April 9, 2004

SAUDI SECURITY FORCES CATCH A WANTED CAR AND EXCHANGE FIRE WITH THE DRIVER AND A PASSENGER. THE SHOUTOUT ENDS WITH THE KILLING OF ONE OF THE WANTED AND WOUNDING ANOTHER. COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD PURSUE THE TERRORISTS AND ARREST A LARGE NUMBER OF THEM. The Saudi Interior Ministry said a man gunned down and another wounded by security forces this week were wanted on terror-related charges. Abdul Rahman Ibn Nayef Ibn Rabeh Al-Sahli was shot dead in Monday evening gun battle and Abdullah Ibn Ghallab Ibn Ali Al-Sahli was injured. Both were wanted by security agencies in cases related to the criminal activities of the deviant group, said a ministry official. The Interior Ministry said after the shootout in the Al-Rawdah district of eastern Riyadh that it was checking the identities of the two men. But policemen at the site said confirmation has yet to be made on whether the pair were on the list of 26 most-wanted suspects, which has gone down to 22 since it was issued in December following a series of suicide bombings targeting residential compounds that killed 52 people in May and November 2003. The ministry said that security forces had been on the lookout for the car with stolen license plates in which the two were traveling, and the shootout occurred when security men caught up with them after they resisted orders to stop, opened fire and sped away. The incident was the latest in a series of similar gun battles, which have taken place, chiefly in Riyadh, since the bombings began. The biggest coup for authorities came on March 15 when security forces shot dead Khaled Ali Ibn Haj, who ranked third on the most-wanted list and was described as Al-Qaeda head of operations in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf. Two other men on the list had earlier been killed in clashes with security forces one of whom had been only wounded but was left to die by his comrades, according to authorities while a third turned himself in. On the other hand Yemen has subdued 90 per cent of Al Qaida cells in the country, in part by paying off tribes that once sheltered them, Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal said. Bajammal, who credited US-Yemeni co-operation with his country's progress in the fight against terror, also said suspects in the 2000 USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors off the southern port of Aden will stand trial in the next few weeks. Bajammal said the government has bought off the tribes that once gave shelter to terrorists. "If we want to avoid a confrontation and the spilling of blood, then money has no value in this respect," he said. Bajammal said his country has made progress in the fight against terror, adding that "Yemen can never be a refuge for Al Qaida." "During the past two years, we have managed to subdue 90 per cent of (Al Qaida) cells here or the ones that moved to Yemen," he said. However, a diplomat who spoke on condition he not be further identified said the government has cracked down on terror suspects and now has a better understanding of the situation. Bajammal said co-operation with the United States has provided Yemen with information and a new approach to dealing with the issue. Yemen has allowed US forces to enter the country to train its military to combat terrorists. "We used to fight terrorism on our own," he said. "Now, we're doing it with the rest of the world." Yemen co-operated with Washington in tracking and killing a suspected Al Qaida leader in 2002 after US satellites picked up the vibrations of the man's voice. In that missile attack, six Yemenis, said to be Al Qaida members, including one suspected of masterminding an operation against a US warship and a French oil tanker, were killed. Among those killed was Ali Qaed Sunian Al Harthi, alias Abu Ali. He was suspected of being one of the ringleaders in the attack on October 12, 2000 against the warship USS Cole in the southern Yemen port of Aden in which 17 crew members died. The oil tanker Limburg was rammed by a small boat off the Yemeni coast in October 2002, causing an explosion which killed a Bulgarian seaman. In January this year, a leading Yemeni judge turned to the Holy Quran, to bolster a campaign to persuade supporters of Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to abandon violence. High Court Judge Hamood Al Hitar - also the head of Yemen's Human Rights Organisation - said that dialogue was the ideal way to erase the wrong interpretations of Islam that spawn extremism. "I always tell the youth that the Holy Quran has 124 verses which call on Muslims to treat non-Muslims with goodwill and only one that urges them to fight," the judge added. Eleven suspects in the attack on the US destroyer USS Cole in 2000 and the 2002 bombing of the French oil supertanker Limburg will go on trial in the next few days, a Yemeni military newspaper reported. The 26 September weekly quoting a security source said files of six suspected accomplices in the Cole suicide bomb attack and five suspects in the Limburg attack have been given to the public prosecution and the trials will begin in coming days. Also to stand trial are three others suspected of being involved in "sabotage acts", said the unnamed sources, without giving details on charges against the three men. Yemeni security forces have identified one of two men arrested as a suspect in the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000, the Interior Ministry said. Ministry sources identified the Cole bombing suspect as Samir Abdullah Mohammed Ballaki. The sources would not identify the other man. Sources said the two arrested were in the same area of southern Yemen where security forces arrested Cole suspects Jamal al-Badawi and Fahd al-Qusa the day before. Al-Badawi and al-Qusa had been the last of 10 suspects still at large after escaping from jail in Aden, Yemen, a year ago. Earlier this month, Abdul Raouf Nassib was arrested after a shootout with Yemeni security forces. Nassib was also among the suspects who escaped. On the other hand NATO foreign ministers' meeting issued declaration on terrorism. The informal meeting of the