Bin Laden urged to leave Afghanistan

Bin Laden urged to leave Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Agencies): Afghan clerics on Thursday
recommended that Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in last week's
nightmare attacks, leave their country, an overture rejected by
the U.S.

Washington instead demanded the world's most hunted man be
turned over to responsible authorities.

"It does not meet America's requirements," said White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer. "This is about much more than one man
being allowed to leave voluntarily, presumably, from one safe
harbor to another safe harbor."

"It is time for action, not words. The president has demanded
that key figures of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization,
including bin Laden, be turned over to responsible authorities
and that the Taliban close terrorist camps in Afghanistan and the
United States stands behind those demands."

Britain also said on Thursday that proposals by Afghan clerics
that bin Laden leave their country voluntarily would not satisfy
an international campaign to crack down on militants.

A grand council, or shura, of Afghanistan's Islamic clerics
meeting in Kabul, issued an edict recommending the Taliban urge
bin Laden to leave whenever possible. It threatened to declare a
jihad, or holy war, if the United States attacked Afghanistan as
part of its declared "war on terrorism" around the world in the
aftermath of the attacks.

"If infidels invade an Islamic country and that country does
not have the ability to defend itself, jihad becomes a definite
obligation of all the world's Muslims," it said.

Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a Kabul news
conference that Taliban spiritual leader Mulla Mohammad Omar
would likely accept the clerics' edict.

Muttaqi said earlier the Saudi-born exile's departure could
take time and his destination was uncertain.

The edict also said anyone helping the United States in an
attack on Afghanistan would face a holy war -- a threat aimed
particularly at neighboring Pakistan that has offered its full
support for U.S. military action.

"If in the time of an American attack, any Muslims, be they
Afghans or non-Afghans, cooperate with the infidels, accomplices
or spy, that person also is punishable to death like the foreign
invaders," it said.

"To avoid the current tumult and also future similar
suspicions, the high council of the honorable ulema (clerics)
recommends to the Islamic Emirate (of Afghanistan) to persuade
Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan whenever possible," said the
edict, issued by the Taliban's Information Ministry after the
two-day meeting.

The edict criticized Bush for offending Muslims by referring
to his campaign against extremists as a "crusade."

The clerics said bin Laden should find another place to live
and called for separate investigations into the attacks by the
United Nations and Organization of Islamic Conference.

They voiced "their sadness over American deaths and hope
America does not attack Afghanistan."

Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush will address a Joint
Session of the U.S. Congress on Thursday and is expected to urge
Americans to be vigilant and patient as the United States
prepared to strike its first blow in what he has called the first
war of the 21st century.

In Thursday's address to the nation, Bush will make clear that
his campaign is not a replay of the Gulf War, a traditional war
conducted by his father that pitted a U.S.-led coalition against
Iraq.

"I think the president is going to use this as an opportunity
to talk about the sustained nature of this campaign," White House
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said.

The first phase of the U.S. response would be retaliation
against those responsible and those who harbor them followed by a
longer global struggle against militant networks, she said.

The United States has launched Operation Infinite Justice in
response to attacks on New York and Washington that left 6,000
dead and missing, putting up to 500 U.S. warplanes within
striking distance of Afghanistan.

U.S. Army Secretary Thomas White said Army units had been
ordered to deploy for possible military operations.

In another development in Islamabad, Suhail Shaheen, the
Taliban's deputy ambassador to Pakistan, said bin Laden was ready
to be tried if Washington could produce evidence linking him to
the attacks.

Shaheen told Reuters Television bin Laden could be tried in
Kabul or in another Muslim country. "If there's evidence, he is
ready for a trial."

"He said 'I am not involved, I am a guest (in Afghanistan). If
they have evidence, I am ready'," Shaheen said.

Thousands of Afghans fled cities fearing a U.S. punishment
strike. Relief agencies warned of a devastating human disaster.
With a bitter winter on the way, some refugees are already being
forced to eat grass and animal fodder.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied published
reports on Thursday of a rift within the Bush administration over
the scope and timing of a U.S.-led military response.