October 15, 2004

CROWN PRINCE ABDULLAH STRESSES THAT THE DEVIANT GROUP HAS HARMED ISLAM AND THE MUSLIM FAITH. PRINCE ABDUL-MAJEED IBN ABDUL AZIZ: THE KINGDOM IS AN ISLAMIC COUNTRY KEEN TO IMPLEMENT ISLAM IN ITS PROPER FORM. NEW REVELATIONS ABOUT THE TERRORIST CELL IN THE SECOND PART OF THE TV PROGRAMME ABOUT THE DEVIANT GROUP. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, received a number of princes, ministers, senior officials and citizens. Crown Prince Abdullah also received Mr. Ambanik Diof, brother of former Senegalese president. He also received delegations of Saudi physicians working at private sector hospitals in regions of the kingdom, Barazat tribe from Alsohool belonging to Hafr Albatin province in the Eastern province and the people of the village of Alhlaifah Alolya belonging to Hail region. Addressing the audience, representatives of the groups denounced the acts perpetrated by the deviating group in the country. On his part, Crown Prince Abdullah thanked them for their noble feelings and support and stressed that this deviant group has harmed Islam and the Muslim faith. The audiences were attended by a number of princes and officials. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, received at his office at the National Guard headquarters in Riyadh a group of citizens who came to greet him. The audience was attended by Sheikh Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdul Mohsin Al Tuwaijri, Assistant Deputy Commander of the National Guard, Prince Mit'eb Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Assistant Deputy Commander of the National Guard for Military Affairs, senior protocol officials and a number of government officials. On behalf of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz, Prince Abdel Majeed Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Governor of Makkah region, patronized the final ceremony of King Abdul Aziz International Contest for the Holy Quran Memorization, Recitation and Interpretation, organized by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance. As many as 139 competitors form various countries of the world and Islamic societies and centers participated in the contest. Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh Saleh Ibn Abdul-Aziz Ibn Mohammad Al Al-Sheikh, the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance, reiterated the adherence of the Kingdom to the Holy Quran and to its teachings, and said the Holy Quran is the constitution of the Kingdom. 'Those who attack the Kingdom and launch vicious campaigns against it, engage in such kind of slurs because the Kingdom adheres to the Holy Quran," he said. "However, the Kingdom is determined to go ahead on the path of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah (the Prophet's teachings)," he noted. Al Al-Sheikh made it clear that the people of the Holy Quran are moderates who keep away from all forms of extremism which have paved the way for terrorism. "The terrorists are actually violating teachings of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah," he added. On his part, Prince Abdul-Majeed Ibn Abdul Aziz said the organization of the contest comes within the framework of the Kingdom's Islamic activities, which aim at serving Islam and Muslims. 'The Kingdom is an Islamic country which is keen on the implementation of Islam in its proper form', he noted. He criticized the quarters, which try to associate Islam with terrorism, and said Islam advocates justice and love and opposes injustice, corruption and aggression. The list of the 20 winners of the international contest (country and prize money) is as follows: - Suleiman bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Sabrami from the Kingdom Saudi Arabia (SR100,000). - Abdulrahman bin Abdu Salih Al-Hussami from Yemen (SR92,000). - Isma'il Ali Yunus Kora from Nigeria (SR84,000). - Mohammed bin Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim Suweidan from Egypt (SR76,000). - Osama Mohammed Khalil Kasoul from Algeria (SR68,000). - Abdullah bin Hamamd bin Hamdi Al-Sa'edi from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SR85,000). - Ahmad Abdul-Hafeez Abdulsattar from Bangladesh (SR77,000). - Waddah Yahya Huleis from Yemen (SR 69,000). - Othman Bakr Mohammed Nasr from Nigeria (SR 61,000). - Ahmad Mohammed Freed Shawki from Egypt (SR53,000). - Hussein bin Abdullah bin Hussein Al-Subei'ei from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SR70,000). - Wida Ahmad Hamid Jidhom from Nigeria (SR62,000). - Abdulrahman Salman Ahmad Al-Saeed from Kuwait (SR 54,000). - Seif Al-Islam Walurrahman Abdel-Majeed from Bangladesh (SR46,000). - Abbakar Tahmeit from Cameroon (SR 38,000). - Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Ali Al-Qahtani from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SR55,000). - Mus'ab Abdel-Raziq Ghaloum Shareef from Bahrain (SR 47,000). - Hamza Ali Ibrahim Al-Sakwi from Nigeria (SR 39,000). - Abdulrahman Abdel-Rahseed Sheikh Ali Soufi from Qatar (SR31,000). - Abdullah Rajab Ali Mousa, from Egypt (SR33,000). About 95 percent