NATO foreign ministers, the first such meeting for all 26 NATO old and new members, issued a declaration on terrorism, pledging to take various measures to fight terrorism. "We categorically reject terrorism, whatever its motivations, forms or manifestations," says the declaration, which is obviously aimed to prevent the re-occurrence of tragedies like the Madrid terrorist bombings on March 11. The members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will continue to resort to political, diplomatic, economic, and even military means in the fight against terrorism. In the meantime, the ministers said any counter-terrorism operations "will have a sound legal basis and fully conform with the relevant provisions of the United Nations Charter and all relevant international norms and standards." The declaration lists several enhanced anti-terrorism measures for the NATO Istanbul summit, to be held in June, to decide. The measures include: improving intelligence sharing, enhancing response to national requests for NATO support in fighting terrorism, and addressing the threat posed by terrorist use of civil aircraft. The declaration also vows to provide NATO assistance with security for selected major events, such as Euro 2004 football matches in Portugal and the Athens Olympics. The ministers said the military bloc will continue to cooperate with the United Nations, the European Union, Russia, NATO's partners and its Mediterranean dialogue countries in the drive. On the other hand French police launched a dawn raid outside Paris on, detaining 13 suspected militants in connection with a deadly terrorist attack in Morocco last year, authorities said. The DST, France's domestic security agency, conducted the roundup of suspects in the suburbs of Paris on orders of two French anti-terrorism judges, Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard. One person was detained at Charles de Gaulle airport as he tried to leave the country, Paris prosecutor Yves Bot said. The operation was part of an investigation into near-simultaneous suicide attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, that killed 33 bystanders and 12 bombers on May 16, 2003, authorities said. Paris prosecutors opened an investigation three days after the attacks because three of the victims were French. Those detained for questioning are suspected of belonging to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, Bot said. The organization, which has alleged links to al Qaeda, has been blamed by the Spanish government in the March 11 rail attacks in Madrid that killed 191 people. However, Bot said authorities do not have evidence linking the suspects in France to the Madrid bombings. "These investigations are the culmination of a long probe into the networks linked to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group," Bot said in a statement. The DST conducted the operation as part of an investigation involving other foreign intelligence services, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Fifteen suspects are in custody in the Madrid attacks. Six have been charged with mass murder and nine with collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organization. Eleven of the 15 charged are Moroccan. In the United Kingdom Police arrested eight men and seized half a ton of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer compound used in the Oklahoma City bombing, in raids by hundreds of officers -- one of the biggest anti-terrorism operations in Britain since the Sept. 11 attacks. Home Secretary David Blunkett, who has warned for months that London is a prime terrorist target, said the arrests Tuesday were a "timely reminder" of the threat from al-Qaida. But a Muslim leader warned that the headline-grabbing dawn raids risked demonizing the whole community. Press Association, the British news agency, said all eight were of Pakistani descent, but police would not comment. In a sweep involving 700 officers, eight suspects were picked up in London and towns to the south and west on suspicion of involvement in the "commission, preparation or instigation" of acts of terrorism, London's Metropolitan Police said. Authorities recovered the ammonium nitrate -- often used in terrorist bombings -- from a self-storage facility in west London, police said. It was the largest seizure of potential bomb-making material in England since the Irish Republican Army suspended its campaign of violence in 1997. "Part of the investigation will focus on the purchase, storage and intended use of that material," said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the force's anti-terrorist branch. Clarke said the suspects were British, aged 17 to 32, and were arrested as part of an operation targeting alleged international terrorist activity. He said the operation, which involved five police forces, was not connected to the Madrid train bombings this month or to Irish terrorism. Clarke gave no details of the suspects' background or religious affiliation, but he told reporters that "we in the police service know that the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community are law abiding and completely reject all forms of violence." Three of the arrests were in Uxbridge and Slough, near Heathrow Airport west of London, and four in Crawley and Horley, near Gatwick to the south. Police refused to say whether there was any significance to the proximity. The eighth arrest was in Ilford, east London. Officers conducted 24 searches that also targeted addresses in Reading, Luton and north London. In Crawley, a bedroom community near Gatwick, forensic investigators in blue coveralls searched a red-brick house as neighbors and journalists looked on. Residents in Luton, a town north of London where several homes were searched, expressed shock at the raids. Taxi driver Jarez Khan said he knew one of the families whose property was searched. Blunkett, the minister responsible for homeland security, said the arrests were "a timely reminder that the U.K. and its interests abroad remain a target." Meanwhile European Union Justice and interior ministries have reached an agreement which states that