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POLLS. World opposes Bush plans. Reuters articles, justice. Please distribute.

by Expanding police state.
World war is a pretty good reason to send this everywhere. The US mega-media is brainwashing Americans. Also, a very popular TV show, Politically Incorrect, may even be pulled by ABC, due to its voicing of dissent. International public opinion is mostly opposed to Washington's military plans. See 3 Reuters articles herein.

No Justice, No Peace.

Why is it too much to ask for the USA before launching military attacks to at least first make a show of providing evidence to the Taliban about who commited the horrible attacks on civilians in the USA? Arabs worldwide insist on this first. The USA is again about to throw its weight around without dealing with the fundamental issues of justice that keep this cycle of violence going. Are not Palestinians people, too? Can not some of the brutal sanctions against Iraq be further modified so that hundreds of thousands more Iraqi children do not die? If the USA threatened to withdraw US weapons and support for Israel, then Israel would have to make a fair deal on Jerusalem, and Israel would have stop expanding its settlements and would have to stop stealing more and more land from Israel\'s neighbors. And why should anybody trust the motives of the USA after it encouraged the Iraqi opposition to rise up, and then left them to be slaughtered after the Gulf War? Will another Bush President leave the opposition to be slaughtered? This time in Afghanistan? Bush already sent over a hundred million dollars to the Taliban this year to supposedly fight drugs. That money just freed up more money to buy weapons to fight the Taliban\'s opposition. In many nations the Bush family believes in propping up whatever strongman looks like they will be \"stable\" and good for business. Justice, fair trade, and democracy are usually an accidental afterthought. No Justice, No Peace.

From a September 21 2001 Reuters article (see second article below):
\"But international public opinion was mostly opposed to Washington\'s military plans, according to a Gallup poll in 31 countries. Around 80 percent of Europeans and around 90 percent of South Americans favored extradition and a court verdict against those responsible for the attacks.\"

Gallup International poll on terrorism in the US (figures).
http://www.gallup-international.com/terrorismpoll_figures.htm

Search shortcut for news articles discussing various Gallup polls.
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=gallup&n=20&c=news

Popular TV show, Politically Incorrect, may be pulled by ABC.
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x38347

From another September 21 2001 Reuters article (see third article below):
\"Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said in an interview broadcast on al-Jazeera satellite television that Arabs would not play a role in any campaign if Israel took part. `It is not possible that Arab states join a regional or an international effort joined by Israel, because Israel is slaughtering (Palestinian) people,\' he said, noting Arab states imposed a similar condition in 1990 when the United States built a coalition to eject Iraqi troops from Kuwait.\"

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-- Reuters article:

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Friday September 21 9:29 AM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010921/ts/attack_poll_dc_2.html

Int\'l Opinion Opposes U.S. Military Strike - Poll

Reuters Photo


ZURICH, Switzerland (Reuters) - International public opinion opposes a massive U.S. military strike to retaliate for attacks on America by hijacked aircraft, according to a Gallup poll in 31 countries whose results were released Friday.

Only in Israel and the United States did a majority favor a military response against states shown to harbor terrorists, the survey found. People questioned elsewhere preferred to see suspected terrorists extradited and put on trial.

``Around 80 percent of Europeans and around 90 percent of South Americans favor extradition and a court verdict. By European comparison, calls for a tough military response were above average among the French (29 percent) and the Dutch (28 percent),\'\' said Swiss polling firm Isopublic, which conducted the survey.

Seventy-seven percent of Israelis backed military action, while 54 percent of Americans were in favor, it said.

The surveys, which polled 16,231 people worldwide, were conducted from Monday to Wednesday, about a week after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon (news - web sites) outside Washington that left more than 6,000 people dead or missing.

U.S. officials have named Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) as the prime suspect and have threatened military action if Afghanistan (news - web sites), where bin Laden lives, does not hand him over.

Clear majorities of between 70 and 80 percent supported limiting any strike to military rather than civilian targets, the survey found.

Asked if their own countries should support a U.S. military assault, people in NATO (news - web sites) countries other than Greece tended to agree.

