Taliban leader wanted Congress to oust Clinton

Taliban leader wantedCongress to oust Clinton
WASHINGTON -- A day after former President Clinton sent cruise missiles against Al-Qaida targets in Afghanistan, the leader of that country's ruling Taliban militia telephoned the State Department and offered to talk, according to a State Department message disclosed Friday.
Little came of the contact, although Mullah Mohammed Omar counseled the department that the United States would never be accepted as a friend of the Muslims unless Congress forced Clinton to resign.
Clinton announced Aug. 21, 1998, that he had sent cruise missiles "to strike at the network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by Osama bin Laden, perhaps the pre-eminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in the world today."
The attacks were to retaliate for the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa two weeks earlier that killed 231 people.
The message, drafted by Michael E. Malinowski, then the head of the State Department's Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh desk, reported what is believed to be the first and perhaps only U.S. contact with the rabidly anti-American Muslim cleric.
Not a genuine coin
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Mint advised consumers Friday that a widely advertised coin commemorating the World Trade Center is not a genuine U.S. coin.
National Collectors Mint Inc. has been marketing the "2004 'Freedom Tower' Silver Dollar," which it says has been created using silver from ground zero, the site where the World Trade Center towers fell Sept. 11, 2001.
One side of the coin shows the Freedom Tower planned for the site and bears the phrase "In God We Trust." The other side shows the old Manhattan skyline, with the World Trade Center still standing, and the phrase "One dollar." The company marketing the coin says it is the first "legally authorized government issue silver dollar ... to commemorate the World Trade Center and the new Freedom Tower."
The company is not connected to the U.S. government, the U.S. Mint said Friday. The U.S. Mint is the only government entity in the United States with the authority to coin money.
Inmates questioned
CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Federal and state investigators questioned Nevada prison inmates Friday after at least 15 governors received letters rigged to catch fire when the envelope was opened.
The letters apparently did not contain writings but bore a return address from Nevada's maximum-security Ely State Prison. In three cases, a match inside the envelope flared when the letter was opened, but no one was hurt.
The other letters were intercepted Thursday and Friday during screening or because of an alert issued by the Homeland Security Department. In addition to the governors, Nevada's corrections director received a booby-trapped letter.
The letters listed one or the other of two Ely inmates as the sender, but authorities are not sure if either prisoner was involved, said Glen Whorton, assistant director for the Nevada Corrections Department.
Could yield information
SALT LAKE CITY -- NASA scientists said Friday they have recovered some critical pieces of the Genesis space capsule intact and are optimistic the wreckage will yield valuable information about the origins of the solar system.
"We should be able to meet many, if not all, of our science goals," said physicist Roger C. Wiens of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The Genesis capsule spent 21/2 years gathering solar atoms, but crashed while returning to Earth on Wednesday, slamming into the ground at nearly 200 mph after its parachutes failed to open. It cracked open like a clamshell, and badly damaged an inner canister containing disks that collected the atoms.
Associated Press