Could the Taliban have turned over Bin Laden if they wanted to?

[Junkdrawer]

We talk as if Bin Laden was in a Taliban jail waiting extradition.

In fact, he was in northern Afghanistan where the Taliban had limited influence and where, even after 8 years and a 25 Million dollar bounty, we have yet to apprehend him.

I think Bush/Cheney made a demand that:

1.) The Taliban couldn't meet.

2.) The Taliban was unlikely to say the couldn't meet. (Remember, the Taliban was claiming to be the legitimate government of Afghanistan and the party who could sign, for example, pipeline agreements.)

[ShortnFiery]

1. Probably not but let's continue to morph the Taliban into al Qaeda ... so we can KILL them.

and our MIC can make another TRILLION off of our backs (tax dollars).

You see, if the MIC don't have nations to set off their "pretty weapons" then we can't GIFT them this money. We need WAR to continuously feed our BEST INDUSTRY, the war industry.

God Bless the Military Industrial Complex and their Glorious Weapons of Death and Destruction. :sarcasm:

[emulatorloo]

2. DU has officially jumped the shark

Nah, I think that happened about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

[stray cat]

3. They refused -that means no they would not do it - not that they could not

[jpak]

4. The Northern Alliance was at war with the Taliban and AQ assassinated its leader

just prior to the 9/11 attacks.

They did not have OBL - OBL was ensconced at Tora Bora in the southern part of the country after 9/11 and enjoyed the hospitality of the Taliban before and after 9/11.

try again

[harun]

5. It was as preposterous as asking Saddam Hussein to "disarm" to avert an invasion

No country can "disarm".

[demosincebirth]

6. They sure could've if they wanted to.

[aikoaiko]

7. IIRC I thought the Taliban offered up Bin Laden but under terms that would make them still look

...credible to those who hated the west. We refused the terms, they refused unconditional surrender of OBL and the rest is war.

At least that is the way I remember it. Someone more connected with the reports may be able to provide links.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

8. Yep, you're correct.

Their first offer was that they'd try him for us under Islamic Law (http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/07/ret.us.taliban/).

They made a second offer after the war had already begun, which was vague and involved potentially handing bin Laden over to an unnamed neutral country (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5)

I would stress that the Taliban had played these kinds of games before, so their offers should be taken with a grain of salt.

[Junkdrawer]

10. Then there's this: "How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and Blew It"

George Bush, the man whose prime campaign plank has been his ability to wage war on terror, could have had Osama bin Laden's head handed to him on a platter on his very first day in office, and the offer held good until February 2 of 2002. This is the charge leveled by an Afghan American who had been retained by the US government as an intermediary between the Taliban and both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

...

Towards the end of that same month of October, 2001 Mohabbat was successfully negotiating with the Taliban for the release of Heather Mercer (acting in a private capacity at the request of her father) when the Taliban once again said they would hand over Osama Bin Laden unconditionally. Mohabbat tells us he relayed the offer to David Donahue, the US consulate general in Islamabad. He was told, in his words,that "the train had moved". Shortly thereafter the US bombing of Afghanistan began.

In December Mohabbat was in Pakistan following with wry amusement the assault on Osama bin Laden's supposed mountain redoubt in Tora Bora, in the mountains bordering Pakistan. At the time he said, he informed US embassy officials the attack was a waste of time. Taliban leaders had told him that Bin Laden was nowhere near Tora Bora but in Waziristan. Knowing that the US was monitoring his cell phone traffic, Osama had sent a decoy to Tora Bora.

...


http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11012004.html

[NNN0LHI]

9. My gut says he was gone out of Afghanistan long before the first building fell in NYC

I think the Tora Bora fable is just that too.

Don

[timeforpeace]

11. Oh yeah, sure, he would have said, OK, take me away, I'm ready to go now. Fail!