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For other uses, see Taliban (disambiguation).
Armed Taliban in pickup truck in Herat, July 2001.

The Taliban is a Sunni strictly puritanical Islamist and Pashtun-nationalist movement that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, and are currently engaged in a protracted guerilla war against NATO forces within Afghanistan.

The word Taliban is the Pashtu and Dari (Afghan Persian) plural form of the Arabic طالب Template:ArabDIN, "student". The term "Taliban" is often incorrectly used in English as a singular noun. For example, John Walker Lindh has been referred to as "The American Taliban", whereas a more correct description would be "The American Talib". The group gets its name from the fact that its membership is drawn from the students of religious seminaries, or madrasahs, in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

While in power in Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan gained diplomatic recognition from only three states: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Beneath Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the movement, were village mullahs (junior Islamic religious scholars), most of whom had studied in Islamic religious schools in Pakistan. Almost 98% of the Taliban movement derived from the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan, but it also included a small percentage of non-Pashtun volunteers from Eurasia to China.

The Taliban became best known for their treatment of women. Women were forced to wear the burqa in public; were not allowed to work; were not allowed to be educated after the age of eight, and until then were permitted only to study the Qur'an; were not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperone; and faced public flogging and execution for violations of the Taliban's laws. [1][2]

Rise to power

  • WE EAT OUR OWN FARTS!
    Flag flown by the Taliban. It is white, with the shahadah, or Islamic creed, written in black.
    Main article: Afghan Civil War (1992-1996)

    The Taliban originated around 1993-1994. Naseerullah Babar, interior minister during Benazir Bhutto's second government from 1993-1996, along with other Pakistani military and ISI intelligence top brass got together in the province of Quetta, located on the border with Afghanistan, to form a militia movement consisting of religious students in Pakistani religious schools known as madrassas to gain control of Afghan mujahidin government.

    Despite later reports, [3], of Mullah Omar having led a raid to free two girls who had been kidnapped and raped by local commanders, the Taliban originally had no leadership of its own. Due to questions on where its leadership was coming from, the figure of Mullah Omar was mysteriously and quickly erected by Pakistan's ISI, to create a plausible figurehead. By October 12 about 200 Taliban seized the trading town of Spin Baldak from the forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, thus opening a supply route for Pakistani aid. They then took possesion of an arms dump seizing "some 18,000 kalashnikovs, dozens of artillery pieces, large quantities of ammunition and many vehicles.[4]"

    The Taliban again appeared as an escort to a "trade delegation" sent by Babar from Quetta to Turkmenistan. This escort was not able to pass through local commanders in Kandahar. To aid them the Taliban were called in to assist. When the Taliban attacked on November 3, 1994 their opponents fled without a fight, rescuing the convoy. That evening the Taliban attacked Kandahar and within two days had seized control of the city.[5]

    The Rabbani government refused to accept the Pakistan-sponsored Taliban. A protracted battle then ensued between Taliban and the government in south of Kabul, but also raging far and wide across the North, including Herat and Kunduz.

    With its attempt to break the impasse in Afghanistan and reach the resource wealth of Central Asia beyond, Pakistan soon received endorsement from Saudi Arabia to aid, mobilize and expand the Taliban. A steady outflux of graduates from Pakistani madrassas, gave the Taliban a steady supply of new recruits. Through certain Pakistani madrassas, the Taliban may have also been influenced by the Deobandi School of thought which emphasizes piety, austerity, and the family obligations of men. They emerged from the ethnically Pashtun areas of Afghanistan. Many of the Taliban grew up in refugee camps in Pakistan.

    As their ranks swelled, the original core body of Pakistan and Afghan soldiers assumed more specialized roles. Mullah Omar was proclaimed the Amir-ul-Momineen. It was alleged that Pakistan chose Mullah Omar because they knew he could easily be influenced and controlled and that his own Islamic education was very limited making him easily swayed by the state-funded muftis of Pakistan [citation needed]. He was proud of the fact that he had only spoken with two western journalists in his whole life period.

