Guy Reschenthaler, Wire Service Editor
The Behrend Beacon
ush authorizes increased aid to Afghan rebels
by Steven Thomma
and Juan Tamayo
Knight Ridder Newspapers
President Bush has secretly autho
rized increased financial aid to Af
ghan rebels so that they can buy
Russian military equipment to inten
sify their fight against the ruling
Taliban regime, Knight Ridder has
learned.
Senior administration officials
said the President approved the
stepped-up assistance last week but
declined to specify how much
money was involved.
The administration expects that
the rebels of the United Front will
assist an expanded CIA operation
aimed at locating terrorist leader
Osama bin Laden, whom the U.S.
believes masterminded the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center and Pentagon.
The Taliban ambassador to Paki
stan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, told re
porters Sunday that bin Laden was
in a secure and secret location in
what the Taliban calls the Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan, and that the
regime was awaiting U.S. evidence
of bin Laden's involvement before
opening negotiations.
"He is under our control," Zaeef
told reporters in the Pakistan capi
tal of Islamabad. "Wherever he is,
he's in a secret place but that doesn't
mean that he is out of the control of
the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
He's in a place which cannot be lo
cated by anyone."
The United Front has been ask
ing for direct U.S. military aid since
at least 1997 and has been receiv
ing a small amount of non-lethal as
sistance, such as communications
equipment since 1998.
A U.S. official who confirmed the
expanded aid said it did not make
sense to give the rebels U.S. weap
ons because they are now equipped
and trained almost exclusively on
military equipment from the former
Soviet Union.
In addition to the increased finan
cial aid, the President has authorized
the CIA and other agencies to sup
port a broad-based political opposi
tion to the Taliban focused on
former Afghan King Mohammed
Zahir Shah, 86, who has been liv-
Foreign students coming under close scrutiny
by Dion Lefler
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Eyad Ismoil came to the United
States in 1989 to attend Wichita State
University. Four years later, he drove
a truck bomb into the underground
garage of the World Trade Center in
New York, killing six people.
Nasser Hidmi studied English at
Kansas State University in 1990 and
1991. In 1992, he was arrested by Is
raeli authorities in an attempted ter
rorist bombing. He told investigators
he had learned revolutionary theory
and war craft in clandestine meetings
held in conjunction with religious
conventions in Kansas City and
weekend retreats outside Chicago.
Ismoil and Hidmi entered the
United States on student visas, as do
more than 1 million people every
year. Officials say the vast majority
of these students are what they ap
pear to be: law-abiding people seek
ing an education that they can take
home to make their lives and coun
tries better.
But in the wake of the Sept. 11 at
tacks that destroyed the World Trade
Center and damaged the Pentagon,
federal officials have increased their
scrutiny of foreign students and plan
to increase it more.
The FBI has already invoked a
rarely used emergency power to
search student records that are gen
erally closed under federal privacy
laws.
Officials are also rushing to fully
implement a 1996 law -- passed in
response to Ismoil's role in the 1993
Trade Center bombing -- that would
require universities to keep tabs on
foreign students and notify law-en
forcement authorities if they drop out
of school.
Some officials are proposing new
laws to establish counterfeit-proof
ing in exile in Rome.
One potential leader of the coali
tion, Gen. Amin Wardak, who fought
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in
the 1980 s, met Saturday with admin
istration officials at the White House,
then flew to Rome to confer with the
King.
Wardak, who has a residence in
Islamabad, is popular with the gov
ernment of Pakistan, which the ad
ministration considers crucial to
helping maintain stability in the re
gion while trying to undermine the
Taliban.
In yet a third line of attack on the
Taliban, officials said Sunday night
that the CIA has identified some 700
Afghan tribal chiefs to target with of
fers of money and food in exchange
for breaking with the ruling regime.
After two years of famine and eco
nomic mismanagement in Afghani
stan, analysts believe some of the
chiefs could be willing to break with
the Taliban for the right induce
ments.
