October 01, 2001
Pakistan-based militant group attacks India’s state assembly building
Police in India say at least 29 people were killed and several others injured in an attack by a Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group on the state assembly building in Srinagar. The attack further heightens tensions in South Asia, already at fever pitch since the September 11 attacks. More from Sputnik Kilambi in Dehli.
UN Secretary stops short of backing using of force in Afghanistan
In a speech before the United Nations today, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani urged the world body to hold accountable and ostracize any nation that supports terrorism. But in a speech that followed Giuliani’s, UN Secretary Kofi Annan stopped short of backing the use of force in Afghanistan. Susan Wood has more from the United Nations.
Protests against U.S. military action in Afghanistan crop up across the globe
Afghanistan is bracing for U.S. military attacks today, as that country’s ruling Taliban government thumbs its nose at U.S. demands to hand over Osama Bin Laden, the key suspect in the September 11 attacks against the U.S. Pakistan’s president says he believes the United States will launch a military strike against Afghanistan, after the Taliban supreme leader told the Afghan people that “Americans don’t have the courage to come here.” When asked by the British Broadcasting Corporation if the Taliban days are numbered, the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, replied “it appears so.”
This saber rattling between the U.S. and Afghanistan is meanwhile all but drowning out news that the first world food program convoy since the start of the crisis arrived today in Kabul. Eight trucks, carrying 218 tons of wheat made it through the city after a bone jarring journey over rutted roads. The dire poverty of the Afghan people is utmost on the minds of thousands of protesters around the world, who are rallying to find a solution to the September 11 attack that doesn’t involve more violence. Over the weekend, thousands marched in Spain and Greece. Some 5,000 people in Barcelona marched behind a banner that read “no more victims of peace.” A statement from the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan was read and loudly applauded; it described Taliban rulers as barbarous assassins, but pointed out that they had once been financed by the United States. Several hundred people also attended an open air concert in Athens Saturday, to protest possible U.S. military strikes. Anti-war protesters also took to the streets of Sydney, Australia, but the Australian defense minister told them that Australia was already providing the United States military with assistance, and that Australian troops were already under U.S. command.
In our coverage today, we’ll have reports from three of many protests around the world, beginning in Washington, D.C., where 10,000 people marched on the capitol building on Saturday to demonstrate support for nonviolent solutions to the September 11 attacks. From Washington, Patrick Hollins talked with demonstrators about the march.
Dutch demonstrators call for peaceful solutions
The need to explore more peaceful solutions is sprouting as a movement in parts of Europe, as we hear in this report from Geraldine Coughlin from the Hague.
Demonstrations in London oppose military strikes in Afghanistan
Tony Blair and the Labour Party had company at their annual conference in Brighton on Sunday. Some 4,000 peace activists marched, despite poor weather and a heavy security presence, to oppose any military strikes in Afghanistan. Free Speech Radio News correspondent James Smoot met protest organizers at an anti-globalization conference in London on Saturday.
Florida professor dismissed after Fox News labels him a terrorist
On Friday, a Palestinian professor at the University of South Florida was put on paid leave, just 36 hours after his appearance on the Fox News show “The O’Reilly Report” prompted hundreds of threatening letters and emails to the school. Several years ago, Professor Sami Al-Arian was placed on a similar paid leave from the university, when he was under federal investigation by FBI agents who suspected that an Islamic think tank at the school was operating as a front for Middle Eastern terrorists. He was never detained or charged with a crime, and has continued to teach at the school for the past three years, until his appearance on Fox last Wednesday night. Free Speech Radio News correspondent Mitch Perry reports from Tampa.
