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Taliban Won’t Turn Over bin Laden
Thursday, September 20, 2001 (15:16 EDT)
By Amir Shah / Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan -- AP
Facing the prospect of U.S. attacks, Islamic clerics urged Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan. The United States said the call Thursday fell short of its demands, and a Taliban official acknowledged the alleged terrorist mastermind might have problems finding another nation willing to accept him.

The clerics’ statement, issued at the end of a two-day meeting of the Ulema, or council of religious leaders, set no deadline for bin Laden to depart and included a warning of a jihad, or holy war, against the United States if its forces attacked this impoverished country.

And in a statement issued late Thursday through its embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, the Taliban government repeated its stand that it would not force bin Laden to leave because that “would be an insult to Islam.”

Nevertheless, the clerics’ statement represented the first sign that some figures in Afghan leadership wanted to compromise on the previous hardline stance against any move to surrender bin Laden, the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.

“This Ulema council requests the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to persuade Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan and select a new place for himself,” the clerical statement said.

In Washington, the Bush administration dismissed the clerics’ decision.

“We want action, not just statements,” Secretary of State Colin Powell said. He said bin Laden must be surrendered and not given continued haven in Afghanistan or any other country.

“The sooner he leaves and is brought to justice, the better off I think the world will be,” Powell said in Washington. The United States has also insisted that bin Laden’s training camps be closed and his hundreds of followers driven out of Afghanistan.
(AP News Source)
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Dan