Fewer than half a dozen of them
are believed to be fully supportive
of the Taliban alliance with bin
Laden, a Saudi.
Finally, a senior official said, the
CIA has been authorized to add 700
officers to support its counter-terror
ism efforts
U.S. officials on Sunday flatly re
jected a call from the Taliban for ne
gotiations over the fate of bin Laden.
"The president has said we're not
negotiating," White House Chief of
Staff Andy Card said during an ap
pearance on the Fox News Sunday
program.
"We've told the Taliban govern
ment what they should be doing.
They've got to turn not only Osama
bin Laden over but all of the opera
tives of the al Qaida organization.
They've got to stop being a haven
where terrorists can train."
Card and other administration of
ficials reacted to the assertion Sun
day by the Taliban that it now knows
where bin Laden is and that he is un
der Taliban "control."
A week ago, the Taliban said it
could not locate bin Laden to deliver
a request that he voluntarily leave the
country. Sunday, Zaeef said bin
Laden has not replied to the request,
but that he wouldn't be forced into
identification cards that could be used
to catch students or workers who vio
late the terms of their visas.
Ismoil, a Kuwaiti-horn citizen of
Jordan, entered Wichita State in 1989
to study engineering. After three se
mesters, he dropped out of sight.
He resurfaced in 1993 as a prime
suspect in the truck bombing. Ismoil
was captured in Jordan and tried in
the United States on charges that he
loaded and drove the truck. At his trial,
he maintained he was an unwitting
participant who believed the truck was
carrying ordinary freight goods. He
was convicted of conspiracy and sen
tenced to 240 years in prison without
possibility of parole.
Hidmi was a student in Kansas
State's English as a Second Language
program in 1990 and 1991. A Pales
tinian resident of Jerusalem, he had
applied for membership in the terror
ist organization Hamas while living
in a refugee camp, according to con
gressional testimony in a hearing held
last year.
Hidmi told Israeli investigators he
was recruited for the militant wing of
Hamas while he was at Kansas State.
Along with about 20 others, he was
taught bomb making at clandestine
meetings organized around Islamic
student conferences in Kansas City.
"They informed us that all the
young men that were present and were
chosen for the secret meetings were
from the Occupied Territories, and
were selected according to forms they
filled out in the camps," Hidmi said
in his statements to the Israeli authori
ties. "This was done in order that they
will take part in activities that will
support and strengthen the Intifadah
(Palestinian uprising) within the
framework of Hamas."
Azfar Kazmi, president of the Mus
lim students group at WSU, was as
tonished when he was told about
r.)
Vi.,\ll
\jeg'
Friday, October 5, 2001
PHOTOGRAPH BY DALE GULDAN/KRT CAMPUS
President George W. Bush speaks to a crowd gathered at O'Hare
International Airport in Chicago.
U.S. hands either, at least not with
out proof of his complicity.
Noting U.S. threats to attack un
less the Taliban meets its demands,
Zaeef insisted the United States first
present evidence. That "might
change things," he said.
"They are thinking of direct at
tacks," he said. "We are thinking of
negotiation. They have provided no
evidence, but they want the man."
Zaeef's words raised hope among
some. "If it's a serious offer, nego
tiations should not he rejected by the
U.S. This should definitely he pur
sued - before the first bullet comes
out," said Syed Kahier Ali Wasti,
president of the moderate Pakistani
Muslim League.
But the United States and allies
Istrioil's role in the 1993 bombing.
"Somebody told me about that, but I
thought they were joking," he said.
And he and other members of his
group said they had never been ap
proached by anyone seeking to recruit
them into underground activities.
U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, a
Longtime advocate of tighter immigra
tion controls, wrote the 1996 law to
track foreign students.
He said 15 of the 19 men who are
believed to have hijacked four airlin
ers Sept. 11 entered the country legally
on work or student visas.
