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December 2001
DECEMBER 1, 2001
Afghan tribal warriors claim to be making a major assault on Taliban forces defending
Kandahar's airport as thousands more fighters from another anti-Taliban faction head
toward the city.
Four U.S. soldiers injured during a bloody Taliban uprising
at a fortress in Afghanistan receive Purple Heart medals
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DECEMBER 2, 2001
Relentless U.S. airstrikes pummel the defenders of Kandahar, with anti-Taliban forces
within 20 miles of the last militia stronghold
A military transport plane returns the body of CIA officer
Johnny ``Mike'' Spann, the first known U.S. combat casualty in Afghanistan, to the United
States.
A Pentagon spokesman says a man claiming to be an American
was among more than 80 Taliban fighters who straggled out of a flooded basement, days
after their prison rebellion was crushed at an Afghan fort.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says American military
forces -- now numbering up to 2,000 troops -- may resort to extraordinary measures to root
out al-Qaida terrorists. Asked if troops might pour gas into the cave complexes to flush
them out, Rumsfield responds: ``One will do whatever it is necessary to do
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DECEMBER 3, 2001
Anti-Taliban fighters battle for control of Kandahar's airport as American bombers pound
suspected hide-outs of Osama bin Laden in the rugged White Mountains near the border with
Pakistan.
Afghan factions meeting in Germany push forward with talks
on post-Taliban rule after the Northern Alliance named four prominent figures it said
should be considered to lead an interim administration.
European foreign ministers open an anti-terrorism
conference with a vow to strengthen the continent's fledgling democracies. Ministers of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation say more intervention in the Balkans and the
former Soviet republics was needed to stop terrorism from taking root.
Three people who claim to be American citizens and who
fought on the side of the Taliban militia are now in control of U.S. forces or U.S.-allied
opposition forces in northern Afghanistan, senior defense officials say
The U.S. and Canada sign far-reaching agreements to
increase border security and coordinate immigration policies to secure the world's largest
trade relationship
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DECEMBER 4, 2001
Anti-Taliban troops hunting Osama bin Laden clash with al-Qaida fighters near mountain
hide-outs in Afghanistan.
Agreement is near on a new, interim Afghan government,
tentatively scheduled to take power on Dec. 22. Hamid Karzai, a leading anti-Taliban
commander, is touted as the possible leader of the executive body
Europe's top security body unveils a counterterrorism plan
to halt illicit cash, weapons and safe havens for extremists
Rumsfeld says the U.S. government will decide ``in good
time'' what to do with American John Walker, who is believed to have been fighting
alongside the Taliban
Herbert Villalobos, 35, pleads guilty to helping two Sept.
11 hijackers illegally obtain Virginia identification cards
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DECEMBER 5, 2001
Three American soldiers are killed and 19 wounded when a U.S. bomb misses its Taliban
target. The bomb, carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives, landed about 100 yards from the
soldiers' position north of Kandahar.
Anti-Taliban forces battle guerrillas loyal to Osama bin
Laden with tanks and mortars, fighting their way through remote mountains toward a cave
complex where they believe the terror suspect is holed up.
Factions meeting in Germany agree on an interim government
for the country, to be headed by Hamid Karzai, a leading anti-Taliban commander. U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan calls the agreement ``an important first step'' and urged the
Afghan parties to work together to rebuild their war-battered country.
Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States will
take a first step toward diplomatic recognition of the interim government by soon opening
a liaison office in the capital.
The ACLU and other civil rights and human rights groups
file suit in federal court alleging that the Justice Department is violating the
Constitution and federal law by withholding basic information about some 1,000 people
picked up by police since Sept. 11.
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DECEMBER 6, 2001
The Taliban agree to surrender Kandahar, their last bastion and birthplace, if their
warriors are not punished and safety is guaranteed to leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says the U.S. will not tolerate any arrangement allowing Omar
to remain free and to ``live in dignity'' in Afghanistan
The remains of two Special Forces soldiers killed in
Afghanistan by an errant U.S. bomb arrive at a U.S. military base in Germany.
