The US Administration has authorised the secret funding of a variety of anti-Taliban Afghan groups and the immediate dispatch of $100 million in humanitarian aid to the Pakistan border to help refugees in a twin strategy aimed at undermining the Taliban's base.
President Bush's spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, admitted yesterday that assistance to rebels would be political, diplomatic, financial and military, but he insisted that the US was not in the business of deciding who will rule Afghanistan. He declined to say which groups would receive US support, but they are believed to range from the Northern Alliance to support for the former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, and attempts to enlist southern Pashtun tribal leaders.
"The purpose of the mission is to eliminate those who harbour terrorists ... We will work with a variety of people, all of whom have an interest in establishing an Afghanistan that is peaceful and does not practise terrorism", Mr Fleischer said.
Despite reports that some tribal leaders might join the Taliban government, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan yesterday admitted that the US campaign meant, in the words of one questioner, that the Taliban's days were "numbered".
"It appears so", General Musharraf told the BBC in an interview. "It appears that the United States will take action in Afghanistan. Because of the stand the Taliban have taken ... confrontation will take place."
An internal White House "guidance", a paper prepared by the National Security Council, describes the US political aim for Afghanistan. "The Taliban do not represent the Afghan people, who never elected or chose the Taliban faction", the document says. "We do not want to choose who rules Afghanistan, but we will assist those who seek a peaceful, economically-developing Afghanistan, free of terrorism. The international community must devote itself to stabilisng Afghanistan."
As part of the repositioning of US forces, the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk left its base near Tokyo yesterday. It will bring to four the number of battle groups stationed within striking distance of Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Health and Human Services Secretary, Mr Tommy Thompson, has sought to reassure the public about US readiness for a biological warfare attack. In an interview on the 60 Minutes programme on CBS on Sunday night, Mr Thompson said: "We've got to make sure that people understand that they're safe. And that we're prepared to take care of any contingency, any consequence that develops from any kind of bio-terrorism attack." He said that eight staging areas around the US America were each stocked with 50 tons of medical supplies - including vaccines, antibiotics, gas masks and ventilators - which could be moved within hours to the site of any biological attack. Some 7,000 medical personnel were ready to respond to any crisis anywhere in the US, he said.
