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February 17, 2006 |
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PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCES THE DETAILS OF A TERRORIST PLAN SIMILAR TO SEPTEMBER 11. MULTINATIONAL SHIPS NEAR THE COAST OF YEMEN SEARCH FOR AL-QAEDA ELEMENTS WHO ESCAPED FROM A PRISON IN SANAA. US SENATORS CALL FOR WASHINGTON PARTICIPATION IN THE INVESTIGATIONS ON THE ESCAPE OF AL-QAEDA PRISONERS. Interior Minister Prince Naif has called for an international conference under UN sponsorship to discuss matters related to terrorism and find scientific solutions to wipe out the scourge. Prince Naif, who is honorary chairman of the Arab Council of Interior Ministers, made this comment while receiving David Veness, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations for security affairs. "Terrorism is a dangerous issue. It has no religion or nationality or any geographic region," he told the UN official on the sidelines of a meeting of Arab interior ministers in the Tunisian capital. He said the proposed UN conference could be based on the counterterrorism international conference hosted by Riyadh in February last year. On his part, Veness hailed the council of interior ministers for setting out an agreement to combat terrorism in 1998. "This is a great initiative," he said on the pact, which has been endorsed by Arab justice ministers. "We'll discuss this agreement during a UN conference to be held shortly to mark the organization's 60th anniversary," Veness said and commended Saudi Arabia for its cooperation with international bodies. Addressing the interior ministers' meeting, Prince Naif emphasized the need for fighting terrorism, which poses a big threat to world peace and stability. He urged Arab countries to implement the anti-terror pact. "It's not a historic document condemning terrorism but a commitment, which we have to implement with utmost seriousness," he pointed out. Prince Naif warned that the aftermath of any lenience in this matter would be dangerous. "If our preparations are not up to the enormity of the challenge, the consequence would be dangerous and painful," he said. The conference discussed a number of issues concerning Arab security. It approved the fifth Arab security plan, the third Arab media plan for security awareness and protection from crimes and the second phase of a strategic plan for traffic safety. Prince Naif's call was welcomed by Walid Eido head of the Interior committee at Lebanese parliament who said the Kingdom is fighting the war against terrorism and discussing terrorism on a international scale will define terrorism and differentiate between terrorism and other concepts such as resistance. He added that he fully supports Prince Naif's call adding that dialogue amongst religion is the best way of dealing with conflicts. Dr Saber Falhout member of the foreign committee at the Syrian parliament said Prince Naif call is welcomed as it fulfills the needs of the Arab people who have suffered from the terrorism and reject it. He added that this call comes at a time when Arabs are the victims of the worst form of terrorism that is the Israeli occupation. Abdullah Zuraya'an member of the Foreign committee of the Jordanian parliament said Prince Naif's call came at the right time, in light of all the conflict in the region. He added that we have to face terrorism especially that the call is coming from Saudi Arabia. Dr Rifaat Al Said from the Egyptian parliament stressed the importance of Prince Naif's call and said the world until today has not reached a definition for the word terrorism, adding that the world has to convene an international conference on terrorism and the real issue for Arabs and Muslims is to define terrorism and combat it. In Washington President Bush revealed some new details of what he described as a terrorist plot against a target in California. As outlined by President Bush, al-Qaida hatched a plan to follow up the attacks of September 11th, 2001 with a similar attack on Los Angeles. He said that in 2002 officials foiled a plan by terrorists to fly a hijacked plane into what was then called the Library Tower, now known as the U.S. Bank Tower. "We now know that in October 2001, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, had already set in motion a plan to have terrorist operatives hijack an airplane using shoe bombs to breach the cockpit door and fly the plane into the tallest building on the West Coast," he said. President Bush said cooperation between the United States and several Southeast Asian nations, which he did not name, broke up the plot. In Washington a false alarm from a security sensor indicating a nerve agent in a Capitol Hill office building prompted officials to quarantine about 200 people, including at least nine senators, in a parking garage. The all-clear came three hours after an air-monitoring sensor indicated a suspicious substance in the attic of the Russell Senate Office Building. Only days before the Bush administration submitted its fiscal 2007 budget, which calls for a major increase in military spending, the Pentagon sent Congress a long-term strategy document that makes clear Washington's intentions to use the additional billions to wage an aggressive campaign of global militarism. President Bush's budget calls for a 7 percent hike in military spending, to reach a total of $440 billion. The proposed increase has been coupled with calls for sweeping cuts in such core entitlement programs as Medicare and Medicaid. With the increase, combined with tens of billions of dollars more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as funds separately allotted to the Energy Department to maintain America's nuclear arsenal, US military spending will climb well above the half-trillion-dollar mark in the coming year. The