India's interior minister says that a man in Indian
custody, Mohammed Afroz, 28, claimed he was trained by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida. Afroz
allegedly divulged that al-Qaida had planned terrorist attacks in Britain, Australia and
India similar to the Sept. 11 assault on the United States.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously endorses a
power-sharing agreement for a temporary post-Taliban government and calls on all Afghan
groups to fulfill the council's goal of restoring peace to the war-battered nation.
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DECEMBER 7, 2001
Taliban forces abandon their last stronghold in Kandahar without a fight but with their
weapons; U.S. forces battle to block their escape.
Afghanistan's new leader vows to arrest the fugitive
mullah, Mohammad Omar.
American jets make repeated runs over the forested
mountains of eastern Afghanistan, bombing hide-outs of Osama bin Laden loyalists.
U.S. Marines carrying photos of Taliban and al-Qaida
leaders scour the roads of southern Afghanistan for those who might have slipped out of
Kandahar.
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DECEMBER 8, 2001
Rival armed groups that replaced the Taliban jockey for control of key parts of Kandahar,
occasionally exchanging gunfire. Talks are reportedly under way to set up a civil
administration and avoid an explosion of factional fighting.
John Walker, the American captured along with Taliban
fighters, is held by Marines in Afghanistan; the Pentagon says he'll be handed over to
U.S. civilian authorities as soon as possible.
Afghanistan's interim leader calls on fellow Afghans to
capture terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and
promises to bring the two men to ``international justice.''
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DECEMBER 9, 2001
A videotape of Osama bin Laden obtained by U.S. officials in Afghanistan makes clear the
al-Qaida leader was behind the terrorist attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney says.
American bombers pound the hills and caves of Tora Bora,
working to soften al-Qaida defenses for a ground assault by Afghan tribesmen. Pakistani
forces move to seal off escape routes on their side of the border.
A train crosses the only bridge from Uzbekistan into
Afghanistan for the first time in four years, carrying humanitarian aid for refugees
battling winter cold, disease and hunger
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DECEMBER 10, 2001
Afghan tribal fighters push bin Laden loyalists from a valley leading to the underground
Tora Bora complex. Marines intensify their hunt for Taliban leaders and members of
al-Qaida terror network around Kandahar.
Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai says getting rid of
al-Qaida is a priority as the country tries to build post-Taliban government
Thousands of Pakistani soldiers fan out along Afghanistan
border to prevent Islamic militants from fleeing the Tora Bora area.
Kenyan authorities arrest a man with suspected ties to
al-Qaida who allegedly participated in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi.
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DECEMBER 11, 2001
A federal grand jury indicts a French Moroccan man for conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks,
the first directly related to the suicide hijackings. Osama bin Laden is listed as an
unindicted coconspirator.
Afghan tribal fighters overrun cave and tunnel complexes in
Tora Bora, the suspected refuge of Osama bin Laden, and give al-Qaida holdouts an
ultimatum to surrender or face annihilation.
Aviation, chemical magazines and text found in abandoned
al-Qaida training camp.
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DECEMBER 12, 2001
Afghan tribal chiefs give fighters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group an ultimatum to lay
down their arms and turn over their leaders by midday Thursday.
France says it will oppose the death penalty if Sept. 11
suspect Zacarias Moussaoui is convicted and will offer the French citizen diplomatic
support while he's on trial.
The White House says translators are going over a videotape
of Osama bin Laden talking about the Sept. 11 terror attacks to ensure accuracy ''before
anything is released to the world.''
The House unanimously passes an intelligence bill that will
place new emphasis on traditional human spy networks that have served as a key to the war
on terrorism. The bill would increase spending by 8 percent.
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DECEMBER 13, 2001
In a videotape released by the Pentagon, Osama bin Laden contentedly recalls the Sept. 11
attacks against America and says the destruction exceeded his estimates and the events
``benefited Islam greatly.''
A federal judge rules that Zacarias Moussaoui will stand
trial in Virginia.
