Dubya's brilliant strategy backfires - now they have hostages

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GERMAN WIRE: Three U.S. soldiers have been arrested by Afghan security forces inside Afghanistan along with two Afghans 'who hold American nationality', Qatar's al-Jazeera television channel reported Saturday.

The Doha station said 'sources in Afghanistan' had told its reporter that 'advanced weapons and maps' had been found with the soldiers, whose names would be released later along with pictures of them....

-- (Nice going @ Idiot. in Chief), September 29, 2001

Answers

From earlier Friday...

Friday September 28 10:58 PM ET

Bush Says U.S. in 'Hot Pursuit' of Bin Laden

By Patricia Wilson and Tahir Ikram

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) said on Friday the United States was in ``hot pursuit'' of the prime suspect behind the suicide attacks on New York and Washington, while a letter found in hijackers' possessions claimed they had sworn allegiance to death.

As a U.S. military buildup continued within striking distance of Afghanistan (news - web sites), Bush vowed to use a variety of weapons in the hunt for Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden (news - web sites). The president underlined the uncharted nature of his war on terrorism, telling reporters, ``There may or may not be a conventional component.''

He declined comment on reports that U.S. special forces had already entered Afghanistan and begun surveillance. But Bush said, ``Make no mistake about it, we're in hot pursuit.''

***********

Duuuuuh! It's a damn good thing he "declined to comment"... surely the Afghans were supposed to be too stupid to know what he meant by "we're in hot pursuit"!!

Maybe Dumbya should follow his own rules and learn to keep "classified" information CLASSIFIED! He can't resist the temptation to let everyone know he is the "head honcho".

He sure likes to use that phrase too... "make no mistake about it", like every other sentence! Ooooh, makes him sound so TOUGH!!

-- (Someone please kill this idiot @ and. let Colin Powell take over), September 29, 2001.


"The president underlined the uncharted nature of his war on terrorism, telling reporters, ``There may or may not be a conventional component.''"

I think now we can pretty much rule out that option of a "conventional component" since they are holding our special forces as hostages. Come to think of it, it looks like we can rule out the option of using "special forces" too!

Sheeesh, this guy could fuck up a wet dream.

-- (bush is @ an. imbecile), September 29, 2001.


LINK

-- Zzzzz (asleep@the.wheel), September 29, 2001.

Taliban captures US special troops - report

Taliban forces are claiming to have arrested five people, including three US special forces troops.

Qatar's al-Jazeera television reports Afghan security forces saying they made the arrests near the border with Iran.

Those detained are said to have been carrying maps of sites of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

The TV station said a military source from bin Laden's group telephoned its correspondent in Islamabad and said the three Americans were from the US special forces and had modern weapons and some maps of al-Qaida sites.

A senior source in the White House said yesterday that four and five-man teams were already in Afghanistan scouting out possible targets and paving the way for strikes on the Taliban regime.

The troops were said not to be actively hunting Osama bin Laden.

The other two men are claimed to be Afghans who were training in the US special forces and have US citizenship.

The Taliban official claim pictures of the men will be released soon.

Story filed: 08:13 Saturday 29th September 2001

-- (another@report.), September 29, 2001.


Saturday September 29, 09:15 AM

Taliban says no foreign special forces in Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement has denied that any U.S. or British special forces have entered territory under its control.

Qatar's al-Jazeera television reported earlier on Saturday that Afghan security forces had arrested three Americans from U.S. special forces and two Afghan guides who were apparently scouting around in western Afghanistan near the Iran border.

"It is totally wrong, we deny this news that they have come to our areas," Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the Taliban defence minister, told Reuters in Kabul.

Mullah Obaidullah did not rule out the possibility that some foreign forces could be in regions held by anti-Taliban forces north of Kabul and in the rugged areas of the northeast near the border with Tajik

-- Maybe you should cancel (the celebratory cake@a$$.hole), September 29, 2001.





-- What's (on@his.nose?), September 29, 2001.

Looks like a Monica pube-hair.

-- (Roland@hatemail.com), September 29, 2001.

buzzzzzzzzz, wrong you asshole, maggot infested, pond scum sucking, tree hugging, cowardly liberal piece of shit! get your facts straight, LOSER... hey, here's a flash for ya, Gore lost!!!

Good luck, Commander in Chief, President George W. BUSH!!!

-- liberals_are_such (utter@assholes.com), September 29, 2001.


Saturday September 29 9:13 AM ET

Confusion Over 'Afghans Take U.S. Forces' Report

By Raja Asghar and Patricia Wilson

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reports of U.S. covert action inside Afghanistan swirled on Saturday after President Bush said the United States was ``in hot pursuit'' of the man he blames for the suicide attacks on America.