of Al-Qaeda operatives in the Kingdom are ignorant and most of them do not observe basic Islamic teachings, according to new confessions by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashoud and Khaled Al-Farraj, former members of the terror network. Speaking to Channel 1 of Saudi Television last Friday, they said the Al-Qaeda cell made use of stolen Saudi IDs to rent cars and houses to carry out terrorist operations. Al-Rashoud said he was waiting for the right time to withdraw from the cell but each time its leaders threatened him with exposure. Al-Farraj remembered the moment when they killed his father. "I cannot imagine my father lying in a pool of blood in my house," he said. "Before someone enters the group, he thinks that it is pure. From my observations, I have seen that they are committing actions that should not come from a group claiming jihad," Al-Rashoud said. "I can tell you that 95 percent of the cell's members are ignorant," Al-Farraj said. "They are even more ignorant than the uneducated. They have reached a point where they call all scholars in the country infidels," he added. Ahmad Al-Dakheel, who is head of the Shariah committee in the Makkah cell, is guilty of such behavior. "Dakheel said that all policemen in uniforms are infidels and asked the members to gun them down. If imams at mosques condemn explosions and terrorist activities, then they were also branded as infidels," Al-Farraj said. According to Al-Rashoud, Al-Qaeda members spend a lot of money. "Most of the money came from charitable donations," he added. They convinced donors that they were collecting money for poor Iraqi families. During armed confrontations with security forces, Al-Rashoud said, they escaped in cars taken from Saudis at gunpoint. "I think this is forbidden according to my knowledge of Islam," Al-Farraj said. Al-Farraj also spoke about Al-Qaeda's plan to raid a housing compound. "They bought a GMC for the operation, and it was the same car that was reported by the police," he said, adding that Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, former leader of the cell in the Kingdom, helped in filling the vehicle with explosives. Abdul Aziz Al-Mudaihesh carried out the operation. Al-Rashoud said Al-Qaeda carried out terrorist operations using different names, such as Al-Haramain Brigade and Voice of Jihad. "Actually, they are one and the same," he pointed out. Al-Farraj said he was surprised when Al-Muqrin said Al-Qaeda was not responsible for the bombing of the police headquarters in Riyadh. Al-Farraj also spoke of Aamir Al-Shehri who was injured in the Suwaidi attack. "Al-Shehri was in the car when he was injured. He was taken to a place which they call the clinic where only minor injuries can be treated. Al-Shehri was injured in the stomach and there was a big cut. He was in terrible pain. He stayed there for two months without receiving proper treatment. I remember when I entered the room with Al-Dakheel, he begged Al-Dakheel to find a solution to the problem. Al-Dakheel said he could not do anything for him and left him in that condition until he died," Al-Farraj explained. The number of people who came to attend Aamir's funeral was small. "I was very sorry for him. The least they could do was to give him back to his family or take him to a good hospital. They could have sent me to do it. The leaders of the group did not care about the members as much as they cared about themselves," Al-Farraj said. Abdul-Rahman Al-Rashoud said the cell members were spending money lavishly and never cared for Muslims money contrary to what they claimed. There is nothing called Kataib Al-Haramain nor the Mujhaideen Voice, Al-Farraj said. They have been using these fake names to mislead people and play up Al-Qaeda s work in the Kingdom, he said. Al-Farraj was arrested Jan. 29 after a raid on his Riyadh house that left six security agents dead. It was not immediately clear when Al-Rashoud was arrested, but he is believed to be a relative of Abdullah Mohammed Rashid Al-Rashoud, who is listed as 24th among Saudi Arabia's most wanted men. Al-Qaeda has been blamed for a string of attacks on Westerners and other targets in Saudi Arabia resulting in the killing of more than 90 people and wounding hundreds since the deadly campaign of violence began in May 2003. Al-Farraj said that he had met with Faisal Al-Dakheel who was later killed in a security operation in Al-Malaz in Riyadh last June. Noting how Al-Dakheel used to make statements in the name of Kataib Al-Haramain, he said, Nothing of this was existing in reality. We just give these names to distract people s attention. Al-Farraj described the cell members as ignorant and shallow-minded. Some of them are terribly ignorant especially when it comes to pure jurisprudence such as infidelity, especially Ahmed Al-Dakheel who was killed at Qudai town in July 2003. He was one of those in the list of most wanted and used to brand anyone who wears a military uniform as infidel and permit their killing. He also branded all mosques Khateebs who prohibited explosions, as