May 27, 2005

WORLDWIDE SERIOUS EFFORTS IN THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM. THE YEMENI AUTHORITIES ARREST THREE PEOPLE PLANNING TO CARRY OUT ATTACKS IN SANAA. THE PAKISTANI ARMY ARRESTS TERRORISTS AND THE FOREIGN MINISTER DECLARES THAT PAKISTAN'S ARMY HAS PARALYZED AL-QAEDA'S NETWORK. BUSH NO PLACE FOR TERRORISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST WITH THE DEMOCRATIC CHANGES. THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS GATHERS REPORTS ABOUT U.S. PERSONNEL AT THE GUANTANAMO BAY DISRESPECTING THE QURAN AND RAISES THE ISSUE WITH THE PENTAGON SEVERAL TIMES. A security source in Yemen unveiled that three people who were about to carry out a terrorist attack using hand grenades in Sanaa were arrested. The source who wished to remain unknown told Al Watan newspaper that the security forces have detained the three who were accompanied by some others. They were arrested at Kashm Al Bakra on the borders of the city on the way Al-Jouf Sanaa way. The source said a fight took place between both sides and all cars coming from Al-Jouf governorate are being searched. The Pakistan Army has killed 703 terrorists, including 150 foreigners, during operations in a festering region along the border with Afghanistan, a top commander has said. Another 703 terrorists had been apprehended in the operations in North and South Waziristan, the Peshawar Corps Commander, Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, told a delegation of Kabul-based defence attaches of various countries. The Pakistani Army casualties were 251 killed and 550 injured, Dawn Sunday quoted Hussain as saying. A staggering 70,000 troops had been deployed along the Durand Line that demarcates the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. As many as 669 checkpoints had been set up to prevent the entry of the remnants of Taliban and Al Qaida cadres, Hussain said. "It is now quite impossible for terrorists to launch cross-border attacks," Hussain maintained. He said 48 military operations had been conducted but did not specify when these had begun or till when they would continue. This is one of the rare occasions that the Pakistani Army has provided details of the Waziristan operations. There have been reports that US forces have been involved in the operations but Pakistan has vehemently denied this. Hussain said Pakistan was totally committed to rooting out terrorism in the region. "The stability of Afghanistan (concerns) the stability of Pakistan and vice versa," he asserted. Defence attaches from Australia, Austria, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Poland, and the US, as also a representative of the UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan attended the briefing. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said Al-Qaeda Chief Osama bin Laden is "alive and moving around" from place-to-place but "not with a large number of people." Talking to newsmen in Karachi, the minister said he (Osama) would have been detected had he been moving around with a large number of people. He added that Pakistan Army had paralyzed Al-Qaeda's communications network and vastly reduced its capacity to strike. On the other hand a Moroccan man who remains at large was assigned by a top al Qaeda leader to travel to the United States to take part in the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings, but was unable to obtain a visa, according to a new intelligence report provided to a German court by the U.S. government. After he failed to enter the United States, Zakariya Essabar took on another key assignment, according to the report. In late August 2001, he traveled from Germany to Pakistan bearing a simple verbal message for the al Qaeda leadership: "eleven nine," an alternate rendering of the date the plotters had chosen for the attack. Essabar was named as a fugitive by the German government shortly after Sept. 11, as investigators began to piece together the trail left by the Hamburg-based cell to which many of the hijackers allegedly belonged. While Essabar's role as a messenger and his efforts to get a visa have been reported before, the intelligence document describes his role in the plot as more important than previously disclosed, stating that he had been specifically groomed by the top leadership of al Qaeda to become a hijacker. The intelligence report is based on the interrogation of another central al Qaeda figure from Hamburg, Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni citizen who was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and is being held by U.S. authorities at a secret location. A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post. Essabar was to locate an al Qaeda contact called Mukhtar in Pakistan, according to the report. After he had trouble finding Mukhtar, he "contacted Binalshibh at a call center in Germany" at a prearranged time and date. The report doesn't specify whether he eventually met with Mukhtar. While the document sheds some new light on how the plot developed, U.S. officials cautioned the German court that Binalshibh has given conflicting accounts about the involvement of Essabar and others in the conspiracy. According to the report, Binalshibh told his interrogators on two occasions that while Essabar was instructed by al Qaeda's military chief, Abu Hafs, one of several names used by Muhammad Atef, to acquire a U.S. visa, he did not know the purpose of the assignment. On another occasion, Binalshibh "claimed to know nothing" about Essabar at all, the report stated. There were 19 hijackers aboard the four planes that plunged from the skies on Sept. 11. While U.S. investigators have long suspected that there were plans for a 20th hijacker -- with five people assigned to each plane -- they have never answered the question of who that person was supposed to be. Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen who took flying lessons in Minnesota before the attacks, has also been described as a likely candidate by U.S. officials. Moussaoui pleaded guilty last month in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to taking part in a broad al Qaeda conspiracy leading up to Sept. 11, but denied that he was supposed to be one of the hijackers that day, saying instead that he was to fly a plane into the White House at a later date. According to U.S. and German officials, Binalshibh also tried early on to obtain a U.S. visa to participate in the attacks, but was rejected several times. The intelligence report about Essabar was delivered to German officials on May 9 for use in the retrial of Mounir Motassadeq, a Moroccan, who is facing more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder, among other crimes, for his alleged role as a member of the Hamburg cell. The report is scheduled to be made public Tuesday in a Hamburg court. Motassadeq traveled with some of the hijackers to Afghanistan to receive military training at al Qaeda camps, and prosecutors say he later covered up for the hijackers' absence in Germany when they went to the United States. He was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, but the decision was overturned on appeal. The U.S. Justice Department provided a separate batch of intelligence reports last August based on interrogations of Binalshibh and the alleged central planner of the hijackings, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Since then, German prosecutors and the judicial panel overseeing Motassadeq's retrial have pressed for more intelligence reports about the Hamburg cell and have complained about the U.S. government's refusal to allow al Qaeda operatives in its custody to appear as witnesses. The report given to the Germans earlier this month also includes summaries of statements given to interrogators by another suspected al Qaeda leader, a Mauritanian businessman named Mohamedou Ould Slahi. According to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known as the Sept. 11 commission, Slahi played an important part in events leading up to the attacks by encouraging members of the Hamburg cell to abandon plans to fight in Chechnya and instead go to Afghanistan, where investigators say they met Osama bin Laden and were recruited to become hijackers. U.S. officials have not officially acknowledged that Slahi was in their custody. His relatives said he was arrested in Mauritania on Sept. 27, 2001, and has not been seen since. His interrogation statements appear to be consistent with the Sept. 11 commission's description of his role. In a letter accompanying the Slahi and Binalshibh statements, Justice Department officials told German authorities that no more intelligence reports would be forthcoming for use in the Motassadeq trial. They said that U.S. federal prosecutors had filed a motion to give the Germans additional summaries of "statements made by enemy combatants," but that the request was rejected in April by Judge Leonie M. Brinkman of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, who ruled that the disclosures could affect the sentencing phase of Moussaoui's trial. A jury is scheduled to decide next year whether Moussaoui should be sentenced to death. Meanwhile Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Foreign Minister of Afghanistan said that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar were still alive, but from the other side, we see that his organisation has been defeated in Afghanistan in his capacity to rule that organisation, it has diminished or the networks he established have been destroyed, but still he's capable of carrying out some terrorist acts inside or outside of Afghanistan, the Minister added. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was shocked by a U.S. Army report on abuse of detainees in Afghanistan, saying his government wanted custody of all Afghan prisoners and control over U.S. military operations. The abuse described in the report, including details of the deaths of two inmates at an Afghan detention center, happened in 2002 and emerged from a nearly 2,000-page file of U.S. Army investigators, The New York Times reported. "It has shocked me thoroughly and we condemn it," Karzai said at a news conference. "We want the U.S. government to take very, very strong action, to take away people like that." Karzai, a staunch ally in the U.S.-led war against terrorism, was due to leave on a U.S trip and meet President Bush for talks. Karzai wants to forge a broad long-term partnership with his most important ally but he said he would also reiterate a request for the return of Afghan prisoners and control over U.S. military operations. The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting militant leaders, including Osama bin Laden. Karzai's visit to Washington follows violent anti-American protests in Afghan cities prompted by a Newsweek report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Quran. Sixteen people were killed and many wounded in the violence. Newsweek retracted the report, but the International Committee of the Red Cross subsequently said it had told the Pentagon of allegations U.S. personnel had mishandled the Muslim holy book. In his weekly radio address, Bush emphasized close ties with Afghanistan and said he would discuss with Karzai progress his country has made since the ousting of the Taliban by U.S. forces in 2001. He did not mention the protests or the abuse report. "We're helping Afghanistan's elected government solidify these democratic gains and deliver real change," Bush said. "A nation that once knew only the terror of the Taliban is now seeing a rebirth