November 11, 2005

IN BRIEF **** Lieutenant general Hamad Ibn Mohammad Alo'ouhali, Commander of the Royal Guard, has been promoted to the rank of a general, according to a royal order. The promotion was ordered by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. ********** The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud received a telephone call from President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan who congratulated him on Eid Al-Fitr. On his part, the monarch exchanged with him congratulations on the blessed occasion. During the conversation, fraternal relations between the two countries and the latest regional and international developments were reviewed. ********** Majed Affas Radhi Al Shammari, a Saudi national who was detained in Guantanamo Gulf in the United States, has arrived in the Kingdom, an official source of the Ministry of Interior announced, adding that the family of Al Shammari will be allowed to meet with him. The Ministry of Interior expresses appreciation for the cooperation of the concerned authorities in the United States which managed to facilitate his return to the Kingdom, a move enabled him to be subject to the regulations in the Kingdom since he is a Saudi national, the source said. The Ministry also expresses hope that the rest of the Saudi detainees in Guantanamo be repatriated soon, the source concluded. ********** An al Qaeda member wanted for training terrorists and known for his inflammatory writings has been captured in a raid in Pakistan, two U.S. counterterrorism officials told CNN. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, offered few details about the arrest of Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, who had a $5 million reward offered in 2004 for his capture. The raid took place in Quetta, a Pakistani provincial capital near the southern Afghan border. Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said that an al Qaeda member was captured and another was killed during a shootout in Quetta. The U.S. counterterrorism officials confirmed the man in custody was Nasar, a 47-year-old Syrian who also has Spanish citizenship. The reward poster on the Web site of the non-governmental, non-profit group Rewards for Justice said he was an al Qaeda member who had trained terrorists at two Afghan camps in the use of poisons and chemicals. One of the counterterrorism officials cautioned against overstating his importance in the terror network, saying Nasar was a "background" guy with a "number of contacts." "Nasar is best known for his writings," the official said. But the official added, "We're better off that he's captured." Nasar is wanted on a 2003 Spanish arrest warrant for allegedly helping to organize in the mid-1990s one of the first al Qaeda cells in that country. He has been linked to multiple al Qaeda suspects in Madrid, including three who were charged with helping to plan the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Spanish authorities said. Nasar has not been charged in the 2004 Madrid bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500, but the prosecutor has said information about Nasar should be allowed in any trial of bombing suspects. Authorities have said Nasar fled Syria in the 1980s, traveling throughout the Mideast and North Africa before settling in Madrid in 1987, where he married. He moved to London in 1995, where he penned inflammatory essays against the United States for an Islamic extremist magazine, Al Ansar. According to CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen, Nasar has known Osama bin Laden for a long time but had a falling out with him a number of years ago. Nasar wrote a book, "The International Islamic Resistance Call," that was published on jihadist Web sites. He discussed training at al Qaeda terrorist camps from 1988 until 1991 and later setting up his own terrorist training camps in Afghanistan just prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks. ********** Three Bahraini men returned home after being released from the US Navy detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, a lawmaker and brother of one of the men said. "The three have arrived and they are at their houses," said Adel Al Moawdah, the deputy speaker of Bahrain's parliament who has been pushing for their release. Salman Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Abdullah Al Noaimi and Adil Kamil Abdullah Al Haji returned aboard a chartered jet from Guantanamo. The three were arrested four years ago by Pakistani authorities and handed over to US forces during the 2001 war in Afghanistan. Al Moawdah told AP the men were interviewed by prosecution officials before being sent home. "I don't think they will be charged with anything," he said. "There is nothing to charge them with." ********** Wassef Sirhal a brigadier in the Lebanese Presidential guard has resigned. Sirhal who was in charge of media reports was on the list of people whose bank accounts needed to be investigated though his name was not mentioned in the investigation report into the killing of the late Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri. While Sirhal's reasons for his resignation were not clear it was mentioned that he served in the presidency for 15 years and wanted to return to his old job at the air forces. Some sources said he resigned in protest against the report. ********** Police in the Netherlands have made seven anti-terror arrests over an alleged plot against the intelligence service and politicians. Security forces cordoned off government offices in The Hague as six men and a woman were detained in raids there, in Amsterdam and in nearby Almere. The suspects included one man recently acquitted of planning terror attacks. Interior Minister Johan Remkes said the investigation was probing an Islamic militant network, the Hofstad group. Militants had been plotting to attack the intelligence service's headquarter in The Hague and members of parliament, Mr Remkes said. The arrests come a day after renewed death threats against conservative members of parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders - both outspoken critics of radical Islam - the BBC's Geraldine Coughlan reports. Riot police moved in to boost security at the Binnenhof castle in The Hague, where Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and others have offices. Among those held was Samir Azzouz, a Dutch teenager of Moroccan origin who had been acquitted in April of plotting attacks on Amsterdam airport, government buildings and a nuclear reactor. ********** UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has postponed a scheduled trip to Iran. It was "not an appropriate time" for the UN chief to visit Iran, said Mr