Stories from 2001-12-12

"What causes the documented high level of civilian casualties—3,767 civilian deaths in eight and a half weeks—in the U.S. air war upon Afghanistan? The explanation is the apparent willingness of U.S. military strategists to fire missiles into and drop bombs upon, heavily populated areas of Afghanistan." [more]

Bin Laden escaped the embattled Tora Bora base to Pakistan 10 days ago with the help of tribesmen from the Ghilzi tribe, according to a firsthand account Wednesday by a senior Al Qaeda operative and Saudi financier. Abu Jaffar, who spoke from an Afghan village still sympathetic to Mr. bin Laden and his fighters, says that several days later, bin Laden sent his 19-year-old, married son Salah Uddin back to act on his behalf. He is now the only bin Laden family member inside the Tora Bora terror base." [more]

"Attorney General John Ashcroft called Tuesday's indictment a 'chronicle of evil.' The charges include conspiring to murder, commit acts of terrorism and aircraft piracy and use weapons of mass destruction. Ashcroft said [the suspect] was an active player in the Sept. 11 attacks. He underwent the same training as the terrorists on the hijacked planes, Ashcroft said, and pledged to kill Americans." [more]

"The Justice Department never discussed with the Defense Department whether Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted so far in the Sept. 11 attacks, should be prosecuted by a military tribunal instead of a civilian court, officials said Wednesday." [more]

"The release of a videotape showing Osama bin Laden purportedly bragging about the September 11 terrorist attacks was postponed Wednesday because of audio and translation problems, according to White House and Pentagon sources." [more]

"People in the Senate office where a letter containing anthrax spores was opened in October may have been exposed to concentrations of the bacteria that were tens, and possibly hundreds, of times higher than the normally fatal dose. If that is the case, then immediate antibiotic treatment probably saved their lives — and will be imperative for other targets of mail-borne anthrax attacks." [more]

The United States continued to bomb the Tora Bora caves Wednesday after surrender talks with the Taliban led nowhere. [more]

"An American Taliban fighter held captive by Marines in Afghanistan has told American officials that al Qaeda's next attack on the United States will take place in days and involve biological weapons, U.S. intelligence officials told The Washington Times." [more]

In contrast to the post-WWII trials, "the Bush-drafted proceedings will be secret, bypassing or brushing aside the rules of evidence so scrupulously observed at Nuremberg. The judges will be military officers, answerable to superiors and dependent on them for promotion and career advancement. Defendants can even be barred from seeing evidence against them, have no right of appeal, and can be put to death by a two-thirds vote of the tribunal, rather than the unanimous vote required by the rules of courts-martial." [more]

"The United Nations has no suo moto powers to take action against the alleged human rights violations in Afghanistan but could initiate proceedings if requested by the local population, Director UN Information Center, Eric Falt said on Tuesday." [more]