Four out of five Danes backed the idea, followed by 79 percent in Britain and 73 percent in France. Greeks were the least enthusiastic with only 29 percent, below 53 percent in Germany and 58 percent in Norway and Spain.

The survey was done in Argentina, Austria, Bosnia, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, South Korea (news - web sites), Spain, Switzerland, the United States and Zimbabwe.

-- end of Reuters article --

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-- Another Reuters article:

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Friday September 21 1:40 PM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010921/ts/attack_dc_150.html

Markets Decline Again as U.S. Girds for Conflict
Photos

Reuters Photo

By Alan Elsner and Tom Heneghan

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghanistan (news - web sites)\'s ruling Taliban on Friday rejected an ultimatum from President Bush (news - web sites) to surrender Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) or face military strikes, as Wall Street markets headed toward the end of their worst week since the Great Depression 70 years ago.

At the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites), a few blocks from where two hijacked airliners flattened the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 leaving more than 6,500 people dead or missing, investors dumped shares for the fifth straight day.

Wall Street has tossed major stock indexes down 15 percent to three-year lows as the devastation caused by the suicide attacks sparked massive layoffs, recession fears and plans for military retaliation. Not since the Great Crash of 1929 ushered in a decade-long slump has Wall Street seen such a week with some $1.2 trillion in investor wealth evaporating by Thursday\'s close.

Bush in a speech to a joint session of Congress on Thursday night laid the ground for an all-out assault on those he called enemies of freedom.

With the United States rapidly deploying planes and aircraft carrier groups to the Middle East and Indian Ocean, the president demanded Afghanistan\'s radical Islamic rulers hand over Saudi-born bin Laden and all his top associates and open their camps to U.S. inspection or share their fate.

``Whether we bring our enemies to justice or justice to our enemies, justice will be done,\'\' Bush said in a hard-hitting and determined address in which he pledged to defeat all terrorist organizations ``with a global reach\'\' as well as the states that support them.

The Central Asian country reacted defiantly to Bush\'s ultimatum. ``We are not ready to hand over Osama bin Laden without evidence,\'\' Afghanistan\'s ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, said in Islamabad.

He said the government was not bound by an edict from leading Afghan clerics on Thursday declaring bin Laden should be persuaded to leave the country ``whenever possible.\'\'

The toll from the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon (news - web sites) near Washington together with the crash of a fourth hijacked plane in Pennsylvania now exceeds 6,800 dead or missing.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) said that number could still change but not substantially.

``There is no question that the numbers that we are eventually going to be dealing with here are going to be in that order of magnitude -- in the five or six (thousands), or possibly even slightly higher,\'\' he said.

MUSLIM CLERICS DEFIANT

Throughout the Middle East, Muslim clerics on Friday warned the United States against attacking Afghanistan and urged the faithful to unite against any U.S. reprisal.

Influential Lebanese Shi\'ite Muslim cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadllallah, told worshipers in a packed mosque in Beirut to oppose the United States.

``We should confront them (Americans) with all our means to defeat their tyranny and their arrogance,\'\' he declared.

The White House flatly rejected Taliban requests to provide proof that bin Laden was responsible for the attacks, saying there would be no negotiations.

``The president last night made his conditions clear and he said there would be no discussions and no negotiations,\'\' said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites).

The United States continued to move diplomatically to shore up support. A senior Western diplomat in Islamabad said Washington would soon lift sanctions against India and Pakistan imposed after their 1998 nuclear tests and would reschedule $600 million in Pakistani debt.

But international public opinion was mostly opposed to Washington\'s military plans, according to a Gallup poll in 31 countries.

Around 80 percent of Europeans and around 90 percent of South Americans favored extradition and a court verdict against those responsible for the attacks.

Bush said all evidence gathered so far pointed to bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization as responsible for the carnage at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

``HOUR IS COMING\'\'

``The hour is coming when America will act,\'\' he declared.

Photos

Reuters Photo


U.S. editorials almost unanimously praised the speech. \'\'President Bush Thursday evening gave the speech Americans and the world needed to hear,\'\' said the Los Angeles Times in a comment that was typical of the reaction at home.

