I understand the Taliban are asking bin Laden to leave but I also hear they are forcing schoolboys to man the front lines in their fight against the Northern alliance and (they hope) American troops. I guess they think that drafted schoolboys will make wonderful martyrs for their glorious jihad/murder rampage.
[link|http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,310701-412,00.shtml|
Taliban Cooperation? ]
Afghan Leaders Ask Bin Laden To Leave; Say U.S. Not To Be Trusted
Sept. 27, 2001
(CBS) Afghan authorities have delivered a message to Osama bin Laden advising him of a decision by the country's clerics recommending that he leave Afghanistan voluntarily.
Ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef said the clerics' decision had been "endorsed" by the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
"We have not lost Osama, but he is out of sight of the people," Ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef told Pakistanis Thursday. Pakistan is the only country left that recognizes the Taliban cabal.
The delivery was made as the Taliban warned Afghans not to look to the United States for help.
In a message distributed by the Afghan Islamic Press, Omar referred back to the Soviet defeat in the 1979-1989 war. Afghans who took power during the Soviet occupation were toppled within a few years, and now are the enemies of the hard-line regime.
"Those Afghans who want to seize power with the help of America are just like those fools who tried to stay in power with the help of the Russian army," he said. "If America interferes in Afghanistan, then it will be no different from Russia."