Democracy Now! September 14, 2001

OSAMA BIN LADEN: HOW THE US HELPED TO CREATE A TERRORIST Bush Administration officials yesterday officially named millionaire extremist Osama Bin Laden as the person they say is behind the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. High level officials say the U.S. is prepared to engage in wide ranging military operations that could involve an invasion of Afghanistan, where Osama Bin Laden is widely suspected of hiding. Afghanistan lies in the heart of central Asia, just south of three of the former Soviet Republics. It is bordered on the west by Iran and on the east by Pakistan, where the ruling Taliban enjoys widespread support. Afghanistan has known little but war for the last twenty years, first with the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1980 and after 1989 through a devastating civil war that has left it one of the poorest places on earth. But most people in this country know virtually nothing about Afghanistan, or about the US role in aiding the rise of both Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban, the radical Islamic grouping that controls about 90% of the country. As the Bush Administration increasingly prepares for war, it is this story that people in this country need to hear. Tape: Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia," and "Osama Bin Laden: How the US Helped Midwife a terrorist." He lives in Pakistan and is a member of the International Consortium of investigative journalists. He is also a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and the London Telegraph. THE SAD, SLOW SEARCH: SOUNDS OF THE STREET Rescue workers, police, fire fighters, sanitation workers and thousands of volunteers continue the grim search for survivors in the disaster area where the World Trade Center once stood. Yesterday five more people were pulled alive from the rubble, but Mayor Rudolph Guliani said that nearly 5,000 people remain unaccounted for. The walls of many New York City neighborhoods are now plastered with posters bearing photos of the missing. Democracy Now! in Exile Producer Miranda Kennedy was in the streets of the evacuation zone and spoke to some of those involved in the effort. Tape: Sounds of the street