Last week\'s attacks have led to massive job losses at U.S. airlines and in other related industries, reeling from the costs of new security measures and plunging travel demand.

Congressional leaders and the White House agreed on Friday on a $15 billion bailout plan for the industry, which the U.S. House of Representatives was expected to vote on later Friday.

Bush gave the Taliban an ultimatum that also included shutting Qaeda training camps in the impoverished country.

``These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists or they will share in their fate,\'\' he said.

Bush told foreign governments, ``Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.\'\'

``From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime,\'\' Bush said.

Tens of thousands of Afghans, including Taliban officials, have streamed out of major cities for the relative safety of the countryside and for the borders of Pakistan and Iran amid growing expectations of a punishing U.S. military strike.

Fierce fighting was also reported from northern Afghanistan on Friday, as Taliban troops battled opposition forces seeking revenge for the killing of their leader, Ahmad Shah Masood, and taking advantage of the threat of U.S. strikes. Bin Laden has been linked to the assassination.

Afghan ambassador Zaeef, speaking in Islamabad through an interpreter, said the Taliban would never surrender if the United States launched attacks on their nation and that Muslims had an obligation to respond with jihad, or holy war.

``It would be a showdown of might,\'\' he said. ``We will never surrender to evil and might.\'\'

On Thursday, the council, or shura, of clerics said bin Laden, a 44-year-old multimillionaire based in Afghanistan, should be persuaded to leave, though not expelled. Zaeef said the move was only a suggestion.

``If Osama voluntarily leaves Afghanistan, he may,\'\' Zaeef told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press agency.

NOT A FIGHT WITH ISLAM

Aiming to head off charges he is waging war on Islam, Bush called bin Laden\'s militants traitors to the peaceful teachings of their faith and said America\'s fight was not with Muslims.

In Afghanistan\'s neighbor Pakistan, where support for the Taliban runs high, demonstrators set fire to shops and stoned cars on Friday in protest of President Pervez Musharraf\'s decision to side with Washington in the hunt for bin Laden.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Islamabad said Pakistan hoped the Taliban would take a firm decision on the surrender of bin Laden that satisfied the demands of the international community.

Protesters in Peshawar, home to at least 2 million Afghan refugees, burned an effigy of Bush, while armored personnel carriers guarded the U.S. consulate in the city of Karachi.

Police in Indonesia, the world\'s most populous Muslim nation, said they had assigned snipers to guard the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta after threats from Muslim radicals, while India\'s insurgency-plagued Kashmir (news - web sites) Valley was gripped by a general strike after Muslim guerrillas called for protests.

The hijackings on Sept. 11 destroyed the New York World Trade Center\'s 110-storey twin towers, blew a hole in the Pentagon, and brought down a plane in rural Pennsylvania.

Hours before Bush spoke, Giuliani raised the missing toll at the Trade Center to 6,333. Only five people have been rescued from the rubble that once was the symbol of U.S. financial might, and none since Sept. 12.

Bush also announced the creation of a Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security, with outgoing Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge as its director, to head efforts to overcome weaknesses in domestic security laid bare by last week\'s attacks.

-- end of Reuters article --

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Another Reuters article:

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Friday September 21 12:24 PM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010921/ts/attack_world_dc_2.html

World Responds Quickly, Not Clearly, to Bush

Reuters Photo

By Patricia Zengerle

LONDON (Reuters) - The world\'s response to President Bush (news - web sites)\'s appeal to take his side in a new war on terror was loud but nowhere near as clear on Friday as his demand to choose between \'\'us\'\' and ``the terrorists.\'\'

``Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,\'\' Bush told foreign governments in a speech to the U.S. Congress.

But British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites), who sat in the audience nodding agreement as Bush steeled America -- and the world -- for what could be a long fight, may be the exception rather than the rule in the U.S. quest for global backing.

America\'s response was overwhelmingly favorable after Bush warned Afghanistan (news - web sites)\'s Taliban rulers to hand over Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), prime suspect in last week\'s suicide hijack attacks on Washington and New York.

