Washington, Jalalabad | Monday
AS ordinary Americans stocked up on canned food, bottled water and gasmasks after fears spread that terrorists are plotting another strike, President George W Bush rejected an offer from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to turn over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden to a neutral third country.
”They must have not heard: There’s no negotiations,” Bush said to journalists at the White House after returning from Camp David.
In Afghanistan, bombing raids continued on Monday morning; three powerful explosions rocked the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad as a lone jet streaked across the sky and dropped at least three bombs. Taliban gunners responded with anti-aircraft fire.
In the US, administration officials said they have no evidence linking the discovery of small amounts of anthrax in three states to bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, but said that the disease tainted letters were sent by someone with terrorist designs.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told Fox News Sunday: ”It certainly is an act of terrorism to send anthrax through the mail”.
Since October 5, US authorities have discovered 12 people contaminated with various forms of the deadly anthrax bacteria. Two have contracted the diseases and one has died.
Bush’s refusal to negotiate with the Taliban came in response to remarks made by Afghan Deputy Prime Minister Haji Abdul Kabir, who told reporters in Jalalabad that if the United States halts bombing, ”then we could negotiate” turning bin Laden over to another country, so long as it was one that would not ”come under pressure from the United States,” said the paper.
”Turn him [bin Laden] over. Turn his cohorts over. Turn any hostage they hold over. Destroy all the terrorist camps,” the Washington Post newspaper quoted him as saying.
Bush added: ”There’s no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he’s guilty. Turn him over. If they want us to stop our military operations, they just gotta meet my conditions, and when I said no negotiations, I meant no negotiations.”
Eight people have been infected at the headquarters of tabloid publisher American Media Inc in Boca Raton, Florida, including Robert Stevens (63) a photo editor at the Sun tabloid whose death October 5 alerted authorities to the contamination.
Four cases have been found in New York, including NBC News employee Erin O’Connor (38) who developed a subcutaneous form of the disease, rather than the inhaled form which killed Stevens, after opening a letter addressed to news anchor Tom Brokaw.
Anthrax bacteria also were discovered in mail at a Microsoft office in Reno, Nevada, but officials reported no infections there. – Sapa-AFP, DMG reporter