of freedom, and we will help them succeed." Many Afghans have criticized U.S. troops for what are seen as heavy-handed tactics, such as breaking into people's homes in the middle of the night in their search for militants. At the news conference, Karzai said searches should be carried out in cooperation with Afghan forces. "No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government," he said. "They should not go to our people's homes any more without the knowledge of the Afghan government. ... If they want any person suspected in a house, they should let us know and the Afghan government would arrange that." Karzai said he would also ask for "the return of prisoners to Afghanistan, all of them." The United States is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at the Guantanamo Bay naval base on Cuba. Many of them were detained in Afghanistan after the Taliban overthrow. U.S. forces are also believed to be holding several hundred Afghans in Afghanistan. The U.S. Army report centers on the death of a 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar and that of another detainee, Habibullah, who died at the U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, six days earlier, in December 2002. According to the report, Dilawar was chained by his wrists to the top of his cell for several days before he died and his legs had been pummeled by guards. "The file depicts young, poorly trained soldiers in repeated incidents of abuse. The harsh treatment, which has resulted in criminal charges against seven soldiers, went well beyond the two deaths," The New York Times said. In sworn statements to Army investigators, soldiers described mistreatment ranging from a female interrogator stepping on a detainee's neck and kicking another in the genitals to a shackled prisoner being made to kiss the boots of interrogators, according to the newspaper. In its Sunday edition, The Times said confidential military documents from the investigation into the Bagram deaths show Army officials initially opposed bringing criminal charges, even though autopsies found the deaths were homicides and soldiers testified the prisoners were struck by guards. The Army's Criminal Investigation Command agents reported that they could not clearly determine who was responsible for the injuries, and military lawyers at Bagram took the same position, The Times said. U.S. officials have characterized incidents of prisoner abuse at Bagram in 2002 as isolated problems that were thoroughly investigated, the newspaper said. Two army interrogators have been reprimanded and seven soldiers have been charged, the newspaper said. On the other hand the Bush administration and Senate Republican leaders are pushing a plan that would significantly expand the F.B.I.'s power to demand business records in terror investigations without obtaining approval from a judge, officials said. The proposal, which is likely to be considered next week in a closed session of the Senate intelligence committee, would allow federal investigators to subpoena records from businesses and other institutions without a judge's sign-off if they declared that the material was needed as part of a foreign intelligence investigation. The proposal, part of a broader plan to extend antiterrorism powers under the law known as the USA Patriot Act, was concluded in recent days by Republican leaders on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in consultation with the Bush administration, Congressional officials said. Administration and Congressional officials who support the idea said the proposal would give the F.B.I. a much-needed tool to track leads in terrorism and espionage investigations that would be quicker and less cumbersome than existing methods. They pointed out that the administrative subpoena power being sought for the F.B.I. in terror cases was already in use in more than 300 other types of crimes, including health care fraud, child exploitation, racketeering and drug trafficking. "Why not provide that same tool to national security investigators as well?" asked an aide to the intelligence committee who was involved in the proposal, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue will be discussed at a closed meeting scheduled for May 26. "There wasn't really a whole lot of cogent argument against it." But word of the proposal generated immediate protests from civil rights advocates, who said that it would give the F.B.I. virtually unchecked authority in terror investigations, and the plan is likely to intensify the growing debate in Congress over the balance between fighting terrorism and protecting privacy rights. A Spanish judge indicted 13 suspected Islamic extremists on charges of belonging to al-Qaida and said some of them probably took part in last year's train bombings in Madrid. The indictment said the suspects, mostly Moroccans, had formed two terror cells in 2002 - one in Morocco and one in Madrid - and concluded that after Spain sent peacekeeping troops to Iraq that year, the country was "an enemy of Islam and therefore it was necessary to stage an attack" in Spain. The 13 men were arrested in raids starting last October after police claimed to have foiled a planned suicide truck bombing to blow up the National Court, the hub of Spain's investigation of Muslim extremism. On the other hand a report from the Christian Science Monitor says that in the US Government men in black likely were posted atop key buildings with shoulder-fired missiles as well. Such weaponry has been part of the US arsenal for decades. But just as many "bad guys" as "good guys" may be armed with MANPADS (man-portable air defense systems) these days, and some experts say that it would be far too easy for one of them to attack an American airliner. As a result, diplomats and