(CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair will issue a stark warning to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban party today, while the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan has apparently briefed the Pakistani president on evidence which the U.S. says links accused terror mastermind Osama bin Laden with the September 11 attack on the United States.
In his major Labour Party address, Blair is expected to suggest that military action against the Taliban in imminent, and will be "proportionate" and "targeted" while everything "humanly possible" will be done to avoid civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, the United States is apparently considering steps to secure much-needed Arab support for the fight against terrorism.
U.S. officials have told CNN that drafts of a major policy speech on the Middle East, to be delivered by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, are circulating in the State Department for review. "It will go farther than we have ever gone," one official said. "There is an awful lot more that we view as being the end result than what we have said so far."
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources tell CNN that the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan met with Pakistan's president Tuesday, and provided evidence the United States says links Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The 90-minute briefing is one of many the Bush administration has scheduled with its closest allies, to share the details of its case against the man it believes is the terrorist mastermind in the acts that killed about 6,000 people in New York and Washington.
Latest developments:
• Many economists expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut rates today, bringing the fed funds rate below 3.0 percent for the first time since 1963. Many are also saying that a recession is almost inevitable now following last month's attacks, if one has not already begun.
• The U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk is deploying to the Indian Ocean without its full fleet of attack planes, and will be used for a floating base for special operations helicopters and troops, defense officials told CNN Monday. "It will have an unconventional mix of aircraft," one Pentagon official said.
• President Bush has agreed to a plan to reopen Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with additional security measures, administration sources told CNN Monday. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the reopening will be formally announced as soon as today
• Congressional leaders say they are nearing agreement on an anti-terrorism bill that would give broad new powers to law enforcement, but it did not include some of the most controversial powers requested by Attorney General John Ashcroft.
• More than 3,400 reservists and National Guard members -- most from Army units -- were called to active duty Monday as part of the partial mobilization authorized by President Bush, the Pentagon said. That brings the number of reservists and National Guard members called up since September 11 to more than 20,000 out of an expected 35,000.
• U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Robert Bonner said Monday he wants all international flights bound for U.S. soil to provide airline passenger lists or be denied permission to land. About 85 percent of international flights provide the information voluntarily, but carriers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan and Egypt do not, U.S. officials said.
• President Bush announced Monday that the international war against terrorism was making headway, citing the arrest of "a known terrorist," Zayd Hassan Safarini, involved in the 1986 hijacking of a Pan Am flight in Karachi, Pakistan. Bush said the man was not a member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization, suspected in the September 11 attacks.
• Britain's finance minister announced Monday the country had frozen almost $90 million of Taliban assets.
• The number of people confirmed dead in the attacks on the World Trade Center rose Monday to 344, city officials said. Deputy Mayor Joe Lhota said the number of people who have reported a family member missing is 4,651. |
