Newsweek: Air Force Planes May Drop Food To Undermine Bin Laden's Taliban Protectors

NEW YORK, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The first use of Air Force planes in Afghanistan may be to drop shipments of food, not bombs, Newsweek reports in the current issue. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell privately briefed members of Congress on the evolving strategy against Osama bin Laden, the suspected terrorist behind the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, including the possible use of humanitarian aid to peel away support from the country's Taliban rulers and leave bin Laden exposed, reports Chief Political Correspondent Howard Fineman, in the October 8 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, October 1).

In another development, Newsweek learned that key congressional leaders last week were secretly told, as required by law, that special forces reconnaissance teams -- British at first, followed by Americans -- had slipped into a Taliban-controlled portion of Afghanistan. The British were activated initially, sources tell Newsweek, because of their long experience there -- and so that the U.S. could keep its distance while a Pakistani delegation made one last diplomatic effort to win a peaceful handover of bin Laden.  (Taliban leaders rejected it defiantly.)

"There is a certain level of bloodlust," Bush admitted to King Abdullah II of Jordan, "but we won't let it drive our reaction." Even so, to satisfy the desire for explosions, Newsweek has learned, Bush was considering air strikes on Afghanistan's opium warehouses.