Pentagon budget includes $5.1 billiona 20 percent increasefor special operations, i.e., to expand elite killing squads, such as the Army's Special Forces and the Navy Seals, which are trained for use in far-flung counterinsurgency interventions, including the deployment of assassination squads to kill insurgent leaders. The plan envisions adding 14,000 more troops to these units by 2011, bringing the ranks of such forces up to 64,000. Another $6.1 billion is to be allotted to the Army to transform its forces into a more mobile brigade-based force, better suited for rapid deployment in counterinsurgency warfare. The Pentagon budget is laden with $84.2 billion in weapons procurement. The largest of these projects is the "Star Wars" missile defense program, which is allotted $10.4 billiona 20 percent increase over last year. Another $5.3 billion is slated for building the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and $2.8 billion for the F-22A aircraft. The Navy is to get $2.6 billion to build another nuclear-powered attack submarine, on top of the existing fleet of 60 such vessels. Another $3.4 billion is to be spent on new DD(X) class destroyers, and $1.1 billion for a CVN-21 aircraft carrier (this is merely a down payment, as the total cost of such a carrier is expected to top $12 billion). The anticipated spending rate of $10 billion a month is 50 percent higher than last year. The Pentagon said the dramatic hike was due, in part, to the inclusion of funding to repair and replace the large amount of military equipment that has been damaged or destroyed in Iraq. The buildup of the US armed forces is aimed not at countering some ubiquitous terrorist menace, but at defending American economic and political hegemony against challenges from both popular movements and powerful economic rivals. This strategy is spelled out in the QDR document released in conjunction with the budget request. That the document uses the term "long war," a phrase that is increasingly replacing the "global war on terrorism" in Washington official-speak, has ominous implications. The term is aimed at accustoming US military personnel and the American public at large to a state of permanent warfare that will continue regardless of the outcome of the current interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the document states: "Currently, the struggle is centered in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we will need to be prepared and arranged to successfully defend our Nation and its interests around the globe for years to come." The Pentagon document defines the main enemy not as terrorists, but rather as "violent extremists" or merely "extremists." In its sections on Special Operations Forces (SOF), the document states: "SOF will increase their capacity to perform more demanding and specialized tasks, especially long-duration, indirect and clandestine operations in politically sensitive environments and denied areas. For direct action, they will possess an expanded organic ability to locate, tag and track dangerous individuals and other high-value targets globally... For unconventional warfare and training foreign forces, future SOF will have the capacity to operate in dozens of countries simultaneously... while increasing regional proficiency specific to key geographic operational areas: the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America." In a section entitled "Shaping the choices of countries at strategic crossroads," the document makes clear that the buildup of the US military is aimed at deterring any country from challenging US domination in any region of the world. It warns that Washington "will attempt to dissuade any military competitor from developing disruptive or other capabilities that could enable regional hegemony," adding the explicit threat that "should deterrence fail, the United States would deny a hostile power its strategic and operational objectives." In particular, the document singles out China, describing it as "having the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States and field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional US military advantages." The current review clearly suggests that the spending on new long-range weapons programs is aimed at preparing for a future military confrontation with China. Increased Chinese military capabilities, the documents states, as well as "the vast distances of the Asian theater, China's continental depth, and the challenge of en route and in-theater US basing place a premium on forces capable of sustained operations at great distances into denied areas." This overt military threat provoked angry protests from the Chinese government. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that his government had "lodged serious representation" with Washington over the Pentagon document, charging that it "interferes in China's internal affairs." He demanded that the US "stop its random and irresponsible remarks on China's normal defense construction." A Chinese foreign policy spokesperson writing in the China Daily called the references to China in the document "anxiety on the part of the US that borders on the illusionary." "The speedup of China's military modernization has its own logic, which is completely reasonable," wrote Yuan Peng, vice director of the Institute of American Studies of China's Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. "It is a necessary step for a major power in a new phase of development, just like the US did at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, when it invested heavily in its naval power." On the other hand Senate Democrats lambasted the Bush administration's 'totally inadequate' response to the escape in Yemen this week of 23 Al Qaeda members. White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that