U.S. planes strafe and bomb al-Qaida positions in snowy
mountain canyons as Afghan tribal forces advance against bin Laden's fighters. More U.S.
special forces are being sent into the Tora Bora region, Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld says.
The House passes legislation to give tax relief to families
of Sept. 11 victims and provide $6.1 billion in tax breaks to help New York City recover.
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DECEMBER 14, 2001
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says $10 million in reward money will be offered soon
for ''a discrete number'' of senior Taliban officials, including Mohammed Omar, the
supreme leader.
U.S. Marines take control of Kandahar's airport, heavily
damaged by U.S. airstrikes before the Taliban fled the city.
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DECEMBER 15, 2001
Officials say U.S. forces overheard and recorded Osama bin Laden giving orders over a
short-range radio to loyalists at Tora Bora during the past week.
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DECEMBER 16, 2001
Afghan tribal leaders claim victory over al-Qaida guerrillas at their last stronghold in
Afghanistan, a claim that's impossible to verify; Osama bin Laden is nowhere to be seen.
U.S. and Afghan opposition forces search caves and bunkers
to root out al-Qaida terrorists, but Gen. Tommy Franks says that ``it's going to be a
while'' before Tora Bora is under control.
Four of 13 armed Arabs holed up in Kandahar's hospital
escape, apparently with the blessing of their guards
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DECEMBER 17, 2001
Tribal fighters and U.S. special forces chase al-Qaida guerrillas through mountains; some
tearfully surrender, pleading not to be turned over to Americans.
Intelligence officer for Kandahar's new government says
Taliban leader Mohammed Omar believed to be holed up with hundreds of fighters in
south-central Afghanistan.
U.S. Marines preside over the reopening of the U.S. Embassy
in Afghanistan, which had been closed for 13 years
Eighteen firefighters charged after a Nov. 2 ground-zero
brawl with cops will have their charges dismissed at Manhattan Criminal Court today,
law-enforcement sources said. Seventeen expect their misdemeanor trespassing charges will
be dismissed outright, the source said. The other, Sean Nealon, charged with third-degree
assault, will have that charge reduced to trespassing and then dismissed, the source
added.
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DECEMBER 18, 2001
Tribal forces say Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network defeated, pull out of White
Mountains
Key al-Qaida figures believed among the prisoners in Navy
brig; none offer credible information on location of Osama bin Laden.
Eastern alliance officials say hundreds of al-Qaida
fighters and top commanders escaped to Pakistan during U.S. onslaught at Tora Bora.
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DECEMBER 19, 2001
Gov. George Pataki says the underground fires that have burned at the World Trade Center
site for the past three months have finally been extinguished.
Troop reinforcements move into the remote hills of central
Yemen, where government forces have battled armed tribesmen in an assault to capture
suspected operatives of Osama bin Laden.
U.S. fighter jets at the forefront of the bombing campaign
in Afghanistan have reduced combat sorties and focused on reconnaissance following the
fall of Tora Bora, the U.S. military says.
Belgium has arrested a man of Tunisian descent on suspicion
of recruiting fighters for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, the public prosecutor's
office says.
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DECEMBER 20, 2001
Ellen Mariani of Derry, N.H., is first to sue airline for attacks, claiming United was
negligent when her husband's plane slammed into World Trade Center.
Justice Department announces victims' families and
survivors of Sept. 11 attacks can apply for federal aid beginning Friday; each would
receive an average of $1.65 million.
Congress overwhelmingly approves a compromise
$20 billion anti-terrorism package. Lawmakers also agree to waive income taxes and
provide other tax relief to the families of the victims of the attacks.
The island home of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
welcome visitors for the first time since Sept. 11; statue itself remains closed.
Number of victims of Sept. 11 attacks in New York drops to
2,963.
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DECEMBER 21, 2001
As many as 500 firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center site are on leave for
respiratory problems and other rescue-related injuries, and a union leader warns that the
ailments could force many into retirement.
Tribal leaders stream into Kabul, the Afghan capital, for
the inauguration of an interim government that they hope will bring "lasting
peace" to a nation torn apart by decades of war.
