Oct 7 --Following is the text of a statement made by U.S. President George W. Bush on Sunday, announcing the United States had begun military strikes in Afghanistan.
On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime.
We are joined in this operation by our staunch friend, Great Britain. Other close friends, including Canada, Australia, Germany and France, have pledged forces as the operation unfolds.
More than 40 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and across Asia have granted air transit or landing rights. Many more have shared intelligence. We are supported by the collective will of the world.
More than two weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders a series of clear and specific demands: Close terrorist training camps. Hand over leaders of the al Qaeda network, and return all foreign nationals, including American citizens unjustly detained in our country.
None of these demands were met. And now, the Taliban will pay a price.
By destroying camps and disrupting communications, we will make it more difficult for the terror network to train new recruits and coordinate their evil plans.
Initially the terrorists may burrow deeper into caves and other entrenched hiding places. Our military action is also designed to clear the way for sustained, comprehensive and relentless operations to drive them out and bring them to justice.
At the same time, the oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and our allies. As we strike military targets, we will also drop food, medicine and supplies to the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan.
The United States of America is a friend to the Afghan people, and we are the friends of almost a billion worldwide who practice the Islamic faith.
The United States of America is an enemy of those who aid terrorists and of the barbaric criminals who profane a great religion by committing murder in its name.
This military action is a part of our campaign against terrorism, another front in a war that has already been joined through diplomacy, intelligence, the freezing of financial assets and the arrests of known terrorists by law enforcement agents in 38 countries.
Given the nature and reach of our enemies, we will win this conflict by the patient accumulation of successes, by meeting a series of challenges with determination and will and purpose.
Today we focus on Afghanistan, but the battle is broader. Every nation has a choice to make. In this conflict, there is no neutral ground. If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocence, they have become outlaws and murderers themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril.
I'm speaking to you today from the Treaty Room of the White House, a place where American presidents have worked for peace.
We're a peaceful nation. Yet, as we have learned, so suddenly and so tragically, there can be no peace in a world of sudden terror. In the face of today's new threat, the only way to pursue peace is to pursue those who threaten it.
We did not ask for this mission, but we will fulfill it.
The name of today's military operation is Enduring Freedom. We defend not only our precious freedoms, but also the freedom of people everywhere to live and raise their children free from fear.
I know many Americans feel fear today. And our government is taking strong precautions. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies are working aggressively around America, around the world and around the clock.
At my request, many governors have activated the National Guard to strengthen airport security. We have called up reserves to reinforce our military capability and strengthen the protection of our homeland.
In the months ahead, our patience will be one of our strengths -- patience with the long waits that will result from tighter security, patience and understanding that it will take time to achieve our goals, patience in all the sacrifices that may come.
Today, those sacrifices are being made by members of our armed forces who now defend us so far from home, and by their proud and worried families.
A commander in chief sends America's sons and daughters into battle in a foreign land only after the greatest care and a lot of prayer.
We ask a lot of those who wear our uniform. We ask them to leave their loved ones, to travel great distances, to risk injury, even to be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice of their lives.
They are dedicated. They are honorable. They represent the best of our country, and we are grateful.
To all the men and women in our military, every sailor, every soldier, every airman, every Coast Guardsman, every Marine, I say this: Your mission is defined. The objectives are clear. Your goal is just. You have my full confidence, and you will have every tool you need to carry out your duty.
I recently received a touching letter that says a lot about the state of America in these difficult times, a letter from a fourth grade girl with a father in the military.
"As much as I don't want my dad to fight," she wrote, "I'm willing to give him to you."
This is a precious gift. The greatest she could give. This young girl knows what America is all about.
Since Sept. 11, an entire generation of young Americans has gained new understanding of the value of freedom and its cost and duty and its sacrifice.
The battle is now joined on many fronts. We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail.
Thank you. May God continue to bless America.
Bin Laden Says War on Afghanistan Is 'War on Islam'
Osama bin Laden says U.S. 'full of fear,' praises God for Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Following is the text of a videotaped statement made by Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden and broadcast on Qatar-based al-Jazeera television on Sunday:
Here is America struck by God Almighty in one of its vital organs, so that its greatest buildings are destroyed. Grace and gratitude to God. America has been filled with horror from north to south and east to west, and thanks be to God that what America is tasting now is only a copy of we have tasted.
