--- Begin Message ---
_______ ____ ______
/ |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
/ /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East
/_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\� http://www.MiddleEast.Org
News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups,
and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know!
To receive MER regularly email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-------------------------------------------
The new MER Forum and Message Board is now open:
http://www.MiddleEast.Org/forum
MER NEWSFLASH:
U.S. CALLED OFF FIRST ATTACKS
ALL U.S. GREYHOUND BUSHES GROUNDED AFTER ATTACK
U.S. CALLED OFF FIRST ATTACKS
by Jeremy Campbell in Washington
[This is London - 3 October 2001]:
The United States and Britain yesterday called off military
strikes against terrorist targets in Afghanistan at the last
minute.
Washington officials say today
that a severe attack of
last-minute cold feet by some
key Arab members of the
coalition caused President Bush
to postpone the operation.
The waverers are Saudi Arabia,
Uzbekistan and Oman, and US
Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld is embarking on an
urgent mission today to
strengthen nerves in these
countries.
Prime Minister Tony Blair is
also about to undertake a hasty
visit to the region. Saudi
Arabia's support is especially vital, because Allied aircraft
and commanders need its base facilities.
Two senior US officials have told reporters that until
yesterday the Saudis were firm in their offer to provide
assistance for strikes, including use of a state-of-the-art
command centre at the Prince Royal Sultan Air Force
Base.
Then the situation changed. One US official told Knight
Newspapers: "That is no longer true. We fear there is
something deeper here."
Mr Rumsfeld's trip to the Middle East is intended to mend
these unexpected ruptures.
Downing Street, meanwhile, confirmed Mr Blair will be
departing on a mission tomorrow but refused, on security
grounds, to be drawn on any of the detail. Amid clear
unease over the advance leaks of the trip, a spokesman
dismissed all reports as "speculation� maintaining that some
of the suggested calling points for the Prime Minister were
simply wrong.
Mr Rumsfeld's tour, which includes Saudi Arabia, Oman,
Egypt and Uzbekistan, is being compared to the
stage-setting trip made by Dick Cheney, then Defence
Secretary, to the Gulf just before the start of Desert
Storm.
This time there is more at stake. Near the top of Mr
Rumsfeld's list of priorities is to talk his way to an
agreement with Uzbekistan, on the northern border of
Afghanistan, to use the country as a staging area for the
attack.
Uzbekistan is now regarded as a potential key asset in the
coming showdown, but is rated the coalition's single most
fragile link.
Highly attractive to the US are the number of abandoned
air bases there, once used by the Soviet Union.
This will be Mr Rumsfeld's first face-to-face meeting with
the ruling regime there. It has demanded that the US
negotiate a complete Status of Forces Agreement before it
will permit the use of its military bases - an unrealistic
condition which could be tangled up in legal knots for
years.
The trip, undertaken at the request of President Bush, is
expected to last three days.
Oman, also skittish, is regarded as an important support
base for a ground incursion. US special operations forces
can be flown there and then put on amphibious invasion
ships.
US officials are not sure whether this is a case of
lastminute jitters, or " something more serious".
One notable omission on Mr Rumsfeld's itinerary is
Pakistan. "The last thing Pakistan needs is a high profile
visit by a US Secretary of Defence," said a Pentagon
official.
The country is contending with ferocious anti-American
demonstrations, with Mr Bus burned in effigy and hordes
shouting: "Death to America! Let Americans come here to
be buried!"
Washington officials advised reporters not to assume
military action was only hours away. They stressed that
Mr Bush will act only when he is convinced, by Mr
Rumsfeld and others, that "all the pieces are in place".
Such action will come "at various stages and times", they
said. The President himself told reporters there is "no
calendar" for the start of hostilities.
GREYHOUND SUSPENDS U.S. SERVICES AFTER CRASH
MANCHESTER, Tenn. (Reuters - 3 Oct, 11:46am) -
Greyhound Lines suspended bus services
across the United States for several hours on
Wednesday after at least 10 people were killed
in a crash when a passenger apparently slit the
driver's throat.
Both the U.S. Justice Department (news - web
sites) and the U.S. Department of
Transportation said initial indications were that
the incident was not related to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and
Washington. Greyhound, the largest provider of intercity bus
transportation in the United States, suspended travel for one day after
those attacks.
It announced another suspension after Wednesday's crash but later said
that services would resume at 1 p.m.
The bus driver survived in Wednesday morning's crash and was being
treated for cuts on his neck, according to a Tennessee hospital. A
passenger told a television station earlier that the bus driver's
throat was
slit in the attack.
The crash appears to have been ``a random incident not related to the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,'' said Dave Longo, a spokesperson for the
Federal Motorcarrier Administration, a division of the U.S.
Transportation Department.
But he said there were conflicting reports ``and we are waiting for
more
details to come in from the field.''
Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said ``at this time we
don't believe it was terrorist related.'' One official at that
department
said the man who carried out the attack was carrying a Croatian
passport. It was not known if he survived the crash.
The FBI (news - web sites) said it had sent a team to investigate.
Greyhound, which announced the death toll, said it had ordered the
shutdown ``as a precaution'' and said stranded passengers were being
taken ``to the nearest safe location.'' Several hours later Greyhound
spokeswoman Karen Chapman announced that services nationwide
would resume at 1 p.m.
Greyhound carries about 25 million passengers a year as the last
remaining nationwide bus service.
The incident occurred on Interstate highway 24 about 60 miles (100
km) southeast of Nashville. There were 36 passengers on board and the
injured were taken to local hospitals.
A woman who was on the bus told a Nashville television station that the
man who attacked the driver had been acting strangely, repeatedly
asking what time it was. She said he slashed the driver's throat,
causing
him to lose control of the bus which overturned.
Bobby Couch, chief executive officer of the Manchester Medical
Center, told Reuters the driver was being
treated for cuts on the neck and was in stable
condition.
Greyhound spokeswoman Kirstin Parsley told
CNN police had not confirmed the passenger's
account of the attack.
Local broadcast reports said some of the passengers were airlifted to
Vanderbilt University Medical Center and others to Erlanger Hospital in
Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The service suspension stranded passengers from coast to coast at a
time when the suicide airline hijackings had driven many passenger to
alternative means of transportation, such as the bus and train.
At New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal, Greyhound's largest
service hub, passengers and bus drivers alike were seeking information.
``I'm trying to figure out how I can get home now,'' said R. L. Sned, a
Greyhound driver.
Peter Pan Bus Lines Inc., a New England regional bus company that
shares ticketing and gates with
Greyhound in the Port Authority bus terminal, said it is going ahead
with departures to Boston,
Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
----------------------------------
MiD-EasT RealitieS - http://www.MiddleEast.Org
Phone: 202 362-5266
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fax: 815 366-0800
To subscribe email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject SUBSCRIBE
To unsubscribe email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject UNSUBSCRIBE
--- End Message ---