    Conspiracy theory

    Some have concluded that Pakistani government was successful in obtaining the support of the United States by posing the Taliban as a temporary solution to rid the "Jihadi" groups out of the picture. The US had come to believe that the Taliban would bring back the old monarch Zahir Shah of Afghanistan to power upon their success in gaining control of Afghanistan.[citation needed] Some members of the Taliban, particularly Mullah Mohammad Rabbani (not to be confused with Burhanuddin Rabbani from the Northern Alliance) and a few others were actually active supporters of Zahir Shah and wanted to bring back the old monarch into power after they had taken control of Kabul. According to analysts, Washington was sold on the idea that the old monarch would eventually return to Afghanistan due to powerful lobbying by Unocal Corporation (American oil company) and Pakistan.[citation needed] With the funding of Saudi Arabia, the intelligence of UK and US, and the hand picked Taliban by Pakistan, a successful force emerged and gained control of an estimated 80% of Afghanistan in less than 2 years. However, soon after the conquest of Kabul, it became evident that the Taliban would under no circumstances transfer power and control into Zahir Shah.

    In 1996, the Taliban were in discussion with Unocal in the USA and with Argentinian oil company Bridas regarding a proposal to build a gas pipeline to run from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan. [6] In 1997, a delegation from the Taliban spent several days at the Unocal headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas. [7]

    War with the Northern Alliance

    Main article: Afghan Civil War (1996-2001)

    In the early stages around 1996-1997, General Abdul Malik (Dostom’s third-in-command) overthrew Dostum, took over Mazari Sharif and temporarily sided with the Taliban. Soon afterwards, he switched sides again only to betray the Talibs and participate in the killings of thousand of them by Hezbe Wahdat. Later the Taliban captured Mazari Sharif and killed thousands of people to avenge themselves.

    In 1997, Ahmad Shah Masoud devised a plan to utilize guerrilla tactics in the Shamali plains to defeat the Taliban advances. In collaboration with the locals, Masoud had deployed his forces to be stationed at civilian dwellings and other hidden places. Upon the arrival of the Taliban, some locals, who had vowed pacts of peace with the Taliban, as well as Masoud's forces came out of hiding and in a surprise attack captured the north of Kabul. Soon after, the Taliban put a major effort into taking control of the Shamali plains, indiscriminately killing young men, uprooting and expelling population. Kamal Hossein, a special reporter for the UN, had written a full report on these and other war crimes that further insinuated and inflamed the issue of ethnicity.

    Life under Taliban government

    Treatment of women

    File:Talibanbeating.jpg
    A member of the Taliban's religious police beating a woman in Kabul on September 26, 2001; photograph taken from footage filmed by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) [1] The footage can be seen here.

    Women were prohibited from obtaining an education, though there were some secret schools which taught girls, and from working, except in some healthcare sectors for women only.

    They were forced to wear a burqa when in public and soft shoes that made no sound when they walked. Violations of these laws were liable to trigger a public caning [2] (video). A house containing female inhabitants was required to have its front windows tinted or curtained.

    The Taliban said that their policies were favourable to women, citing a desire by Mullah Omar to end the rape and abuses against women that were allegedly common place in the period before the Taliban, and by appealing to the idea that women needed extra protection during the period of fighting. [citation needed]

    Drugs

    Opium poppies have traditionally been grown in Afghanistan, and with the war shattering other sectors of the economy, it became the number one export of the country. Opium cultivation continued to thrive during most of the Taliban period, despite attempts to ban it.

    The Taliban banned opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in late 1997, but the law was widely unenforced as the Taliban itself profited much from the trafficking of the opium.[8] Thus by 2000, Afghanistan's opium production still accounted for 75% of the world's supply. On July 27, 2000, the Taliban again issued a decree banning opium poppy cultivation. By February 2001, production had been reduced from 12,600 acres to only 17 acres. Hence, reducing 99.86% of the production.[9] Following the fall of the Taliban regime, the areas controlled by the Northern Alliance resumed opium production [10] and by 2005 production was 87% of the world's opium supply.[11]

    Oppression of the Hazara ethnic group

    The Taliban continued a long trend of the brutal oppression of the Hazara people in Afghanistan. Most Hazara are Shia Muslims, and the staunchly Sunni Taliban consider Shia Islam to be heretical. During the last years of Taliban rule, this oppression took the form of mass killings and burnings of cities and villages. On August 10, 1998, Mulla Niazi (Governor of Mazar Sharif) declared a Fatwah against the Hazara, pronouncing the Hazara as infidels to be killed with impunity. During the years that followed, rapes and massacres of Hazara by Taliban forces were documented by groups such as Human Rights Watch. See http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghanistan/.