Our Islamic nation has been tasting the same for more 80 years, of humiliation and disgrace, its sons killed and their blood spilled, its sanctities desecrated.
God has blessed a group of vanguard Muslims, the forefront of Islam, to destroy America. May God bless them and allot them a supreme place in heaven, for He is the only one capable and entitled to do so. When those have stood in defense of their weak children, their brothers and sisters in Palestine and other Muslim nations, the whole world went into an uproar, the infidels followed by the hypocrites.
A million innocent children are dying at this time as we speak, killed in Iraq without any guilt. We hear no denunciation, we hear no edict from the hereditary rulers. In these days, Israeli tanks rampage across Palestine, in Ramallah, Rafah and Beit Jala and many other parts of the land of Islam, and we do not hear anyone raising his voice or reacting. But when the sword fell upon America after 80 years, hypocrisy raised its head up high bemoaning those killers who toyed with the blood, honour and sanctities of Muslims.
The least that can be said about those hypocrites is that they are apostates who followed the wrong path. They backed the butcher against the victim, the oppressor against the innocent child. I seek refuge in God against them and ask Him to let us see them in what they deserve.
I say that the matter is very clear. Every Muslim after this event (should fight for their religion), after the senior officials in the United States of America starting with the head of international infidels, (U.S. President George W.) Bush and his staff who went on a display of vanity with their men and horses, those who turned even the countries that believe in Islam against us -- the group that resorted to God, the Almighty, the group that refuses to be subdued in its religion.
They (America) have been telling the world falsehoods that they are fighting terrorism. In a nation at the far end of the world, Japan, hundreds of thousands, young and old, were killed and (they say) this is not a world crime. To them it is not a clear issue. A million children (were killed) in Iraq, to them this is not a clear issue.
But when a few more than 10 were killed in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Afghanistan and Iraq were bombed and hypocrisy stood behind the head of international infidels, the modern world's symbol of paganism, America, and its allies.
I tell them that these events have divided the world into two camps, the camp of the faithful and the camp of infidels. May God shield us and you from them.
Every Muslim must rise to defend his religion. The wind of faith is blowing and the wind of change is blowing to remove evil from the Peninsula of Mohammad, peace be upon him.
As to America, I say to it and its people a few words: I swear to God that America will not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine, and before all the army of infidels depart the land of Mohammad, peace be upon him.
God is Great; glory be to Islam.
Main aid agencies reject US air drops
Plea for borders to be reopened after air strikes
Jonathan Steele and Felicity Lawrence
Monday October 8, 2001
The Guardian
The launching of military attacks on Afghanistan will worsen the humanitarian crisis in the country and make the plans for air drops "virtually useless" as an aid strategy, leading British aid agencies warned yesterday.
America and Britain should assign clear land corridors and ensure safe passage along them for aid to flow in and refugees to return home without any danger of being hit by air strikes, senior aid workers said.
Most of Britain's aid agencies were unwilling to comment on the wisdom of yesterday's attacks, because of their non-political status, although they believe that fear of action against Afghanistan had greatly exacerbated the country's humanitarian crisis. They said Pakistan and other neighbouring countries should be persuaded to reopen their borders to refugees to avert a disaster.
Will Day, chief executive of Care International, said: "Air drops make great TV, but they often represent a failure to respond to a food crisis."
Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam, said all aid should be channelled through the UN "to be seen as impartial and separate from military action".
"Trucking of food is cheaper and is tried and tested. Air drops are risky, random, expensive, and likely to meet only a fraction of the need. Aid workers would be put in a difficult position if food aid came to be viewed as part of a military effort".
Mohammed Kroessin, director of Muslim Aid, which has already raised £500,000 in aid, said the military action "will cause immense suffering to millions of starving people. Air drops will not be useful".
The director of the Catholic charity Cafod, Julian Filichowski, said: "It is a matter of fact that even the threat of military action has made the humanitarian situation worse. The start of military attacks on Afghanistan, even if limited, will exacerbate problems."
Save the Children's director-general, Mike Aaronson, said it was not the charity's job to say whether military action should have taken place. But he added his organisation had urged restraint on the grounds that military action inevitably resulted in civilian casualties and suffering, and all possible alternatives should be explored first.
