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Religious Scholars Meeting on Bin Laden Extradition Postponed
KABUL, Sept 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A meeting of Islamic scholars from across Afghanistan to decide whether to extradite Osama bin Laden, wanted "dead or alive" by the United States, has been postponed, a senior Taliban source said Tuesday, news agencies reported.
"There will be no meeting today [Tuesday]. Maybe the meeting will take place tomorrow or the day after," the source said, explaining that some of the participants had not yet arrived in the capital, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Earlier, where foreigners and tens of thousands of Afghans were fleeing ahead of anticipated U.S. military strikes, the Islamic scholars who dictate the Taliban's policies planned to meet in Kabul to decide whether or not to extradite bin Laden, whom Washington has fingered as their main suspect.
The gathering of the 1,000 scholars, or ulema, was called Monday, when a delegation from neighboring Pakistan delivered a message from Washington telling the Taliban to surrender the Saudi-born dissident or face consequences.
In Washington, meanwhile, the United States moved closer Tuesday to launching a global crusade to get Osama bin Laden "dead or alive".
Foreign leaders from around the world were to start arriving in Washington on Tuesday to discuss what part they might play in a Gulf War-style coalition being put together by the United States to avenge the outrage, AFP reported.
U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday invoked the language of the historical American Wild West of the 1800s to threaten bin Laden, who has been sheltered by the Taliban since 1996.
"I want justice. There's an old poster out west that says, as I recall, 'Wanted dead or alive,'" Bush said during a visit to the Pentagon.
U.S. officials have indicated they are willing to use any means to get at bin Laden - including assassination - and have warned that any states harboring the terrorists they want would also be targets, AFP said.
"There's no rules," Bush said, although his lieutenants, particularly Secretary of State Colin Powell, have been busily contacting allies, former enemies and rivals to construct an international force that would be used to hunt down what the U.S. president termed "evil-doers" everywhere.
According to the BBC's online news service, U.S. spy satellites were given new instructions Monday to concentrate their attention on Afghanistan and the search for bin Laden, and groups associated with him.
Signal Intelligence (Sigint) satellites, designed to intercept radio and mobile phone traffic, have been "re-tasked", as have two "Big Bird" satellites that take high-resolution images, BBC said.
The use of Sigint satellites marks a departure from normal procedure, as they are not usually used to gather intelligence about dissident groups.
U.S. military sources have also made approaches to two commercial satellite operators to use data from two private imaging satellites that will be launched in the next few weeks, the BBC added.
The "re-tasking" of spy satellites is an unusual step that reflects the seriousness of the response to the hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington DC.
The main suspect identified by the U.S. for last Tuesday's attacks, bin Laden, is said to not to use mobile phones, and is out of contact with the entire world.
But U.S. military officials are clearly hoping to intercept some phone communications, a task that should be helped by the small size and sparse communications infrastructure in Afghanistan, BBC added.
Big Bird spy satellites are also returning high-resolution images back to the offices of the Pentagon's National Reconnaissance Organization in Washington, DC.
These images, able to detect individual people, will also be studied by computer to spot movements that could help analysts pinpoint bin Laden.
Confronted with the increasing likelihood of coordinated attacks against them, the Taliban warned that, while it had not as yet ordered a holy struggle, or
jihad, against the West, it would do so automatically if Washington attacked.
"Of course if there is an invasion of an Islamic country, there will be jihad against the invaders," a senior Taliban official told AFP.
Afghanistan's Taliban authority Monday banned and vowed to shoot down all foreign flights over its territory, including ones by international organizations such as the United Nations, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported.
In a report from Dushanbe, Tajikistan quoted Taliban sources as saying the Taliban will shoot down any aircraft as soon as they are detected.
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