerned"

Afghan Supreme Council to meet in Turkey shortly--Kyodo
Sunday, October 28, 2001 9:58 PM EST
TOKYO, Oct 28, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- The first meeting of Afghanistan's Supreme Council of National Unity, which is called upon to become the country's top administration body

WALL STREET HIGHFLIER FINDS HAQ'S DEATH DEALS TWO BLOWS
WALL STREET JOURNAL:
Oct 29, 2001, (Wall Street Journal /FT Information via COMTEX) -- The death of anti-Taliban leader Abdul Haq is a double-blow to former commodities trader James Ritchie

Afghans tell of being cast adrift at sea by Kuwait and saved by Iraq
FAO, Iraq, Oct 29 (AFP) - Eighteen Afghans alleged Monday they had been thrown out of Kuwait and cast adrift in Gulf waters in the wake of last month's terror attacks on the United States.

Taliban claims mounting evidence of US using chemical weapons
KABUL, Oct 29 (AFP) - The Taliban said Monday there was mounting evidence that the United States is using chemical weapons in its attacks on Afghanistan and said it feared depleted uranium

Pakistani Taliban fighters return in coffins
By Michael Christie
CHAMAN, Pakistan, Oct 29 (Reuters)  The bodies of six Pakistanis killed fighting with Afghanistan's Taliban against U.S. and Northern Alliance opponents

U.S. planes bomb bin Laden tunnels
By Sayed Salahuddin KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes hit an area of caves and tunnels in eastern Afghanistan on Monday known as a hideout of Osama bin Laden

Opposition war council orders new offensive on key Afghan city
AFP
Afghan opposition alliance commanders will launch a new offensive on the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a spokesman said, after US warplanes opened

U.S. said to be considering base in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military is considering establishing a forward base inside Afghanistan to support the operation of hundreds of American

Secrets Of Brigade 055 - Taliban special forces
BY DANIEL EISENBERG - Time Mag
To understand why the Taliban is so tenacious, consider this: some of its frontline troops are the same sort of men who steered planes into buildings on Sept. 11.

U.N. envoy consults Pakistanis on Afghan future
By Jack Redden
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, met senior Pakistanis on Monday as he began seeking out ideas on forming

Refugees say Taliban conscript young men by force
By Rosalind Russell
AJEE MALA, Afghanistan, Oct 29 (Reuters) - When the Taliban tried to conscript his 15-year-old son, Alim Khan decided it was time for his family to leave

Taliban envoy says no need for Pakistan fighters
ISLAMABAD, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Afghanistan has no need of outside help and advised Pakistani mujahideen not to enter the country, the Taliban ambassador

Pakistan's U.N. envoy warns against prolonged strikes
By David Lawder
 HONG KONG (Reuters) - Prolonged U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan and mounting civilian casualties will have "phenomenal consequences"

Pakistan to deport 15 Afghans for protests
QUETTA, Pakistan, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Pakistan ordered 15 Afghan refugees to be deported on Monday for taking part in violent anti-U.S. protests.

Haq's family still in dark over fate of his body
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Relatives of veteran Afghan mujahideen fighter Abdul Haq, executed by the Taliban last week after a summary trial

Ex-Afghan king prays for slain ally Haq
ROME, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The deposed king of Afghanistan held prayers on Sunday in memory of his ally and friend Abdul Haq, the veteran mujahideen holy

Veiled but deadly - female fighters who defy Taliban
By Philip Sherwell in Qalai Khoja - news.telegraph.co.uk - Sunday 28 October 2001
ARMED with Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns, the women of Bagram are ready for the Taliban. In the male-dominated Islamic

Rumsfeld Puts Pressure on Central Command to Come up With Creative War Plans;
Military Proposes a 'Roll-the-Dice' Raid Against Taliban Leadership
NEW YORK, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Under pressure from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to offer more creative war plans, Central Command

Victory may take bribes as well as bullets.
The culture of Afghanistan's fickle power brokers.
By Evan Thomas and Melinda Liu  - Newsweek
Abdul Haq was, as an earlier generation of diplomats and spy-masters might have put it, "our kind of warlord." The scion of an Afghan upper-class family

Simpson on Sunday: The Taliban are a ragbag of deluded opportunists
By John Simpson Telegraph (Filed: 28/10/2001)
HAVING watched the American bombing of Taliban positions from the Northern Alliance front line every day for a week now, it is clear to me that the tactics

British Police Continue to Quiz Terror Suspect
Saturday October 27 9:19 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Saturday they had been given a further extension of time to question a man held on suspicion of terrorism-related activities.