– Scenes from the liberated Mazar-i-Sharif: “I just wanted to cry when I saw the troops come in,” a woman said. “I can’t tell you about the hell we’ve been living under.” And aide to a general said: “The people in Mazar-i-Sharif were very happy when we marched in. They sacrificed many sheep.” Music was also being played again in the city for the first time in years.
– On to Kabul!
– Today’s reason to feel nervous: U.S. intelligence agents employ psychics.
– Observer: Predatory packs of ‘Sex and the City’ women regard a firefighter as a prize conquest. They hang round firehouses, offering gifts and attention. ‘I can’t go a day without having to hide from some woman coming round the firehouse,’ said a firefighter already spoken for. ‘I just put my hood up and cross the road.’
– Christians in Pakistan caught in the crossfire: A good piece from Al-Ahram. There, Christians are a persecuted minority; most of them are poor; and after a murder at a church, they are symbols of Western civilization in this crusade against the West.
– The Dawn interview with bin Laden, in which he rattles nuclear sabres.
– Bin Laden to Dawn: “I am ready to die…. They think they will solve this problem by killing me. It’s not easy to solve this problem. This war has been spread all over the world.”
– And another Pakistani newspaper, the Frontier Post, says Osama may already have shipped two suitcase nuclear bombs to the U.S.
