Questions raised in wake
of friendly fire incident
By Andrew Maykuth
& Sudarsan Raghavan
Knight Ridder Newspapers
GHANIKHEL, Afghanistan (KRT)
— Residents of this village inside
territory controlled by the opposi
tion United Front on Sunday buried
the victim of a stray U.S. bomb, on a
day of light U.S. attacks on nearby
positions of the Taliban military.
While United Front officials
welcomed recent stepped-up U.S.
bombing on Taliban positions, the
friendly fire incident on Saturday
has shaken confidence in and
raised questions about the U.S.
bombing campaign.
A 25-year-old mother of two
who was working on a hand-pow
ered machine sewing clothes for
her brother-in-law’s wedding was
killed by shrapnel Saturday when
a 500-pound bomb crashed
through the roof of her house.
Seventeen others, mostly the
woman’s relatives, were injured,
her cousin told CNN.
“The United States announced
they could defeat our enemies by
computer technology,” said
Baluch, 57, a local military com
mander who like many Afghans
uses only one name. “Why do
their bombs miss? They should de
stroy our enemies, not us.”
The death of the young woman
was the only U.S.-confirmed fatal
ity, though Dr. Abdullah, the chief
spokesman and foreign minister
of the United Front, said two peo
ple died.
Abdullah, speaking to reporters
Sunday night, called the bombing
of Ghanikhel a “tragic mistake,”
but he said such incidents were
“inevitable” in times of war, espe
cially along a frontline that stretch
es for more than 600 miles in vari
ous locations.
“We should bear in mind it’s
quite a lengthy frontline, and this
was the first time” a bomb struck
civilians in areas under control of
the United Front, he said.
Abdullah praised the increased
intensity of bombing Saturday,
which followed several days of
complaints from United Front
commanders about the pace of
the American attacks. “If yester
day’s type of bombing becomes
the standard, our objectives could
be achieved much quicker,’’ Ab
dullah said.
Despite — or perhaps because
of — the civilian casualties
among Afghans and a growing
sense the air campaign is making
little headway, President Bush
faced calls Sunday on several
fronts to step up the pace of at
tacks even further.
“Other issues,” including the
upcoming Islamic season of Ra
madan, “have to be secondary to
the primary goal of eliminating the
enemy and doing it with whatever
methods are necessary to achieve
it,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
said on the CBS News program
“Face the Nation.”
Former ambassador to the Unit
ed Nations Richard Holbrooke said
that one of the lessons of the Koso
vo war in 1999 was that, because
any level of air strikes brings nega
tive political consequences, noth
ing is gained by holding back.
Defending the course of the war,
Defense Secretary Donald Rums
feld, speaking on ABC News’
“This Week” broadcast, accused
the Taliban of using mosques to
store ammunition and as military
command-and-control posts, and
he said Afghanistan’s rulers were
lying about civilian casualties.
“There are plenty of people
throwing ordnance around in
Afghanistan besides the United
States,” he said. “We’re bombing
from the air, but the opposition
forces are, in fact, fighting against
the Taliban. The Taliban is fighting
against us and the opposition
forces. So when someone dies, it
could have come from any one of
those four locations.”
United Front officials in
Tashkent conceded Sunday that
the Taliban appeared to be more
resilient than they had anticipated
and that nearly three weeks of U.S.
air bombings had not significantly
weakened the Islamic regime’s
fighters.
“They are determined to fight
till the end,” said Ibrahim
Ghafoory, a senior opposition offi
cial in Tashkent.
But Ghafoory added that the
United Front also has the will to
fight hard as long as the U.S. stays
committed to providing assistance.
"We’re hoping that the coordina
tion between our forces and the
Americans will continue, and to
gether we will also fight till the
end. We’re determined to fight till
the end. The Taliban cannot fight
back over a long time.”
In the village of Ghanikhel,
Afghanis expressed concern about
what appeared to be a wildly off
target bomb. Situated among plots
of corn and cotton on a broad plain
north of Kabul, Ghanikhel is at
least four miles from the Taliban
targets that American jets had been
hammering throughout Saturday
in the heaviest attacks during a
week of bombardments of frontline
positions.
Residents were further galled be
cause they say the stray bomb fell
within sight of foreign military ob
servers — said to be either Ameri
can or British — who they say are
camped on a nearby hill to help pi
lots target their weapons.
“If the United States repeats
this action again, we will stand
against them as we stood against
the Russians,” said Abdul Jan,
who identified himself as a local
commander. “If they cannot de
stroy our enemies, they should
just stop bombing.”
Knight Ridder Newspapers correspondent
Warren P. Strobel contributed to this
report. © 2001, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
News briefs
Grayson dollars may have
helped fund fraternity house
Some of the money donated to
rebuild a University fraternity
house two years ago may have
come from Jeffrey Grayson, the for
mer president of the bankrupt Port
land investment firm Capital Con
sultants.
According to an article in the
Beta Theta Pi fraternity’s Winter
2000 newsletter, Grayson spoke at
the opening ceremony for the new
chapter house Sept. 27, 1999.
Grayson is described as a “gener
ous contributor.”
The U.S. Department of Labor
and the Securities and Exchange
Commission shut down Capital
Consultants last year for making
bad loans and allegedly embez
zling $355 million from investors.
Thomas Lennon, who has been
appointed by the court to liqui
date the company’s assets, be
lieves Grayson’s many high pro
file donations over the past five
years came out of money ob
tained illegally.
In June, Lennon asked the Uni
versity to return an $800,000 dona
tion by Grayson. The donation
helped pay for the renovation of
the former law school building,
which was renamed after Grayson
and his wife, Susan.
University General Counsel
Melinda Grier is currently in nego
tiations with Lennon. The Univer
sity has not announced whether it
will return the money.
Shelley Sutherland, coordinator
of the University Greek Life office,
said she did not know of any re
quest made by Lennon for Beta
Theta Pi to return donations made
by Grayson, nor did she know any
details of when such a donation
might have been made. Greek Life
doesn’t keep records of donations,
Sutherland said, only the individ
ual chapters do. An agreement be
tween the University and Lennon
would not affect the fraternity be
cause it is a private organization,
she added.
The president of Beta Theta Pi
did not return the Emerald’s phone
calls.
— Kara Cogswell
Public library hosts
discussion on Islam
The Eugene Public Library is
inviting community members to a
public discussion tonight begin
ning at 7 p.m. Panelists at the dis
cussion, “Keep the Dialogue Go
ing: Perspectives on Islamic
Culture and History,” will answer
questions about Islam, said librari
an liana Ferris.
“We’re trying to show Islam as a
world religion, not merely a Arabic
one,” she said.
Four Muslims will serve on the
panel — one from China, one from
Syria, one from America and one
from Indonesia, Ferris said. Profes
sor Jonathan Katz will serve as the
moderator and answer questions
about Islamic politics, history and
economics.
— Sue Ryan
Lecture focuses
on career outlook
The University Career Center is
sponsoring “Crouching Economy,
Hidden Career: Job Outlook in the
Current Economy” today from 3 to
4 p.m. in the Gerlinger Alumni
Lounge.
The event will feature two
speakers: Ed Whitelaw, an emeri
tus professor of economics, and
Margaret Hallock, a professor in
the Labor Education and Re
search Center. They will address
the current economic state and its
effects on the Pacific Northwest
as well as gender issues in the la
bor market.
The event is open to all students,
faculty and staff. For more infor
mation, call the Career Center at
346-3235.
— Katie Mayer
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