No evidence to blame Osama: Taliban

KABUL, SEPT. 13. The Taliban Foreign Minister, Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel, today dismissed reports that Western intelligence had linked Osama bin Laden to the terrorist attacks on the United States as lacking any credibility.

Mr. Mutawakel reiterated that the Taliban would consider extraditing Osama if it received ``solid and convincing'' evidence of his involvement in terrorism, but said the U.S. had so far failed to deliver this.

The U.S. Senator, Mr. Orrin Hatch, has said that FBI officials intercepted telephone calls which indicated Osama had been involved in plotting the attacks. A German Government spokesman said on Wednesday that the German, British, French and Israeli secret services had also linked the Saudi dissident to the world's worst terrorist atrocity.

But Mr. Mutawakel said such claims amounted to an attempt by U.S. intelligence agencies to justify their failure. ``The intelligence services have to say something because they are responsible to the people of the U.S. and the Congress,'' he said. ``So in order to mask their failure they will accuse anyone. If they were able to detect the telephone conversation, why were they not able to detect the big attacks?''

Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive supreme leader of the Taliban, also said that Osama could not be held responsible for the attacks.

Arrest denied

The Taliban Government has denied reports of the alleged arrest of Osama and two of his immediate aides. According to a Novosti report, the Arab electronic newspaper, Ilaf, had reported that the Taliban had placed Osama, the al-Qa'Ida Egyptian wing's leader, Aiman al-Zawahiri, and Osama's military adviser, Muhammed Atef al-Mukni, under home arrest. The Taliban embassy in Abu Dhabi did not confirm this information.

- AFP, UNI

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Section  : International
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