Taliban 'offered bin Laden trial before 9/11'

Al Jazeera
Mujib Mashal

Editor's Note:  No mention of the Taliban's complete removal of the opium drug trade during the year preceding 9/11.  Al Jazeera also seems to put forth the erroneous notion that Bin Laden was killed last May instead of dying in December of 2001.


Former minister says group was prepared to see bin Laden put on trial prior to 9/11, but US was not interested.

Taliban's last foreign minister says the group offered bin Laden
for trial after the 1998 US embassy bombings

The Taliban government in Afghanistan offered to present Osama bin Laden for a trial long before the attacks of September 11, 2001, but the US government showed no interest, according to a senior aide to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar.

Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, Taliban’s last foreign minister, told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview that his government had made several proposals to the United States to present the al-Qaeda leader, considered the mastermind of the 2001 attacks, for trial for his involvement in plots targeting US facilities during the 1990s.

"Even before the [9/11] attacks, our Islamic Emirate had tried through various proposals to resolve the Osama issue. One such proposal was to set up a three-nation court, or something under the supervision of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference [OIC]," Muttawakil said.

"But the US showed no interest in it. They kept demanding we hand him over, but we had no relations with the US, no agreement of any sort. They did not recognise our government."

The US did not recognise the Taliban government and had no direct diplomatic relations with the group which controlled most of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

But proposals by the Taliban were relayed to the US through indirect channels such as the US embassy in Pakistan or the informal Taliban office for the UN in New York, Muttawakil said.

Robert Grenier, the CIA station chief in Pakistan at the time of 9/11, confirmed that such proposals had been made to US officials.

Grenier said the US considered the offers to bring in Bin Laden to trial a "ploy".

"Another idea was that [bin Laden] would be brought to trial before a group of Ulema [religious scholars] in Afghanistan.

"No one in the US government took these [offers] seriously because they did not trust the Taliban and their ability to conduct a proper trial."

Subsequent to the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, as US pressure grew, the Taliban insisted on a procedure under the supervision of OIC because it considered it a "neutral international organisation".

The OIC is a Saudi Arabia-based organisation representing 56 Muslim nations. Al Jazeera contacted the OIC, but nobody was available for comment.

Muttawakil now lives in Kabul [GALLO/GETTY]

Afghanistan's seat at the United Nations at the time was occupied by the anti-Taliban resistance, led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, the country's ousted president, but its seat at the OIC had remained empty, Muttawakil said.

Grenier said a top US prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, visited Pakistan to present evidence implicating bin Laden in US embassy bombings.

"He met with the Pakistani interior minister and the idea was to convince the Paksitani government to help in turning over bin Laden," he said.

Grenier could not recall whether Fitzgerald met with Taliban officials in Pakistan to discuss their proposals or not.

Muttawakil, who now lives in Kabul and advises an Islamic educational foundation, reportedly tried to negotiate a ceasefire in the days after the US launched operations in the country in 2001 by seeking to convince Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, to part ways with bin Laden.

He was taken into US custody in the notorious Bagram prison early in 2002. After months of detention, he was released under house arrest in Kandahar and then moved to Kabul.

Bin Laden had first moved to Afghanistan during the war against the Soviet invasion in 1979 as part of large number of Arab fighters in the region. After the Soviet withdrawal, he moved to Sudan in 1992 as a factional war broke out in Afghanistan.

When Sudan came under increasing pressure from the US, bin Laden was flown back to Afghanistan in a chartered plane hired by Rabbani's government.

"They [al-Qaeda] were people from the time of Jihad, and Rabbani’s government brought them back into the country. The Taliban simply inherited them," Muttawakil said.

Taliban and al-Qaeda links

A movement of predominantly students from religious schools, the Taliban emerged from the south of country in late 1996 as a beacon of hope to end the years of bloodshed and factional fighting.
Bringing a message of peace and security, they swept through the country, with only a small pocket of resistance in the north that endured throughout their rule.

But they suffered their share of pressure and sanctions from the international community for the extreme measures they imposed, including banning women from school and work, and for harbouring bin Laden.

When they conquered the eastern city of Jalalabad, where bin Laden was staying, Saudi Arabia, his home country that had revoked his citizenship, pressured them to restrict his movement.

"Saudi Arabia had problems with him - that he should not be giving press conferences and coming out to the media," Muttawakil said. "Their request was to keep Osama silent. So the Emirate decided to bring him to Kandahar, where our leader stayed, to keep him under our focus".

When the attacks of September 11 happened, Muttawakil was in the foreign ministry in Kabul. He immediately contacted Mullah Omar, who remained in Kandahar throughout his government.

"Afghanistan was one of the first few governments that condemned the attacks," Muttawakil said.
"Neither for the US, nor for Afghanistan - and the Afghan people - the attacks were not a good thing. Because subsequent to those attacks, many more people have died here in Afghanistan."

That attack was a disaster on civilians, and on the pretext of that attack, disasters have been afflicted on the people of Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.

Muttawakil said that there had always been differences of opinion between the Arab fighters of al-Qaeda and his Taliban colleagues. Such differences surfaced further after 9/11.

"There is no doubt that the stance of the Emirate and the views of some of the Arab activists differed. We condemned the attacks because the people targeted were defenseless civilians, women, children, Muslim and non-Muslim. But al-Qaeda praised it."

Days after 9/11, with the US military campaign looming, the Taliban government convened an advisory gathering of over 1,500 religious scholars at a Kabul hotel to discuss what to do with bin Laden.

The scholars concluded that the Taliban government should ask bin Laden to "leave the country voluntarily".

"The Americans said that even if he leaves, they will search any place in Afghanistan that they wanted with their military forces. They wanted him dead or alive."