Officials of both Wichita State and
Kansas State said all their foreign stu
dents are accounted for, and none is
believed to have been involved with
the attacks or terrorism in general.
WSU spokesman Joe Kleinsasser
said authorities questioned one student
shortly after the attack, but it was a
case of mistaken identity. The FBI was
given a few records as part of its na
tional check on foreign students, but
no further action was taken, he said.
Cheryl May, a spokeswoman for
Kansas State, said the university is
unaware of any of its students being
contacted by authorities since the
bombings.
Both universities reported that their
campuses and communities have been
supportive of the foreign students.
Some incidents of harassment have
been reported, but they have been rare
and involved only verbal taunts, offi
cials said.
Leaders and members of the Mus
lim Students Association at WSU said
the atmosphere has been calm for
them since the attacks, which they
denounce as an atrocity against
America and their religion.
"The things happening in New York
are really terrifying," said Sayed Ali,
a student from Pakistan. "A terrorist
has no religion, period."
said the demand for evidence and
negotiations was all talk.
"It was just a few days ago that
they said they didn't know where he
was," Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld said on NBC's "Meet the
Press" program. "So I have no rea
son to believe anything a Taliban
representative would say. -
Nearly three weeks after terrorists
believed linked to bin Laden at
tacked the United States, Attorney
General John Ashcroft warned that
more could he coming.
"We believe there are others who
may he in the country who would
have plans, - Ashcroft said on CBS's
"Face The Nation.''
"There is a very serious threat of
additional prohlems 110 W - Ashcroft
Foreign students are highly sought
by U.S. universities for financial and
educational reasons
International students pay $320 a
credit hour at Wichita State, com
pared with $94 for in-state students,
Kleinsasser said.
About 1,476 WSU students are
from another country, out of a student
population of 14,854. K-State has
about 1,100 out of a student popula
tion of 23,000.
But both officials said the educa
tional benefits are even more impor
tant than the financial effects.
"You have a significant number of
students here who may never have
been out of Wichita or Kansas,"
Kleinsasser said. "They can learn
about other cultures and other beliefs
from interacting with the students
here on campus."
Officials at all levels concede that
it is practically impossible to track
people like Ismoil who vanish from
school.
Universities are supposed to notify
the Immigration and Naturalization
Service when international students
enter their school and when they don't
attend the programs they sign up for.
But it's a paper system, and informa
tion often runs six months to a year
behind, said Elaine Komis of the INS
office in Washington.
The law Smith wrote in 1996 was
designed to computerize the process
so it could provide real-time informa
tion. In 1997, the INS launched a pi
lot program involving 21 schools in
the Southeast.
But in 1999, when the INS pub
lished draft regulations to expand the
program, it received 4,500 complaints
from colleges and others, mostly
about the law's requirement that the
schools collect the $95-per-student
fee to pay for it.
Congress has twice asked the INS
Americans already appear pre
pared for the likelihood of further
tragedy. In a new poll for Ti me
magazine, 81 percent of Americans
said they believed another terrorist
attack is very likely or somewhat
likely in the next year; 76 percent
said they thought the likely vehicle
of attack would be a car bomb or
truck bomb.
Administration officials also ac
knowledged Sunday that military re
taliation for the terrorist attack Sept.
11 could have consequences in the
United States and abroad.
"There are substantial risks of ter
rorism still in the United States, and
as we as a nation respond to what's
happened to us, those risks may in
fact go up," Ashcroft said on CNN.
Rumsfeld said that in weighing
how to react, U.S. officials must be
careful not to foment unrest in Is
lamic countries that have pledged to
assist the fight against terrorism,
such as Pakistan and Jordan.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair
said the evidence against bin Laden
is compelling. "I have seen abso
lutely powerful and incontrovertible
evidence of his link to the events of
the Ilth of September," Blair said in
a British television interview.