    Buddhas of Bamiyan

    Main article: Buddhas of Bamiyan

    In March 2001, the Taliban ordered the demolition of two statues of Buddha carved into cliffsides at Bamiyan, one 38 metres (125 ft) tall and about 1,800 years old, the other 53 metres (174 ft) tall and about 1,500 years old. The act was condemned by UNESCO and many countries around the world.

    The intentions of the destruction remain unclear. Mullah Omar initially supported the preservation of Afghanistan's heritage, and Japan offered to pay for the preservation of the statues. [citation needed] However, after a few years, a decree was issued claiming all representations of humans, including those in museums, must be destroyed as per Islamic law which prohibits any form of idol worship.

    The government of Pakistan (itself host to one of the richest and most antiquated collections of Buddhist art) implored the Taliban to spare the statues. Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates later denounced the act as savage.

    Syed Rahmatullah Hashemi, a senior representative of the Taliban designated as the roving Ambassador visited the US in March, 2000. He projected the Taliban's action not as an act of irrationality, but as an act of rage over UNESCO and some western governments denying the Taliban use of the funds intended for the reparation of the war-damaged statues of the Buddha. The Taliban intended to use the money for drought relief.

    Relationship with Osama bin Laden

    In 1996, Osama bin Laden moved to Afghanistan from Sudan. When the Taliban came to power, bin Laden was able to forge an alliance between the Taliban and his Al-Qaeda organization. It is understood that al-Qaeda-trained fighters known as the 055 Brigade were integrated with the Taliban army between 1997 and 2001. The Taliban and bin Laden had very close connections, which were formalized by a marriage of one of bin Laden's sons to Omar's daughter. During Osama bin Laden's stay in Afghanistan, he had helped finance the Taliban.[12]

    After the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, Osama bin Laden and several al Qaeda members were indicted in U.S. criminal court.[13] The Taliban protected Osama bin Laden from extradition requests by the U.S., variously claiming that bin Laden had "gone missing" in Afghanistan[14] or that Washington "cannot provide any evidence or any proof" that bin Laden is involved in terrorist activities and that "without any evidence, bin Laden is a man without sin... he is a free man."[15]Evidence against bin Laden included courtroom testimony and satellite phone records but no physical 'proof' at the time linked bin Laden to allegations made by US intelligence and government channels.[16][17]

    The Taliban continued to harbor bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks, protesting his innocence[18], while at the same time offering to hand him over to a third nation. In 2004 bin Laden took personal responsibility for ordering the attacks on New York and Washington in a videotape broadcast on Al Jazeera.

    U.S.-led invasion and displacement of the Taliban

    Main article: 2001 war in Afghanistan

    On September 20, 2001 after an investigation by the FBI the U.S. concluded that Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden were behind the September 11, 2001 attacks. The U.S. made a five point ultimatum to the Taliban:

    1. Deliver to the US all of the leaders of Al Qaeda;
    2. Release all imprisoned foreign nationals;
    3. Close immediately every terrorist training camp;
    4. Hand over every terrorist and their supporters to appropriate authorities;
    5. Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps for inspection.[19]

    The Taliban rejected this ultimatum on September 21, 2001, stating there was no evidence in their possession linking Bin Laden to the September 11 attacks.[20]

    Alleged Inconsistencies in FBI Information Management

    Currently, according to the FBI and their wanted posters for Osama Bin Laden (viewable directly from their official website),[21] [22] he is not specifically cited as a suspect, or wanted for, the September 11th terrorist attacks. According to FBI spokesperson Rex Tomb "there is no hard evidence connecting" him to the attacks. On June 5, 2006, reporter Ed Hass contacted the FBI Headquarters to learn why Bin Laden's Most Wanted posters do not indicate that Osama was also wanted in connection with 9/11. He spoke with Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on Bin Laden's "most wanted" web pages, Tomb said, "The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden's most wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11."[23] However, bin Laden himself has laid claim to the 9/11 attacks, and the lack of mention of 9/11 on his wanted poster is due to multiple factors, including:

    • Bin Laden was initially placed on the Ten Most Wanted list in June 1999 (prior to 9/11) after being indicted for murder, conspiracy and other charges in connection with the 1998 American embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya;
    • The wanted notice states bin Laden is suspected of "...[an] attack on a federal facility resulting in death", and is "...a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world" but does not provide further details;
    • It is a matter of legal restrictions and the need to be fair to any defendant;
    • A $5 million reward was put on his head upon the notice's initial posting in 1999. The listing was updated after 9/11 to include a higher reward of $25 million, but no mention of the attacks was added. [24]

    Prelude to Invasion

    On September 22, 2001, the United Arab Emirates and later Saudi Arabia withdrew their recognition of the Taliban as the legal government of Afghanistan, leaving neighboring Pakistan as the only remaining country with diplomatic ties. On October 4, 2001, it is believed that the Taliban covertly offered to turn bin Laden over to Pakistan for trial in an international tribunal that operated according to Islamic Sharia law.[25] Pakistan, recently recast as an ally of the west, is believed to have rejected the offer (even though they did still recognize Afghanistan). On October 7, 2001, before the onset of military operations, the Taliban made an open offer to try bin Laden in Afghanistan in an Islamic court.[26] This counter offer was immediately rejected by the U.S. as insufficient.

    American Attack

    Shortly afterward, on October 7, 2001, the United States, aided by the United Kingdom, Canada, and supported by a coalition of other countries including several from the NATO alliance, initiated military actions in Afghanistan, code named Operation Enduring Freedom, and bombed Taliban and Al Qaeda related camps.[27][28] The stated intent of military operations was to remove the Taliban from power because of the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden for his involvement in the September 11 attacks, and disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations.[29] On October 14 the Taliban openly counteroffered to hand bin Laden over to a third country for trial, but only if the Taliban were given evidence of bin Laden's involvement in 9/11.[30] The U.S. rejected this offer as an insufficient public relations ploy and continued military operations.

    The ground war was mainly fought by the Northern Alliance, the remaining elements of the anti-Taliban forces which the Taliban had routed over the previous years but had never been able to entirely destroy. Mazari Sharif fell to U.S.-Northern Alliance forces on November 9, leading to a cascade of provinces falling with minimal resistance, and many local forces switching loyalties from the Taliban to the Northern Alliance. On the night of November 12, the Taliban retreated south in an orderly fashion from Kabul. This was sufficiently orderly, that on November 15, they released eight Western aid workers after three months in captivity (see Attacks on humanitarian workers). By November 13 the Taliban had withdrawn from both Kabul and Jalalabad. Finally, in early December, the Taliban gave up their last city stronghold of Kandahar and retired to the hilly wilderness along the Afghanistan - Pakistan border, where they remain today as a guerrilla warfare operation, drawing new recruits and developing plans for a restoration of power.

    Resurgence of Taliban

    Main article: Taliban insurgency
    Taliban bounty flyer.

    As of late 2006, the insurgency, in the form of a Taliban guerrilla war, continues. However, the Pashtun tribal group, with over 40 million members, has a long history of resistance to occupation forces in the region so the Taliban themselves may comprise only a part of the insurgency. Most of the post-invasion Taliban fighters are new recruits, drawn again from that region's madrassas. The more traditional Qur'anic schools are the primary source of the new fighters.

    Before the summer 2006 offensive began, indications existed that NATO peacekeepers in Afghanistan had lost influence and power to other groups, including potentially the Taliban. The most notable sign was the rioting in May after a street accident in the city of Kabul. The continued support from tribal and other groups in Pakistan, the drug trade and the small number of NATO forces, combined with the long history of resistance and isolation, lead to the observation that Taliban forces and leaders are surviving and will have some influence over the future of Afghanistan. A new introduction is suicide attacks and terrorist methods not used in 2001.