airlines flying into the EU must provide detailed passenger information to immigration and law enforcement authorities. Although EU governments were reluctant to provide records of European passengers to American customs officials up until a year ago, their attitude seem to have altered in face of this month's Madrid Bombings which lefts hundreds of people dead. This will also affect the Maltese national airline, Air Malta, and the Malta International Airport. However the US agreement has been opposed by many members of the European parliament. The proposal states that airlines would be fined for failing to pass on requested passenger data in advance of departure for an EU destination. The FT Spain was the first government to propose the agreement back in February 2003, believing it would help to combat illegal immigration. In face of the 11th March bombings in Madrid, the United Kingdom led calls for it to be extended to counter terrorism. Also the European Commission announced that it hoped to create a central database listing people convicted or under investigation for terrorist activities. On the other hand the alleged ringleader of last month's train bombings in Madrid was among four suspects who blew themselves up as police raided their apartment, Spain's interior ministers said. The blast killed a special operations police officer and wounded 15 other policemen. Interior Minister Angel Acebes said one of the dead bombers was found with an explosives belt around his body, and two or three suspects may have escaped before the explosion. Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian accused of spearheading the March 11 attacks, was among the dead, Acebes said. An international warrant had been issued for the arrest of Fakhet and five others last week. "The core of the group that carried out the attacks is either arrested or dead in yesterday's collective suicide, including the head of the operative commando (unit)," Acebes told a news conference. Another man on that list, Abdennabi Kounjaa, a Moroccan, was identified as among the four who died Saturday night. A third man Asri Rifaat Anouar, was not on the list. The fourth suspect has not been identified, Acebes said. Police also found 200 detonators of the kind used in the March 11 attacks and in a bomb that was discovered Friday before it could explode along a high speed rail line, Acebes said. Police also found 22 pounds of dynamite in the apartment where the four terrorists blew themselves up as police closed in, Acebes said. "They were going to keep on attacking because some of the explosives were prepared, packed and connected to detonators," Acebes said. The group set off the deadly explosion as police prepared to storm their apartment in Leganes south of Madrid. Police had approached the building about 7 p.m. to make arrests as part of an escalating manhunt for those responsible for the March 11 bombings. The suspects spotted the police from a window and shot at them, shouting in Arabic, the Interior Ministry said. Over the next two hours, police evacuated as many people as they could from the building and surrounding area and prepared for an assault on the apartment. No police officers were hurt by the gunfire. As the terrorists shot at police from the apartment, "they shouted 'God is great' and Islamic verses," the newspaper El Mundo quoted a resident of the building as saying. It identified him only as Alberto M., who lived two floors up. El Pais said special forces preparing the assault managed to communicate with the terrorists and gave them a deadline to surrender. But the terrorists shouted back "God is great, we are going to go out killing," the newspaper said, quoting police. The terrorists set off their bomb in a second-story apartment after police blasted open the ground-floor entrance, the Interior Ministry said. The special forces officer who died in the explosion was identified as Javier Torrontera, 41. He was married and had two children. In coordinated operations across Europe, police have arrested 54 people with ties to a Marxist group connected to bombings primarily in Turkey, Turkey's Interior Ministry said. According to Turkish officials, 38 suspects were arrested in Turkey, and another 16 were taken into custody in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and Italy. Authorities said those arrested were members of a Turkish Marxist organization, known as the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). Police in Perugia, Italy arrested three Italians -- two women and a man -- as well as a Turkish man and woman. "These arrests are conducted in connection with international terrorism," a police source in Perugia said. Police said the Italians were part of a local cell of DHKP-C. An Ottawa man was charged with two terrorism-related offences after police raids at his home and office, while shocked family members insisted upon his innocence. Mohammad Momim Khawaja, 29, was arrested at his workplace and charged with participating in or contributing to the activities of a terrorist group and facilitating terrorist activity, the police said in a release. The charges fall under Canada's anti-terrorism law. Television reports said the Canadian-born Khawaja, a software developer, worked on contract for the Department of Foreign Affairs. Qasim Khawaja, Mohammad Momim Khawaja's 26-year-old brother, said there was no evidence of terrorist activities in the home for police to find. Mohammad Momim Khawaja appeared in court and was remanded until a video appearance later. A publication ban was placed on the proceedings. The charges state that between Nov. 10, 2003 and Monday, Khawaja was involved in terrorist-related activity in Ottawa and "at or near the City of London, England," the police said in the release. Reports said police think the Ottawa arrest and charges are linked to the arrests of eight men in London, however, other news reports said there was no clear link with the arrests. Police did not return phone calls immediately asking for comment on a possible link. On the other hand Assistant Defence Secretary Thomas O'connell said "Afghanistan, and groups around the world