[quote:82849]A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before last week's attacks.
Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in
mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.[/quote:82849]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1550366.stm
http://www.indiareacts.com/archivefeatu ... ctg=policy
http://www.janes.com/security/internati ... _1_n.shtml
[quote="Tony Blair":82849] "To be truthful about it, there was no way we could have got the public consent to have suddenly launched a campaign on Afghanistan but for what happened on September 11."
Tony Blair. July 17, 2002 [Guardian][/quote:82849]
[url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1036571,00.html"]http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story ... 71,00.html[/url]