Taliban Ambassador in U.S. custody

By

Posted 9:13AM on Sunday, January 6, 2002

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - The highest-ranking member of the Taliban under U.S. custody was being held aboard a warship Sunday, and Afghanistan's interim leader promised that fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar will be tracked down and arrested. Prime Minister Hamid Karzai spoke after other Afghan officials said Omar appeared to have eluded capture in Baghran, a mountainous region in central Afghanistan where officials claimed a few days ago that he was surrounded by anti-Taliban forces negotiating his surrender. Visiting an orphanage in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Karzai said Omar, a one-eyed cleric who is America's most wanted man after Osama bin Laden, would be taken into custody if found by Afghan authorities. ``We are looking for him, and we will arrest him,'' he told the Associated Press. The United States hopes a pair of high-profile prisoners will provide valuable intelligence about bin Laden's al-Qaida network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks, and about the Taliban movement that sheltered the terrorist organization in Afghanistan. Marine Lt. James Jarvis told a news briefing that the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, was in U.S. custody on a naval ship in the Arabian Sea. The other prisoner, Ibn Al-Shayk al-Libi, who ran al-Qaida terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, was transferred Saturday from anti-Taliban forces to U.S. authorities at Kandahar airport, which is controlled by the Marines. ``The big question, of course, is: Will they talk?'' former Central Intelligence Agency terrorism analyst Stan Beddington said Saturday in the United States. ``If they are able to talk, I have no doubt whatsoever they will give a lot of information, particularly in the search for bin Laden.'' Jarvis said 25 new prisoners arrived Saturday night in Kandahar from Pakistan, where they were intercepted trying to flee Afghanistan, bringing the total number of inmates at the U.S. base to about 300. They were being interrogated for information on al-Qaida in the area. ``We are looking for things we can act upon,'' Jarvis said. ``We remain active in our quest to (uncover) al-Qaida and Taliban'' warriors. Last week, Marines scoured a former al-Qaida training camp about 60 miles west of Kandahar. They found documents on weapons systems, chemical formulas for explosions, and examination papers on how to destroy aircraft. Zaeef was probably the best-known face of the Taliban, giving daily news conferences at his embassy in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, during the height of the U.S.-led bombing campaign to topple the extremist Islamic regime. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees rejected his application for refugee status. Pakistan, the Taliban's strongest supporter before the Sept. 11 attacks, said Zaeef was no longer protected by diplomatic immunity after the Taliban government fell. President Bush said Saturday that terrorists cannot hide forever. ``They think they can run, they think they can hide, because they think this country's soft and impatient,'' Bush said. ``But they're gonna continue to learn the terrible lesson that says don't mess with America.'' Capturing Omar is proving increasingly difficult. He had been believed to be hiding in Baghran in Helmand province, where his close associate, Abdul Wahid, is the tribal chief. Afghan officials say they now believe he has probably fled the area. Reports from some former Taliban soldiers say Omar and his former intelligence chief, Abdul Razzak, may be in Zabul province, north of Kandahar. Bin Laden's whereabouts are also unknown. Afghanistan is almost as big as Texas and is crisscrossed by mountain ranges with caves and tunnels, remnants of the U.S.-backed insurgency against Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Omar was an anti-communist commander known for expertise with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. In other developments: -A British newspaper, the Mail on Sunday, reported that three men claiming to be British citizens were captured at Tora Bora, a mountain stronghold of al-Qaida and Taliban die-hards that U.S. and anti-Taliban Afghan forces overran last month. Two, identified as Shakir Abdul Rahim and Nabil Said, were reported to be under interrogation in Kabul. The third, identified as Mohammed Amin, was too badly wounded to be questioned. They are believed to be of Saudi, Indian and Pakistani ancestry. -The Saudi newspaper Okaz quoted Pakistani Interior Minister Moin Haidar as saying that Pakistan has recently detained 240 Saudis and will extradite to the United States any who are believed to be affiliated with bin Laden. They were said to have entered Pakistan from Tora Bora and Afghan cities in recent weeks. U.S. and Pakistani investigators were questioning them, the newspaper said.