Security: The Taliban Files

The National Security Archive has posted declassified documents relating to the Taliban. They include the following:

* Pre-9/11 U.S. Attempts to Drive Bin Laden Out of Afghanistan repeatedly Unsuccessful, Documents Show

* Taliban Official Blames Saddam Hussein for U.S. Embassy Bombings

* U.S. Provided Aid to Soviet-Era Mujahadeen, Did Not Directly Fund Bin Laden

* The U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan told a top Taliban official in September 2000 that the U.S. "was not out to destroy the Taliban."

The newly declassified documents also show that State Department officials rejected Taliban claims that the U.S. supported bin Laden during the Soviet occupation. U.S. officials clarify that, although Osama bin Laden may have fought with other U.S. funded anti-Soviet resistance groups in Afghanistan, "we had never heard his name during that period and did not support him at that time."

For more information, visit www.nsarchive.org