ABSTRACT
The United State government had strong motivation to pursue negotiations with Sudan over Osama bin Laden's future. Major-General Elfatih Erwa stated that the Sudanese government was prepared to offer two solutions to the bin Laden problem. One was to place Osama bin Laden under strict surveillance, with Sudan reporting regularly to American officials about his activities and movements. The other was to deliver Osama bin Laden into the custody of a third party acceptable to both Khartoum and Washington. Bin Laden departed Khartoum by plane in May to return to his old haunts in Afghanistan where he had financed and trained mujaheddin for the war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Just five weeks after Osama bin Laden was turned loose in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda attacked another American target. The law of war has a separate quiver of criminal tools appropriate to the exigencies of international terrorism.
