| Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers rebuffed more than 30 US requests to expel Osama Bin Laden between 1996 and just before the September 11 attacks in 2001, newly declassified official documents revealed Friday. A long list of official contacts summarised by the declassified State Department document showed that Taliban leader Mullah Omar expressed interest in a confidential dialogue with Washington over the Al Qaeda mastermind. He also suggested Bin Laden be tried by a panel of Islamic scholars or that his movements be monitored by the OIC or UN. The State Department documents show most of the approaches to the fundamentalist Islamic militia took place under the administration of President Bill Clinton. Only three meetings or conversations detailed in the document, obtained and released by George Washington University’s National Security archive, took place after President Bush’s inauguration in January 2001 |