June 18, 2004

CROWN PRINCE ABDULLAH RECEIVES PRIME MINISTER AL HARIRI AND DISCUSSES WITH HIM THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS ON THE ARAB, MUSLIM AND INTERNATIONAL ARENAS. PRINCE ABDULLAH IBN ABDUL AZIZ RECEIVES MORE SAUDI DELEGATIONS WHO REITERATE THEIR SUPPORT TO THE SAUDI LEADERSHIP AND THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM. PRINCE NAIF IBN ABDUL AZIZ STRESSES THAT ALL PEOPLE ARE UNITED AGAINST TERRORIST ACTS THAT TARGET THE NATION, ITS SECURITY AND STABILITY. THE SAUDI MINISTER OF ISLAMIC AFFAIRS STRESSES THAT THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA HAS ACHIEVED A GREAT DEAL OF SUCCESSES IN COMBATING TERRORISM. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, received Lebanon's Premier Rafiq Al-Hariri. During the meeting, they discussed the overall developments at the Arab, Islamic and international arenas particularly the situations in the occupied Palestinian territories and Iraq. Aspects of cooperation between the two countries and ways of enhancing them in all fields were also reviewed. The audience was attended by a number of princes and officials. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz vowed that terrorists who killed and maimed people and destroyed property in the Kingdom will not escape justice. Addressing a group of university teachers, students, publishers and tribal chiefs and other representatives from different parts of the Kingdom, the crown prince reaffirmed the Kingdom's determination to hunt down the criminals and uproot terrorism. He said "evil hands" stood behind individuals who were committing such acts and were working against Islam, according to the Saudi Press Agency. Staff and students of Umm Al-Qura University, led by Rector Dr. Nasser Abdullah Al-Saleh, denounced terrorist acts and pledged their full support for the authorities. "What has happened in the Kingdom is more painful because it was the work of our sons who have been seduced by Satan," the Crown Prince said. "God willing I promise you that those individuals will not escape justice with your help and that of all the people of the Kingdom." The Crown Prince called on teachers and students to come forward and publicly speak out against these criminal acts. "As teachers and students you have a great duty to educate and enlighten people. All of you must work to guide your brothers, whether at home or anywhere else, and lead them to the right path," he said. Those who remained silent were acting as accomplices "and that must never happen," he told the audience. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, received princes, ministers, senior officials and a group of citizens who came to greet him. The Crown Prince also received a delegation from the Northern Borders Region led by Saeed Ibn Shihab Al-Anzi; a delegation from Saudi Publishers Association led by the Association's Chairman Ahmed Ibn Fahd Al-Hamdan; and Sihaj Ibn Abdul Aziz Ibn Zaid Al-Baqmi, the father of Nimr Al-Baqmi who along with a group of gunmen stormed a housing compound in Khobar. In their speeches, the leaders strongly condemned the terrorist acts that recently took place in the kingdom by the deviating group and expressed their full support for the government and they denounced the killing of innocents, the intimidation of the secure people, destabilization of security and the damaging of properties. They stressed their stand by, support for and loyalty to the government to fight the deviant group that has perpetrated these acts. In his remarks, Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz thanked them for their stand against terrorism and support for the government, noting that they and their ancestors are loyal to the religion and their country. The Crown Prince also called on them not to be silent about this deviating group. He also called on the university's professors and students to educate people about their religion and the country. Prince Abdullah noted that the deviating group has fallen in a Satanic marsh and it does not serve religion, homeland, economy or Islamic and Arab moralities. The individuals of this group have been driven by Satan, indicating that wicked hands against Islam are behind them. The Crown Prince affirmed that Islam is a religion of love, humanitarianism, and mercy to all creatures even animals. He stressed that citizens all over the Kingdom are united to serve their religion and country. The Crown Prince affirmed that the deviant group's days are short and it will be eradicated. He called for reporting any abnormal person to security authorities. The receptions were attended by a number of princes. On the other hand Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Minister of Interior, received a group of people from Al-Baqmi tribe. Among these people were also the father and the grandfather of Nimr Al-Baqmi who was among a deviant group and participated in the latest criminal incident in Al-Khobar city and was apprehended by the security forces. The members of Al-Baqmi tribe condemned the criminal acts that took place in the Kingdom recently and announced their full loyalty to the country and cohesion with its leadership. On his part, Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz thanked all of them for their feelings, stressing that all are united against these acts that target the nation, its security and stability. He noted that what had taken place, would not bring about any change in the lasting trust in Al-Baqmi tribe. "Everyone must be aware and should not assume that we will deal with or be angry with the whole family for a mistake of one person," he added. Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz, Minister of Interior, received at his office members of board of directors of Saudi Publishers Association led by the Association's Chairman Ahmad Ibn Fahd Al-Hamdan. During the meeting, Al-Hamdan condemned the criminal acts committed by the deviated group in the kingdom recently, stressing their full support for and loyalty to the Saudi leadership and their rejection of terrorist actions and destabilization of Kingdom's security. On his part, Prince Naif thanked them for their feelings, affirming that all citizens are united against these criminal acts targeting the Kingdom's security and stability. Prince Naif noted that the Kingdom is based on the principles of the tolerant Islamic religion that reject acts of wreaking havoc in the earth and of destabilizing security. On the other hand Prince Naif Abdul Aziz issued his directives to security companies to run their own independent operation rooms and link their work with that of the security forces in order to ensure that measures implemented by private companies conforms with those of the security forces. Also a number of companies will ask the security forces to train youth asking for jobs in the security sector, in special training courses affiliated to the Ministry of the Interior. A U.S. resident was shot dead in Malaz suburb in Riyadh city the Police Director General of Riyadh Region stated. He noted that the incident is still under the follow-up of security concerned bodies. "He was killed at 4 p.m.," Riyadh's police chief said, quoted by the Saudi Press Agency. "The incident is being investigated by security authorities," he said without giving further details. Security men at the scene, who identified the victim as American, said he was believed to have worked for an electronics company involved in a strategic oil reserve project. Sources have identified the victim as Kenneth Zaracuzi, 55, who was working for Advanced Electronics Company. A policeman at the scene said the American came under fire at 3.30 p.m. from a car with two passengers as he drove his light green Toyota Camry into the garage of his home in Qalaat Ayyoub Street in Dhubbat (officers') neighborhood of Al-Malaz district. A witness said three assailants, two of them wearing red shummaghs and one a white ghutra, jumped out of a Red Nissan Maxima and shot at the Westerner, spraying bullets through the rear window. They then entered the garage and shot him in the head through the window on the driver's side. A passerby who saw the garage open reported the incident to the police. "I saw the garage of the house open and the car inside when I was passing. I saw a Saudi headband on the floor. At first I thought it looked like someone had been in a brawl, so I asked my friend to stop so I could have a better look. When I got closer I saw a bullet hole in the rear window," he said. "I then saw a dead man in the car seat covered in blood. The side window of the driver's seat was broken and I could see that he was shot in the head," he added. Al-Arabiya television said police were chasing suspects in the east of the city. It was the third killing of a foreigner in a week. Neighbors said Zaracuzi had been living in the villa for two to three years. He was reportedly married to a Filipina, who was not in the villa at the time of the shooting. Meanwhile a bomb squad rushed to an abandoned car that was belching flames near the entrance to Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. Al-Arabiya television said the green Toyota Camry had been found rigged with explosives in front of the university. The Civil Defense and special bomb squads rushed to the scene and after cordoning off the area towed away the car. It was not clear whether any explosives had already been detonated. The area is home to IMSIU as well as a couple of housing compounds. Reacting to yesterday's shooting and other recent terrorist attacks in the Kingdom, US Ambassador James C. Oberwetter said Americans who choose to remain here should "exercise the utmost caution as they go about their daily lives." Kuwait has reaffirmed its stand by and solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to eradicate the deviant group targeting the Kingdom's security and stability. At the cabinet's weekly session, Kuwaiti Premier Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah expressed his confidence in the efforts exerted by Saudi security forces efforts to maintain security and stability. In Washington Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated the United States' full support to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to help it with all means to eliminate terrorism and terrorists. At the same time, Powell praised the existing cooperation between the two countries in combating terrorism. In three different interviews with "Fox News Sunday", " NBC's This Week" and "ABC's Meet the Press", TVs networks, Powell said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is mobilizing all its resources against the problem of terrorism to eliminate it. "The Saudis know that this is an enemy that is coming after them," Powell said. He added: "The killings of foreigners is a direct attack against the Saudi economy". Powell said "Terrorists are trying to make the country unstable, and I know that the Saudis are treating it with utmost seriousness. They're counter-attacking". On her part, Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. President's national security adviser also lauded the current cooperation between the two countries in combating terrorism at all fronts. In an interview with "CNN's Late Edition", she praised the steps which had been undertaken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to eliminate terrorism and terrorists, pointing out to the success of the security authorities in the Kingdom to eliminate a large number of terrorism cells. In London Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Sheikh