Update: The Taliban File Part IV
Pre-9/11 U.S. Attempts to Drive Bin Laden Out of Afghanistan
Repeatedly Unsuccessful, Documents Show
Taliban Official Blames Saddam Hussein for U.S. Embassy Bombings
U.S. Provided Aid to Soviet-Era Mujahadeen, Did Not Directly Fund Bin Laden
Edited by Barbara Elias
Posted August 18, 2005
Washington, August 18, 2005 - The U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan told a top Taliban
official in September 2000 that the U.S. "was not out to destroy the Taliban,"
but the "UBL [Osama bin Laden] issue is supremely important," according to
declassified documents posted today by the National Security Archive. The
documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, show how years of
U.S. diplomacy with the Taliban, combined with pressure on Pakistan, and
attempts to employ Saudi cooperation still failed to compel the Taliban to expel
bin Laden.
Harboring bin Laden, but hesitant to sever diplomatic ties with the U.S.
completely, the Taliban claimed there was insufficient evidence to convict bin
Laden of terrorism, going so far as to say that Saddam Hussein was behind the
1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. (Link DOC 4)
The newly declassified documents also show that State Department officials
rejected Taliban claims that the U.S. supported bin Laden during the Soviet
occupation. U.S. officials clarify that, although Osama bin Laden may have
fought with other U.S.-funded anti-Soviet resistance groups in Afghanistan, "we
had never heard his name during that period and did not support him at that time."
