December 24, 2004

PRINCE ABDULLAH STRESSES THAT THE TERRORISTS WILL BE TRACKED DOWN AND DEFEATED HOW LONG IT MIGHT TAKE. THE SAUDI AUTHORITIES DETAIN MORE TERRORISTS. SAUDI ARABIA EXTENDS MORE INVITATIONS FOR THE ANTI-TERRORIST CONFERENCE. THE SAUDI INTERIOR MINISTRY DENIES CONFRONTATIONS WITH INFILTRATORS ON THE SAUDI-IRAQI BORDERS. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, received a number of citizens who came to greet him. The audience was attended by Prince Mit'eb Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Assistant Deputy Commander of the National Guard for Military Affairs, and a number of senior officials. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, received at his office at the National Guard headquarters in Riyadh Prince Mit'eb Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Assistant Deputy Commander of the National Guard for Military Affairs, and other commanders and officers of the National Guard who came to greet him. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, received at Al-Yamamah palace princes, ministers, senior officials and citizens who came to greet him. The Crown Prince also received a delegation of Tabuk Region-based Bali Tribe. In their speech, they condemned the deviant group and stressed their support for the government. The Crown Prince thanked them for being faithful to their religion, the homeland and the government, wishing them all success. The Crown Prince noted that the deviant group and those who have stood behind it are stooges of the Satan and indicated that they have defamed Islam all over the world. He stressed that they will be tracked down and defeated how long it might take 20, 30, or 50 years. The audiences were attended by a number of princes and officials. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, sent a message to President Ali Abdullah Salih of the Republic of Yemen. The message was delivered to the Yemeni President during his meeting with Prince Mohammed Ibn Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs. The message dealt with a number of topics of mutual concern and joint cooperation between the two countries including the fields of security and combating terrorism as well as the latest developments at regional and international arenas. During the meeting, President Salih praised brotherly relations and existing joint cooperation between the two countries in the security field to serve security and stability in the two countries and the region. On his part, the Yemeni President sent a message to the Crown Prince pertaining to brotherly relations and developments in the region, wishing the Crown Prince continual good health and happiness and the Saudi people steady progress and prosperity. The meeting was attended by Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Ibn Mirdas Al-Qahtani. On the other hand a call by London-based dissident, Saad Al-Faqih, to his followers to stage anti-government demonstrations across the Kingdom fell on deaf ears yesterday. A handful of people heeded his call. Security forces were deployed in huge numbers in Jeddah and Riyadh to avert any untoward incident. Police detained some people in Jeddah and witnesses said the number of onlookers and others who came out of curiosity outnumbered the demonstrators. An atmosphere of apprehension hung in the air as people in Jeddah moved around with their daily business. But life was normal in the usually bustling city. The spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Brig. Mansour Al-Turki, said two people were arrested in Jeddah after they fired in the air from their car and were being questioned. In Riyadh, riot police with helmets, batons and shields lined the main streets as helicopters hovered overhead. Special forces wearing bullet proof vests surveyed the area. A group of 35 Saudi religious leaders and academics had issued press statements warning people against taking part in the protests. They said the movement led by Faqih was damaging to the interests of society and the unity of the country. "This is madness. These people are working against the nation," said an old man in downtown Jeddah. Others said they see no need for such actions, describing the demonstrators as outlaws with alien ideology. The statement by the ulema called on the citizens to reject such kind of acts. "It is our duty and responsibility to advise you, because of our concern for the stability and security of the country, to reject this act, and we warn against participating in it," the statement said. The signatories acknowledged that the Kingdom "needed serious reform measures", but said these needed to be carried out without recourse to events that could trigger unrest. "Our country needs stability and solidarity given the current international circumstances and religious events," they said. Meanwhile Police arrested three men wanted in connection with terror links as they tried to enter Taif city, 80 kilometers to the east of Jeddah. The men riding two cars were nabbed at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city. A security source was quoted by Al-Jazirah newspaper as saying they arrested three "important figures" but the source declined to say whether the men figured in the Ministry of Interior's list of the 26 most wanted terrorists. The three were spotted late Wednesday night trying to enter Taif. Police followed the cars and arrested the men at a checkpoint mounted at one of the city entrances. The source said the arrests were part of the ongoing efforts by anti-terror forces to pursue and arrest terror suspects. The source said the suspects surrendered without any resistance. Security forces have been waging a nationwide search for suspected terrorists linked to a series of terror attacks that rocked the country in recent years. Earlier this month, gunmen attacked the US Consulate in Jeddah killing five people. Four of the attackers were gunned down by security forces. Last Tuesday night seven jailed terror suspects made a televised appeal to extremists to surrender, denying reports of torture in Al-Hair prison where they are being detained. One of them on the list of 26 most wanted terrorists said his jailers were nicer than his parents. The documentary from Al-Hair reform penitentiary, outside Riyadh, was another attempt by authorities to encourage wanted terrorists to surrender and to counter propaganda that those who give themselves up are mistreated in jail. "I swear to God, they (jailers) are nicer than our parents," said Othman Hadi Al-Maqboul Al-Amri, who surrendered on June 28 under a one-month amnesty offer in the summer. Meanwhile the Saudi Interior Ministry