NATO: U.S. has proven bin Laden tie

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The United States gave its NATO allies clear evidence Tuesday that "conclusively" links Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network to the Sept. 11 terror attacks, NATO's secretary-general said. \nIn response, the alliance has "fully invoked" Article 5 of its charter, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all, Secretary-General Lord Robertson said, though he added that the decision did not necessarily mean an armed response was imminent. \n"We don't intend at the moment to discuss how NATO will translate this decision into operational action," Robertson said. "The United States are still developing their thinking and they will come back to the alliance in due course when that thinking is crystallized." \nNATO allies last month agreed to invoke Article 5 if Washington could show that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were directed from abroad. Tuesday's classified briefing demonstrated that, so the "if" was dropped, and Article 5 was now "fully invoked," Robertson said. \n"The facts are clear and compelling. The information presented points conclusively to an al-Qaeda role," Robertson said of the U.S. briefing. \n"The United States of America can rely on the full support of its 18 NATO allies in the campaign against international terrorism," he said. \nOfficials said Article 5 is morally but not legally binding on the NATO allies, which had already declared their full backing for the United States in its war against terrorism. A country may still decline to take any specific action. \nRobertson refused to elaborate on the "additional information" provided by U.S. Ambassador at Large Francis X. Taylor, who is President George W. Bush's coordinator for counterterrorism. The NATO secretary-general said it must remain secret for now "for obvious reasons." \nHe said the briefing covered the attacks themselves, the results of the investigation so far, what is known about bin Laden and al-Qaeda, "their involvement in the attacks and in previous terrorist activity, and the links between al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan." \n"We know that the individuals who carried out these attacks were part of the worldwide terrorist network al-Qaeda headed by Osama bin Laden and his key lieutenants and protected by the Taliban," Robertson said. "It is clear that all roads lead to al-Qaeda and pinpoint Osama bin Laden as having been involved in it." \nHis comments came before British Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressing a Labor Party congress, said "bin Laden and his people organized this atrocity" and challenged the Taliban to "surrender the terrorists or surrender power." \nThe Taliban, an Islamic militia that controls most of Afghanistan, has refused to surrender bin Laden.