Kenton Keith, a former U.S. ambassador to Qatar, says about
7,000 people suspected of having ties to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida
network are being held and interrogated in Afghanistan.
The Bush administration says it did not deliberately omit
details in its translation of a videotaped conversation between Osama bin Laden and
several allies. New translations of the tape, which was released last week, reveal that
bin Laden speaks the names of several Sept. 11 hijackers.
U.S. warplanes attack a convoy that the Pentagon says was
carrying Taliban or al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan. But an Afghan official says the
trucks were bringing tribal leaders loyal to the new government to the capital.
President Bush says Osama bin Laden may "slither
out" of Afghanistan, but he won't escape the global reach of U.S. forces. He says the
United States would send troops to nations seeking help to hunt down terrorists.
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DECEMBER 22, 2001
Emphasizing unity in a deeply divided country, Hamid Karzai is sworn in as Afghanistan's
prime minister
German lawmakers approve a six-month deployment of as many
as 1,200 troops for an international force established to protect Afghanistan's new
government.
A passenger on a jetliner bound from Paris to Miami tried
to ignite an "improvised explosive'' in his sneakers, but flight attendants and
fellow passengers subdued him, witnesses and authorities say. The plane, escorted by
military jets, lands safely in Boston.
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DECEMBER 23, 2001
Jordanian troops leave for Afghanistan to set up a 50-bed field hospital in the northern
city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Afghanistan's new Cabinet meets for the first time.
In a huge manhunt for a handful of Osama bin Laden
loyalists, Pakistani troops patrol in trucks and helicopters and train machine guns on
ravines and barren hills along the Afghan border.
The Washington Post reports the CIA had recruited
and paid a team of 15 Afghan agents to track Osama bin Laden's movements in Afghanistan
from early 1998 to this Sept. 11.
Federal law enforcement officials say the man who tried to
light his shoes on fire during a trans-Atlantic flight Saturday had explosives in his
sneakers. He is tentitively identified as Richard C. Reid, a British citizen, and charged
with interfering with flight attendants, a felony.
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DECEMBER 24, 2001
U.S. B-52 bombers armed with 'smart' bombs hit targets near the southern city of Kandahar
in strikes that officials say were aimed at destroying weapons stores belonging to Taliban
fighters.
The shoes of the suspected suicide bomber subdued aboard an
American Airlines flight Saturday contained alarmingly sophisticated, working bombs with
enough explosive power to cause a disaster, law enforcement officials say
Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai appoints a powerful
ethnic Uzbek warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, as deputy defense minister in
Afghanistan's interim government.
In eastern Afghanistan, a tribal commander says his
fighters had searched nearly all the caves in Tora Bora and found a large amount of
ammunition.
Congress has recognized what New Yorkers already know - the
cops, firefighters and emergency personnel who perished Sept. 11 are true American heroes.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), flanked by members of New
York's Bravest, officially announced yesterday that the nation will award posthumously the
Congressional Gold Medal - the country's highest honor for civilians.
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DECEMBER 25, 2001
Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the American-led military campaign in Afghanistan, says
anti-terrorism operations are being conducted ``in a great many places'' around the world
in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Recovery workers searching for human remains at the World
Trade Center ruins pause for a brief Christmas dinner as spectators crowd around the site.
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DECEMBER 26, 2001
Qatar-based television station Al-Jazeera airs part of a videotape of Osama bin Laden,
whose statements indicate he was speaking in the first half of December.
Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai says ordinary Afghans
are happy to have peacekeepers in the country despite a long tradition of resisting
foreign fighters. He also says U.S. troops are still needed to pursue remaining terrorists
in Afghanistan.
Red Cross says the United States and its allies are
allowing full access to captives in Afghanistan, although the Bush administration is
keeping its options open by declining to declare them prisoners of war.
Russian army engineers have defused nearly 5,000 explosives
in Kabul and in a key tunnel connection once used by the former Soviet Union to send
troops into Afghanistan.
