WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD -- President Bush said on Friday the United States was in "hot pursuit" of Osama bin Laden but refused comment on reports that U.S. special forces were already in Afghanistan tracking the prime suspect in the attacks on New York and Washington.
The State Department warned Americans around the world they could still be in danger from extremist groups and urged them "to take any measures they deem necessary to ensure their personal safety."
Pakistan sent a delegation of Muslim clerics to Afghanistan reportedly to persuade the ruling Taliban to hand over bin Laden and head off a military strike that Washington has threatened in response to the Sept. 11 attack by hijacked airliners that left up to 6,500 feared dead. But a delegation member said they had not discussed the Saudi-born militant, whom the Taliban has been sheltering as a "guest."
Even as a U.S. military buildup continued within striking distance of the landlocked central Asian country, Bush underlined the uncharted nature of his war on terrorism, telling reporters, "There may or may not be a conventional component."
He said the United States had learned from the Soviet experience in Afghanistan in the 1980s how hard it would be "to fight a guerrilla war with conventional forces" but he declined comment on reports that U.S. special forces have been operating inside Afghanistan in the past few days.
Bush said he would not "jeopardize any mission that we may be thinking about." But, he added, "Make no mistake about it, we're in hot pursuit."
In a sign of the tension, Canadian officials at first seemed to hint that they might have forces in Afghanistan but then quickly retracted the statement. Defense spokesman Randy Mylyk said, "There are no Canadian Forces members in Afghanistan. Period. Nothing."
He was speaking to clarify a comment by Defense Minister Art Eggleton, who when asked if Canadian forces were operating in Afghanistan, said cryptically: "None that I can talk about."
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said he was leaning against traveling to Afghanistan for discussions with the Taliban about bin Laden, but he had made no final decision. "I'm not inclined to go but it does deserve study," he said.
He added, "A delegation in the present environment may not achieve the desired results." The Taliban invited Jackson to Kabul in a fax sent to him by its embassy in Pakistan.
POLL SUPPORTS A DELAY FOR RETALIATION
TIME/CNN poll released on Friday showed almost half of Americans were prepared to wait a month or longer for military strikes on Afghanistan. Despite some political analysts claiming Americans' patience over retaliation was withering, 47 percent of respondents said they were "willing to wait" at least a month.
In London, prosecutors said an Algerian pilot arrested in Britain last week was a flying instructor for four of the hijackers involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The pilot, Lotfi Raissi, 27, denied any involvement in the attacks and was ordered held in custody for a further hearing next Friday on a U.S. extradition request.
The FBI, deep into what has become the biggest criminal investigation in U.S. history, have arrested two more men accused of obtaining fraudulent commercial driver's licenses to haul hazardous materials as well as a suspected middleman.
The arrests were not tied to the Sept. 11 attacks but came after U.S. officials said they had been on heightened alert over the transportation of hazardous materials to prevent possible future attacks.
The chairman of the Senate health committee, Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy, said he would ask Bush to commit $1.6 billion to help protect the nation against bioterrorism in the wake of the attacks, citing a congressional report that found federal and local agencies ill-prepared.
In London, Britain's Europe minister, Peter Hain, told BBC television bin Laden was planning fresh attacks. "There is evidence he is planning high-impact attacks in the world and we have got to make sure he doesn't do it again," Hain said.
The U.N. World Food Program began an emergency food airlift in preparation for a massive effort to feed more than 1 million refugees fleeing an expected U.S. attack on Afghanistan.
The operation started as some aid agencies warned they might have to use air drops if overland routes are blocked.
With Afghanistan facing a major humanitarian crisis, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed for $584 million in fresh emergency aid to cope with up to 7.5 million Afghans likely to suffer hunger and displacement in coming months.
Bush met with Jordan's King Abdullah, the first Arab head of state to visit the White House since the attacks, as he sought to build up a U.S.-led coalition in the war on terrorism. He assured Bush that he had Jordan's "full, unequivocal support" and said most Arabs and Muslims would join the battle "to put an end to this horrible scourge of international terrorism."
But statements by leading Muslim officials and protests in several Muslim countries underlined the sensitivity of Bush's attempts to bring Islamic states into the coalition against terrorism.
The United Arab Emirates, a close U.S. ally, said Muslim states could be forced to reconsider their role in the coalition if Israel continued to kill Palestinians.
"Obviously, these killings put us all in a very awkward position to say the least. If this continues, most of us will certainly have to reconsider our role in the coalition," Information Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zaid al-Nahayan said.
But there were reports Saudi Arabia, another key U.S. ally, would allow Washington to launch military action from a U.S. base on Saudi territory against bin Laden and his Taliban protectors.
"In order to meet American requests and to comply with U.N. requirements, yes," a Saudi source familiar with Saudi foreign policy said of a Washington Post report that Saudi Arabia had signaled it would allow U.S. aircraft stationed at the Prince Sultan Air Base to launch such attacks.
ANTI-AMERICAN DEMONSTRATIONS
In Indonesia, about 4,000 protesters marched in the capital to condemn the United States, by far the largest of a growing number of protests in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Some threatened to round up Americans and take them to the airport to be expelled.
In Pakistan, a major component in the U.S. plan to punish the Taliban if they do not hand over bin Laden, protesters surged through Peshawar, near the Afghan border, shouting "Fight, fight USA" and "We love Osama."
In the biggest anti-American demonstration in Pakistan since the current crisis began, up to 10,000 waved banners, burned an effigy of Bush and denounced President Pervez Musharraf for backing Washington in its threat to attack Afghanistan.
In Kabul, residents in the Afghan capital scurried for cover when a test of the city's air defenses was mistaken for an American attack. Bursts of fire could be heard from the hills around Kabul, where Taliban fighters have dug in air defenses against expected U.S. attacks. A Taliban official confirmed the firing was a test.
"We all thought the war with America had begun," said one resident, who was having breakfast when the firing began.
Preachers addressing Friday prayers in Kabul reflected the tension -- endorsing an earlier decision of Afghan clerics to ask bin Laden to leave voluntarily but calling on the population to fight if the United States does attack.
A senior Saudi Arabian Muslim cleric urged world leaders not to resort to violence in response to the deadly attacks on the United States, which he said were a crime under Islam.
Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Sudais, addressing worshippers at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, said, "From the podium of the Grand Mosque, the forum of truth and justice and peace, we call upon the world's decision-makers to seek a common stance with us...
"Problems and negative phenomena cannot be solved through initiating violence or responding with it."
