AMERICA IN CRISIS The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 1, 2001-- 5A Talks to replace Taliban The Washington Post ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Efforts to build a political alternative to Afghanistan's ruling Tal- iban movement are in disarray, crippled by clash- ing egos and agendas, factional infighting and the competing interests of foreign countries, accord- ing to officials involved in the efforts.. At least six rival processes to frame a post-Tal- iban government are now underway from Rome to Cyprus to Peshawar in northeastern Pakistan. In several cases, the participating monarchists, current and former warlords, tribal and ethnic leaders, and officials from more than a dozen countries are refusing to meet with one another, insisting on their own programs instead of negotiating. Any resolve to overcome these rivalries has been diminished by the apparent failure so far of U.S.-led military operations to visibly weaken the Taliban's hold over more than 90 percent of Afghanistan, analysts here said. The bombing has also divided some potential members of a com- mon alliance against the Taliban. "It's a disaster," said a Western diplomat involved in the efforts to fashion a future govern- ment. Other officials warn that the process could take months - or years. U.S. officials have sought to accelerate the col- lapse of the Taliban by creating a viable govern- ment to replace the radical Islamic movement. Forming a united opposition would also guard against a power vacuum and a return to wide- spread civil war among factions backed by rival AP PHOTO regional powers. A major obstacle to this balance, according to rumbling officials involved in the efforts, is that no powerful leader has emerged to unify Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, which dominates the leadership of the Taliban. Most potential opposition Pashtun leaders are considered tainted by associa- tion with the Taliban, long periods in exile or ties to foreign powers. Because Afghan society is general- ly organized around religious, ethnic and tribal ties that stretch back for centuries, and Pashtun support considered is vital to the long-term stability of any government in Afghanistan. In addition, officials say that rifts are develop- ing in a recent partnership between the Northern Alliance, which is the main military opposition to the Taliban, and Afghanistan's former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who is still popular at home after 28 years in exile and who analysts say could help unify Afghanistan's factions. Finally, competing interests among Afghanistan's neighbors, particularly Iran and Pakistan, also are complicating efforts to build an international consensus for power sharing among various religious, tribal and ethnic groups. A variety of countries, including the United States, is seeking to have a hand in shaping a new Afghan government observers said. The United States is backing the so-called Rome process, which centers on the elevated role of the former king. But Iran, which overthrew its own monarch 22 years ago, does not favor a role for Zahir Shah. Instead, it supports a process based in Cyprus that has attracted Afghans con- cerned that the Rome group was dominated by monarchists, gave short shrift to Islamic interests and moved too slowly. Plumes of smoke from an explosion rise yesterday in front of the village of Sarghich, a Taliban controlled area 12 miles north of Kabul. U.S. steps up efforts to thwart potential future terror attacks The Washington Post strengthen security at nuclear facilities in their states, tankers out of Boston Harbor, but a judge ruled against WASHINGTON - While authorities try to cope with the ongoing anthrax outbreak, federal and state officials are taking steps to prepare for a possible esca- lation of terrorism that experts say could include truck bombings and attacks on nuclear power plants as well as more hijackings. Since the FBI issued its second national terrrorism alert Monday, administration officials and congression- al intelligence experts have studied myriad terrorist threats, including the outside possibility of the use of portable nuclear weapons. Concrete steps taken by state and federal officials point, in particular, to con- cern about assaults on power plants and utilities, truck p4o5ions in. tunnels and on, bridges, and.attacks on ships carrying hazardous materials. "If you're asking for a scenario of things that could go wrong, it's a mighty long list," said House Intelli- gence Committee Chairman Porter Goss (R-Fla.), a former CIA officer. Yesterday, the governors of Arkansas, Louisianna and Mississippi ordered National Guard troops to following a recommendation from Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, according to a spokesman for Entergy Corp. in Arkansas. In a conference call Tuesday, Ridge had advised governors throughout the country to take such precau- tions if they had not already done so, according to the spokesman, Phil Fisher. The Federal Aviation Admin- istration this week temporarily barred private aircraft from approaching 86 sensitive nuclear sites, including power plants and waste storage facilities. The Treasury Department's bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, meanwhile, has begun intenz sive inspections of all 9,500 mining and construction companies and others licensed to use explosives across the country. New York Gov. George Pataki said that- more than 1,500 National Guard troops patroling in and around New York City will be armed for the first time by week's end. Federal and local officials also remain concerned about the possibility that terrorists would attack ships carrying propane and other fuels. The city of Boston went to court in an attempt to keep liquified natural gas the city on Monday -just hours before the FBI issued its alert - saying officials had failed to demonstrate a sufficient threat. President Bush yesterday defended his decision to put the country on national security alert, telling business leaders that the United States was still under attack. "I wanted our law enforcement officials to know we had some information that made it necessary for us to protect United States assets, to protect those areas that might be vulnerable. And that's exactly what's taking place today," Bush said. "This is a very unusual period in American history, obviously. We've never been attacked like this before. We're still being attacked," he said. The nation has been awash in special warnings and alerts since Sept. 11, many of them focused on the types of potential terrorist targets that have been used in previous attacks or identified as possibilities by intelligence officials. One example are commercial trucks, which have been used by terrorists around the world as delivery vehicles for makeshift but highly effective bombs. Refugees running out of options L';2\%": :officials.:. :,'.' ' f. ":! 