NATION/WORLD
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 5A
I
a
Karzai asks U.N.
for increased
global support
Bush singles out
three countries
as future threats
The Washington Post
"Time is not on our
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -
Afghanistan's interim leader asked
the United Nations yesterday to
expand the international force pro-
tecting his fledgling government, say-
ing it would signal a global
commitment to a country brutalized
by 23 years of war and neglect.
The appeal by Hamid Karzai rep-
resented an about-face for the new
government, which had insisted
before it took power five weeks ago
that the force be restricted to the cap-
ital, Kabul, and the surrounding area.
Karzai told the U.N. Security
Council that Afghans from across the
country want an expansion of the
force to ensure security following the
rout of the former Taliban rulers by
U.S. led-forces.
"Security is the foundation for
peace, stability and economic recon-
struction," he stressed.
The new government's desire to
get multinational troops to other
Afghan cities has been spurred by
continuing instability, lawlessness,
and a resurgence of activity by local
warlords. This has hampered distrib-
ution of desperately needed humani-
tarian relief in many areas.
Karzai, on the first visit to the
United States by an Afghan leader in
nearly 30 years, had previously said
in Kabul and Washington that many
Afghans .feel the force should be
expanded and operate nationwide.
But until yesterday, he had stopped
short of directly calling for an
enlargement.
The 15-member council authorized
deployment of the current, British-led
force. If the Afghans want to expand
the force's operations outside the
Kabul area, a new Security Council
resolution would be needed.
Karzai told the council his govern-
ment is committed to creating a
national police force and a national
army, "however, it will require some
time."
"The extension of the presence of
AP PHOTO
.0
Afghanistan's interim President Hamid Karzai urges the United Nations t
protect his new government by expanding their international peace force
multinational forces in Kabul and
expanding their presence to other
major cities will signal the ongoing
commitment of the international
community to peace and security in
Afghanistan," he said.
Council president Foreign Minister
Anil Gayan of Mauritius told Karzai
he had the council's "unqualified and
unreserved support," and expressed
concern about the lawlessness in
Afghanistan. However, he did not
mention Karzai's request for an
expanded force.
British diplomat Alistair Harrison
said afterward that Karzai "makes a
very important and a very interesting
point that we are considering careful-
ly along with all the other members
of the council."
Privately, some council members
oppose a major expansion of the
force, arguing it would require
deployment of a much larger number
of troops for a long period.
The council authorized the multina-
tional force on Dec. 20 for six months
to help protect Karzai's government as
it was about to take power under a
U.N.-brokered agreement.
WASHINGTON - By singling out
Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis
of evil" whose efforts to acquire and
export weapons of mass destruction
could no longer be tolerated, Presi-
dent Bush on Tuesday night appeared
to sharply increase both the immedia-
cy and the gravity of the threat they
pose, along with his own determina-
tion to do something about it sooner
rather than later.
"We will be deliberate," Bush said,
"yet time is not on our side. I will not
wait on events, while dangers gather."
Bush's sober rhetoric, and the fact
that he devoted a major portion of
Tuesday night's speech to three coun-
tries whose development of chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons has
been repeatedly cited by the adminis-
tration, underscored his pledge that
the war against terrorism is not limit-
ed to rogue groups such as al-Qaida.
As described by Bush on Tuesday
night, the United States has a long-
term commitment to rid the world of
those states who give terrorists "the
means to match their hatred."
The president's State of the Union
address also highlighted another side
of the post-Sept. 11 foreign policy
strategy - the extension of support
to those nations that share the U.S.
commitment to the anti-terrorism
fight and to what he described as the
U.S. system of values.
"America will always stand firm for
the non-negotiable demands of
human dignity: the rule of law, limits
on the power of the state, respect for
women, private property, free speech,
equal justice and religious tolerance,"
Bush said. "America will take the
side of brave men and women who
advocate these values around the
world - including the Islamic world
- because we have a greater objec-
tive than eliminating threats and con-
taining resentment. We seek a just
side. I will not wait
on events, while
dangers gather. "
- President Bush
and peaceful world beyond 'the war on
terror."
Bush provided little detail beyond a
call to double the size of the Peace
Corps from its current level of about
7,000 volunteers. But White House
and State Department officials have
been at work in recent weeks on a
package of foreign aid proposals that
will emphasize expanded U.S. out-
reach in the fields of communications
and education.
International in scope, but with a
particular focus on the Islamic world,
the effort is designed to counter a
negative image of the West, and the
United States in particular, that offi-
cials believe is often spread by mili-
tant Muslim clerics in religious
schools.
A senior official who provided
guidance on Tuesday night's speech
cautioned that "by no means is the
United States trying to impose its will
or its culture" on other countries.
Instead, the official described the pro-
gram as a kind of global mentoring
campaign, which would provide
teacher training and textbooks among
other things for those countries inter-
ested in the offer.