In Washington, about 3,000 to
4,000 largely peaceful protesters
urged the United States not to engage
in indiscriminate bombing of Af-
ghanistan.
"I think all of us are quite sick of
the idea of civilian deaths whether
they're here or in Afghanistan," said
Kit Bonson, an organizer with the
Washington Peace Center, a local
anti-war group that organized the
rally.
"We're fighting what the United
States is getting ready to inflict on
other countries around the world,"
said protester Mary Lou Greenberg
of New York City.
The protesters were met with
counter-protests.
Vietnam-era veteran Lou Santucci
carried a sign linking the protesters
to terrorists: "Osama thanks Fellow
Cowards for Their Support."
Nora Carroll yelled obscenities at
the marchers, then explained that
they were wrong comparing the war
on terrorism with the war in Vietnam
to wait so it could tweak the system,
Komis said. A complete nationwide
system is not expected to be online
until 2003, she said.
Even if the system were in place,
there are other major obstacles to
tracking students who come in on vi
sas and drop out of sight in America,
Komis said.
Almost !million students are
among the 30 million non-immigrant
aliens who enter the country on visas
each year, Komis said, and the INS
has only about 2,000 INS investiga
tors.
In addition to keeping tabs on for
eigners, they have to investigate ille
gal immigrants, immigrant smuggling
and immigration fraud, she said.
Smith said he believes all non-im-
Behrend's Student
Government Association will
be taking nominations for
(1) SGA Senator
and (1) Freshman Senator
at the SGA meeting on
Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2001
at 5:20 p.m. in Reed 114.
Anyone interested should
attend the meeting or call
SGA at
898-6220.
behrcolls@aol.com
a generation ago. - This is a whole
different story, - she said. "When
we're attacked, we fight back."
In other developments Sunday:
- Exiled Afghan King Zahir Shah
met with members of the United
States Congress Sunday in Rome.
Some officials hope he could serve
as transitional leader if the Talihan
is toppled. Shah has lived in Rome
since 1973.
Ta iban leader Mullah
Mohammed Omar warned the
former king to stay away. "How dare
you think you can return to Afghani
stan hacked by the United States,"
Omar said in a radio address.
Also, the Taliban said it arrested
six people for distributing leaflets
urging the king's return to power.
The leaflets also said the United
States is not an enemy, according to
a report from the Pakistan-based Af
ghan Islamic Press.
- Government officials will review
options Monday or Tuesday to re
open Washington's Reagan National
Airport, the only airport in the coun
try still closed.
" The president would like us to
get National Airport, Ronald Reagan
Airport, opened as quickly as we
can. But we have to he sensitive to
the security cpncerns," Card said.
Officials are concerned ahout its
proximity to important government
buildings - it is just seconds away
from the Pentagon, the White House
and Capitol.
"Pm optimistic that we can find
the right balance between security
and economic opportunity that is
necessary to the opening of Ronald
Reagan Airport, - Card said. "I'm
confident that we can address the
challenge and that Ronald Reagan
Airport will he open. The question
is how quickly and under what cir
cumstances.-
- Ashcroft said the number of ar
rests in the investigation now tops
500. FBI field offices are operating
on 12-hour shifts and sitting more
than 225,000 tips. (Thomma re
ported from Washington. Tamayo of
the Miami Herald reported from
Islamabad. Also contributing: Lenny
Savino, Tony Pugh, Drew Brown of
the Macon Telegraph and Mark
McDonald of the San Jose Mercury
News.)
migrants who enter the country
should he issued an ID card that
would state when they arc supposed
to leave. That information could he
computerized, allowing them to he
identified if they overstay their visa
and apply for a government benefit
or get pulled over for a traffic offense.
Ile said he doesn't know whether
the tracking system he proposed
would have made any difference in
the Sept. l I attack.
"But the hope is that one or two of
these individuals would have been
detained and (law entOrcement) might
have been able to unravel the con
spiracy," he said.
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