'f ...:::: - ..$",i IranS borders r.AY': : Tm r4. r are of limits 7 .. The. Waswhington::{" i"r::.:. Post I ': i: : "::::y"'"tii ;:y: rr, ,;{. ":}.<: 4'i! .::} ::''r;}~ ~i}:}:55SY; . "": o:::::::} :* :::J : AP PHOTO House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) touts airline safety legislation yesterday at a rally In front of the House side of the U.S. Capitol. House works to bring air securit bill to floor vote The Washington Post TEHRAN, Iran - Afghans fleeing their homeland should "think twice" about heading for neighboring Iran, a senior U.N. official warned yesterday after failing to per- suade the Islamic Republic to allow refugees into the country on humanitarian grounds. "The policy of the (Iranian) government is that the bor- ders are closed and that policy will continue," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers said after meeting with President Mohammad Khatami and other top Iranian officials. "If you see any possibility to survive (in Afghanistan), don't come." His daylong trip to Iran followed four days of meetings in Pakistan, where Lubbers also failed to persuade leaders to change their closed-door policy for refugees. Lubbers said he sympathizes with Iran's concerns about the 2.6 million Afghans already in the country, refugees from warfare stretching back to the Soviet inva- sion of their country 22 years ago. Many Iranians resent the influx, which they claim has driven up unemploy- ment and strained already scarce resources, including water and electricity. Lubbers' meetings here did bear some fruit: Iranian officials agreed to allow future Afghan refugees to con- gregate in a handful of camps to be set up at the Iranian border, he said. Both U.N. and Iranian authorities will probably determine who can stay at those camps, Lubbers said. He also stressed that unless Iranian police and soldiers guarantee the safety of those areas, the United Nations will not go there. The international body already forbids its workers from going to the two refugee camps set up a few miles inside Afghanistan between the Iranian city of Zabol and the Afghan city of Zaranj. "It simply is not safe enough. They are not under the A"" rPOT A boy attempts, unsuccessfully, to cross into Chaman Pakistan from Afghanistan yesterday. Nearly 2,000 Afghan refugees are now living at the United Nations refugee camp at the border. Afghan refugeesfnd squalor lawlessness in Pakistan WASHINGTON - House Repub- licans and Democrats worked furious- ly yesterday to promote competing proposals in anticipation of today's vote on overhauling the nation's air- port security system. Either bill would transform how the government and airlines monitor air travel. But the two parties are battling over whether to adopt legislation, passed by the Senate unanimously in October, that would create a federal workforce of 28,000 baggage screen- ers. The House Republican proposal, would give the president the option of using private contractors, which Pres- ident Bush prefers. House leaders continued to tinker with their bill yesterday to attract more votes. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the aviation subcommit- tee, described more specific language on matching bags to passengers and deputizing screeners with law- enforcement powers as "some of those provisions people wanted." The Republicans also inserted lan- guage that would protect the New York Port Authority and plane manu- facturers from liability in the Sept. 1 I attacks, and a provision to exempt deferred compensation from an in an earlier bill that capped the salaries said. House Transportation and Infra- structure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) said lawmakers did not mean to limit airline executives' income as part of the recent bailout. "That was not our intention," he said. The liability and compensation changes brought new lobbyists to the Republican side, including represen- tatives of plane manufacturer Boeing Co. and engine-maker Rolls Royce PLC. A few airlines are also taking more prominent roles, including Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc., whose lobbyists are focused on a few Georgia members. Several unions are working hard on the other side, including associations representing pilots, flight attendants, machinists.and transport workers:. Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, appeared at a Democratic press conference Wednesday morning to defend the Senate bill. He contended that some Republicans oppose federalizing bag- gage screeners because they don't want federal-employee unions to gain members. But Republican leaders said they were not fixated on unionization. "The goal here should be to get secu- rity at the highest level possible as quickly as possible," said Chief Los Angeles Times QUETTA, Pakistan - Those who wonder why Pakistan keeps its border closed to thou- sands of new Afghan refugees need look no further than Abdul Hakim and his five scruffy little brothers. Hakim, as he is commonly called, his brothers and thousands of other Afghan urchins like them survive on society's outer edge, scavenging for bits of plastic, glass and paper from the garbage piles of Pak- istan's poorest region, then selling the scraps for a pittance to recycling centers. The children, some as young as 7, were $1.50. On bad days, they bring in less than 50 cents. In Quetta, Karachi and other Pakistani cities, these boys exist in a kind of Dicken- sian twilight zone, a filthy and dangerous world. As they walk the streets and rummage for scraps, they are weak prey to every form of lowlife predator, from petty thieves, drug peddlers and pedophiles to sophisticated kid- napping rings. As such, the children represent one pf the more disturbing aspects of Pakistan's current refugee crisis. Their presence embodies fears for the next. "These boys have no education, they have