DATE=2/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BIN LADEN MATCHBOXES (L)
NUMBER=2-259258
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=ISLAMABAD
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  The U-S government has distributed hundreds of 
matchboxes offering a reward for the capture of Saudi 
dissident Osama bin Laden - who is charged with 
planning the bombings of two U-S embassies in Kenya 
and Tanzania in 1998.  VOA's Jim Teeple reports from 
our Islamabad bureau the matchbox effort is part of a 
long-running effort to capture the alleged terrorist 
but as it turns out, some of the information printed 
on the matchboxes is not correct.  

Text:   For months reward posters and other printed 
material including matchboxes have been circulated in 
Pakistan and Afghanistan offering a substantial reward 
for information leading to the capture of Osama bin 
Laden.  Now it turns out the information on some of 
the printed material is wrong.   Matchboxes 
distributed with written messages in Urdu which should 
have said the reward amounted to five million dollars 
instead said the reward was 500-thousand dollars.   
The average annual income in Pakistan is 492-dollars. 
In Afghanistan it is 150-dollars.  (Figures are based 
on G-N-P, used by Govt. of Pakistan)   

U-S Embassy officials in Islamabad refused to discuss 
the case of the missing zero referring all questions 
about the misprinted matchboxes to the U-S State 
Department in Washington.   

Matchbox rewards have proved successful in the past 
helping to lead to the capture and extradition of Mir 
Amal Khansi who was convicted and sentenced to death 
in the United States for killing several employees of 
the Central Intelligence Agency outside C-I-A 
headquarters.

The misprinted matchboxes are not the only headache 
for U-S officials in Pakistan.  Recently hundreds of 
100 rupee Pakistani notes, worth about two U-S 
dollars, have also appeared in the region.  The notes 
bear stamped messages in Pashto and Dari, the two main 
languages of Afghanistan, promising a substantial 
reward for the capture of Osama bin Laden.  The 
mysterious appearance of the notes has U-S officials 
baffled.  The officials who concede involvement in the 
matchbox affair strongly deny putting reward 
information for Osama bin Laden's capture on Pakistani 
currency.  (Signed)

 neb/jlt /plm



17-Feb-2000 06:49 AM EDT (17-Feb-2000 1149 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.