Bush Lifts Pak/India Nuke Sanctions, Taliban Digs In Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit sourced - Reuters (via yahoo) Sunday September 23 Bush Rewards Allies, Taliban Digs In By Patricia Wilson and David Fox WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Rewarding his allies and preparing to punish his foes, President Bush lifted U.S. sanctions on Pakistan and India as the U.S. military mustered its forces for a potential assault on Afghanistan. The waiving of sanctions, imposed on both countries in 1998 for their nuclear tests, had been widely expected after Pakistan agreed to cooperate with the United States in its hunt for Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in last week's hijacked airliner attacks on America and believed sheltering in Afghanistan. Bush, in a memorandum released by the White House, said continued sanctions for the 1998 tit-for-tat nuclear tests "would not be in the national security interests of the United States." It was among several steps he took on Saturday night to confront the crisis unleashed by the Sept 11. attacks that left 6,800 people dead or missing, pitched the world closer to economic recession and has triggered the U.S. military's biggest mobilization since the 1991 Gulf War. U.S. officials said Bush was also expected soon to issue an executive order designating specific groups and individuals as "terrorists." The order would lock up their assets in the United States and starve them of financial support. Afghanistan's hard-line Islamic Taliban movement, which calls bin Laden a "guest," insisted again on Sunday it would hand over the Saudi-born millionaire militant only if it were given evidence of his involvement in the attacks. Bin Laden denies he had a hand in the plot. "There is no change in our decision. American demands are not in favor of Muslims and Afghans and we are not ready to accept this," Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutamaen said, according to the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press agency. The Taliban has vowed a jihad (holy war) if attacked. In Kabul, witnesses and officials said the movement had been building bunkers, installing anti-aircraft batteries and arming men in key border areas to defend against any U.S. strike. "We have started distributing arms to people. Realizing their religious and national responsibility, scores of people are joining us daily," Mohammad Hamid, a Taliban official from the movement's stronghold of Kandahar, told Reuters. The Taliban appeared increasingly isolated after the United Arab Emirates, one of just three states to have recognized their hold on power, severed diplomatic ties. European Union finance ministers, meeting in Liege, Belgium, agreed to speed up ratification of an existing U.N. resolution calling for the freezing of the Taliban's assets. Pakistan and Iran have sealed their borders with their fellow Muslim neighbor as tens of thousands of Afghans flee toward their frontiers in anticipation of a U.S. military attack. $15 BILLION FOR AIRLINES India and Pakistan, where military ruler President Pervez Musharraf has agreed to back Bush despite stiff domestic opposition, both welcomed the presidential order on sanctions. It does not apply to sanctions relating to Musharraf's takeover of power in 1999, but will allow Washington to vote in favor of multilateral aid packages such as one Pakistan is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund. Bush also signed a $15 billion aid bill to prop up U.S. airlines crippled by costly new security measures and plunging demand for air travel in the wake of the suicide hijackings. "The terrorists who attacked the United States on Sept. 11 targeted our economy as well as our people," Bush said in his weekly radio address on Saturday. "They brought down a symbol of American prosperity, but they could not touch its source," he declared in remarks clearly intended to bolster confidence after the worst week for U.S. financial markets since the 1930s Great Depression. In Tokyo, Jiji news agency quoted Japanese government sources as saying Washington had warned its allies of a possible second round of attacks by the end of this week using means that would be "more cruel and shocking" than in the Sept 11. carnage. The report, which could not be confirmed, said the targets were unknown but could include members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Pakistan. The Sept. 11 attacks leveled the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center and blew a breach in the Pentagon outside Washington in the deadliest ever single assault on U.S. soil. A fourth hijacked airliner crashed in Pennsylvania. Bush has fingered bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization, a loose network of extremist groups spread around the world, as the likeliest culprits and vowed to wage a sustained assault on terrorism and states that harbor and support its perpetrators. The Washington Post on Sunday said four or five groups, or cells, linked to bin Laden had operated in the United States for the last several years, though investigators had not found any link to the men involved in the hijacking. Citing unnamed government officials, it said the cells were under surveillance but no arrests had been made because the members entered the United States legally and had not been involved in criminal activity. The Pentagon activated another 5,172 reserve troops for "homeland defense" on Saturday, a day after eight Vietnam-era B-52 heavy bombers began departing U.S. bases for a Gulf and Indian Ocean build-up within striking distance of Afghanistan. U.S. officials who asked not to be identified said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was also preparing a second deployment order to send more warplanes to the Gulf. That would bring to more than 200 the number of planes that would join about 350 aircraft already in the region at land bases and on aircraft carriers. TOUGH TALK, WORDS OF CAUTION "The terrorists wanted to teach us a lesson. They wanted us to know them," U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Richard Gephardt said in a radio address. "They don't know what they started, but they are about to find out," the Missouri Democrat said. Bush, spending the weekend plotting strategy with key aides at the Camp David presidential retreat, has won widespread international support for his drive to end terrorism but the solidarity has been tempered by calls not to overreact. Pope John Paul II, visiting the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, issued a dramatic appeal on Sunday that the world should not slide into war. "With all my heart, I beg God to keep the world in peace," the Roman Catholic leader said at the end of a mass. "We must not let what has happened lead to a deepening of divisions. Religion must never be used as a reason for conflict." Bush spoke on Saturday for 45 minutes with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what the White House described as a "constructive" talk. Moscow has condemned the attacks on New York and Washington but urged caution in responding. Bush was also due to meet Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien at the White House on Monday and receive Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi the next day as he presses his efforts to build an international coalition for his "war on terrorism." UNDERCOVER FORCES ALREADY THERE? Britain, one of Bush's closest allies in the emerging coalition, played down newspaper reports on Sunday that crack SAS undercover troops were already inside Afghanistan working with anti-Taliban forces in the opposition Northern Alliance. "We never discuss special forces or operational matters. We are currently in our planning phase to decide what help we can offer to the Americans," a Defense Ministry spokesman said. Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office said it believed bin Laden was still in Afghanistan "but his movements are such that he's quite an elusive character." A senior Northern Alliance figure, Abdullah Abdullah, said he believed bin Laden was in hiding in the southern Kandahar region with reclusive Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said his administration had authorized the arrest and, if necessary, the killing of bin Laden but lacked sufficient information to get him. Government sources have said the Clinton administration gave the CIA approval to conduct covert operations targeting bin Laden, who Washington believes masterminded the bombings in 1998 of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In New York, tens of thousands of people were expected to pack the landmark Yankee Stadium later on Sunday for a multi-denominational service to pray for the dead and missing. Only 261 bodies have been recovered from the ruins of the World Trade Center, where 6,333 people are listed as missing. Bush was scheduled to raise the Stars and Stripes to full staff at Camp David on Sunday, symbolically ending a period of national mourning since the attacks. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-09.24.01-09:54:44-2109