A Gulf television station said that Afghan security forces had seized members of the U.S. special forces within the country, but the ruling Taliban swiftly denied the report. A Pentagon spokesman in Washington declined comment.

Later the foreign minister of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, told reporters he doubted that U.S. or allied British special forces were operating within Taliban-controlled areas of the country.

The conflicting reports came as pressure mounted on the hardline Muslim purists in Kabul to hand over the world's most wanted man, Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, and avoid U.S. attacks.

Despite the failure of a high-level delegation of Pakistani Muslim clerics on Friday to persuade the Taliban to hand over the fugitive, the 10-member group managed to secure agreement for more talks, Pakistani and Taliban officials said.

The Taliban have refused to hand over bin Laden, citing a centuries-old Afghan tradition that insists on hospitality for all who request help -- even at risk to the host's life.

Under siege from the rest of the world over their hospitality to bin Laden, and under attack from opposition fighters within, the Taliban's position has never appeared more perilous since they seized control of the country five years ago.

The movement's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has ordered all Afghans to return to their homes after the United Nations reported millions on the move, either trying to flee the country or at least reach safety in the countryside.

And he has warned his people that anyone helping the United States would face the wrath of his holy warriors.

Some 6,500 people are feared dead as a result of the September 11 attacks when hijackers rammed three planes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington and a fourth hijacked aircraft crashed.

``THREE AMERICANS HELD''

President Bush has named bin Laden as the Americans' ``prime suspect'' in the attacks.

As a U.S. military buildup continued within striking distance of Afghanistan, Bush vowed to use a variety of weapons in the hunt for bin Laden.

He declined comment on reports that U.S. special forces had already entered Afghanistan and begun surveillance, but said: ''Make no mistake about it, we're in hot pursuit.''

Just a few hours later Qatar's al-Jazeera television reported the capture of U.S. special forces personnel inside Afghanistan.

Quoting a military source from bin Laden's al Qaeda network, al-Jazeera said that five special forces members -- three Americans and two Afghans with U.S. citizenship -- had been caught as they were scouting near the Iranian border.

They were carrying modern weapons and some maps of al Qaeda sites, al-Jazeera said. Its source said pictures of the men would be released soon.

Asked about the report, the Taliban's defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, told Reuters: ``It is totally wrong, we deny this news that they have come to our areas.'' Kabul's official news agency Bakhtar also issued a denial.

The Pentagon spokesman, asked to comment, would say only: ''We've seen the stories and we are not going to get into the habit of commenting on every story that comes out of the region.''

CHRISTIAN AID WORKERS

Despite the evacuation from Afghanistan of most foreigners since the U.S. attacks, eight foreign aid workers remain in Taliban custody accused of spreading Christianity.

A second session of their trial, set for Saturday, was postponed for a day amid legal procedures to arrange their defense by a Pakistani lawyer, officials said.

Taliban Chief Justice Noor Mohammad Saqib said the two Americans, two Australians and four Germans would be summoned before the court on Sunday.

They have been detained in a Taliban religious police jail since August 5, along with 16 local staff.

In another development, Britain's Foreign Office said it was in contact with the Taliban about a British reporter who was arrested near the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Earlier the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said from Islamabad that the Taliban had begun questioning Yvonne Ridley, 41, a reporter for the London-based Sunday Express.

Ridley was dressed in the all-enveloping Afghan burqa when she was detained with her two guides in Daur Baba district, about nine miles from the Pakistan border, AIP said.

It quoted an official as saying the Briton was carrying no passport and had entered the country illegally. She was under investigation by intelligence agency officials.

ROLE FOR FORMER KING

Mullah Omar was quoted in a rare interview on Saturday as saying that former King Zahir Shah had no role to play in the country despite the current crisis.

Several exiled Afghan leaders and groups have urged Mohammad Zahir Shah, who is 86, to play a part in overseeing the choosing of a new government. The United Nations envoy to Kabul has also said there could be a role for the former monarch, who has lived in exile in Italy since his overthrow in 1973.

The former king was quoted by the French newspaper Le Monde on Saturday repeating his intention to return home as soon as possible to help organize a transition to democratic rule.

But Omar told the conservative Iranian newspaper Entekhab: ''He is too old and weak... Anyway, Afghanistan does not have a leadership vacuum...Imposed puppets do not last long in Afghanistan, and with the grace of God the future of the Taliban shall be bright anyway.''

In the interview, Omar also repeated denials that bin Laden had carried out the September 11 attacks on the United States.

U.N. SWOOPS ON TERRORISM

In New York late on Friday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a sweeping counter-terrorism resolution requiring all nations to freeze funds of terror suspects and crack down on groups helping them.

The U.S.-sponsored resolution, approved by a 15-0 vote, dramatically expands the U.N. role in building a global coalition against terrorism following the September 11 attacks. The resolution also requires countries to deny safe haven to anyone responsible for, or supporting, a terror attack and criminalizes financing of such attacks.