engineers are scrambling to reduce the threat. Intelligence sources estimate that as many as 27 terrorist and guerrilla groups around the world have such weapons. "Al Qaeda and many other groups hostile to the United States have MANPADS and the ability to use them," the RAND Corporation reported earlier this year. "Al Qaeda ... has at least first-generation MANPADS, has the ability to move them about internationally, and has decided to employ MANPADS attacks as part of its terror campaign." In the U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Francis Townsend said progress has been achieved in anti-terrorism cooperation with Saudi Arabia. Townsend, after a two-hour visit to the Islamic Center in Washington, told the official Saudi Press Agency, "We and the Saudis are achieving progress in our close cooperation in fighting terrorism and in other matters." The news agency quoted her as adding she would relay to President George W. Bush the grievances of the Muslim community in the United States. Meanwhile, the head of the Islamic Center, Abdullah Khouj, said Townsend's visit showed the administration's "desire in knowing what concerns the American Muslims and to hear our views to overcome difficulties and achieve national security." On another scale the International Committee of the Red Cross gathered "credible" reports about U.S. personnel at the Guantanamo Bay naval base disrespecting the Quran and raised the issue with the Pentagon several times, a group spokesman said. Simon Schorno said the allegations were made by detainees to Red Cross representatives who visited the detention facility throughout 2002 and 2003. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday the Pentagon in 2003 issued strict guidelines on how U.S. personnel should handle the Quran. Schorno said the Red Cross heard no more allegations about mishandling of the Quran after the guidelines were issued. Boucher said the United States works closely with the Red Cross and acknowledged the group "had heard some concerns about the handling of Qurans, which it shared with the U.S." But he said actions taken in respect of detainees' religious practices at Guantanamo include providing them with Qurans, indicating the direction to Mecca, providing the call to prayer and serving meals according to Muslim customs. "We have very extensive guidelines about how Qurans are to be handled, who they're to be handled by, the wearing of gloves, how they're to be moved and transported, in order to ensure that no such concerns will arise," Boucher said. Schorno did not provide specific instances of alleged desecration, instead addressing only to the general issue of disrespecting the Muslim holy book. "The fact that ICRC documented these allegations, documented them and formalized them, I think makes a difference," Schorno said. "We researched them and found they were credible allegations." Although Red Cross employees did not personally witness any mishandling of Quran, Schorno said, they documented and corroborated enough reports from detainees to share them with Pentagon and Guantanamo officials in confidential reports. Schorno said the Red Cross would not have raised the issue if it had been an isolated incident, but he would not offer specifics about the number of complaints. "The very fact that we brought up the issue speaks for itself," he said. "We don't make such reports for minor problems." U.S. officials have often downplayed such complaints about Quran desecration because they came from detainees. Teams of Red Cross representatives have been making six-week visits to the U.S. detainee camp in Cuba every three months since 2002. A Red Cross team is currently on the ground at Guantanamo, Schorno said. A recent Newsweek magazine article alleged that U.S. investigators had concluded that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, in one instance by flushing the Muslim holy book down a toilet. Newsweek subsequently retracted the report, saying its government source had indicated doubts about his information after publication. The Bush administration blamed the report, at least in part, for deadly violence that erupted in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world. Human Rights Watch said that despite the Newsweek retraction it also had received reports from Muslim detainees -- at Guantanamo Bay, in Afghanistan and in Iraq -- that U.S. interrogators had repeatedly sought to offend their Islamic beliefs in order to humiliate them. "Several detainees have alleged to Human Rights Watch and others that U.S. interrogators disrespected the Quran," according to a statement issued by the group. Reed Brody, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch, noted the Newsweek story "would not have have resonated had it not been for the United States' extensive abuse of Muslim detainees and the government's failure to fully investigate all of those implicated." The group also denied Newsweek's report caused the damage during last week's anti-American rioting in Afghanistan, blaming instead "violent protesters and poorly disciplined Afghan police and troops." U.S. officials have acknowledged that investigations are ongoing into reports of religious intolerance -- including desecration of the Quran -- by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. "We do listen when people raise questions about the handling of the Quran, and we have made very clear what our policies are," Boucher said. "The policy and practice that we follow at Guantanamo is to respect the religious rights of the prisoners." "If there are credible instances that are called to our attention of where those rules were not followed or the policy is not carried out thoroughly, then we investigate," he said. "We make sure the practices are corrected and improved."