U.S. , reconstruction aid in
Afghanistan, officials noted, is
already concentrated on educational
initiatives, as is a significant portion
of the $1 billion in assistance
promised to Pakistan.
"We see this as partnerships with
countries seeking to modernize" their
education systems, said one senior
White House official.
Airports strugglng to provide security
DENVER (AP) - Airports around the coun-
try are hiring design consultants and trying to
find the room - and the money -- to install the
bulky bomb-detection machines that must be in
place by an end-of-the-year government deadline.
Although the deadline is months away, many
industry officials and consultants believe that
because of the logistical.challenges, the costs -
and the possibility there will not be enough of the
$1 million X-ray machines to go around -- the
nation's 453 commercial airports will have a hard
time complying.
"It's not humanly possible to get the equipment
to run those bags through by the date they estab-
OTO lished," said Larry Salyers, general manager of
Tri-State Airport near Huntington, W.Va.
The machines represent the second, more chal-
lenging phase in a government effort to tighten
airport security.
On Jan. 18, airlines were ordered to begin
screening all checked baggage for explosives,
whether by hand searches, bomb detection
machines, dogs or the matching of every piece of
luggage to a passenger. Most airlines are meeting
the requirement by matching bags, and few
glitches have been reported. But by the end of the
year, machines with 3-D medical X-ray technolo-
gy must be used in all cases.
The largest of the machines are as big as a van
- nearly 16 feet long, 8 feet wide and 7 feet
high - and weigh 8 1/2 tons. And major airports
will need dozens of them. The Los Angeles air-
port, for example, will have to accommodate at
least 100 of the machines.
Airports around the nation are ordering bomb-detection
devices to fulfill new Congressional security requirements.
New al-Qaida diagrams hint
at potential attack on U.S.
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Nuclear plants, Wa
WASHINGTON (AP) - Diagrams of American nuclear
power plants found by U.S. forces in Afghanistan show al-
Qaida's interest in striking them, but it's unclear how far
along those plans were, a defense official says.
Military officials are unaware of any finds noting specific
times or operatives who would conduct an attack. Instead,
the documents seem to be part of al-Qaida's research, and
they provide insight to the terrorist group's thought process
in planning possible attacks, said the official, speaking on
the condition of anonymity.
Some of the material recovered appears to be from public
sources such as magazines. It is not known how al-Qaida
came by the rest.
In his State of the Union address, President Bush pointed
to the discoveries to highlight the dangers posed by the ter-
rorist network.
"The depth of their hatred is equaled by the madness of
the destruction they design," Bush said Tuesday night. "We
have found diagrams of American nuclear power plants and
public water facilities, detailed instructions for making
chemical weapons, surveillance maps of American cities,
and thorough descriptions of landmarks in America and
throughout the world."
The discoveries prompted an FBI warning to law enforce-
ment agencies earlier this month, telling them to be vigilant
around utilities, nuclear plants and water facilities, said
homeland security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
A White House spokesman would not elaborate on the
president's statements. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission
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DETROIT (AP) - A California a
man who sent an e-mail to an Arab-
American organization calling for the M
killing of all Arabs will spend a week
working with the people he threatened A
and learning about their culture.
Douglas Snyder, 46, of Lemoore,
Calif., sent the message Sept. 11, the
same day the World Trade Center was
reduced to rubble and a plane slammed
into the side of the Pentagon. Yesterday,
Snyder pleaded guilty and was sen-
tenced for attempted ethnic intimidation.
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spokesman also declined to comment on Bush's mention of
nuclear power plant diagrams.
Since Sept. 11, the NRC has advised plants to be on alert,
and some states have sent National Guard troops to aug-
ment the security forces at a handful of plants.
Paul Leventhal, president of the nonproliferation advoca-
cy Nuclear Control Institute, said Bush's statements raise
questions about the government's preparations for terrorist
attacks on nuclear power plants.
"It would suggest they received specific diagrams of spe-
cific plants," Leventhal said. "And it raises the question of
whether the plants have been alerted ... and what the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning to do about it."
Bush's statements are the latest product of the ongoing
effort by U.S. military and intelligence officials to sort
through documents, computers and other items found at
former al-Qaida caves, camps and safehouses in
Afghanistan.
Otlhr materials found in Afghanistan have detailed plans
for at least one attack. Officials learned the details of an
operation planned against U.S. naval facilities in Singapore
from items recovered following the rout of the Taliban.
In addition, evidence obtained in Afghanistan shows al-
Qaida operatives have fallen for a number of scams in their
attempts to acquire nuclear weapons and other weapons of
mass destruction, a senior government terrorism analyst said.
"That's good news for us," said Gary Richter, a terrorism
expert with the Energy Department's Sandia National Labo-
ratories.
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