U.S. says confusion reigns in Afghanistan

By Anton Ferreira

Tuesday February 12, 9:03 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has admitted it is battling a fog of confusion in post-war Afghanistan but signalled it could soon move into the next phase of its anti-terror campaign -- dealing with "axis of evil" nations.

President George W. Bush described Afghanistan on Monday as "the first theatre in the war against terror," adding in a speech to the Medical College of Wisconsin: "This nation must seize the moment. If we blink, the rest of the world will blink as well."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, shrugging off a warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin that Bush would be unwise to take unilateral action, told reporters earlier the president had ruled nothing out.

"The president is focused on what needs to be done to protect the American people, and as he said, time is not on our side," he said.

Fleischer, referring to Bush's characterization of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the "axis of evil," called the nations "a clear and present danger to the United States with their development of weapons of mass destruction."

Bush has raised eyebrows at home and abroad with his fierce rhetoric following the quick success of the military campaign launched in October to destroy Taliban and al Qaeda power in Afghanistan.

PROBLEMATIC COUNTRY

But the campaign, provoked by the Sept. 11 attacks on America blamed on al Qaeda that killed about 3,100 people, has run into difficulties in mopping up remnants of resistance.

Pentagon officials, responding to reports that U.S. forces have targeted the wrong people in recent attacks, said the truth was hard to establish in Afghanistan.

"To say that ... conditions in Afghanistan are confusing is an understatement, you know," said spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, who addressed a briefing with Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem.

"It's impossible to say these people are on this side and these people are on the other side. People are on multiple sides, and they switch sides. There was a great deal of confusion about information in general, and we do always try to get to ground truth," Clarke said.

Stufflebeem added: "It's a shadow war. These are shadowy people who don't want to be found."

He said it was hard to pin down the real identities of some people in Afghanistan. "They've got multiple identity cards. They've got multiple passports. They've got multiple names and certainly multiple stories. And so you really find ... how problematic this part of the world is."

But the officials said they were confident the latest attack about which questions have been raised, in which a missile was fired at a group of people by a remote controlled drone, had hit al Qaeda members as intended.

The Washington Post on Monday quoted residents of the area as saying three innocent peasants had been killed in the missile strike a week ago.

Clarke and Stufflebeem said an investigation into another possibly mistaken U.S. attack three weeks ago was being expanded to look at charges that some detainees captured in the raid had been beaten in U.S. custody.

SADDAM SEES 'EVIL HOSTILITY'

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hit back at Bush on Monday. "The American behaviour and conduct imply clear tyranny and evil hostility against peoples," state-run Iraqi television quoted him as saying at a cabinet meeting.

In Tehran, President Mohammad Khatami, who has made tentative efforts to reach out to Washington, told a rally marking the 23rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution:

"The reason we are under threat is that the United States, or some of its leaders, think they are masters of the world and they want the world to obey their policies."

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi called Bush's "axis of evil" statement a great setback. "Actually it is a confrontation," he said.

But support for Bush was offered by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who said in an article in the New York Times that U.S. allies, particularly Britain, "should extend strong support to President Bush in the decisions he makes on Iraq."

"How and when, not whether, to remove him (Saddam) are the only important questions," said Thatcher, dubbed the "Iron Lady" at the peak of her power during the 1980s.

Kuwait, invaded by neighboring Iraq in 1990, urged Baghdad to comply with U.N. resolutions barring it from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

"If (a military strike) is carried out, our reading of the situation is that it will not be a limited one, but will deal with toppling the regime," Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah told Reuters.

MORE PRISONERS ARRIVE AT U.S. BASE

A U.S. military transport plane carrying another 34 al Qaeda and Taliban captives from the war in Afghanistan arrived under heavy security at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said.

The flight brought to 254 the number of Afghan war detainees being held at the remote base in conditions that have been criticized by human rights groups.

The United States refuses to classify them as prisoners of war, and has proposed trying them before military tribunals which could be held in secret.

CBS News reported on Monday that Washington was prepared to allow tribunal prosecutors to use hearsay evidence -- which is forbidden in civilian courts -- but would give defendants the right not to testify against themselves and allow them to call witnesses.

The network said the proposed rules would closely follow those already used to try members of the U.S. military. A conviction would require proof beyond a reasonable doubt and a guilty vote by at least two thirds of the presiding judges.

"These rules are still being drafted," an administration official told Reuters in response.