Word: osama
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...with Pakistan and, until recently, the United Arab Emirates) to recognize the Taliban government, Saudi Arabia is in the hot seat. The U.S. military, which encamped in the nation during the Gulf War, has still not left. King Fahd welcomes it, but fundamentalists are furious--to say nothing of Osama bin Laden, a native Saudi and son of a Yemeni immigrant. Things got touchy last week when the U.S. asked for permission to launch strikes from a new Saudi air base and the Saudis, for now at least, balked. If a war places Saudi oil reserves at risk...
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak understands the dangers of inflaming Muslim extremists. It will be 20 years ago next week that Egyptian militants assassinated President Anwar Sadat. The leader of the group responsible is an ally of Osama bin Laden. Mubarak has no desire to play so open a role in the upcoming war as to anger extremists, but he can probably contain any problem. Egyptian security forces have kept a reasonably good choke hold on domestic terrorists. And U.S. aid, flowing since the days of the Camp David accords, ensures continued ties with Washington. Cairo will probably support anything that...
...understand President Bush's predicament: he must show the American people that he defends his country. But if the objectives of a military action in Afghanistan are destroying Osama bin Laden and wiping out terrorists' bases, no air operation will work. The bases are hidden in bunkers, tunnels and mountain caves. You can't hope for a blind direct hit when you don't know where your target is. Bombs and missiles, however smart, will only crush hills into dust, and should they fall on cities, kill a lot of innocent people. Nor will it work in terms of intimidation...
...anyone given such a moment to affect the world's course, but the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, is that man. As American warplanes converged on the region surrounding Afghanistan, he had a stark choice to make. He could call by radio to the Taliban fighters in Osama bin Laden's personal security guard and order them to hand over their "guest" to justice. Or he could refuse and make Afghanistan the fiery center of President Bush's declared war on terror...
...moved steadily toward launching an assault on Afghan territory, Taliban soldiers armed with AKs trundled antiquated rocket launchers into position, while citizens fled to the barren countryside or the Pakistani frontier. No one was sure where the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, might be: in a fortified network of caves tunneling under the eastern mountains, "riding off on a horse," as newspapers in Pakistan reported, or even alone...