partially finance key operations with drug money. The Department of Defense, with our counterparts in the Department of State and other government agencies, as well as allies such as the United Kingdom seek to systematically dismantle drug trafficking networks, both to halt the flow of drugs into the United States, and to bolster the broader war on terrorism effort." Meanwhile Pakistani police have arrested nine suspected Islamic militants in connection with a suicide bombing at a U.S. consulate in 2002 and an attack on a hotel that killed 11 French nationals, police said. The men belonged to the shadowy Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami and include the group's leader, Syed Sohail Akhtar, known as "Mustafa," said police chief Syed Kamal Shah. They were detained in Karachi in overnight raids, he added. "It's a huge success," said Shah. "Their arrest should convey a message to all terrorists that one day they will have to face the law. Police found a large cache of weapons and bomb-making material with them," he added. The arrests come during Pakistan's biggest crackdown on Islamic militants since joining the U.S.-led war on terror in 2001 and followed a siege in Pakistan's tribal region last month in which at least 167 militants were captured and 63 killed. Shah said the nine suspects were involved in a June 14, 2002, suicide bombing at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi that killed 12 Pakistanis. The group also carried out a similar attack outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in May 2002, he added. Pakistani police have broken up a number of Islamic militant cells, some with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, in the past couple of years. A British arms dealer appeared in U.S. District Court, on charges that he tried to complete the sale of a shoulder-fired missile, with the understanding that it was going to be used to shoot down an American commercial airliner, the U.S. Attorney's Office and Justice Department announced today. Two other defendants were arrested. Both of them helped in a planned money transfer that was part of the transaction. One of those two individuals arrived in the U.S. to allegedly arrange for a $500,000 downpayment from a government cooperating witness for 50 more shoulder-fired missiles. U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie of the District in New Jersey and FBI Director Robert Mueller and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in Washington, announced the filing of a criminal complaint charging Hemant Lakhani with attempting to provide material support to terrorists and attempting to sell arms without a license. Lakhani, 68, of London, England, flew from London to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday and was arrested yesterday by Special Agents of the FBI/Newark Joint Terrorism Task Force, as he was meeting with a government cooperating witness to complete the sale of a single shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile. A criminal complaint against Lakhani filed under seal on Monday in U.S. District Court in Newark alleges that Lakhani went to New Jersey to arrange for the sale of at least another 50 anti-aircraft missiles to the cooperating witness, who was posing as a representative of a Somali terror organization. Separate criminal complaints were filed against Yehuda Abraham,76, a New York City jeweler and money remitter, and Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed of Malaysia. Hameed arrived from Malaysia allegedly as part of the planned sale of another 50 missiles. Hameed was to collect an initial payment of $500,000 from the government cooperating witness, according to the complaint. Both men are charged with conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Lakhani, a British national born in India, and Hameed, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark. At the government's request, Judge Wigenton continued the initial appearance for several days, during which the defendants will remain in federal custody. The third defendant, Abraham, made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and is expected to be sentenced to 5 years in prison. Meanwhile the UAE is poised to introduce a new law to combat the financing of terrorism in response to concerns raised by the International Monetary Fund. The move marks a new initiative in the country's ongoing efforts to curb terrorist financing, Sultan Ibn Nasser Al Suwaidi, Governor of the UAE Central bank, said. The Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT) law is being drawn up after the IMF made an assessment of the UAE last month. "The IMF team visited the UAE recently and after meeting with the anti-money laundering committee it expressed satisfaction of the laws and procedures. Despite taking this positive stance Suwaidi insisted at the end of the three-day International Hawala Conference that the UAE will not bow to international pressure to ban Hawala. He said the approach remains the same - to continue to regulate Hawala and stop it from being misused. "Hawala plays a key role in facilitating remittances, especially those of migrant workers and it is an integral part of the international finance system," he said. "In this part of the world, it serves a very important purpose and we cannot ban it. However, we will do our best to regulate it." The UAE faced pressure from the US and other countries to outlaw the Hawala system of remittances. He added that banks and exchange houses are as susceptible to abuse and misuse by criminals as the Hawala system. He also suggested that there were misconceptions behind the apparent singling out of the UAE for its attachment to Hawala by international bodies. Suwaidi said it was due to some misunderstanding and ignorance on the part of international institutions. "During the Financial Action Task Force discussions, the UAE was on the Non-Cooperation Countries and Territories (NCCT) list and at this point it was misunderstood that Hawala was prevalent only in the UAE. "We clarified things by holding the first Hawala conference in 2002 and the second one now," he said.