The threat of military action has already had serious consequences, causing many people to leave the urban areas of Afghanistan.
All the dozen agencies contacted by the Guardian yesterday wanted Afghanistan's borders reopened immediately.
"States in the region must honour their obligations under the refugee convention and ensure that those seeking refuge from Afghanistan are allowed to enter their borders," Mr Aaronson said.
Cafod said launching air strikes while the borders were still closed would leave people who were already starving stranded without access to aid.
A statement said: "We would remind the international community that international law obliges those who take armed action to make sure that civilians have access to humanitarian aid."
Pakistan, Iran and the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan closed their borders in line with an American request early in the crisis. Their governments were willing to go along with Washington because they feared a huge refugee influx which they could not control.
The executive director of World Vision, Charles Clayton, said: "As a Christian humanitarian organisation we never advocate the use of military force. But we remind western forces of their obligations to civilians under the Geneva convention."
Christian Aid said military force "could only be justified as a last resort as a means of bringing guilty men to justice", but "in the short term it will inevitably make the humanitarian situation worse".
Secure conditions were essential for the transport of supplies, which meant open borders and agreement by those inside and outside the country that aid convoys would move unmolested.
"Any offensive military action or threat of military action makes it impossible to deliver these conditions," its director, Daleep Mukarjee, said.
"The most vital need is to prevent people becoming refugees by getting humanitarian aid to their home areas and remove the fear of conflict, which is combining with hunger to drive people from their homes."
Saddam says the world should see evidence US has against Bin Laden
Regime brands US and Britain as treacherous
Brian Whitaker
Monday October 8, 2001
The Guardian
Iraq, a frequent target for bombing by American and British warplanes, last night condemned the strikes on Afghanistan.
"The US-British planes waged a treacherous aggression against Afghanistan this evening," an announcer on state television said. But he added: "The Afghan ground defences confronted the enemy planes."
In a move that may have brought back memories of the 1990-91 Gulf war caused by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait , the national television broadcast minute-by-minute accounts of events in Afghanistan.
Reports about an Iraqi cabinet meeting earlier in the day quoted President Saddam Hussein as demanding that the US show the world its evidence on who carried out the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington; accusations were not enough.
The Iraqi leader, whose attempt to annex Kuwait was followed by army suppression of elements trying to rise up against his dictatorship at home, accused Washington of following a policy of bribes and threats: "If they do not give us what they want, we will bomb them."
He said: "They claim to have evidence that they have showed Pakistan... If they have evidence, why don't they let the whole world see it to make their stand and rationale strong? Is just saying they have evidence enough in the future to start a war against a country?"
Without mentioning Osama bin Laden or the Taliban by name, the Iraqi leader said that if the suspects had been from a western country, the Americans "would have denied it even if all the angels came. But when the accusation points at a Muslim or Arab country, they would believe it even if the accusation is made by one of the earth's devils."
Commenting on an earlier statement by President George Bush that the world's nations were either with the United States or with the terrorists, President Saddam said: "This kind of logic will reduce the number of friends and increase the number of America's enemies."
He added: "Those claiming to be America's friends are accused by their people."
Several prominent US politicians suggested yesterday that Iraq could be the next target in the war on terrorism.
Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, said recent comments by the US under-secretary for defence, Paul Wolfowitz, that Iraq would become a target at some point were "probably right".
"One adviser that we have met with says to remember that revenge is better eaten cold. In other words, you know, take your time, have a plan, go after your first target, second target," he said on a television programme.
"Somewhere down the line we're going to have to deal with Iraq. Clearly, they do have their own form of terrorism, and they still have Saddam Hussein. So we're going to have to contend with that problem but, I think, probably a little later down the line," he said.
Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman said reported contacts between the hijackers and Iraqi intelligence officials may justify US action against Baghdad in the future. "It depends, frankly, on what the evidence is," he said. "If the trail leads in this case to Iraq and contact with the attacks of September 11 or with terrorism generally, we have to go at them."
Saddam Hussein is the only Arab leader not to have condemned the attacks against US cities. In an open letter he told Americans their suffering should teach them about the pain the United States has inflicted on others, including Iraqis and Palestinians.