email the Mujahidin

/ dave / arouet at winternet.com
Wed Oct 10 03:41:21 PDT 2001


The Afghani Mujahidin have a modest website:

http://www.payamemujahid.com/

Naturally it's in the Pushtu/Dari languages (not enough to stop me from listening to one of their half-hour real audio radio programs) though there is one short summary - the "latest news" link - that's written in English. Just a couple of snippets there, both of which have been reported elsewhere by this time, but it may be worth an occassional look for those so inclined. It was last updated yesterday.

Meanwhile, I came across a somewhat roughly-translated article from the archives on the Iran Press Agency site, dated January 23, that quotes a Taliban representative thusly:

"We told Michael Sheehan (U.S. State Department Counter-Terrorism Coordinator) that the presence of Bin Laden in Afghanistan was in the best interest of Washington because his supporters will not act against the United States until ("as long as", I assume they mean - d.) he is here among us", Mr. Mottaqi said in a statement issued by Taleban Embassy in Islamabad.

- snip -

"We told the US official that we are ready to resolve the issue through talks and assured him that Osama bin Laden is not allowed and cannot engage in anti-US activity from Afghan soil," the statement said.

(Oops... though they did take away his fax and computer, supposedly)

Another quote:

"If he is arrested or killed, there would be a strong backlash against the United States by his followers", the statement quoted Mr. Mottaqi as having warned the American expert on counter-terrorism.

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles/afqan_taleban_us_23100.htm

A splashy compendium of Afghanistan-related news can be found here (looks almost like a mirror of the Guardian site with all the reprints of their articles): http://www.afghandaily.com/

I also read somewhere that bin Laden married a 17-year old Yemeni girl a year or so ago. And was reminded via a 1998 article that many of the Taliban are likely humming a Cat Stevens song as they fire across the scrub at the opposition forces, as a song Stevens (now Yusuf Islam, of course) wrote about Afghanistan was appropriated by the Taliban as an allowable anthem after they had banned all other music.

--

/ dave /



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