The main thrust of the resolution is on the financing of clandestine networks. It seeks to freeze financial assets of people who have committed, or attempted to commit, terrorist acts or participated in groups owned or controlled ``directly or indirectly'' by such people.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the 19 suspects in the airborne assaults on the United States spent about $500,000 preparing the operation and four of the hijackers were trained in camps in Afghanistan run by bin Laden.

Investigators had developed tentative links between most of the other hijacking suspects and bin Laden, the paper said.

The Post said the operation was planned and launched from overseas, beginning several years ago in Germany with support in Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan.

-- (truth@still.not.clear), September 29, 2001.


Saturday, September 29 10:53 PM SGT

Al-Jazeera TV stands by story that "US special forces" captured

DOHA, Sept 29 (AFP) -

Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV stood by its report Saturday that three members of the US "special forces" had been captured in western Afghanistan, countering a denial by Afghanistan's Taliban ruling militia.

Al-Jazeera's correspondent in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, Ahmad Zaidan, said in a live broadcast that "three members of the US 'special forces' and two Afghans holding US citizenship were captured by the Al-Qaeda organization in Helman, near the border with Iran."

The correspondent attributed his information to "unimpeachable sources."

He said "the sources, citing a military official in Al-Qaeda, called Al-Jazeera's office in Peshawar to announce the capture.

"The official said the five men, who were on a reconnaissance mission, were in possession of sophisticated weapons and maps of locations of the Al-Qaeda organization" of Osama bin Laden, Washington's main suspect in the September11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

The correspondent said pictures of the detainees would be published "soon," adding that the two Afghans holding American citizenship had "trained with US 'special forces'."

The Taliban, who control most of Afghanistan, had denied the report through their official news agency.

"This is not true. We haven't arrested anybody," an official at the Bakhtar news agency said Saturday.

In Washington, the Pentagon refused to confirm or deny the reports.

"We're not going to get into the habit of commenting on every story that comes out of that region. It's a slippery slope once we start getting into that habit," a US Defense Department spokesman said.

The United States is deploying a huge arsenal in preparation for retaliating for the unprecedented jetliner suicide bombings, which left nearly 7,000 people dead. Afghanistan is a presumed target, as the Taliban have refused to hand over bin Laden.

There have been reports that small teams of US and British commandos have been operating inside Afghanistan for two weeks, but US officials have refused to comment on force deployments in the region.

However, US President George W. Bush suggested Friday that covert operations had begun.

"I said loud and clear, sometimes people will be able to see what we do on the television screens. At other times, the American people won't be able to see what we're doing," he told reporters.

"But make no mistake about it, we're in hot pursuit," Bush said, adding: "there is no negotiation with the Taliban."

Britain said Saturday it was seeking clarification of the reported capture of US commandos in Afghanistan.

-- pentagon embarrased (trying to @ cover. it up), September 29, 2001.



Heard Bush's spaniel Spotty took a shit while on Air Force One.

Bush to resign shortly.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), September 29, 2001.


As well he should! If it were Clinton, the repugs would impeach him.

-- (good@riddens.scumbag), September 29, 2001.

Bush doesn't have a cult following. Remember?

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), September 29, 2001.

Bush is the terrorists numero uno target right now, he'll be nothing more than a footnote in the history books soon enough never fear

-- I'll support (bush@thecemetery.com), September 29, 2001.

All the more reason he SHOULD resign.

-- Ken Starr (poop on plane @ shame, shame, shame.), September 29, 2001.


What's worse, a little jizz on the rug, or a big, stinking, slimy pile of dog crap?

I think the latter, definitely!

-- Ken Starr (never, never, never @ poop. on rug), September 29, 2001.


I was so glad that Gore lost. I love George Bush and want to screw him hard. He likes my fat flabby boobs and my huge fat gross gut.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), September 29, 2001.

I would think that U.S. elite special forces are equipped and prepared to die by their own hand before allowing themselves to be captured, interrogated, and brutally tortured (not unlikely given the psychotic nature of this particular enemy). My guess is that this story is false. Unless the "capture" is part of a covert plan. It's not out of the question that some of our dark ops could be trained to withstand torture and confess with false information...

-- excuse this interruption (for a@serious.moment), September 29, 2001.

Those CIA and Special Forces guys over there right now scouting it out have basically agreed to give their lives up in order to accomplish the mission. They have no families, their identity has been erased.

Our Pentagon is always going to deny that any of these operatives were captured, because if they admitted it there would be an outcry from the public, and no further military action could be taken.

Word is that we are going to start blowing things up real soon, and those men who have been captured are probably going to die if they aren't dead already.

-- (another@government.coverup), September 30, 2001.


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