the prison break which included a man convicted in the deadly bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 was a 'disappointing development'. Democratic Senators Chuck Levin and Charles Schumer said a much more forceful administration response is called for. "We're dismayed by the administration's tepid response," Mr Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a press conference. "It's not disappointing. It's down-right appalling that this escape happened," said Mr Levin as he called on the Bush administration to press Yemen for answers. "How did this kind of a massive digging operation go undetected? Who were the outside accomplices?" Mr Levin said, while raising questions of whether the Yemeni government or intelligence service was complicit in the breakout. He added that Washington must offer US assistance to help Yemen's government recapture the escapees. Chuck Schumer has sent a letter to President Bush urging him to investigate this matter immediately by inspecting and evaluating all foreign prisons where Al Qaeda members are being held. Following is the text of the letter sent by Charles E. Schumer from United States Senate "Dear President Bush: I am writing to express my deeply held concern regarding the recent escape of Al Qaeda terrorists from Yemeni custody and the level of security at facilities holding Al Qaeda terrorists throughout the world. I, along with almost all Americans, fully support taking aggressive action to kill or capture terrorists all over the world before they can attack our nation, and strongly believe that terrorists responsible for killing Americans must be brought to swift and lasting justice. However, last week's troubling events in Yemen would seem to indicate that in order to meet these goals, the United States must be more aggressive in verifying the competence and commitment of officials at foreign prisons to securely detain terrorist actors. In order to ensure that similar events are not repeated at other prisons, I urge you to direct the Departments of State, Justice, and Defense to begin immediate efforts to verify the security of any prison throughout the world charged with detaining Al Qaeda operatives. As you know, last Friday 23 prisoners, including 13 Al Qaeda terrorists, escaped from a Yemeni jail, controlled by military intelligence, by digging a 460 foot long tunnel from the prison to the women's section of a nearby mosque. Among the escapees is Jamal al-Badawi, who was convicted of organizing the bombing of the USS Cole. This escape is made even more disturbing by the fact that there is widespread suspicion that the escapees received aid from sympathetic officials. It is also extremely troubling that Badawi had already escaped Yemeni custody once, while awaiting trial in April of 2003. In the face of these circumstances, it is impossible not to question the ability of foreign prisons to adequately secure and detain Al Qaeda operatives who may pose a significant danger to the United States and its citizens. In order to ensure that the United States is doing everything it can to catch these terrorists and ensure they remain behind bars without relying solely on foreign governments, I urge you to investigate this matter immediately by inspecting and evaluating every foreign facility responsible for detaining Al Qaeda operatives or other terrorists that present a danger to the United States and its allies." On the other hand Yemen announced a five-million-rial ($25,600) reward for information about any of the 23 Al-Qaeda operatives who have escaped from a heavily guarded jail in Sanaa earlier this month. The 23 men dug a tunnel out of their prison at headquarters of the intelligence services in the southern Sanaa suburb of Hadda on Feb. 3. The Interior Ministry has allocated a telephone number for information about the fugitives and assured the public that it guarantees the highest degree of confidentiality for those providing tip-offs, the Saba news agency reported. Among the escapees were 13 men convicted in the 2000 bombing of the US destroyer USS Cole and the 2002 attack on the French oil tanker Limburg off Yemen. In the aftermath of the jailbreak, Yemen issued international arrest warrants and asked the Interpol to help trace and arrest them. Special anti-terrorism units have been since launching raids on houses in Sanaa and other cities in search for the jail breakers, and around 200 of their relatives and friends had been detained for interrogation, security officials said. Listed among the fugitives was the second main convict in the USS Cole bombing, Jamal Al-Badawi. He had been serving a 15-year jail term. Four other convicts in the attack serving jail terms from four to 10 years also fled the prison. The suspected mastermind of the attack, Abdul-Raheem Al-Nashri, was tried in absentia and sentenced to death. He is reportedly in the custody of US authorities. Also among the fugitives was Fawaz Al-Rabyee, whom a state security court sentenced to death in August 2004 after convicting him of leading a 14-member group linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. The jailbreak in Yemen of convicted terrorists, including the man considered to be the mastermind of the attack on the destroyer USS Cole, poses "a serious problem," U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said. Experts say many of the escapees have extensive and worrisome experience in carrying out attacks against shipping, prompting the U.S. Navy to advise its ships in the area, Navy officials said. Interpol, the international police organization, said that at least 13 of the 23 men who tunneled to freedom Friday were "convicted al Qaeda terrorists, some of whom were involved in attacks on U.S. and French ships in 2000 and 2002." "It is a serious problem," Rumsfeld told reporters after a congressional