posted on September 27, 2001 01:33:15 PM new
I say let's send Tammy Fa Baker to talk with the Taliban. One look at her and we won't have to bomb anybody - they will just fall dead in culture shock.
posted on September 28, 2001 07:21:03 AM new
Lights, Cameras - Jackson's in Action
Ellis Henican
September 28, 2001
Who needs an invitation?
Not Jesse Jackson, not at a time like this. Invited or not, here he comes.
For several days now, the roaming reverend has been itching to insert himself into America's hair-trigger hostility with Afghanistan's terrorist-harboring Taliban. He had some hostage-springing successes - did he not? - in Syria, Iraq and Yugoslavia, even if he did prolong that bloody civil war in Sierra Leone.
But the world is in trouble. The cameras are in place. Jesse can't be far away.
Right on cue, Jackson announced Wednesday that he'd been summoned for a sit-down with the Taliban ambassador, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, in neighboring Pakistan.
With a studied earnestness, Jackson said he was reflecting on this unsolicited "invitation" from the Taliban, trying to decide whether he could be helpful to the cause of peace. "We must weigh what this invitation means," he said.
By dawn yesterday, Jackson was teeming with details about this purported invitation.
On the CBS "Early Show" yesterday, Bryant Gumbel asked: "Who contacted you about getting involved, and what exactly were you asked to do?"
Jackson answered straight out.
"Mohammed Shaheen, who is a spokesman for the Taliban at the embassy in Pakistan, called on yesterday and urged a peace delegation come to Pakistan," the reverend said. "I do not know the worth of such an invitation or what it would mean."
There was one immediate problem with all this, a problem that became more apparent as the day rolled on.
There was no invitation, it seemed.
It was Jackson, the Taliban said, who had telephoned them. They hadn't called him. Mullah Mohammad Omar, the supreme Taliban leader, had simply agreed to see the American minister if and when he happened to show up.
Not exactly a promising start for a delicate round of citizen diplomacy.
As the story unraveled, Jackson offered up even more elaborate details about the supposed invitation he had received. He started phoning high offices in Washington. "I immediately gave the message to Secretary Powell and talked with him and to Dr. Condoleezza Rice," Jackson said in an interview. "That was the appropriate thing to do, because when President Bush said 'dead or alive,' 'dead' means, if nothing else works, there will be engagement. 'Alive' means they can choose the World Court or they can choose world war."
OK.
By day's end, Jackson was saying - well, the meeting was arranged by Pakistani-American intermediaries. And anyway, who cares? "It doesn't matter who initiated this, but that both of us are interested in talking," he said.
By nightfall, even that remained to be seen.
One impression was growing clearer, though. The White House, the State Department and the other main players in Washington were none too eager to have the minister involved.
They feared he would seem to be negotiating with the Taliban over the forcible delivery of terror leader Osama bin Laden, who remains in Afghanistan as the government's "guest." They feared Jackson's presence could complicate looming American plans for a military strike.
Secretary of State Colin Powell did take Jackson's phone call yesterday morning. By midafternoon, Powell seemed to regret he had.
"He is free to travel," Powell sniffed. "I don't know what purpose would be served right now, since the position of the United States and the international community is quite clear....We have nothing to negotiate."
So what exactly would Jackson do on the ground in Pakistan or Afghanistan, besides stand in front of cameras?
From the minister's camp, there was an ever-shifting explanation yesterday.
Maybe, he said, he could get the Afghanis to dismantle their terrorist bases.
Maybe, he said, he could persuade the Taliban to hand Osama bin Laden to the World Court.
When Powell and others in Washington scoffed at that, the globetrotting minister seemed to narrow his scope. Maybe, he said, he could free two American humanitarian workers who were jailed by the Taliban on charges of preaching Christianity.
Jackson added that he didn't really want to go at all. But as a clergyman, he felt obligated to try to help free "the Christians" suffering in that Afghani jail.