infidel especially those who supplicate to the leaders. In the first part of the documentary televised last week, Al-Rashoud had described how the cell recruited young Saudis who did not have sufficient knowledge of the religion. Farraj had then said that the cell leaders terrorized the recruits by making them feel that they are stuck. Once you were in, they would say, That's it, you have to remain with us or else you will be arrested or killed by Saudi security forces, he had said. Many youths joined the group unconvinced, and I know people who said they wanted out but were afraid. They reaved how they soon realized that the cell members had no religious cause. Al-Rashoud said, as I mingled and lived with them I discovered that most of them don't pray on time and combine prayers without any justification. Al-Farraj said, Throughout my experience with this group I found that all of them don't pray Al-Traweeh nor do they pray in time because they sleep in the afternoon. When I asked them about this matter they told me that they had an edict permitting them to do so. Al-Farraj confirmed that Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin who was killed in the Malaz operation in June was the mastermind of the car-bomb attack on the Public Security Building in Riyadh on April 21. This operation was carried by Abdul Aziz Al-Medahish after Al-Muqrin and his accomplices rigged the building, he said. Al-Farraj had earlier revealed the cell's military council structure that was headed by Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin, followed in rank by Faisal Al-Dakheel and Saleh Al-Awfi, Farraj said. Both Al-Muqrin who figured as number one on the Saudi Arabia s list of 26 most-wanted militants and Al-Dakheel, number 15 on the same list, were killed in an ambush by security forces June 18, shortly after their group had decapitated US citizen Paul Johnson. Awfi remains at large. Al-Farraj revealed how he had helped bury one of the terrorists who was abandoned by the cell. He said he and Faisal Al-Dakheel buried Amer Al-Shehri whose body was later traced by the security forces some 30 kilometers away from Riyadh in an arid area. He was hit on his abdomen. The area where he was found dead is called Al-Ayada. It is a small village with poor medical facilities. Thus he was left without treatment until he breathed his last and was buried in the middle of the desert. The cell's members could have thrown him at the gate of any hospital but he was left to his fate because they don t care for their people. They also feared that if he was found and treated he may report them to the authorities, Al-Farraj said. Police are still hunting for the assailants who opened fire at targets close to an upscale housing compound east of Riyadh last Friday, said Brig. Mansour Al-Turki, the Interior Ministry spokesman. He said the shooting by gunmen who sped away in a Corolla car took place north of Sedar Village compound. "No one was injured in the incident," Al-Riyadh Arabic daily quoted him as saying. The attack, the latest to target expatriates in the Kingdom, did not cause any damage to the compound, the spokesman said. "Until this moment, we don't have any clear information on the purpose of the attack and we are continuing our efforts to arrest the assailants and track down their vehicle," he said. Brig. Turki would not confirm or deny whether the attack targeted the compound. "Security agents are still investigating the incident to find out the motive of the assailants," he added. Two men armed with a couple of hand-grenades and at least one machinegun had attacked the housing compound in Riyadh's Rawdah District Friday night, interior ministry and compound officials said. There was no damage to property or injury to the occupants in the brief terrorist operation that lasted just for 30 seconds, Richard D May, Seder Village Compound manager told The Saudi Gazette. The attack came amid fears of a fresh upsurge of terrorist violence in Saudi Arabia. Last Sunday night, a suspected militant was arrested following a car chase and shootout in the streets of Riyadh. The clash followed a hit-and-run killing of Laurent Barbot, 45, an employee of French defense electronics firm Thales, in Jeddah less than 24 hours earlier. The killing prompted France to issue a warning to its citizens to avoid traveling to Saudi Arabia. The Barbot killing came 11 days after British engineer Edward Muirhead-Smith was slain on Sept.15 near a shopping center in Riyadh. The Saudi wing of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the killing of Muirhead -Smith. Richard said the attack on the compound that is quite well occupied, occurred exactly at 10.33 P.M. Friday night, and was captured on the compound s security cameras. Seder Village, located at Exit 10 in Riyadh, is a posh residential compound that has 279 villas. The two men, who appeared to be Saudi nationals, came as close as 30 meters to the compound, armed with a couple of hand-grenades and machineguns, he said. One of the hand-grenades hurled at the compound exploded at