One U.S. poll after Bush spoke showed 91-percent approval of how he is handling the response to the crisis.

``President Bush Thursday evening gave the speech Americans and the world needed to hear,\'\' the Los Angeles Times said.

Blair had earlier reaffirmed his pledge to stand side by side with the United States and British forces have begun to realign for an expected U.S. attack.

The 6,500 dead or missing in the carnage include citizens of 80 nations, among them 250 Britons.

ECONOMY, ISRAEL

Many leaders expressed concern as America pieced together its coalition in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has offered full cooperation but drew attention to Turkey\'s need for global growth to help it out of a deep domestic economic crisis.

``The international struggle against terrorism has to succeed without too much extension of the period,\'\' Ecevit told CNN Turk television.

``Of course the weight here falls on America because it is a state with a strong economy that can influence the world...I hope that with American leadership the world economy can start developing. We have a particularly great need for that.\'\'

U.S. support for Israel remained a stumbling block to its effort to win backing of Arab and Muslim states.

``Hunting terrorism with weapons alone will not solve the problem completely as long as the anger among the oppressed still exists,\'\' state news agency Bernama quoted Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as saying on Friday.

``If (we) want to wipe out terrorism, the problem (of oppression) in Palestine must be eradicated as well as that in Iraq and Chechnya (news - web sites),\'\' he said.

Muslims demonstrated against the speech in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Hundreds of Palestinian supporters of the militant Muslim group Hamas urged bin Laden to bomb Tel Aviv and the United States during a rally in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites).

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said in an interview broadcast on al-Jazeera satellite television that Arabs would not play a role in any campaign if Israel took part.

``It is not possible that Arab states join a regional or an international effort joined by Israel, because Israel is slaughtering (Palestinian) people,\'\' he said, noting Arab states imposed a similar condition in 1990 when the United States built a coalition to eject Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

A militant Islamic group has threatened to strike with an \'\'iron fist\'\' at Gulf Arab states if they help the United States to attack Afghanistan, al-Jazeera television reported on Friday.

U.N. ROLE

Some sought a U.N. role.

A senior Iranian cleric, said a U.S. strike on Afghanistan would fail to bring to justice those behind the attacks and called for a U.N.-led anti-terrorism campaign.

``Many world leaders have correctly spoken out against provoking a war between two countries, two civilizations or two religions,\'\' Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi said.

Iran, already host to 1.5 million Afghan refugees, fears a new flood in the event of a U.S. strike.

President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) was quick to condemn the attacks, but Iran has said it would not allow U.S. warplanes to use its airspace, reiterating its neutrality in any conflict.

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said the U.N. Security Council might consider imposing sanctions on countries that refuse to cooperate with the United States in its response.

``We French think that beyond the short-term, the Security Council is the most legitimate forum to define the general global policy of the fight against terrorism,\'\' he told Le Monde.

China said it would not let bin Laden enter its territory from neighboring Afghanistan. ``I don\'t think this is a possibility,\'\' a Chinese Foreign Ministry (news - web sites) spokesman said when asked if China would allow bin Laden into the country.

Manila said it would let America use its former bases in the Philippines but probably would not send ground troops.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he would meet Bush in Washington on Tuesday to pledge Tokyo\'s full support for a ``war on terrorism.\'\'

Koizumi said this week that Japan would take measures to allow its forces to provide logistical support for U.S. military operations in response to the attacks.

