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Sunday,
September 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Pak Oppn leaders’ poll drive by train stopped
USA for free elections in Pak Russia, China agree to hear US case on Iraq Bush-Vajpayee talks on
September 12
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USA, UN ‘ignored’ warnings on 9/11 attacks London, September 7 In a massive failure of intelligence described by diplomatic sources as “warning fatigue”, the USA and United Nations ignored warnings from a secret Taliban emissary that Osama bin Laden was planning a huge attack on the USA weeks before the strikes that brought down the twin WTC towers. Tribune scribe Atiqur Rahman dead
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Pak Oppn leaders’ poll drive by train stopped
Lahore, September 7 The activists, from the six-party Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance, were detained by the police at Lahore railway station as they tried to board a train bound for the southern port city of Karachi, where they planned to stage a big rally. They chanted slogans against the government of military ruler Pervez Musharraf as they were being herded into police vehicles, witnesses said. Those detained included leaders of five of the six Islamic groups. “It is trampling of the democratic values and the constitution by the military dictator,’’ Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, the leader of one of the parties, the Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Islam, told Reuters by telephone from a Lahore police station where he was being held. The alliance announced a plan earlier this month to hold a series of rallies in Pakistani cities to which activists would travel together by train, in spite of a government ban on political rallies in public places. They were permitted on Wednesday to travel from Rawalpindi to Lahore, where they held a rally in spite of the ban. “We don’t accept any government regulations that trample the constitution and human rights,’’ Maulana Rehman said. “We are considering a new plan of action.’’ The major political parties have accused the government of manipulating the October poll, supposed to return the country to civilian rule, by effectively barring two exiled former prime ministers, Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mr Nawaz Sharif. The hardline Islamic groups have often in the past allied themselves with military dictators, but they fell out with General Musharraf when he abandoned the Taliban rulers in neighbouring Afghanistan and threw his weight behind US action there after the September 11 attacks. Reuters
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USA for free elections in Pak
Washington, September 7 Ms Condoleezza Rice, speaking ahead of a US visit by the Pakistani leader, dismissed any suggestion that Mr Bush was compromising his democratic principles by keeping close ties with General Musharraf, a key ally in the US war against terrorism. “It is just frankly not true,’’ she said in an interview. “The President has raised with Musharraf our expectations for elections in October,’’ she added. “We made clear to Musharraf that we objected to some of the moves he has made recently,’’ she said. Ms Rice took a tougher line than an earlier mild State Department rebuke or Mr Bush’s public comments after General Musharraf unveiled constitutional changes last month. The changes guaranteed a major role for the military in government and imposed a host of obstacles, effectively barring the two most popular politicians from elections on October 10. Reuters
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Russia, China agree to hear US case on Iraq
Washington, September 7 “We need to work together to make the world peaceful,” Bush said in telephonic conversations with the three leaders yesterday. All three leaders agreed to receive the high-level officials to be despatched by Bush to Paris, Moscow and Beijing next week to present the US case against the Iraqi leader, official sources said yesterday. Bush encountered “frosty resistance” when he telephoned the Presidents of China, Russia and France, The Washington Post reported. White House officials acknowledged that none of the three leaders embraced Bush’s intention to force a regime change on Baghdad, possibly beginning within months and probably with military force, the Post said. US officials, it said, called the rebuff disappointing but not surprising. Russian officials said in Moscow that President Vladimir Putin expressed “serious doubts” about the legal and political validity of invading Iraq, and French officials said President Jacques Chirac insisted on UN Security Council approval of military action. Each could use his seat on the UN Security Council to veto resolutions aimed at Saddam. The Bush team is at work on a proposed resolution setting a deadline for Iraq to admit weapons inspectors or risk punitive action. PTI, AP
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Bush-Vajpayee talks on
September 12 Washington, September 7 Bush will hold talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the morning followed by his address to the UN General Assembly, the White House said. After the address, the US President will hold talks with several world leaders, attending the UN General Assembly. Bush will hold talks with Mr Vajpayee soon after meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Later in the day, Bush will meet with Mr Musharraf. The US President also plans to meet Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
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USA, UN ‘ignored’ warnings on 9/11 attacks
London, September 7 The warnings were delivered by an aide of Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the then Taliban Foreign Minister, who was known to be deeply unhappy with foreign militants, including the Arabs, in Afghanistan, The Independent daily reported today. At the same time, the FBI and CIA failed to take seriously warnings that Islamic fundamentalist students had enrolled in flight schools across the USA, it said. Mr Muttawakil learnt of the planned attacks on the USA not from other Taliban leaders, but from the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Mr Tahir Yildash. It was one of the fundamentalist groups that had found refuge on the Afghan soil, lending fighters for the Taliban’s war with the Northern Alliance. Mr Muttawakil, now in American custody, believed the Taliban’s protection of Bin Laden and other Al-Qaida elements would lead to destruction of Afghanistan by the US military. He told his aide: “The guests are going to destroy the guest house.” The minister then ordered him to alert the USA and UN about what was going to happen. But in a massive failure of intelligence, the message was disregarded because of what sources described as “warning fatigue”. PTI
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Osama loyalist held in Germany Berlin, September 7 German police announced late on Friday the arrest a 25-year-old German-born Turk suspected of building five bombs near the tourist city of Heidelberg. They also detained his 23-year-old American fiancee, who works as a civilian at a store in the city’s U.S. Army Europe headquarters.
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Tribune
scribe Atiqur Rahman dead Atiqur Rahman, acclaimed as belonging to Bangladesh’s old guard in the journalistic fraternity, who was in the thick of his country’s freedom movement and saw the fledgling nation emerge from its
infancy, died of heart attack in Dhaka yesterday. The funeral was held at his home town of Comilla late yesterday. Rahman, 64, who represented the Tribune in Bangladesh, is survived by his wife Hosnara Begum and three sons. In a chequered career, Rahman wrote with consummate ease in Bengali and English. He has written several books in Bengali about the freedom movement in Bangladesh and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He headed the Bengali service of the United News of Bangladesh and served with the weekly Dhaka Courier. He was consultant to the oldest English newspaper — the Bangladesh Observer. Rahman had also served as minister (press) in the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi. |
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