Fate of US journalist unknown, Bush under fire

Saturday February 2, 7:10 PM AFP

The fate of a US journalist kidnapped in Pakistan remained uncertain as US President George W. Bush received some rare domestic criticism over his handling of the war on terror.

In Afghanistan, interim leader Hamid Karzai returned home to confront the spectre of instability raised by the eruption of tribal fighting earlier this week which underscored the UN-backed administration's shaky grip on power outside Kabul.

Karzai used a week-long trip to Britain and the United States to appeal for a greater international security presence, which he said is needed to stabilise outlying provinces. But he flew home without having secured any promises.

Pakistani police spent the night scouring graveyards in Karachi in an unsuccessful attempt to find missing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl after a claim he had been killed.

The journalist was kidnapped in the city on January 23. An e-mail sent to CNN on Friday claimed Pearl, 38, had been killed and his body dumped in a graveyard.

In a conflicting message, callers to the US embassy in Islamabad demanded a two million dollar ransom plus the release from US custody of the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan.

A shadowy group claiming to hold the American reporter had threatened to kill him by Friday unless the United States freed Pakistani prisoners held at its naval base in Cuba and improved the treatment of others in detention there.

Karachi police were skeptical about the claim Pearl had been killed because of the absence of any photograph to substantiate the e-mail claim.

Previous messages from the kidnappers had included photographs, including one with a gun to Pearl's head.

The US has ruled out any negotiations with the kidnappers.

Pearl disappeared after telling his wife he was going to interview Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, leader of the Muslim militant organization Tanzeem-ul-Fuqrahi, for a story on Islamic extremism.

In a rare display of dissent in Washington, the secretary of state under former president Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, slammed Bush for designating Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil."

She said many in the international community now believed the United States had "lost our mind."

Undaunted by the criticism, Bush reiterated charges that the three nations were proliferating weapons of mass destruction and represented a danger to world peace.

Bush insisted "all options are on the table" in dealing with the three countries and in making "the United States and our allies more secure."

"All the three countries I mentioned are now on notice that we intend to take their development of weapons of mass destruction very seriously," Bush said as he welcomed Jordan's King Abdullah II to the White House.

Bush's belligerent comments sparked sharp reactions from Tehran, Baghdad and Pyongyang and some adverse comments from Russia and China as well as the Middle East.

Albright's charges constituted the first criticism from a former US cabinet member.

Appearing on NBC television's "Today" show Friday, Albright said the "axis of evil" comment was wrong, and risked alienating US allies and undermining US standing in the world.

Albright, who made a historic visit to Pyongyang in 2000 and met with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, was most critical of Bush's decision to include North Korea on his list.

Karzai's historic visit abroad was marked by bloody fighting at Gardez, the capital of eastern Paktia province, when his appointee as governor, Padsha Khan, tried to take up his post through force after rival warlord Saif Ullah refused to hand over power.

Some 50 people, including about 20 civilians, were killed in the fierce exchange of mortars, rockets and machine-gun fire between the two forces.

Khan's troops were forced into a humiliating retreat after two days of clashes which ended Thursday.

Although the fighting subsided, there were unconfirmed reports that tense armed standoffs were continuing between ethnic factions in the government, particularly troops loyal to Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rashid Dostam, an ethnic Uzbek, and Defence Minister Qasim Fahim, an ethnic Tajik, in the far north.