denied that confrontations took place between security forces and infiltrators from Iraq on the Saudi-Iraqi borders. On another scale the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has extended an invitation to the Australian Prime Minister John Howard to attend the International Conference to Fight Terrorism due to be held between the 5th and he 8th of February 2005. Meanwhile The appeals court in Sanaa will hear final arguments in the case of the 2002 attack against the French oil tanker Limburg on December 25, a judge said. Judge Saeed al-Qataa adjourned a brief hearing during which the prosecution reiterated its demand for stiffer penalties for five Yemenis who received 10-year jail terms last August for the attack, an AFP correspondent reported. The judge said he would hear the closing arguments next Saturday. The five are appealing their sentences. The prosecution is asking for the death penalty for the five, one of whom is being tried in absentia. The court is also looking into the appeals of 10 other Yemenis sentenced at the same time over the Limburg bombing and other attacks. One was condemned to death for killing a policeman, while the others received sentences ranging from three to 10 years for forging documents and for attacks against foreign targets. Two were also sentenced to 10 years in jail for the Limburg bombing, but the prosecution did not demand the death sentence for them. The convicts, aged between 23 and 27, had been accused of forming an armed group to undermine security in Yemen through attacks including the bombing of the Limburg as it prepared to enter Ash-Shir port off Yemen's southeastern coast in October 2002. One Bulgarian crew member was killed and 12 other crew were wounded when an explosives-laden boat rammed the tanker and blew up. Yemen, has been cracking down on suspected members of Al-Qaeda since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States claimed by the terror network, and has received US help in fighting the militants. A blast in the Afghan city of Kandahar wounded at least four government soldiers on Wednesday, a day after security forces said they caught Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's security chief. Elsewhere, the body of a kidnapped Turkish construction engineer was found in eastern Afghanistan, an Interior Ministry official said. He had been abducted by a militant gang on Tuesday on the road between the city of Jalalabad and Kunar province. Up to five people were wounded in the southwest in clashes between a district commander's militia and government forces, the governor of Helmand province, Shair Mohammad Akhundzada, told Reuters. Eight people were detained after the clash between troops supposedly on the same side. Police were not sure whether the blast in Kandahar was caused by a bomb or a rocket striking an ammunition store at a pro-government militia base near the city center. "This was carried out by an enemy of Afghanistan and it might have been a time bomb," police chief in the southern city, Khan Mohammad Khan, told Reuters. His deputy later said the blast may have been caused by a rocket. Reporters were stopped from approaching the scene. Security forces said on Tuesday they had captured Toor Mullah Naqibullah Khan, who they identified as Taliban leader Omar's household security chief and a dangerous killer, on the outskirts of Kandahar. He was among 27 suspected militants arrested in Afghanistan since Saturday. About half of them were detained in Kandahar, the Taliban's former power base. Seven militants were killed by U.S. artillery fire on Monday night in the southern province of Khost, said U.S. military spokesman Major Mark McCann. Kandahar authorities said Naqibullah Khan was still heading Omar's security, leading to speculation he might have information about Omar's whereabouts. But a U.S. official in Washington, who said he could not confirm Naqibullah Khan's capture, said he was a former Taliban security official and not a "significant figure" now. Several reporters got phone calls from people claiming to speak for the Taliban denying knowledge of Naqibullah Khan, and from men purporting to be him, denying he had been captured. Kandahar's police chief Khan dismissed those claims. Official sources said they had a videotape of Naqibullah Khan asking for mercy which could be used to reinforce a call from President Hamid Karzai for Taliban fighters to lay down arms. Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president last week and wants to wipe the slate clean with all but the most hardened Taliban loyalists. The kidnapping and killing of the Turkish engineer, identified by the Interior Ministry as Mohammad Ayub, in the east did not appear to be linked directly to the Taliban. A small militant group operating in forested mountains close to the border with Pakistan was suspected of being behind the abduction and murder. The man was killed as rescuers closed in on the kidnappers' hideout, the Interior Ministry said. His Afghan driver and interpreter were released. Karzai issued a statement condemning the killing. Police said the militant group suspected of kidnapping the man had about 20 members and was led by a commander who had links in the past with the Hezb-i-Islami group of renegade former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is now a Taliban ally. Ayub is the second Turk to be killed in a kidnapping in Afghanistan the past year. Two others were released. All of the victims were working on road projects. On the other hand Human Rights Watch has addressed an Open Letter to US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld regarding U.S.-administered detention facilities in Afghanistan. The letter said: We are troubled by new allegations of serious abuse by U.S. military personnel and by the failure of your office to make public the results of investigations into past abuses and take adequate steps to hold abusers accountable. In most cases of which we are aware, the Department of Defense has launched criminal investigations only after particular abuses received media attention. These investigations have proceeded extremely slowly and in excessive secrecy. An internal Pentagon investigation of detention operations in Afghanistan, conducted by Brig. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby, has been completed, but remains classified, unlike similar reports on abuses in Iraq The government's failure to hold its personnel accountable for serious abuses has spawned a culture of impunity among some personnel. And as you know, some of the personnel involved in earlier abuses in Afghanistan have now been implicated in later abuses in Iraq Human Rights Watch has also learned of additional detainee deaths that were not documented in our March report. We call on you to take action to ensure full accountability for these cases. Inaction and Lack of Transparency. In our March 2004 report, we called on the United States government to, among other things: End incommunicado detention practices that facilitate mistreatment. Fully and impartially investigate allegations of mistreatment of detainees in detention at all U.S. facilities in Afghanistan and make public the results of those investigations. Take disciplinary or criminal action as appropriate against all personnel responsible for mistreating or otherwise violating the rights of detainees. The Importance of Accountability. We strongly urge you to immediately correct these problems and take action to restore a sense of accountability among forces deployed in Afghanistan. Under the Geneva Conventions, the United States is obligated to investigate grave breaches, such as willful killings, and prosecute those responsible. Beyond this legal obligation, the United States must restore accountability to prevent future abuse. We strongly urge you to take the necessary steps to correct the problems noted above. We request that you:.. Issue a clear policy on interrogation applicable to forces in Afghanistan, repudiating all methods that violate international, U.S. and Afghan law. Order the public release of the Jacoby report. Order the U.S. military command in Afghanistan to meet with epresentatives of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission to facilitate their access to detention sites and allow them to share their findings and concerns with you. Ensure that criminal investigations into abuses and deaths of detainees in Afghanistan include investigations into the relevant actions of senior commanders and Department of Defense officials. Ensure that persons recommended for prosecution are brought to justice in a timely and transparent manner. In Islamabad Pakistan denied a New York Times report that the US Central Investigation Agency (CIA) had set up covert bases in the country's remote tribal regions to hunt for Osama Bin Laden and stop him from plotting another attack on the US. The report in last Monday's New York Times, citing anonymous US officials, said the CIA had concluded Bin Laden was being sheltered by tribesmen and foreign militants in northwestern Pakistan. It said he was suspected of controlling an elite terrorist cell that could be aiming to launch a "spectacular" attack on the United States. "There are no CIA cells in Pakistan ... in our tribal areas, and there is absolutely no truth in this New York Times report," said Major General Shaukat Sultan, the Inter-Services Public Relations director general. Washington warned Cairo of a planned major al Qaeda attack. In addition, the Americans and the British warned Egypt to beware of large-scale maritime strikes in the Mediterranean, Gulf of Aqaba, the Red Sea or the Suez Canal. One possible method is the familiar one of suicides aboard speedboats crammed with explosives ramming merchant vessels and oil tankers; but another way could be to hijack vessels and scuttle them in the Suez Canal to block the international waterway. This stratagem would create international havoc. Even if it failed, marine insurance premiums in these waterways would rise and sea freight rates would shoot up on the routes from China to the West. Washington issued its warning after analyzing the October 7 al Qaeda attack on three Sinai resorts in which 34 people died and its aftermath. In Washington Washington Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says the veracity of abuse claims by terrorism suspects being at Guantanamo Bay needs to be tested. A series of leaked memos from the FBI detail the abuse of detainees at the military base in Cuba. The memos also reveal that personnel at the base believed the methods they were using had been sanctioned by the Pentagon. Mr Ruddock says he will wait to see the outcome of an investigation into the matter, ordered by President George W Bush. "I often have to assert that people are entitled to a presumption of innocence when charged," he said. "I think when claims are made in relation to individuals in these circumstances, the matters ought to be tested and I don't jump to conclusions." In memos over a two-year period, FBI agents said they witnessed the use of torture techniques, including the use of dogs, prisoners being shackled to the floor in foetal positions for up to 24 hours, being left without food and water, and being left to defecate upon themselves. The memos also show that personnel at Guantanamo believed they had authority for these methods from senior Pentagon officials. The emails also claim that interrogators posed as FBI agents to avoid being traced. Whitehouse spokesman Scott McLellan says the President expects a full investigation. Summing up the political results of the outgoing year Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated them "with plus on the whole." At the same time he noted that the world is not free from hotbeds, and "this is not only the Middle East and Iraq." Speaking about the events in Russia, the president noted that "not only he but also many citizens of the country doubtlessly have the sorrowful recollection about the events in Beslan." This makes us continue to give close attention to the anti-terrorist activity, strengthen law enforcement agencies, organizational and political system of the state. In Cairo the Secretary General of Arab Interior Ministerial Council Dr. Mohammed Ali Koman has pointed out that the forthcoming session of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers due to be held in Tunisia will focus on combating the terrorism phenomenon and the extremist ideology to save the Arab countries from this menace threatening security, peace and stability in the world. In a press statement transmitted in Cairo today, he indicated that the Council will review a number of annual reports including a report of Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz, Saudi Interior Minister, the Council's Honorary President and President of Naif Arab University for Security Sciences. Dr. Koman stressed that the Council has played over 21 previous sessions an important and effective role in fighting the terrorism phenomenon and has been the first one in laying Arab strategy to fight terrorism. He noted that the Council will discuss among other topics the crime of terrorism and its linkage to the organized crime, drugs combating, money laundering and corruption fighting.