Taliban in Pakistani SWAT ex-resort: `Welcome, Osama!'

MINGORA, Pakistan – Pakistan was trying to end bloodshed when it let the idyllic Swat Valley fall under Islamic law last week. Instead, it has emboldened the Taliban and prompted an invitation — however improbable — for Osama bin Laden. "Osama can come here. Sure, like a brother they can stay anywhere they want," Muslim Khan said in a two-hour interview Friday, his first with a foreign journalist since Islamic law was imposed. "Yes, we will help them and protect them."

Khan spoke in halting English he learned during four years painting houses in the U.S. before returning to Swat in 2002.

(The) president of the district court lawyers, took a journalist through an open courtyard and closed the door to his office before whispering in a soft, angry voice about the Taliban.

"They are more than beasts. Our government is impotent, stupid and corrupt. We are helpless (facing) this militancy," he said, calling the Taliban "barbaric" and "illiterate."

Al.. said he feared for his life, "but I dare to speak because I am worried about my nation, my religion, my home." "It used to be that you crossed the Malakand Pass to Swat and you thought, 'I am in heaven,'" said Al.., the lawyer. "Now you think, 'I am in Hell.'"