Herald News Services
BRUSSELS, Belgium — NATO said Tuesday that the United States provided "clear and compelling proof" that Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization was behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In response, the alliance said it was ready to fight at the side of the United States should it ask for help from its 18 NATO allies.
The alliance decision amounted to a final stamp of approval for an attack on bin Laden, his al-Qaida network and the Taliban government that harbors him in Afghanistan, and was one of several signals that some sort of military strike is imminent.
In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a stern speech warning the terrorists and particularly the Taliban that they face a military strike, and suggesting that a diplomatic solution was impossible in waging the new war on terror.
"This is a battle with only one outcome: our victory, not theirs,” he said. Blair said actions would aim to eliminate military hardware, cut off finances and disrupt supplies. "The action we take will be proportionate, targeted; we will do all we humanly can to avoid civilian casualties.”
Even with the invocation of the mutual defense clause, called Article 5 in the founding treaty, any decision to embark on joint military action would require further deliberation. But NATO officials said each member state is now morally bound to help the United States if asked.
The classified evidence included financial transactions and intercepted phone calls, and showed a pattern of attacks linking the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1998 attacks of two US embassies in East Africa, and the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., according to a senior Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The evidence is historic," said the official. "It goes from the World Trade Center bombing to recent activities where Osama bin Laden has been engaged … . And for most countries that already have sophisticated intelligence networks, they already knew this themselves."
NATO’s secretary general, Lord Robertson, referring to the evidence presented by Frank Taylor, the State Department’s counter-terrorism chief, said only that "the facts are clear and compelling."
One Western official at NATO said the briefings, which were oral, without slides or documents, did not report any direct order from bin Laden, nor did it indicate that the Taliban knew about the attacks before they happened.
A senior diplomat for one closely allied nation characterized the briefing as containing "nothing particularly new or surprising," adding: "It was descriptive and narrative rather than forensic. There was no attempt to build a legal case."
While NATO deemed the evidence sufficient to make the case for an attack, Pakistan appeared to find it less convincing.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said information was sent out Monday to a large number of nations that "powerfully made the case" against the al-Qaida organization for the terrorist attacks three weeks ago.
Different countries are receiving different presentations, based on their relationship with the United States, said one government source, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The British, for example, are receiving the most detail, with other allies receiving less, and other members of the anti-terrorism coalition still less.
A representative of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where bin Laden is believed to be hiding out, called on the United States Tuesday to provide evidence of the exiled Saudi millionaire’s involvement.
In response, Boucher said delivery of bin Laden and his associates to a third country already is required by two U.N. Security Council resolutions based on investigations into the East Africa bombings.
"There should be no further delay," Boucher said. "There is no cause to ask for anything else. They’re already under this international obligation, and they have to meet it."
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