    In September 2006, the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, an association of Wazirstani chieftains with close ties to the Taliban, were recognized by the Government of Pakistan as the de facto security force in charge of North and South Waziristan. This recognition was part of the agreement to end the Waziristan War which had extracted a heavy toll on the Pakistan Army since early 2004. Some commentators viewed Islamabad's shift from war to diplomacy as implicit recognition of the growing power of the resurgent Taliban relative to American influence, with the US distracted by the threat of looming crises in Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran.

    Other commentators view the Islamabad's shift from war to diplomacy as a means to appease growing discontent in pakistan. This has led to serious concerns over a taliban spring offensive. Indeed some commentators claim the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are resurgent, though there are strains in the relationship between them about the way in which the war against the US and NATO is being prosecuted. The successes of the Taliban in 2006 have laid the foundation for a major uprising in 2007 under the leadership of Mullah Dadullah. Pakistan is working to ensure the success of this uprising in order to displace the Karzai government in Kabul and bring Dadullah to a position of dominant influence in Afhanistan. Pakistan is then planning to present Dadullah to the West as the moderate and acceptable face of the Taliban in a deal which will marginalise Mullah Omar and Al-Qaeda, provide a face-saving exit for the West, and leave Pakistan in a position to reassert its dominant influence over Afghanistan see Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU)

    [31]

    2006

    • June 15: A bus carrying workers to an American base explodes killing 10 and wounding 15. The explosives were placed on the bus. [3]
    • August 8: 4 Canadian NATO soldiers are killed in two separate attacks. And a suicide bomber targeting a NATO convey detonates killing 21 people. [4]
    • September 8: A major suicide car bombing near the US embassy in Kabul kills 18 including 2 US soldiers. [5]
    • September 10: The governor of Afghanistan's southeastern Paktia province is killed alongside his bodyguard and nephew when a suicide bomber detonates himself beside the governor's car. [6]
    • October 14: A suicide attack in Kandahar city leaves 8 dead including one NATO soldier. [7]
    • October 15: 2 Canadian soldiers were killed when when Taliban militants attacked NATO troops using small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. [8]
    • December 6: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a security contractor's office killing 7 including 2 Americans, the attack took place south of Afghanistan in Kandahar. [9]

    2007

    • January 23 A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a US base in eastern Afghanistan killing 10 people who were waiting outside the base. [10]
    • February 2 Taliban forces raided a southern Afgan town destroying the government center and briefly holding some elders captive. [11]
    • February 19: The Taliban briefly seized a small town in western Afghanistan after police fled the town, the Taliban forces moved in for 30 minutes and seizing 3 vehicles. [12]
    • February 20: A suicide bomber blew himself up during an opening hospital ceremony injuring 2 NATO soldiers and a hospital worker. [13]
    • February 27: 23 people are killed when a suicide bomber attacks an American military base in Kabul. The attack took place while US vice president Dick Cheney was in the compound, Cheney was unhurt in the attack and was the intended target of the attack as claimed by the Taliban. Among the dead included an American soldier, a Korean soldier, and an American contractor. [14]
    • March 4: A suicide bomber attacks an American convey which leaves 16 civillians dead in the after-math as the American convey beings to sporadically fire at civillian cars around them. In a seperate incident 2 British soldiers were killed when a Taliban rocket was fired on them during clashes in Southern Helmand Province. [15]

    Taliban mini-state?

    The International Herald Tribune published a report that the Taliban's area of control in Pakistan bore many of the attributes of what it called a "mini-state".[32] The report said that the Taliban was wearing out its welcome with some of the tribal leaders that had provided shelter following the American invasion of Afghanistan. But, on the other hand, the Taliban was directly ruling some of the Tribal areas.

    According to high police officials in the NWFP Province of Pakistan, the South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Orakzai, Kohat and Darra Adam Khel regions are all fully controlled by Taliban (under the nominal veneer of Pakistani writ) – and they are now steadily advancing, aiming for the big NWFP cities like Peshawar, Mardan and Dera Ismail Khan.