-- end of Reuters article --

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*Death Squads, Drug War. LINKS worldwide. Revised. Huge LINKS list. Lists in alphabetical and chronological order. Other death squads, too. Such as the US-run Phoenix Program during the Vietnam war. Many other US-run death squads worldwide. Corruption at all levels of politics, police, society, government, etc..
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/squads.htm and
http://drugwar.8m.com/squads.htm

*WORLD DRUG WAR CHARTS. JUST THE CHARTS. Few notes. Compilation of many charts, tables and rates. For incarceration, race, jail, prison, cannabis, drugs, mandatory minimums, drug related crime, poverty, murder, and more. Revised. The USA has over 2 million of the world\'s 8 million prisoners. The USA has 5% of the world\'s population and 25% of the world\'s 8 MILLION prisoners. The USA surpassed Russia in the year 2000 and again has the world\'s highest incarceration rate! The US rate has nearly QUADRUPLED since Reagan\'s election in 1980. It is 5 to 17 times higher than all other Western (long democratic traditions) nations. 6.5 million adults, or 1 in 32 adults in the USA, or 3.1% of adults, were under correctional supervision (in jail, in prison, on probation, or on parole) at yearend 2000.
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/charts2.htm and
http://drugwar.8m.com/charts2.htm
by anonymous
I'm curious... How are we supposed to extradite those responsible? Extraditions are carried out through pre-arranged treaties and agreements. Extraditions should not be subjects of on-the-spot negotiation; justice should not be politicized.

We have requested the extradition of people, and have indicated they would stand trial. Some have already been indicted on previous matters. We can keep requesting extradition until we're blue in the face. It isn't going to happen.

Forcible extraction isn't the most desirable outcome, but I'm failing to see any alternative. Certainly no useful alternatives are mentioned in the articles above. We've tried extradition. Didn't work. Won't work. Time to use other methods.
by LINDA (lindasafley [at] hotmail.com)
ALL OF THIS SOUNDS CRAZY, AND IF THE U.S. GETS US INTO A SITUATION, THAT IS DEFINITLY GOING TO CAUSE US SOME PEOPLE, WHO ARE GOING TO WIND UP IN ANOTHER VIETNAM SITUATION, THERE IS NOW WAY TO WIN A WAR ON TERRORISM, UNLESS THEY START TRACKING THE MONEY, WHO IS PAYING FOR WHAT, OUR OWN GOVERNMENT, HAS BACKED UP SOME WEIRDO'S RUNNING AROUND WITH OUR WEAPONRY, INCLUDING IRAQ, AND MAYBE THEY'RE FEELING GUILTY NOW!
WELL, WE HAVE TO HAVE JUSTICE, AND WITH OUR OWN CITIZENS IN THIS COUNTRY, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, I CAN'T SEE DRILLING MORE OIL FOR A WAR EFFORT, THIS CERTAINTLY IS NOT GOINGT TO BE GOOD FOR THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE. THIS SAME MAN WHO GAVE US THE SPEECH LAST NIGHT, IS THE SAME ONE WHO WALKED OUT OF THE KYOTO MEETING, AND WE SHOULD FOCUS ON THIS ENERGY CRISIS, THE WINTER IS GOING TO BE COMING, AND WE HAVE TO PREPARE OURSELVES. AND ALL OF THESE WARS OVER OIL, AMERICAN POLICY, AND VIOLATION OF OUR CIVIL RIGHTS, IS NOT SOMETHING I AM WILLING TO DEBATE ABOUT, MAY OF OUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD NOW, OBTAINING OUR RIGHTS TO FREEDOM. AND THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE DENIED TO US, ALL IN THE NAME OF TERRORISM.
WE MSUT STAND UP, AND BE COUNTED, AND BE STRONG IN OUR BELEIF'S SYSTEM, AND ACT ACCORDINGLY TO OUR CONSIOUSNESSES.
WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS, AND IF ALL OF THE GROUPS, ENVL., SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND REMEMBER WE NEED HOUSING NOW, AND RIGHTS FOR THE HOMELESS ARE BEING OBLITERATED AS WELL.
CONTINUE ON WITH OUR WORK, AND DEMAND PEACE AND JUSTICE!
by LINDA (lindasafley [at] hotmail.com)
ALL OF THIS SOUNDS CRAZY, AND IF THE U.S. GETS US INTO A SITUATION, THAT IS DEFINITLY GOING TO CAUSE US SOME PEOPLE, WHO ARE GOING TO WIND UP IN ANOTHER VIETNAM SITUATION, THERE IS NOW WAY TO WIN A WAR ON TERRORISM, UNLESS THEY START TRACKING THE MONEY, WHO IS PAYING FOR WHAT, OUR OWN GOVERNMENT, HAS BACKED UP SOME WEIRDO'S RUNNING AROUND WITH OUR WEAPONRY, INCLUDING IRAQ, AND MAYBE THEY'RE FEELING GUILTY NOW!
WELL, WE HAVE TO HAVE JUSTICE, AND WITH OUR OWN CITIZENS IN THIS COUNTRY, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, I CAN'T SEE DRILLING MORE OIL FOR A WAR EFFORT, THIS CERTAINTLY IS NOT GOINGT TO BE GOOD FOR THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE. THIS SAME MAN WHO GAVE US THE SPEECH LAST NIGHT, IS THE SAME ONE WHO WALKED OUT OF THE KYOTO MEETING, AND WE SHOULD FOCUS ON THIS ENERGY CRISIS, THE WINTER IS GOING TO BE COMING, AND WE HAVE TO PREPARE OURSELVES. AND ALL OF THESE WARS OVER OIL, AMERICAN POLICY, AND VIOLATION OF OUR CIVIL RIGHTS, IS NOT SOMETHING I AM WILLING TO DEBATE ABOUT, MAY OF OUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD NOW, OBTAINING OUR RIGHTS TO FREEDOM. AND THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE DENIED TO US, ALL IN THE NAME OF TERRORISM.
WE MUST STAND UP, AND BE COUNTED, AND BE STRONG IN OUR BELEIF'S SYSTEM, AND ACT ACCORDINGLY TO OUR CONSIOUSNESSES.
WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS, AND IF ALL OF THE GROUPS, ENVL., SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND REMEMBER WE NEED HOUSING NOW, AND RIGHTS FOR THE HOMELESS ARE BEING OBLITERATED AS WELL.
CONTINUE ON WITH OUR WORK, AND DEMAND PEACE AND JUSTICE!
by Just the facts.
To the person making the first comment. The USA hasn't even bothered to present any evidence to the Taliban. It is an obvious ploy to ignore any peaceful resolutions. So Bush can have his little "war."

