Arab journalist: Taliban 'panicking'

Post #11,176 by brettj 10/1/01 7:55:50 PM Reply	Arab journalist: Taliban 'panicking' [link\|http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/10/01/ret.atwan.cnna/index.html\| Arab journalist: Taliban 'panicking'] October 1, 2001 Posted: 3:37 PM EDT (1937 GMT) Atwan says bin Laden told him he wants to die soon, and as a "martyr." (CNN) -- The relationship between Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and exiled Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden has been the subject of speculation ever since last month's terrorist attacks, which U.S. officials say were backed if not devised by bin Laden. Abdel Barin Atwan, the Editor-in-Chief of the Palestinian-based newspaper "Al Quds," talked with CNN's Leon Harris on Monday about what the Taliban and bin Laden are thinking and what they may do next. HARRIS: Let me begin by asking you about the Taliban's flip-flop this morning -- over the weekend, insisting that they did not know where Osama bin Laden is, and now saying that they do have him but they want to negotiate with the United States. How do you read that? ATWAN: Actually, it means many things. First, we are not dealing with sophisticated government that has a structure (and) departments like everybody else. We are dealing with a movement -- radical movements that belong to the Middle Ages.
Post #11,193 by wharris2 10/1/01 10:16:02 PM Reply	Snort You believe anything (a) a Palestinian journalist says for consumption by the media in the west? (b) anything the Taliban says? (c) Anything bin Laden says, reported at third hand through various dubious sources? They are no more panicking than they are willing to give bin Laden up to us. Who knows how empty the sky is In the place of a fallen tower. Who knows how quiet it is in the home Where a son has not returned. -- Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
Post #11,218 by gtall 10/2/01 9:03:46 AM Reply	Re: Arab journalist: Taliban 'panicking' I tend to agree with wharris, when I first read this story I figured it was either a plant by some bin Laden sympathizer to encourage us to start the war he so desparately needs or some game by Arafat to win him more acceptance in the west. Gerard Allwein
Post #11,242 by JayMehaffey 10/2/01 11:20:58 AM Reply	One part I agree with The bit about the Taliban not being an organized government so much as a movement strikes me as being very true. I saw the CNN 'Behind the Veil' over the weekend and it showed much the same thing. The different parts of the Taliban don't coordinate their actions very well. Shah was able to do so tape so much in a large part because one area wouldn't notify other areas that she was coming, or what she had been doing. The talk of bin Laden fighting to the death sound right also. He wouldn't be doing what he does if he didn't accept that he could become a martyr. A violent death would serve his cause, a trial in the US would be far less effective, and a trial before the UN, or worse, Saudi Arabia wouldn't help the cause much at all. The part about the Taliban panicking seems contrived to me though. The Taliban was probably unaware of the specifics of the attack before it occured, and quite possibly didn't even know that one was imminent. But they must have known that terrorist attacks on the US was bin Laden's goal, and that those attacks would bring reprisals against the Taliban. Jay

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