afghanistan (Page 5)

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is making a tour of the middle east in what BBC Correspondent Tom Carver is saying is a process of “laying out the case for military action.”

The trip was arranged within the past two days at the request of President Bush. Rumsfeld will stop in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt and Uzbekistan. He will return to Washington this weekend.

Saudi Arabia has presented the United States with a serious obstacle by refusing to allow US bases in that country to be used directly in the military effort. This has created a significant obstacle, especially in terms of delivering and supply any large ground force. The carrier Kitty Hawk has been moved into the Persian Gulf to partially offset the loss of the bases.
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Death is descending on the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Aside from the upcoming war, a starving mass of human beings are experiencing the worst drought in 30 years and the approaching bitter winter.
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Anne Strieber’s new diary entry explores the importance of the Wahhabi sect in the current conflict, and points out that this sect, which began in Saudi Arabia, is extremely intolerant and has a long history of violence. It is also an extremely important force in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. All the terrorists in the Attack on America were Wahhabis. Two of them were sons of a former official in the Saudi Embassy to the US.

Because of our dependence on Saudi oil, the Saudi connection has not been much explored on the US press, so Anne takes us to the prestigious British newsweekly, the Spectator, which is more than willing to examine the situation.

To read the diary entry, click here.
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The Pakistani mission to the Taliban has returned with an agreement to continue talks, but one delegate is reporting that bin Laden was not discussed in the meeting just concluded. It appears that the Taliban continue to play for time, as the US comes closer and closer to overt military action.

Meanwhile administration officials are saying that US Special Forces have entered Afghanistan on reconnaissance and intelligencegathering missions. The British Special Air Service (SAS) have also been in Afghanistan for some time.
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