In Bush's mind, the Arabs be damned, if they are offended by all this. It is a racist policy. Would not the USA present EVIDENCE to its allies before demanding they turn over a "terrorist"? Or would we bomb France or England if they were not satisfied by our evidence. These nations have delayed extradition in the past when we haven't presented enough evidence, or if they didn't agree with our death penalty.

If after we present evidence the Taliban completely blows us off, then we will be far more justified in the eyes of the world in attacking MILITARY and TERRORIST targets.
by anonymous
Evidence was presented to a grand jury, leading to an indictment. Substantial evidence was presented in a trial of Khalfan Khamis Mohamed. While I don't typically like CNN's news coverage, they provide handy links to the court transcripts:

http://fyi.cnn.com/LAW/trials.and.cases/case.files/0012/embassy.bombing/

Note that the convicted embassy bomber did not receive the death penalty. bin Laden stands more of a chance of living a long life by giving himself up. He'd also get better medical care (apparently needing regular dialysis). And he'd probably receive an incredible defense; the evidence would be thoroughly picked apart. I'd lay decent odds he wouldn't be convicted of the full charges.

It doesn't matter if bin Laden was not directly involved in last week's attacks, just as it doesn't matter that Escobar was not directly involved with elementary school cocaine dealers.(although they both received funding from the same three-letter folks long ago)

He's already wanted and should have been extradicted long ago. The Taliban have previously refused to turn him over, even when the US offered to officially recognize them. That's one reason why Washington isn't bothering to negotiate. They've tried, and under a substantially more friendly administration. Yes, the Taliban "do not permit him" to cause harm on foreign soil. But guess what? He successfully predicted the attacks on the embassies, and he may have predicted the attacks last week. He's not Nostradamus...

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ladin.htm

I don't support blind, sweeping military strikes. Those would be stupid, especially in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, I don't see how a smaller strike could retrieve him alive. It's not worth the risk to the troops. By refusing to extradite him, the Taliban are sentancing him to death.


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