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DECEMBER 27, 2001
With their armies facing each other along the border, India and Pakistan jabbed
diplomatically Thursday, ordering half of each other's embassy staffs sent home and
banning overflights by each other's national airlines, China, which neighbors both
nations, said Thursday that it was ``deeply worried'' by the escalating tensions between
the two nuclear-armed antagonists and called for ``dialogue and consultations'' to keep
stability.
The world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, appeared in a
videotape Thursday calling for the destruction of the U.S. economy as the surest way to
bring down America. ``I concentrate on the importance of continuing holy war actions
against America, militarily and economically, and America is retreating with God's help,''
The oldest U.S. overseas outpost has repelled enemies and
welcomed refugees since 1898, when U.S. Marines fighting the Spanish-American War
established camp at the natural harbor on Cuba's southeast coast. Defense Secretary Donald
H. Rumsfeld said Thursday it could take weeks to prepare the Navy base to hold the Taliban
and al-Qaida fighters, and described it as the ``least worst place'' for the prison.
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DECEMBER 28, 2001
Oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided in an
emergency meeting to slash the group's production target by 1.5 million barrels a day
beginning Jan. 1 in a bid to bolster sagging world oil prices. The cuts are to last for at
least six months.
As India and Pakistan shot at each other and spoke of war,
weeping friends and relatives on both sides bid farewell Friday before the two nations
sever their land and air links for the first time in 30 years. Warning that an Indian
troop buildup at the border was pushing the countries into confrontation, Pakistan told
the United States it may need to further reinforce its side of the frontier by moving
troops now helping the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden
Seven members of the International Committee of the Red
Cross went to the camp to check the detainees' medical conditions. ``They visited the
command and several persons, and are satisfied with our procedures,'' Marine Maj. Chris
Hughes said. ``With every group (of prisoners) we bring in, there are injured - broken
bones, dehydration or malnutrition. And they receive medical treatment throughout.''
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DECEMBER 29, 2001
India said Saturday it would continue to mass tens of thousands of troops at its border
until Pakistan cracks down on Islamic militants, rejecting a Pakistani call for the two
nations' leaders to meet to try to defuse the crisis.
Two B1-b bombers struck a complex occupied by members of
the fallen Taliban leadership that harbored bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorists, Maj. Brad
Lowell of the U.S. Central Command said Saturday.
British and U.S. forces joined hundreds of Afghans in the
search of caves of the former al-Qaida complex near Tora Bora, looking for documents and
other intelligence as well as al-Qaida that may still be hiding there.
Cuban officials said Saturday that they oppose the use of
the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay for detainees from the war in Afghanistan mostly
because they believe the base should have been closed decades ago. Holding detainees at an
American base inside a country that has long insisted that the base be closed shows ``the
arrogance of the government of the empire,''
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DECEMBER 30, 2001
Pakistan said Monday it had arrested the outspoken former leader of a militant Islamic
group accused by India of helping orchestrate an attack on its Parliament that has taken
the two countries to the brink of hostilities. It was Pakistan's most significant arrest
of a militant since fresh tension with India began earlier this month.
The new Afghan government has reached an agreement with
international peacekeepers on how they will function in the coming months, the country's
interim foreign minister said Sunday.
Aid workers racing to feed the needy in Afghanistan before
winter makes that mission nearly impossible are encountering sometimes frightening
obstacles. Warlords have threatened them, local Afghans have tried to rob them and the
offices they used to store and distribute much-needed help have been looted down to the
light fixtures.
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DECEMBER 31, 2001
Europe made history on Tuesday with the midnight launch of euro single currency notes and
coins for more than 300 million people, completing an unprecedented monetary union aimed
at securing peace and greater prosperity.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in a New Year
message India was ready to open talks with Pakistan -- including on the disputed Kashmir
region -- if its neighbor and rival abandoned an ``anti-India mentality.
U.S. intelligence shows ousted Taliban leader Mullah
Mohammad Omar may be hiding near Baghran, in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province,
officials said on Monday.
Gulf Arab states urged neighboring Iraq Monday to allow
U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country or risk more tension in the Middle East
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