Word: talibans
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...Afghanistan, some 5,000 are scrambling through the impossible terrain in places where bin Laden might be hiding. That area is a saw-bladed mountain range 1,500 miles long. But most troops aren't just looking for him specifically. Instead, they are patrolling the border against incursions by Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. Rather than trek through the vast mountainous region hoping for a chance encounter, the U.S. command is now engaged in a slow but probably more effective tactic of trying to win over Pashtun villagers by digging wells and giving away tractors and generators. The hope...
...will face 17 rivals in the country's first-ever presidential election. Since political differences here are often resolved with bullets, Karzai, 46, has been an invisible candidate, rarely leaving his granite-walled palace. U.N. officials say a third of the country is still in the grip of either Taliban fighters or lawless warlords, making it nearly impossible for Karzai and other candidates to campaign freely. Parliamentary elections will be held next April...
...Organizations like Jemaah Islamiah have very close links with terrorist organizations beyond our region. To think you can simply focus on the region and get away with ignoring all the other challenges the war on terror brings us is mistaken." Ending Taliban rule in Afghanistan reduced the flow of al-Qaeda-trained terrorists into Southeast Asia, Downer points out. On the other hand, Labor's Christmas troop pullout from Iraq "would give an enormous propaganda victory to the terrorists, not just in Iraq but elsewhere, including Southeast Asia." Abu Baker Bashir, the alleged leader of J.I., said last month that...
...American-born Taliban, Yaser Esam Hamdi, was set to be released last week after more than two years in a U.S. naval brig, another one, John Walker Lindh, above, remains in a California prison. But he may soon be on the witness stand, testifying for the prosecution in the Guantánamo Bay military trials. Lindh, who pleaded guilty in 2002 to aiding the Taliban, is cooperating in the Gitmo trials in an effort to reduce his 20-year sentence, according to a government official familiar with the case. Considering his original indictment, Lindh may have some significant information to share...
Since his capture in Afghanistan, Lindh--who has grown a beard down to his chest and covers his shaved head with a khaki skullcap to match his prison jumpsuit--appears to have had a change of heart about the Taliban and claims he was misled about jihad, according to sources close to his case. But although he remains a student of Islam--his daily routine includes reading the Koran and improving his Arabic via a correspondence course--he has little to do with other Muslim inmates. "He thinks that most Muslims are not good Muslims," says an official...