Annan's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric. Mr Annan had been due to stop in Iran as part of a Middle East tour. "The secretary-general and the Iranian government have mutually agreed that this is not an appropriate time for him to travel to Iran," Mr Dujarric said. "In light of the ongoing controversy, it would have been difficult to advance the agenda that he had wanted to discuss with the Iranian leadership." Mr Dujarric did not elaborate on the "controversy" but said the decision was "mutually agreed" between the secretary general and the Iranian government. ********** Seven suspected militants, including two women, were killed in an overnight explosion in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region along the Afghan border, chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said. "Those killed include one local tribesman while the rest of them are believed to be foreign militants, two of them women," he told reporters in Islamabad. The blast occurred at the residence of a local tribesman in the Mir Ali area of regional headquarters Miranshah who had allegedly provided sanctuary to the Al Qaeda linked militants. "According to information received from the area's political agent (chief administrator) they were busy making some explosive devices when the blast occurred," Sultan said. Local sources put the fatalities at eight, including four men and four women, and said anti-tank mines were recovered from the house. ********** Syrian President Bashar Assad granted an amnesty to 190 political prisoners to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported. The agency said the amnesty aimed to consolidate national unity and that similar measures would follow. Those covered by the amnesty include Mohammad Raadoun, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights who was arrested in May, and pro-democracy activist Ali Abdullah. The SANA agency said the amnesty, issued a day before the feast that marks the end of the Ramadan month, "came in the framework of comprehensive reform that aims at consolidating the national unity that forms the basis of our social framework and serves our national interests." ********** The Iraqi defence ministry called on all former officers of Saddam Hussein's disbanded armed forces up to the rank of major to join the new army. The Iraqi army was stood down after US-led forces invaded the country in the spring of 2003, but Iraq is now building up a new army for which it lacks experienced officers. "All former army officers who wish to rejoin the forces are invited to do so. These officers must rank no higher than major," a statement said. Recruitment offices will receive applications from November 6 to December 1 and carry out interviews and medical check-ups, the statement added. The new Iraqi armed forces currently number about 87,000 men. There are also some 69,000 policemen and 36,000 interior ministry troops. According to US officials, less than half of Iraq's security forces are currently capable of operating on their own. Iraqi armed forces are expected to reach their full complement of 131,000 men by the end of 2006, allowing US forces to start to withdraw. ********** About 3,500 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers launched a major offensive in western Iraq to track down insurgents and improve security before December 15 elections, the military said. "The objectives of Operation Steel Curtain are to restore security along the Iraqi-Syrian border and destroy the al Qaeda in Iraq terror network operating throughout Qusayba," the military said in a statement. U.S. forces have launched a series of offensives in recent months in western Iraq to stop what they say is a flow of foreign fighters coming through Syria to fuel the insurgency. The huge western province of Anbar has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the 2-1/2 years since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion. "Al Qaeda in Iraq have used the region's porous borders to smuggle foreign fighters, money and equipment into the country to be used in their ongoing attacks against the Iraqi people and coalition forces," the statement said. The military statement said 1,000 Iraqi troops were taking part in the joint operation with 2,500 U.S. ********** Lebanese sources have disclosed that Arab consultations are taking place to reach an agreement on the date of the Arab coordination meeting of countries members of the EuroMed meeting. The meeting will take place to set the Arab agenda before the 10th EuroMed meeting due to be held in Barcelona on November 27 and 28 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the joint partnership. ********** Head of the Future bloc in Parliament MP Saad Rafiq Hariri wished the Lebanese, especially Muslims, a happy Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. MP Hariri, who held Eid al-Fitr prayers in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, congratulated the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz and top officials in the Kingdom, Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General and other princes on the occasion. MP Hariri hoped that by next year the full truth behind the February 14 assassination of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri would have been revealed and that justice would have been served. ********** France renewed its threat to haul the issue of Iran's nuclear programme before the UN Security Council if the Islamic republic did not suspend activities in that area. Foreign Minister Philip Douste-Blazy told parliament that if Iran did not return to negotiations with the so-called EU-3 (France, Britain and Germany) on the issue, "then there will be firmness and there will be a return to (IAEA director Mohamed) ElBaradei's report to the United Nations Security Council." He said France would look for international unity on the issue at a November 24 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency. ********** Former President Jimmy Carter said that fundamentalism under President George W. Bush has resulted in a "dramatic and profound and unprecedented change" in American policy that threatens the United States at home and abroad. He said Bush has made such significant changes to U.S. foreign policy and human rights doctrine that he felt compelled to write "Our Endangered Values." At a breakfast meeting with reporters, Carter was especially critical of Bush's decisions to invade Iraq and cut taxes and of what Carter said is the administration's dismissal of international arms and human rights agreements. He said the natural arrogance of second-term presidents is exacerbated by a fundamentalism under Bush that causes many of his supporters and those who work in his administration to believe that "I am right because I am close to God." ********** President Jacques Chirac vowed to restore order in France after riots in Paris spread across the country and began to unnerve his European neighbours. The Republic is quite determined, by definition, to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear," Chirac said after a special domestic security council met to respond to the latest violence in which 1,300 vehicles went up in flames. "The law must have the last word," Chirac said in his first public comments since the riots started in the poor suburbs, noting the importance of the respect of all, the law and the equality of chances. France announced plans to impose curfews on rundown suburbs hit by violence to try to halt almost two weeks of unrest in which one man has been killed and thousands of cars have been torched. