============================================================ --> WHAT'S THAT?, YOU WANNA MAKE A LIVING ONLINE? People from all walks of life are becoming wealthy online. Could YOU do it too? Find out in this free step-by-step guide to Making a Living Online. (By someone actually doing it!): http://click.topica.com/caaadtxb1ddNBb2HgmNb/bizweb2000 ============================================================Afghan's Taliban Defiant on bin Laden Handover
U.S. Military Strikes Growing More Likely
By David Fox and Jeff Franks
Reuters
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Oct. 1) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban stepped up their defiance of U.S. demands to hand over Osama bin Laden, saying they held the world's most wanted man at a secret location and ignoring U.S. threats of retaliation.
The growing stalemate appeared to raise the likelihood for U.S.-led military strikes, which an Afghan opposition official predicted could come in a matter of days.
The United States further boosted its military might in the region on Monday when the carrier Kitty Hawk, with some 70 warplanes on board, sailed from its home port near Tokyo for duty in "Operation Enduring Freedom," a U.S. Navy spokesman said.
"Operation Enduring Freedom" is the code name for the U.S. war on terrorism declared by President George W. Bush after the the September 11 hijack attacks that left close to 6,000 people feared dead in New York and Washington.
An Iranian navy commander said on Sunday 41 U.S. and British warships had arrived in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman and were being monitored for any signs of attack on Afghanistan.
There have been reports U.S. special forces already are in Afghanistan ahead of possible attacks.
The United Nations top emergency relief coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, arrived on Monday for a fact-finding trip to Pakistan as it prepares to help hundreds of thousands of Afghans displaced or in flight from hunger and war.
EPIC REFUGEE CRISIS
U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker said Oshima, the U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, would meet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, other Pakistani and U.N. officials and representatives from non-governmental aid agencies.
His visit coincides with what appears to be an epic refugee crisis looming in a land whose problems have endured so long that donor fatigue set in years ago. It is now all but inaccessible to outside help as the United States threatens military strikes.
As U.S. forces grew in strength, America's top law enforcer said he feared fresh attacks if the United States retaliated.
"We believe there are substantial risks of terrorism still in the United States of America. As we as a nation respond to what has happened to us, those risks may, in fact, go up," Attorney-General John Ashcroft told CNN's "Late Edition."
In an interview on the CBS programme "Face the Nation," Ashcroft said would-be attackers linked to the hijackers who slammed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon might be in America to unleash further devastation.
The Bush administration stepped up the pressure on Sunday by saying it would work to replace the Taliban unless they acceded to America's demands to hand over bin Laden, who the U.S. believes masterminded the attacks.
The Taliban, a puritanical Islamic movement in power since 1996, said they were hiding the militant Saudi-born millionaire for his own safety.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, appearing on NBC, questioned the Taliban's veracity and signalled growing U.S. willingness to support opposition groups inside Afghanistan.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card hammered home the point on Fox News: "We do not want any government to harbour terrorists. And the Taliban government has been harbouring terrorists." If they adhere to that policy "they should be out of power," Card said.
A U.S. government policy document, obtained on Sunday, said the Taliban did not represent the Afghan people.
"We do not want to choose who rules Afghanistan. But we will assist those who seek a peaceful, economically developing Afghanistan free of terrorism," one U.S. official cited the document as saying.
COVERT EFFORTS
The New York Times reported on Monday that President Bush had approved covert efforts to help the anti-Taliban opposition in Afghanistan, including possible military funding.
"The purpose is to enhance their ability to move against the Taliban," the paper quoted an unidentified U.S. official as saying. "It is not limited to political support."
In an indication of the close ties between bin Laden and the hardline movement, a former Pakistan leader said the Saudi-born Islamic militant runs the Central Asian nation like a warlord.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto told Reuters the Taliban are dominated by bin Laden, who she said runs Afghanistan like a warlord with a force of 12,000 armed men.
"They are Arabs from different countries together and they drive around in shaded cars and no one can cross their paths. He intimidates and his force really runs the place like a vassal," said Bhutto, who was prime minister twice and was dismissed the second time, in 1996, on accusations of widespread corruption.
Bin Laden is a brother-in-law of Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
STRIKES "WITHIN DAYS"
Abdullah Abdullah, foreign minister for the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, said on Sunday his group was in "regular and daily contact" with the U.S. and predicted that U.S.-led military strikes would come in "a matter of days."
Ashcroft, who is pressing for greater police powers at home to monitor possible foreign agents, said more than 500 people had been arrested for possible links to the hijackings.
Washington, seeking to cast the conflict as a war on terrorism rather than a clash between the Western and Islamic worlds, has signed up more than 100 countries for its new global coalition, General Hugh Shelton, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday.
But Saudi Arabia -- a key U.S. ally and the guardian of Islam's holiest shrines -- said it would not allow foreign forces to launch attacks against Muslim Afghanistan from its territory.
FORMER KING
Should the Taliban fall, momentum appeared to be building for Afghanistan's former King Mohammad Zahir Shah to act as a neutral figure overseeing a transition of power.
In Rome, where the king lives in exile, a broad opposition coalition of Afghan elders and military commanders was reported close to an accord aimed at eventually ousting the Taliban.
"We expect an agreement very shortly. We have a very good feeling about the talks," said Mir Wais Zahir, the former king's youngest son.
Zahir Shah, overthrown in 1973, received a firm pledge of support from senior U.S. politicians on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, the Taliban said six people had been arrested for distributing pro-U.S. pamphlets calling for Zahir Shah's return, and Mullah Omar warned the former monarch not to meddle.
While politicians talked of solutions for faraway Afghanistan, ordinary Americans had to deal with new security measures around the country, particularly at airports where National Guard troops are being stationed.
In New York, the toll of the dead and missing at the World Trade Center was revised downward as officials found more duplicated and misreported names. A total of 5,766 people were feared killed in the airborne assaults.
The attacks have sent shockwaves through the global financial system, but most stock markets ended last week on an upswing and investors looked forward to Tuesday's meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which was expected to cut interest rates by half a point to bolster sagging confidence.
Reuters 05:47 10-01-01
Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
"Never cease in the fight for peace, justice, and equality for all people. Be persistent in all that you do and don't allow anyone to sway you from your conscience.".....Leonard Peltier
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