    This takeover is very subtle and is hardly mentioned by the Pakistani media, though the process of the Taliban's growing influence in the region has been widely reported sufficiently to generate its own neologism, "Talibanization," mentioned as early as 1999 in the Boston Globe[33] and as recently as 2006 by President Bush and General Musharraf.[34] It is seemingly apart from the fact that the MMA mullah government, consisting of the patrons of the Taliban – but otherwise publicly “dissociated” from them – has been in power in the NWFP since the end of 2002.

    Malakand, Dir, Bajaur, Mohmand and Khyber already show significant Taliban activity and are not far behind the other areas mentioned above.

    Apart from the old Peshawar Valley/Division and the mainly Shia Kurram Agency, the rest of Pakistan's Pashtun areas of the NWFP and FATA all show successful Taliban activity, while further south in Balochistan, the cities of Quetta and Zhob are not under their direct control yet, but are regarded as central Taliban areas.

    It is evident that the Taliban phenomenon, first openly fostered by the Pakistani establishment - and now secretly backed by various "rogue" sections within it, has now assumed a life of its own among the Pashtun population.

    Etymology

    The word Taliban is Pashto for "students." The singular, طالب (Tālib), is a loan from the Arabic word for student. Taliban should always be used in the plural; many American journalists, however, have incorrectly used Taliban as a singular noun and now this incorrect usage has been commonplace.

    See also

    Further reading

    • Rashid, Ahmed (2001). Taliban: The Story of the Afghan Warlords. Pan Books. IBSN 0-330-49221-7.

    Footnotes

    1. ^ "The Taliban's War on Women" Template:PDFlink, Physicians for Human Rights, August 1998.
    2. ^ "100 Girls' Schools in Afghan Capital Are Ordered Shut", The New York Times, June 17, 1998.
    3. ^ "The mysterious Mullah behind the Taliban". Reuters. 2001-09-20. Retrieved 2006-07-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
    4. ^ Rashid, Ahmad (2001), Taliban: The Story of the Afghan Warlords, pp.27-8
    5. ^ Rasid, Ahmad (2001), pp.28-9
    6. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/s/w_asia/44521.stm BBC report
    7. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/west_asia/37021.stm
    8. ^ Waldman, Amy (2004-04-10). "Afghan Road to Prosperity: Grow Poppies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-12-04.
    9. ^ Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban
    10. ^ Victorious warlords set to open the opium floodgates
    11. ^ Afghanistan: Addicted To Heroin
    12. ^ http://www.lebarmy.gov.lb/article.asp?ln=en&id=1328
    13. ^ PDF of indictments
    14. ^ CNN report
    15. ^ BBC article stating that bin Laden in "a man without sin"
    16. ^ CNN records of evidence against bin Laden
    17. ^ Cooperative Research records of evidence against bin Laden
    18. ^ CBS News
    19. ^ United States ultimatum
    20. ^ Talib refusal of the U.S. ultimatum
    21. ^ "Most Wanted Terrorists: Osama Bin Laden". FBI. 2001-09-30. Retrieved 2007-01-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
    22. ^ "Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives: Osama Bin Laden". FBI. 1999-06-30. Retrieved 2007-01-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
    23. ^ "FBI Says, "No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11"". Muckrakerreport.com. 2006-06-06. Retrieved 2007-01-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
    24. ^ "Bin Laden, Most Wanted for Embassy Bombings?". Washington Post. 2006-08-28. Retrieved 2007-01-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
    25. ^ JNV briefing
    26. ^ Taliban offers to try bin Laden in an Islamic court
    27. ^ The United States declares war on the Taliban
    28. ^ Operation Enduring Freedom
    29. ^ Intentions of U.S. military operation
    30. ^ Taliban offers to hand bin Laden to a neutral nation for trial
    31. ^ Shahzad, Syed Saleem (2006-09-08). "Pakistan: Hello al-Qaeda, goodbye America". Asia Times Online. Retrieved 2006-09-12.
    32. ^ Carlotta Gall and Ismail Khan (2006-12-11). "A Taliban ministate in Pakistan: Peace deal with government gives militants an opening". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
    33. ^ "The threat of Talibanization". Boston Globe. 1999-11-06. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
    34. ^ "Reading the Musharraf-Bush Summit - Seven Clues to What Lies Ahead". Indo-Asian News Service. 2006-09-26. Retrieved 2007-01-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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