least two- to two-and-half-meters away from the guardhouses, he said. The grenade exploded in a large flash and a big bang, Richard said. It was not a high explosive devise, he said, judging from the intensity of the blast. The surveillance cameras are focused to the walls of the compound and it was not possible to identify the attackers, as they were at least 30 meters from the compound walls, Richard said. After hurling the hand-grenade the two men fired in the air with their machinegun and quickly ran away from the scene. The incident, which took place exactly at 10.33 P.M. Friday night was not a shootout, because it did not involve return fire from compound security. It lasted for 30 seconds, he said. A lot many residents inside the compound were sleeping at the time of the incident and they did not know about the attack, he said. Richard said the motive of the attack appeared unclear but he speculated that the attackers probably wanted to create a scare. Richard wondered if they were indeed genuine terrorists. He described the incident as trivial and the explosive device as really like a firecracker, which exploded with a big bang. But there was a burst of machinegun fire, he added. The compound was immediately closed off after the attack and its security mobilized. The whole area was thoroughly searched and within 30 minutes everything came back to normal, Richard said. Interior ministry spokesman Mansour Al-Turki told the Arabic language daily Al-Madina that the attack from the southern part of the compound was probably intended to create fear among the residents. Turki said that security forces closed off the main exit points of Riyadh in the search for the attackers and that they would be arrested soon. Al-Madina said the attackers were three masked persons in a white Toyota Corolla. We have great admiration for the National Guard personnel, Richard said about the security cover provided. Seder Village has a well-developed security system and despite the attack, Richard saw no need for any security upgrade. Why should I be concerned?, he said, contending that the Saudi security forces have contained the incident this time and would contain it again if ever that happens. On the other hand ten days after Lebanese security forces uncovered two terrorist cells plotting to blow up local and foreign interests in the country, the government commissioner at the military court, indicted 35 people on charges of belonging to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. The paper said Judge Jean Fahd announced the indictments against detainees of Lebanese, Saudi, Palestinian and Syrian origins. The indictment charged that 30 of the 35 detainees had verbally agreed to form a terrorist group with the aim of committing "crimes against people" and "violating the dignity of the government by plotting to attack civil and military institutions". The statement also charged the group with "possessing weapons and highly explosive materials with the aim of carrying out terrorist attacks leading to the destruction of public and private properties and spreading fear among the public by targeting foreign buildings and security centers, including the Italian and the Ukrainian embassies, anti-terrorism and internal security offices, using car bombs and high explosive materials". Fahd charged the remaining five with taking part in the crimes by dealing with weapons and explosives, transporting them and forging identity papers. The statement also charged the alleged leader of one of the terrorist cells, Ahmed Salim Mikati of impersonation and using forged papers. The charges are in accordance with "article 335 of Lebanese punitive law and articles 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of terror law" passed in 1958. The paper said Fahd relayed the case files to the first military investigative judge Riyadh Talih for further investigation. The paper said if proven guilty, the suspects could face sentences "between 6 months to life in prison with hard labor". Last week, state prosecutor Adnan Addoum said Mikati was also wanted in international crime cases and had connections with the Dinnieh rebellion in 2000 against the Lebanese army in the northern Lebanon waged by Muslim fundamentalists. The leader of the second cell, Ismail Mohamed Khatib, who died in custody a week after his arrest, was accused of recruiting Lebanese radicals to fight in Iraq. The alleged plot was the most recent in a string that authorities say they have foiled in Lebanon Meanwhile a car bomb exploded in Beirut early last Friday, wounding former Lebanese Cabinet minister Marwan Hamadeh and killing his driver, security officials said. The explosion occurred in the Lebanese capital's corniche area where the American Community School and the International College, both U.S. organizations, are located, the officials said on condition of anonymity. The officials said the bomb exploded as Hamadeh's car was driving past it, striking the ex-minister's vehicle, injuring him and killing his driver. The bomb went off in a side-street in