Pakistan Helps USA vs. Afghanistan but watch out for militants

Cut & Paste

Pakistan Facing Pressure From Within

By BARRY SCHWEID
.c The Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) - Pakistan is facing pressure from within as it carries a
U.S. demand to neighboring Afghanistan's rulers to expel Osama bin Laden and
his terrorism network.

Pakistan is sending a delegation to Kabul to deliver Washington's message
that it faces attack if bin Laden is not expelled.

And, even before getting the Afghan government's response, Pakistan agreed to
close its 1,560-mile border with Afghanistan and permit U.S. military
overflights, a pleased senior American official said Sunday, speaking on
condition of anonymity.

Islamic hard-liners, protested in Pakistan, however, burning U.S. flags and
shouting their support for bin Laden.

President Pervez Musharraf, who conferred by telephone with President Bush on
Saturday, faced a chilling warning from Pakistani militants that they would
take up arms for Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia against the United
States.

Secretary of State Colin Powell declared Sunday that the Taliban risks the
``full wrath'' of the United States if it does not expel bin Laden, the prime
suspect in the terrorist attacks on the United States.

Powell said the United States would make its own overture to Taliban
officials in the next few days. ``They must expel this organization,'' he
said of the network bin Laden directs from his sanctuary in Afghanistan.
``They must help us destroy this organization.''

Taliban, a Muslim fundamentalist movement, ``will be held accountable for the
help they have given the organization,'' Powell said on CNN.

The choice for the Taliban, he said, is ``either help us rip them up'' or
suffer ``the full wrath of the United States and other countries.''

Reaching out for diplomatic, economic and, potentially, military support,
Bush, Powell and U.S. diplomats worldwide explained America's case against
bin Laden. Only a few countries, most notably Iraq, were excluded from the
diplomatic roundup.

Powell telephoned the foreign ministers of Greece, Turkey and Mexico on
Saturday and Dutch Foreign Minister Jozias Van Aartsen on Sunday.

So broad is the coalition the administration is trying to put together that
help is being sought from Syria, which the State Department lists as a
sponsor of terrorism; even Iran may be solicited.

But, Powell said of the Iranians: ``If they are interested in fighting
terrorism it has to be terrorism not just related to this incident but
terrorism of the kind that they have sponsored in the past.''

Iran provides weapons to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon for their attacks on
Israel.

Last April, in its report on terrorism, the State Department said there were
indications Pakistan was providing the Taliban with material, fuel, funds,
technical assistance and military advisers.

Responding to reports Pakistan is conditioning its cooperation on excluding
India and Israel from any coalition, Powell said, ``We understand the
sensitivities that would be involved in anything that might involve India or
Israel.''

But, he added, ``we do not have a multinational force going anywhere yet.''

At the same time, Powell condemned President Saddam Hussein of Iraq as ``an
irrelevant leader sitting there with a broken regime.''

Powell told CBS' ``Face the Nation'' that ``we will keep his regime under
sanctions and we will do what is necessary when it becomes necessary and when
we choose to.''

AP-NY-09-17-01 0138EDT

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.