Salih Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Al-Sheikh stressed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has achieved a great deal of successes in combating terrorism problem at security level, noting that many perpetrators of the deviating group have been killed or arrested. In a press conference organized by the Saudi embassy, he affirmed that the Kingdom has enjoyed stability at political, economic and social arenas in spite of the wicked terrorist incidents that occurred recently. The Minister for Islamic affairs said the recent surge of attacks against foreigners did not mean terrorism had reached crisis point in the Kingdom. "If you look back through the efforts of the Saudi government in tackling terrorism, they have destroyed half of the terrorist force," Sheilh Saleh Al-Al-Sheikh told journalists at the Saudi Embassy in London. The Islamic Affairs Minister attributed terrorism phenomenon in the world to non-solution to the outstanding issues in the region such as the Palestinian issue and the presence of extremism. He emphasized that Islam is a religion of love, tolerance and acquaintance and added that it also called for dialogue with others. He noted that the Kingdom is convinced of the necessity of reform and development in all political, economic and educational fields, indicating that the Kingdom is not waiting for reform from the west or the east. The minister underscored that the extremist groups have nothing to do with religious education in the Kingdom but they are products of what happened in Afghanistan. Later the minister visited the ministry's call office in London where he emphasized the importance of Islamic propagation. Meanwhile A group of scholars denounced the recent terror attacks in the Kingdom which they said claimed innocent lives. The scholars in a statement said Islam prohibits all forms of violence, especially against fellow human beings. "The bombings, killings and destruction of public and private property are a horrendous crime prohibited in Islam," the ulema said in the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. Signatories included Abdul Rahman Al-Barrak, Abdullah Al-Jabrain, Safar Al-Hawali, Sheikh Salman Al-Oudah, Abdullah Al-Tuwajiri and Nasser Al-Amr. The six Saudi preachers seen as influential with Islamist extremists denounced attacks on Westerners as revolting and a grave sin under Islam. The bombings and killings have caused revulsion to people and hurt individuals and their property, and no one with the slightest knowledge of Islam can doubt that this is an atrocious crime and grave sin, they said in a statement carried by Saudi media. The preachers included Safar Al-Hawali and Salman Al-Odeh, who have been imprisoned for demanding reforms and criticizing the government. The statement came amid an escalation of violence in the Kingdom by militants loyal to Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Militants shot dead a US military contractor outside his home in Riyadh. Al Qaeda, which claimed the attack, said it had also kidnapped an American. It was the sixth assault on Westerners in six weeks in the world s largest oil exporter. The statement, read on television, said those who killed non-Muslims resident among Muslims would not go to heaven. Al-Qaeda s year-old campaign in the Kingdom has targeted foreigners and non-Muslims. The statement urged Muslims not to brand fellow believers infidels, as they are not. Militants, making heavy use of the Internet in their war with the authorities, call Christians and Jews infidels. Saudi Arabia's senior religious scholars have issued a fatwa condemning acts of terrorism and calling upon citizens and residents to provide authorities with any information they may have regarding those who plan or prepare to carry out terrorist acts. The Permanent Committee of Religious Research and Ifta (religious edict), under the chairmanship of Saudi Arabia's leading religious authority, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Al Sheikh, issued the fatwa which ruled that such acts are religiously forbidden and considered to be severe forms of injustice. The fatwa stated that these acts disrupt the security of the country, shed innocent blood, terrorize peaceful people and destroy property. The fatwa concluded that it is the duty of everyone to report to the authorities if they have information about the individuals who plan or prepare to carry out terrorist acts. Saudi Arabia's leaders have explained that the religious establishment in Saudi Arabia is a critical asset in the nation's war against Al-Qaeda. According to Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar Ibn Sultan: "It is our own religious establishment that is the authority most qualified to debunk and disprove Al-Qaeda's false claims." On April 22, the day after a bombing in Riyadh, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al- Al Sheikh, who is also Chairman of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, issued a statement calling the incident a "forbidden and sinful act." The statement continued: "It is also forbidden to justify the acts of these criminals." Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Al Shaikh also stated: "You have to be vigilant and have strong will in defending the religion and the Muslim country against these people." Meanwhile Pakistan has launched a new offensive against Al-Qaeda-linked fighters on its northwest border, pounding an Al-Qaeda training camp and hideouts used by fugitive foreign fighters in a major air and ground campaign. Thousands of Pakistani troops backed by Cobra helicopter gunships targeted the camp and two hideouts near Shakai village in South Waziristan, military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said, killing at least five more militants and raising the death toll from three days of clashes to 58. We have retrieved five bodies of militants. Others are lying on the ground, Sultan told a news conference at army headquarters in Rawalpindi. A statement issued by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the operation had been launched after the political process failed to produce results. The government was left with no choice but to respond in order to establish its writ and eliminate these foreign elements that, along with their accomplices, had not only taken the local population hostage but were also a nuisance for the entire area, the ISPR said. Pakistan s Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told the federal parliament that a new operation had been launched and would last until objectives are met, state television reported. A senior security official called the strike a major offensive. Army helicopters have pounded the hideouts of foreign militants after which troops landed from helicopters and launched ground operations to capture militants, the official told AFP. Major General Sultan said the security forces had targeted three sites including a training center, two Al-Qaeda safe houses and a compound which Al-Qaeda financer Abd Al-Hadi Al-Iraq had been visiting. At this moment we have this information that there were about eight to 10 fighters in the compound.... visited by Al-Iraqi. The house is on a mountain top with a Nullah (drain) from where they can have a covered passage to come and get out, he said. Sultan said the second target was a set of houses, compounds which Al-Qaeda foreign fighters used as a transit point. They (Al-Qaeda) come and stay here. Another house is a training area, there is a firing range and other training facilities where they (Al-Qaeda) were training militants for terrorist activities. At this moment there were about 20 to 30 foreign fighters present in the area. The training camp lay on the outskirts of Shakai, near district capital Wana less than 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the border, where seven weeks ago army commanders and tribal elders hugged each other as they announced a truce and amnesty deal. The amnesty was offered after the army wound down its largest ever offensive against the militants late March and resorted to political negotiations to convince the fighters to lay down arms and register with authorities. The military said that its offer of amnesty, made in the April 24 Shakai Agreement , had been abused by foreign elements who fired on army positions Wednesday, triggering three days of clashes. Following the provocation and terrorist activities of foreign elements in violation of the Shakai agreement, Pakistan security forces are appropriately responding against the unknown and confirmed hideouts of miscreants, it said in a formal statement last Friday. The military accused local facilitators of abusing efforts to reach a non-military solution through the amnesty deal and said Wednesday attacks on army posts were an abuse of the government s sincere offer of amnesty. Some 300 to 400 mainly Chechen and Uzbek Al-Qaeda-linked fighters are believed to be hiding in the region. Some Arabs and Chinese Uighurs are said to be among them. The ground and air offensive came a day after a top military commander survived an assassination attempt in southern port city of Karachi when his convoy was ambushed by unidentified gunmen. Seven soldiers and three policemen were killed in the attack. The interior minister told Reuters the government suspected a link between the fighting and an attempt to kill the military commander in Karachi. Yes there is a link between the two and we have some found clues, he said, but declined to give details. Pakistan police said the suspected leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, is among 11 people detained in the city of Karachi, the Associated Press reported. Police said Daud Badani is a brother-in-law of Ramzi Yousef, who is serving a life sentence in the U.S. over the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, AP reported. Badani is accused of organizing attacks in the southwestern city of Quetta. Badani's family denied the charges and said he isn't Yousef's brother-in- law, AP said. The 11 suspects were caught at the weekend. The Pakistani army said it completed a five-day hunt for al- Qaeda and Taliban suspects in the tribal region of South Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan, at the weekend. There were 55 suspected gunmen among 72 people killed in the operation, AP cited Major General Shaukat Sultan, an army spokesman, as saying. Some were non-Pakistanis, he said, without elaborating. Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters fled into Pakistan from Afghanistan to escape the U.S.-led war against terrorism that started in 2001. The army's latest operation is a ``large blow against terrorism,'' AP cited Lieutenant Colonel Tucker Mansager, a U.S. army spokesman in Afghanistan, as saying. Meanwhile Turkey last Saturday arrested 13 people in a swoop on "terrorist organizations based on religion", ahead of a NATO summit in Istanbul later this month, Anatolia news agency reported. Several of those arrested by anti-terrorist intelligence agents were suspected of having undergone training in overseas camps. Turkey has introduced unprecedented security measures ahead of the June 28-29 summit to protect NATO leaders, including US President George W. Bush, and carried out a number of arrests among Islamists, as well as Kurdish and left-wing extremists. On Tuesday, about 30 people employed by Kurdish cultural and press organizations, including the news agency Dicle, were arrested. Most of them were later released but two of them were to be tried by a state security court, said Dicle journalist Gulbahar Salik.