Title: Update, the Taliban file part IV
Description: The U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan told a top Taliban official in September 2000 that the U.S. "was not out to destroy the Taliban," but the "UBL [Osama bin Laden] issue is supremely important," according to declassified documents posted today by the National Security Archive. The documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, show how years of U.S. diplomacy with the Taliban, combined with pressure on Pakistan, and attempts to employ Saudi cooperation still failed to compel the Taliban to expel bin Laden. Harboring bin Laden, but hesitant to sever diplomatic ties with the U.S. completely, the Taliban claimed there was insufficient evidence to convict bin Laden of terrorism, going so far as to say that Saddam Hussein was behind the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. The newly declassified documents also show that State Department officials rejected Taliban claims that the U.S. supported bin Laden during the Soviet occupation. U.S. officials clarify that, although Osama bin Laden may have fought with other U.S.-funded anti-Soviet resistance groups in Afghanistan, "we had never heard his name during that period and did not support him at that time."
Subjects: Sources, Foreign relations, Taliban
Places: Afghanistan, United States
People: Osama Bin Laden (1957-2011)