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin rejected demands to call out the army but promised a firm line against rioters after violence hit a new level, prompting warnings that the unrest could damage investment and tourism in France. Under growing pressure from opponents to end the violence, Villepin told TF1 television: "Wherever it is necessary, prefects will be able to impose a curfew." He said the cabinet would take the required steps to empower the prefects under a 1955 law at a special cabinet meeting called by President Jacques Chirac, but did not say how long and where the curfews would apply. He said 1,500 police and gendarmes would be brought in to back up the 8,000 officers already deployed in areas hit by unrest that began in a poor Paris suburb on Oct. 27. He also promised to accelerate urban renewal programmes. But dismissing growing calls for army intervention, he said: "We have not reached that point." ********** The US- Saudi commission will held a meeting in Riyadh under the chairmanship of Prince Saud Al-Faisal Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dr Condoleeza Rice US Secretary of State. Dr Rice will visit the Kingdom within her expected tour in the region. Official sources at the State Department that the work of the commission established after the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques visit to the US will cover a number of international issues amongst which the Palestinian problem, the situation in Iraq, the Syrian issue as well as enhancing Saudi-American relations. Saudi and American businessmen had exchanged visits with the aim of encouraging investments, and the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education announced that the door will be open for Saudi students who wish to study in the USA. ********** Walid Jumblat has said from Moscow that Lebanon supports an "honest and fair investigation" into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, warning that politicizing the probe could destabilize the region. Pressure has been mounting on Syria following the release of a U.N. report that concluded that it was unlikely Hariri could have been killed without senior Syrian approval. A U.N. resolution has also threatened unspecified action if Syria did not cooperate with the U.N. probe. "We support an honest and fair investigation into Hariri's killing," said Jumblat after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. He said Lebanese political forces agree that the probe into Hariri's killing should not be diverted to other issues. "We want to know the truth and bring the culprits to justice, but that case mustn't undermine stability in the region," Jumblat said. "That is why it's very important to continue cooperation with Syria." ********** Tony Blair repeatedly passed up opportunities to put a brake on the rush to war in Iraq, a failure that may have contributed to the country's present anarchy, according to Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's ambassador to Washington at the time, in his book DC Confidential. Sir Christopher, highly critical of Mr Blair's performance in the run-up to the war, argues the prime minister and his team were "seduced" by the proximity and glamour of US power and reluctant to negotiate conditions with George Bush for Britain's support for the war. He says Mr Blair failed to exploit his enormous leverage with Mr Bush not only to secure a precious delay but to plan for postwar Iraq. "We may have been the junior partner in the enterprise but the ace up our sleeve was that America did not want to go it alone. Had Britain so insisted, Iraq after Saddam might have avoided the violence that may yet prove fatal to the entire enterprise." But Mr Blair did not have any appetite for bargaining with Mr Bush, according to Sir Christopher: "Tony Blair chose to take his stand against Saddam and alongside President Bush from the highest of high moral ground. It is the definitive riposte to Blair the Poodle, seduced though he and his team always appeared to be by the proximity and glamour of American power. The former diplomat accuses Mr Blair of weakness in failing to engage Mr Bush in the "plain-speaking conversation" that needed to take place. "Had Blair told Bush in clear and explicit terms that he would be unable to support a war unless British wishes were met? I doubted it." The Washington embassy repeatedly advised Downing Street to use its leverage, but was ignored. The former ambassador says a delay from March to autumn 2003 could have made a significant difference: "Even if the most optimistic predictions are finally realised for Iraq, the question will still be asked: why did the Americans and British make it so hard for themselves and even harder for Iraqis? The US and the UK would have stood a better chance of going to war in good order, and of doing the aftermath right, had they planned on an autumn, not a spring, campaign." ********** A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document. The document, an intelligence report from February 2002, said it was probable that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, "was intentionally misleading the debriefers" in making claims about Iraqi support for Al Qaeda's work with illicit weapons. The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi's credibility. Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's information as "credible" evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons. Among the first and most prominent assertions was one by Mr. Bush, who said in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that "we've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases." The newly declassified portions of the document were made available by Senator Carl M. Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. **********