US boosts pressure on Taliban
( 2001-09-28 10:58 ) (7 )

The United States tightened the diplomatic and military screws on Afghanistan on Thursday while seeking to convince Americans it was still safe to fly after deadly hijack attacks sent passenger jets hurtling into targets in New York and Washington.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said it had managed to deliver a message to fugitive Islamic militant Osama bin Laden asking him to leave voluntarily.

But as US forces massed within striking distance of Kabul, the Taliban said it did not yet have a response from the man who Washington says masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks.

"It's not like we can pick up the phone and talk to Osama, or fax a message to him. He has no such facilities," Taliban Information Minister Qudrutullah Jamal told Reuters.

With the US aviation industry plunged into chaos following the Sept. 11 attacks, US president George W Bush went to Chicago to urge travelers to "get on the airplanes, get on about the business of America."

But even as Bush announced the deployment of National Guard troops at US airports, more armed "air marshals" in the skies and better security for airline cockpits, US officials said a new directive authorized the military to shoot down any commercial airliner deemed a threat to a population center.

Those orders were given on September 11, but came too late to stop the hijackers from plowing planes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon near Washington. Another airliner crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

The FBI, deep into what has become the biggest criminal investigation in US history, released the names and pictures of 19 suspects accused of the hijackings -- and for the first time explicitly linked them to bin Laden.

Nearly 7,000 people are dead or missing from the attacks, which have set off political maneuvering across the globe and threaten to send the world economy spinning into recession.

In Kabul, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar authorized his government's officials to hold talks with US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson in an effort to defuse the crisis.

But US officials said there was nothing to discuss, and reiterated that Afghanistan faced the prospect of punishing military strikes if it failed to hand over Saudi-born bin Laden and members of his al Qaeda network.

"Rev. Jackson is fully aware of our position ... We have nothing to negotiate. They know what our position is," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters.

Mullah Omar continued to voice defiance against the United States, warning his countrymen that any Afghan aiding foreign invaders would face the same fate as collaborators in their country's war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

More reserves called up

US officials called another 607 Army reserve troops to active duty, bringing to more than 16,300 the number of part-time US military personnel activated in what has become the biggest US mobilization since the 1993 Gulf War.

But Bush played down expectations that the US military would soon swing into action against one of the poorest countries in the world -- while repeating that the United States was ready to use its power to force Afghanistan to give up bin Laden and his organization.

"We must understand that sometimes we will see our resources deployed, sometimes we won't," he told airline workers at Chicago's O'Hare airport. However, he said, "We will use the military might of the United States."

Bush's trip to Chicago -- only his second outside of Washington since the attacks -- was a high-profile effort to revive confidence in the US airline industry, which has seen mass cancellations and more than 100,000 job cuts since the strikes.

"Everybody here who showed up for work at this important industry is making a clear statement, that terrorism will not stand," Bush told thousands of workers at O'Hare airport in a speech punctuated by the roar of jets taking off.

The Bush plan calls for more armed federal marshals on planes, a bigger government role in passenger and baggage inspections and posting as many as 5,000 National Guard troops at US airports for the estimated four to six months needed to adopt new measures.

The government will also set aside US$500 million to fortify cockpit doors and will fund development of transponders, which signal the airliner's whereabouts.

But in a sign that US aviation policy had changed for good after the attacks, the White House confirmed that Bush had authorized senior officers in his military chain of command to order any commercial airliner deemed an imminent threat to people below shot down.

Taking no chances, two F-16 fighters scrambled on Thursday to escort an Air Canada jetliner back to Los Angeles after a disturbance erupted on board --- over a passenger smoking a cigarette in the airplane bathroom.

European union wants to participate

The United States continued to build its international coalition against terror, which has drawn support from most of the world's major powers and left Afghanistan isolated.

One day after US officials said they did not foresee collective NATO military action in response to the attacks, the European Union affirmed it viewed US retaliation as "legitimate" and sought a European role.

"We asked the American administration and to the American president to give also a list of possible tasks (to us) that could be done," said Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, whose country holds the European Union presidency.

The United States proposed a draft UN resolution demanding countries freeze financial assets of anyone involved in "terrorist acts" and punish the perpetrators.

But concerns over a US military response remained, particularly in the Islamic world where even key US allies have voiced doubts over the wisdom of attacking a Muslim nation.

King Abdullah of Jordan met Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on Thursday to voice support for the US campaign, but also to ask that Washington address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- reflecting fears that historical US support for Israel could complicate the battle against terrorism.

Names and faces

The FBI released the names and pictures of the 19 hijack suspects, and FBI Director Robert Mueller said one or more of the hijackers had contacts with al Qaeda -- the first time any US law enforcement officer has drawn a connection between the hijackers and the bin Laden network.

Ten people were arrested in Washington state, Kansas City, and Detroit for possessing fraudulent driver's licenses to haul hazardous materials as US officials probed possible links between the attacks and other potential threats.

In Pakistan, a senior security official said some people had been picked up for interrogation and were likely to provide vital information about bin Laden.

While economic fears continued to circle the globe, the US stock market bounced to a higher close with the Dow Jones industrial average ending up 1.33 percent.

"This is a market that is very jittery and it doesn't take much to move it one way or another," said Peter Coolidge, managing director of equity trading a Brean Murray & Co.

With Afghanistan facing a major humanitarian crisis, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed for $584 million in fresh emergency aid to cope with up to 7.5 million Afghans likely to suffer from hunger and displacement in coming months.

"The world is united against terrorism. Let it be equally united in protecting and assisting the innocent victims of emergencies and disasters," Annan said.