Beirut's shorefront as Hamadeh's car was passing, witnesses said. It had left his home some 100 meters away. It was not immediately clear if Hamadeh, a former economy minister who left Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's Cabinet last month to protest Syrian interference in Lebanese political affairs, was the target of the blast. Hamadeh was rushed to the American University Hospital in Beirut and was reported to be in stable condition, the officials said. Security officials sealed off the area as fire fighters struggled to extinguish the fire caused by the explosion. Several parked cars in the area were damaged and broken glass from nearby buildings littered the street. Forensic experts arrived to examine the blast scene and took pictures of the wreckage of the car that carried the bomb. Hamadeh is a member of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's parliamentary bloc, which last month voted against extending pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term for another years. In Morocco the court of appeal of Rabat reduced prison terms of 31 persons belonging to the "Agadir group" who were sued under the anti-terror law. The anti-terror law was enacted in May 2003 after 12 suicide bombers struck in 5 different locations in Casablanca, causing the death of 45 people (including the 12 bombers) and injuring more than 100. The court reduced jail terms from 20 to 12 years against 15 defendants who were sued for "conspiracy to prepare and perpetrate terrorist acts, fund-raising for terrorist acts, apologia of terrorism, holding public meetings and making activities within a non-recognized association." Two accused saw their sentences reduced from 15 to 8 years, while jail terms of five others were cut down from 10 to 6 years. Sentences were also reduced from 8 to 4 years for 6 defendants, from 6 to 3 years for one defendant, and from 3 to 2 years for two defendants. The court confirmed sentences against 10 persons condemned to 2 years in jail. Meanwhile, it sentenced one defendant to pay a fine of 3000 Dhs (about US $333). Following the terrorist attacks in May 2003, more than 2,000 people were detained and charged with terrorism offences. Twenty-five suspected militants were arrested in a pre-dawn swoop and a cache of explosives was seized in Kabul last Saturday, just a week ahead of Afghanistan's historic presidential election, officials and intelligence sources said. An Afghan intelligence source said the men were detained after a shipping container holding explosives, rockets and a waistcoat of the type used in suicide bombings was discovered. Meanwhile Pakistani troops have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire with al-Qaeda-linked fighters while the guerrillas' tribal allies try to negotiate a peaceful solution, a local administrator said. "The request for a ceasefire by the Mahsud tribe in South Waziristan area has been accepted to give the political process a chance," local administration chief Ismatullah Gandapur told reporters. "The security forces will retaliate only if they are attacked." But on the first day of the ceasefire on Tuesday a soldier was killed and eight wounded when their convoy hit a landmine planted by militants in a north-western tribal town, officials said. The convoy was bound for South Waziristan when it blew up near Tank, 90 kilometres (56 miles) east of the district capital Wana, a security official said on condition of anonymity. The incident took place outside the newly agreed ceasefire zone, he said. The Mahsud tribe of ethnic Pashtuns dominates South Waziristan's troubled towns of Kanigarram, Sarvakai, Makin and Laddah, where skirmishes have erupted daily following bloody clashes between troops and militants in recent months. The ceasefire, which came into effect late Monday, was negotiated by a 19-member mediating team of tribal elders and religious scholars from the deeply conservative region, Gandapur said. Mediators will urge tribesmen to hand over or expel foreign al-Qaeda militants hiding in their area or compel them to register with the local authorities with a firm pledge to lay down their weapons, the official said. Hundreds of al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives poured into the region from Afghanistan in late 2001 when a US-led military offensive toppled the Taliban regime, which had sheltered Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda fighters. Officials suspect some 600 to 700 mainly Uzbek and Chechen fighters are hiding in the tribal belt along the Afghan border. Gandapur said an estimated 150 to 200 of them were believed hiding in the Mahsud tribe's region, surrounded by thick forests and high mountains. Pakistani forces have conducted a series of military operations in the tribal region to stop cross-border attacks by Taliban insurgents, who have vowed to disrupt Saturday's presidential election in Afghanistan. The military says it has killed around 150 foreign militants in the region over the past 12 months and destroyed several al-Qaeda hideouts and training camps.