Bush rejects Taliban's offer on handing over bin Laden

Asian Political News, Oct 22, 2001

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 Kyodo

President George W. Bush on Sunday rejected an offer from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to discuss turning over Islamic militant Osama bin Laden if the United States stops air strikes against Afghanistan.

''There is no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty,'' Bush told reporters as he returned to the White House from his Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

''Turn him over, turn his cohorts over, turn any hostage they hold over, destroy all the terrorist camps. There's no need to negotiate...I told them exactly what they need to do,'' Bush said.

The Bush administration believes bin Laden masterminded the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. It accuses the Taliban of providing shelter to the Saudi fugitive and his al-Qaida network of terrorist groups.

At a news conference in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Sunday, Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Haji Abdul Kabir said the Taliban would be willing to discuss handing over bin Laden to a third country, or putting him on trial in Afghanistan, if the U.S. military ends bombing and provides evidence of his involvement in the attacks on the U.S.

The U.S.-led air campaign in Afghanistan entered its second week Sunday, with fierce assaults on Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold in the southern part of the country, the CNN television network reported.

U.S. warplanes also hit artillery and heavy armor that had been moved to the mountains outside the Afghan capital of Kabul, the report said.

In Washington, meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson described a recently found series of anthrax-contaminated mail in the U.S. as bioterrorism, but said it is too early to blame bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

''There's no question it's bioterrorism,'' Thompson told CNN's ''Late Edition.''

''But whether or not it's connected to al-Qaida, we can't say conclusively,'' he said.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said some of the people responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks are likely still in the U.S. planning more assaults.

Ashcroft said law enforcement agencies nationwide are tracking down leads in an effort to find about 200 suspects and prevent additional attacks.

''I believe that it is very unlikely that all of those individuals who were associated with or involved with the terrorism events of Sept. 11 and other terrorism events that may have pre-positioned and pre-planned have been apprehended,'' he said on a NBC television program.