*EPF113 09/24/01
Powell Says U.S. Will Share Evidence Against bin Laden
(U.S. officials reject claim Osama bin Laden is missing) (760)
By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States will share evidence it has gathered linking accused terrorist Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, al-Qaida, to the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington that killed thousands.
"In the near future we will be able to put out a document linking him to this attack," Powell said September 23 on NBC's "Meet the Press."
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, on Fox's "News Sunday," said "we are going to make a case" against bin Laden and his terrorist network. "We have very good evidence of links between known Osama bin Laden al-Qaida operatives and what happened on September 11th," she said.
And, she continued, the United States will be laying out its case just as was done after bin Laden's network bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa, killing hundreds. She added that many of the countries the United States will present with its findings are actively engaged in helping build the case.
Powell, Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said September 23 they do not believe news reports from Afghanistan that bin Laden is missing. Bin Laden has been living in Afghanistan since 1998 as a "guest" of the Taliban-controlled government.
"They know where he is," Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
U.S. cabinet officers and senior members of the U.S. Congress appeared on an array of television news shows September 23, as the United States begins the first phase of its counterattack on terrorists.
Powell and Rice said that the first phase of the campaign has included seeking and building international support from individual nations and international organizations -- such as the United Nations, NATO, the Organization of American States, Australia through the ANZUS Treaty and the European Union. It has also included sending more U.S. armed forces to the Middle East region for potential strikes against bin Laden and his network and other terrorists groups.
Powell also said President Bush's plan to lift the sanctions imposed against India and Pakistan after both nations tested nuclear weapons is an "important signal that we will stand by our friends who stand by us." The United States has received considerable support from India and has won support from Pakistan as it prepares a response to the terrorist attacks.
Rice said the United States was well within international law to defend itself against terrorist attacks. "The United States has the right to self defense," she said on Fox. "That is recognized in international law. If you don't believe this is a matter of self-defense, just look at what happened on September 11th."
Rice said the United States has received very good international support "not only from countries like Canada and Britain and France, but also from the Muslim world. We have been in constant contact with the moderate Arab nations. They understand the threat here."
Powell, on "Meet the Press," also pointed to the support from Muslim countries: [I]t's ... interesting to note that Egypt and Saudi Arabia and most of the countries in that part of the world have come to our support. They recognize that terrorism is a threat not only against the United States, against them. They have suffered from terrorism, as well, and they recognize that this is not consistent with Islamic teachings. It is absolutely inconsistent with Islamic teachings, and so I think they understand the domestic pressures they are under, and they understand what they have committed themselves to, and when you even have countries such as Syria and, to some extent, even Iran indicating that they sense the problem associated with this kind of attack, it gives us something to explore, something to work with."
Powell, on ABC's "This Week," rejected news reports that Saudi Arabia was refusing full cooperation with the U.S. military. "I can assure you that the Saudi government, the Saudi leadership, and their representative here in the United States has been responsive to all the requests we have placed on them," Powell said. "They are a friend in this. They have condemned this attack and they have offered support in many ways and we are satisfied with the level of their support and their commitment to this campaign."
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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