Kandahar, Afghanistan — U.S. investigators on Wednesday questioned a man who described himself as a financial supporter of the Taliban and showed up voluntarily at the biggest U.S. base in Afghanistan offering information.
Pentagon officials said the man had given money to the Taliban but had not been a member of the Islamic regime that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. It was not known what information he had about the complex web of support of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, which was sheltered by the Taliban.
Marine spokesman Lt. James Jarvis said the man showed up Tuesday at the Kandahar airport, where thousands of U.S. troops are based and a detention center holds hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.
The man remained on the base Wednesday but was not being detained, Jarvis said. A Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity that he was not on the U.S. list of wanted men, but Jarvis said investigators were "jumping with joy."
At the Pentagon, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the man was being questioned. Officials did not disclose his identity or nationality or say how he came to the base.
U.S. officials initially said the man was an al-Qaida finance official, but later Pentagon officials said he was a Taliban backer.
The nature of the man's purported donations were unclear. However, during the years the Taliban was in power, a major source of income for the Islamic militia purportedly came from kickbacks from big-time smugglers, including drug dealers, who were willing to pay to be allowed to continue their operations.
In other developments Wednesday:
l President Bush encouraged Turkey's offer to lead peacekeeping in Afghanistan but put off a decision on whether to help finance the operation.
l Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and a congressional delegation met Afghanistan's prime minister in Kabul.
l U.S. officials tentatively concluded Osama bin Laden's terrorist group had not developed the means to produce chemical, biological or radiological weapons when the United States began bombing Afghanistan.
l President Bush signed legislation naming a Cranbury, N.J., post office after Todd Beamer, a passenger on the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania; Beamer uttered the words "Let's roll."
l U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan announced he would visit Afghanistan Jan. 25.
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