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By Alan Sipress and Thomas
E. Ricks
Bush administration officials said on
September 26 that a military strike against Osama bin Laden
and his supporters in Afghanistan is not imminent, citing
the need to gain better intelligence about their whereabouts.
"I think it can't be stressed enough
that everybody who is waiting for military action . . . needs
to rethink this thing," Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul D. Wolfowitz told reporters after briefing NATO in Brussels.
These comments and similar remarks by
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at a briefing on Capitol
Hill on September 26 are the clearest indication yet that
the administration will be taking a more deliberate approach
in launching a military campaign against bin Laden and the
ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan that protects him.
"They're headed in a direction that
will require time and a coalition," said Rep. Ike Skelton
of Missouri, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services
Committee, after receiving the classified briefing from Rumsfeld
and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.
This go-slow approach comes after officials
had said during the past week that they would delay other
stages of President Bush's war on terrorism -- including possible
attacks against state sponsors of terrorism such as Iraq --
in order to move aggressively against bin Laden. The administration
charges that bin Laden was behind the Sept. 11 attacks against
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Though dozens of U.S. warplanes have arrived in the Middle
East and Central Asia, Wolfowitz appealed to NATO ministers
for help with intelligence about bin Laden and his followers.
"In this campaign, it's worth emphasizing
one of the most important
things is to acquire more information about an enemy,
one of whose principal means of operation is to hide and conceal,"
Wolfowitz said. "That is one of the reasons why it is
not so easy to lay out a specific campaign plan and lots of
specific actions and why many of the most important things
that we are asking for are being done in the intelligence
channels."
US officials also said the administration
has adopted a methodical approach because it wants to avoid
an action that badly misfires, such as the botched attempt
to rescue American hostages held by Iran in 1980.
A senior Defense official emphasized while
traveling to Brussels that the military won't play the most
important part of the campaign against terrorism. "It
isn't exclusively military," he said of that campaign.
"It isn't even primarily military."
Even when military action is taken, he
added, "one of the major objectives of that action will
be to get more information" -- that is, to gather additional
intelligence.
Meantime, the administration continued
to work on assembling a coalition of countries to share intelligence
and support an eventual military thrust. The results yesterday
were mixed.
During a hastily arranged visit to Washington,
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher of Egypt, a key US ally, said
his country could back an American effort to punish those
behind the attacks on New York and Washington. But he said
Egypt still wants proof of bin Laden's role.
In meetings with Bush and Powell, Maher
sought to dispel concerns raised by earlier Egyptian statements
that Cairo might object to a military campaign against bin
Laden before a global conference on terrorism had been convened.
But Maher said Egypt was still waiting for hard evidence from
the Bush administration of bin Laden's involvement in the
terrorist attacks.
"We believe in any move to punish
those who are responsible, any move will be based on a solid
case," Maher said in an interview. "I believe it
is the intention of the United States government at the right
moment to share whatever information they have with its close
friends."
Egyptian officials said they continue
to share intelligence with the United States about Islamic
militants, who were locked in brutal battle with Egypt's security
forces for much of the 1990s.
US efforts to win cooperation from Iran
and gain access to its rich intelligence about bin Laden and
his Taliban protectors suffered a public setback yesterday.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme religious and political
leader, rejected participation in an U.S.-led coalition against
terrorism, calling the United States insincere.
Wolfowitz's trip to Brussels was aimed
at cultivating cooperation with traditional US allies in NATO,
and he told them they were in for "a very broad campaign
over a very long period of time."
Though Wolfowitz's comments could be little
more than strategic deception meant to cloak an imminent strike,
a senior military officer said all indications from Cabinet
members are that the administration is girding for an extended
fight.
Besides concerns about rushing into action
against an uncertain target, there could be other reasons
for the signals from the administration, including purely
military ones. A veteran military planner said any Special
Forces raid against terrorist sites in Afghanistan would require
a variety of support personnel.
The measured approach could also reflect
the need to consider possible retaliation within the United
States.
Excerpted
from Washington Post, September 27, 2001; Page A01
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