DATE=2/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BIN LADEN MATCHBOXES (L)
NUMBER=2-259258
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=ISLAMABAD
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-S government has distributed hundreds of
matchboxes offering a reward for the capture of Saudi
dissident Osama bin Laden - who is charged with
planning the bombings of two U-S embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania in 1998. VOA's Jim Teeple reports from
our Islamabad bureau the matchbox effort is part of a
long-running effort to capture the alleged terrorist
but as it turns out, some of the information printed
on the matchboxes is not correct.
Text: For months reward posters and other printed
material including matchboxes have been circulated in
Pakistan and Afghanistan offering a substantial reward
for information leading to the capture of Osama bin
Laden. Now it turns out the information on some of
the printed material is wrong. Matchboxes
distributed with written messages in Urdu which should
have said the reward amounted to five million dollars
instead said the reward was 500-thousand dollars.
The average annual income in Pakistan is 492-dollars.
In Afghanistan it is 150-dollars. (Figures are based
on G-N-P, used by Govt. of Pakistan)
U-S Embassy officials in Islamabad refused to discuss
the case of the missing zero referring all questions
about the misprinted matchboxes to the U-S State
Department in Washington.
Matchbox rewards have proved successful in the past
helping to lead to the capture and extradition of Mir
Amal Khansi who was convicted and sentenced to death
in the United States for killing several employees of
the Central Intelligence Agency outside C-I-A
headquarters.
The misprinted matchboxes are not the only headache
for U-S officials in Pakistan. Recently hundreds of
100 rupee Pakistani notes, worth about two U-S
dollars, have also appeared in the region. The notes
bear stamped messages in Pashto and Dari, the two main
languages of Afghanistan, promising a substantial
reward for the capture of Osama bin Laden. The
mysterious appearance of the notes has U-S officials
baffled. The officials who concede involvement in the
matchbox affair strongly deny putting reward
information for Osama bin Laden's capture on Pakistani
currency. (Signed)
neb/jlt /plm
17-Feb-2000 06:49 AM EDT (17-Feb-2000 1149 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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