Insider notes from United Press International for Oct. 17 ...
A secret Arab-Islamic bid to pre-empt further U.S. military action with a "peace" deal that would have spared the Taliban regime came tantalizingly close to success. So far, news has leaked only about the very discreet breakfast on Monday morning between Taliban "Foreign Minister" Maulvi Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil and the new head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Gen. Ihsan ul-Haq, when the Afghan floated the idea of surrendering Osama bin-Laden in return for a halt in the bombing -- and the survival of the Taliban. Now United Press International learns that Muttawakil had just flown in to that breakfast from a meeting with high Saudi and United Arab Emirates officials in Dubai, where Muttawakil was assured that they could arrange an Islamic court to put bin-Laden on trial, and that the Saudis would then guarantee generous reconstruction funds for Afghanistan. Israeli and Indian intelligence sources, who have forged close links of cooperation in recent weeks, are sure these Saudi funds were really to be used to buy support from tribal warlords for Muttawakil, who could then replace Taliban spiritual leader (and bin-Laden's friend) Mullah Mohammed Omar. On the basis of Muttawakil's breakfast with ul-Haq, Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, offered Secretary of State Colin Powell a deal that could end the war, stabilize Afghanistan and bring bin-Laden to justice. All it required was a bombing pause -- and an end to U.S. funds and backing for the Northern Alliance -- to give the Taliban time to hand bin-Laden over. Powell, suspicious of the Saudi role and of Muttawakil, rejected the deal out of hand. The Saudis are now furious with Musharraf. They complain that the Pakistani leader was so eager to claim credit for a peace deal that he broke the understanding that the Saudis would first rally other Arab and Islamic states to the plan, and then present the "Islamic solution" to the Americans as an offer President Bush could not refuse -- if he wanted to hold the coalition together.
One former American ally of the Afghan war against the Soviet invasion is now part of the problem, rather than part of the post-Taliban solution. Gulbadin Hekmatyar, deposed former Afghan prime minister and head of the fundamentalist Hizb-e-Islami, has turned over to the Taliban leadership his hidden arms caches in Afghanistan. Hekmatyar, currently in exile in Iran, was the favored recipient of U.S. military and financial aid in the first stages of the anti-Soviet war, until his anti-Americanism became too much even for his Pakistani handlers. Reports from Afghanistan indicate that the Taliban have already received his "huge" arms cache hidden in the Spina Shaga region, which reportedly includes 12 U.S. Stinger missiles. The Taliban have thanked Hekmatyar for his "goodwill gesture." Not satisfied with material aid, Hekmatyar and the Taliban are discussing merging Hizb-e-Islami forces with Taliban troops.
Who says the White House is losing the propaganda war? The Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV cameras ("Omar bin-Laden exclusives 'R Us") finally made it to the White House. Of course, it was only for President Bush's soft-focus media opportunity with the children's charity raising a dollar for the Sept. 11 fund from every American school kid. But it's a start.
In the first overseas deployment of Japanese troops overseas since World War II, Japan will commit troops to U.N. peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan if U.S.-led military operations should overthrow the Taliban. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a House of Representatives panel on terrorism, "Our country must take the lead in (peacekeeping in Afghanistan) activities..." During the Pacific war, the closest Japanese troops got to Afghanistan was southern China. The last Oriental troops were in Afghanistan were those of Genghis Khan in the 13th century.
You can't please everybody. One of the world's largest Jewish organizations is condemning the Nobel Peace Prize for the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The group cites the U.N.'s support for the Durban conference on racism which the group called an "anti-Semitic, anti-Israel hate festival." B'nai B'rith also argues that Syria's membership of the U.N. Security Council and the failure of U.N. forces in Southern Lebanon to hand over evidence that Hezbollah had kidnapped Israeli soldiers was evidence that the body was not deserving of the world's highest peacemaking honor. "When it comes to fighting anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and supporting a beleaguered member state -- Israel -- against its enemies, 'the United Nations has failed utterly,'" says B'nai B'rith International President Richard Heideman.