"Their requests and demands were based on a logic of war. They were preparing for it - preparing their planes in the Gulf and working with Pakistan to open a route. Their decision to go to war was definite."

Bin Laden's whereabouts remained a mystery for most of the decade after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He was eventually killed in a raid by US special forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in May.

FBI infiltration of anti-war movement uncovered in Minneapolis

"Karen Sullivan" (right) with her
associate "Daniela Cardenas"

Minneapolis, MN - At a press conference here, Jan. 12, Jess Sundin of the Twin Cites based Anti-War Committee (AWC) blasted police infiltration of the anti-war and international solidarity movement, stating, “We are here today to express outrage that our democratic rights have been violated by a government operation of spying, infiltration and disruption of our anti-war movement, which was carried out over the course of at least two and half years.”

The exposure of an undercover law enforcement agent in the Twin Cities anti-war movement is linked to the Sept. 24, 2010 FBI raids on peace and international solidarity organizers and the subpoenas that have been served on 23 activists to appear in front of a Chicago Grand Jury.

The infiltrator, who used the name ‘Karen Sullivan,’ joined the AWC in April 2008, and about a year later she joined the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. A statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression notes, “In conversations between our attorneys and the prosecutor’s office in Chicago, we have had confirmation that Karen Sullivan was in fact a law enforcement officer working undercover.”

Sundin said, “In April 2008, law enforcement officer Karen Sullivan joined the Anti-War Committee. In 2008, we were involved in organizing the anti-war marches on the first and last days of the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul. At that time, there was a massive security operation here which included the infiltration of the RNC Welcoming Committee. We now have it confirmed that in this same time period, we too became the subject of government investigation. The difference is that our spy made herself comfortable and decided to stay awhile, posing as a fellow anti-war activist and pretending to befriend us.”

Misty Rowan, of the Anti-War Committee, said, "The AWC played an important role in organizing the permitted march on the Republican National Convention on Sept. 1, 2008 and also organized a rally and march on the fourth day of the convention. We can only assume that this First Amendment protected organizing was the reason that this agent, Karen Sullivan, infiltrated the AWC. It is the same kind of infiltration criticized in the October 2010 Inspector General report and highlighted in the recent release of documents from the Richmond, Virginia, police, where any sort of assembly is defined as a disturbance and threat."

Sullivan’s spying was local and national in scope. She was present in Detroit, at the 2010 United States Social Forum, where she spoke on Plan Colombia. She was also present at the School of the Americas protests, at Fort Benning, Georgia, where she claimed to have met her partner, who goes by the name ‘Daniela Cardenas.’

Sundin states, “Unfortunately, Officer Sullivan took a special interest in the Anti-War Committee’s coalition work. She represented our committee at meetings of the Iraq Peace Action Coalition and the Coalition for Palestinian Rights. She also represented us in national venues - the Latin America Solidarity Coalition, at the School of the Americas Watch protests and at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit last summer. About a year ago, she also joined Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which is talked about by the government in this case, in a manner reminiscent of the McCarthy era political witch hunts.”

Disrupter

In the summer of 2009, Sullivan signed up to go on a solidarity trip to Palestine. Three members of the delegation were denied entry at the Tel Aviv airport and eventually sent back to the U.S.: Sarah Martin, Katrina Plotz and the agent.

Jess Sundin said, “When I speak of disruption, I am referring to an August 2009 solidarity delegation to Palestine. This delegation was a fact-finding mission, where participants were to witness the conditions for Palestinians living under U.S.-backed occupation, and to express our solidarity in a person-to-person way. Officer Sullivan made public her plans to join this delegation, she helped to promote it and fundraise for it here in our community. At the same time, she was secretly working to sabotage the trip entirely. Through her work, reports were passed onto Israeli authorities, who then barred entry to the two Minneapolis women traveling with Karen Sullivan. Her action, on behalf of the U.S. government, deprived these women of their rights to travel, association and dissent. The government was wrong to disrupt our important and legal work against U.S. aid to Israel.”

Attacking international solidarity

According to reports, it seems that the investigation of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is focused on small donations to the daycare and women’s center projects of the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, an NGO registered with the Palestinian Authority, with local offices in towns across the West Bank and Gaza. The Union is a progressive women's organization that strives to build respect for women's rights.

“It has become apparent to us that this delegation, and some of the fundraising work done to support it, is of great concern to the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago. In order to help fund the travel of the three women from Minneapolis - including Officer Sullivan - and to send a token symbol of solidarity to the Palestinian people, a series of fundraisers were organized. We were very open about our work to support the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, which is an NGO registered with the Palestinian Authority, and which is not illegal under Israeli or international law,” said Sundin.
Sundin continued “The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees works for women’s equality. Their activities include support for women refugees and women political prisoners, and providing basic social services for women, including several child care centers. These women are right to be working for justice in Palestine and there is no reason we should be criminalized for supporting them. However, that is exactly what has happened.”

Push back against repression

Steff Yorek, of Freedom Road Socialist Organization denounced the infiltration, "We are appalled that we were infiltrated by police agents, targeted for our political organizing and views. This violates our rights to freedom of association and speech."

Speaking at the press conference, Joe Callahan of the Iraq Peace Action Coalition demanded the “immediate end to government spying” and the removal of all agents from peace groups.
Jess Sundin conluded, “We, the anti-war and international solidarity activists being targeted by Fitzgerald, have the support of every progressive movement in this country - from trade unionists to the immigrant rights movement, from students to people of faith and everyone in between. Opposing war is no crime. International solidarity is not a crime. We are not alone, we have done nothing wrong and we will not be afraid.”

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is planning a National Day of Protest for Jan. 25, in cities across the country. This protest is in solidarity with people refusing to testify at the secret grand jury in Chicago on that day.