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Pakistan Convinced by U.S. Evidence Against Bin Laden
ISLAMABAD, Oct 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistan said Thursday that evidence gathered by U.S. investigators against Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden was enough for an indictment over the September 11th attacks in the United States.
"We have seen the material that was provided to us by the U.S. side yesterday," foreign office spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan told a press briefing.
"This material certainly provides sufficient basis for indictment in a court of law."
Khan said the United States had provided evidence showing bin Laden's alleged involvement in the twin U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998, as well as the hijacking attacks in New York and Washington last month.
The 1998 attack killed 224 people, while more than 6,000 are dead or missing after the jets ploughed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania on September 11th.
Bin Laden, who lives in neighboring Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, has already been indicted with multiple counts of murder for the two embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
The United States this week began sharing the results of its investigations into last month's attacks with governments around the world in a bid to bolster support for its war on terrorism.
"There are sufficient grounds for indictment and it reinforces the resolutions of the Security Council taken earlier," Khan said, referring to U.N. sanctions slapped on the Taliban in 1999 and 2001 for their refusal to hand over bin Laden to the United States or a third country.
Khan's statements come as British Prime Minister Tony Blair is preparing to visit Pakistan for diplomatic efforts to garner support for military action against the Taliban, according to a BBC Online report.
The report added that Khan said the evidence would not be provided to the Taliban, and that Khan refused to say if the evidence was enough to warrant military action against the Taliban and bin Laden.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf immediately offered his "full cooperation" to the United States, although Washington has not detailed exactly what kind of support this includes, aside from intelligence cooperation and air space sharing.
Pakistan's support is crucial to U.S. efforts to strike the Taliban and bin Laden, but it is under severe pressure from pro-Taliban religious allies within its own population.
Musharraf has said concrete evidence would be needed to help him to bring Pakistan's powerful religious groups on board.
The 19-member NATO alliance on Wednesday said it was ready for joint military action after seeing clear evidence from Washington that bin Laden was behind the attacks.
After Turkey, the only Muslim country in NATO, Pakistan has now become the second Muslim nation to declare that the evidence against bin Laden was compelling.
Pakistan's announcement will give a major boost to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as he tours the Middle East and Central Asia to rally more support from the Muslim world.
Rumsfeld, in Saudi Arabia Thursday, was to head later to Oman, Egypt and Uzbekistan, while Blair was scheduled to go to Moscow and Islamabad.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday his country would not take part in any U.S.-led military action against international terrorism.
Egypt "supports the fight against terrorism, but will not take part with troops," he said.
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