budget hearing. "They were individuals who were deeply involved in al Qaeda activities and directly connected to the attack on the USS Cole and the death of the sailors that were on board that ship." The U.S. Embassy in Yemen has restricted all non-essential travel by U.S. government employees there. "While at this time the embassy has no specific information of threats against Americans, it recommends that Americans specifically avoid making any non-essential trips to or around Yemen, including to shopping and entertainment areas within Sanaa, for at least the next two weeks," the notice said. The United States is working closely with the Yemeni government and is sharing intelligence, embassy sources said, but there will be concerns as long as the men are at large. Interpol has issued an "international blue notice" for the escapees, clearing the way for other nations to detain the men even if there is not a formal arrest warrant. The White House expressed "enormous concern" about the threat posed by 23 escaped terrorists as U.S. Navy ships patrolled the coast of Yemen in a multinational effort to recapture them. Meanwhile, a Yemeni official said authorities had detained prison staff members suspected of passing information and tools to help prisoners escape. Navy officials would not say how many or what types of ships were helping in the operation to find the fugitives, convicted members of Al Qaeda who tunneled out of a cell in a Yemeni prison. The patrols began, nearly a week after the escape that included an Al Qaeda operative sentenced to death for plotting the USS Cole bombing in 2000. The Bush administration has spoken with Yemeni officials, through the U.S. ambassador, to express disappointment that the prisoners were housed together and that restrictions in the prison were not more stringent. "I find the developments in Yemen not only deeply disappointing, but of enormous concern to us, especially given the capabilities and the expertise of the people who were there," Frances Fragos Townsend, assistant to President Bush for homeland security and counterterrorism, told reporters. A Yemeni official involved in the inquiry into the escape said Thursday that "many" warders had been suspended and detained since investigators began interrogating staff. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press, refused to give the number of staff that had been suspended, but said they had passed information and tools to the prisoners taking part in the escape. The official said security forces have detained more than 80 people in connection with the breakout. They include the prison warders, relatives of the fugitives and members of Islamic groups. The forces have also set up checkpoints around the country to search for the fugitives. According to Lt. Herb Josey, a Navy spokesman, the U.S. ships are there to counteract any attempts by terrorists to launch an attack or use the waters to escape. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is in the region, and some 7,500 sailors are on the ships in the Roosevelt strike group. The U.S. ships are part of a Dutch-led task force of ships from different countries that routinely patrols the international waters of the Gulf of Oman, the North Arabian Sea and other parts of the region. On the other hand in the Gaza strip Egyptian diplomat Hossam al-Musseli has been freed after being held for two days by kidnappers, Egyptian diplomatic sources said, without giving details of the release. "Hossam al-Musseli was freed Saturday, he is safe and sound and in security," one source said, following the pre-dawn release. A previously unknown militant group calling itself the Al-Ahrar Brigades said that it was holding the diplomat and demanded that Cairo release all Palestinian prisoners within 48 hours. The ultimatum came as Palestinian security forces fanned out across the Gaza Strip in seach of al-Musseli who was seized in Gaza City in the first abduction of a foreign diplomat in the increasingly lawless territory. "If Egypt does not heed this demand, it will bear sole responsibility for the tragic consequences," the kidnappers had said in a statement. "We ask the Egyptian people, the diplomat's family and all human rights watchdogs to pressure the Egyptian government to free all Palestinian prisoners in Egypt," it added. In another statement, issued at the time of the hostage's release, the Brigades stressed their continued demand for the release of Palestinian prisoners. The Egyptian diplomat was heading toward his offices in Gaza City when gunmen surrounded his car, forced him into another vehicle and drove off. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas ordered an urgent manhunt for the kidnappers. "This action is foreign to the traditions of the Palestinian people," he said. "We will not allow anyone to damage brotherly relations between Palestine and Egypt." Musseli was described by Egyptian officials as a military advisor at the Egyptian diplomatic offices in the Gaza Strip. An Egyptian delegation has been in Gaza for several months to help the Palestinian Authority reorganize its security forces following Israel's pullout from the territory last September. In Cairo Mubarak said on Police Day that Egypt will not tolerate any threat to security Egypt will not give up its security and stability and will not tolerate any threat to the safety and security of its citizens, President Hosni Mubarak said in Police Day celebrations. The forces of terror and extremism are lurking, but Egypt is very well aware that they are waiting to seize the moment to cause a crack in the society, drive a wedge between its two fronts, harm the fabric of the society and undermine its principles and tolerance, he added. As Egypt celebrates the 54th Police Day anniversary, it remembers the constant battle of its security agencies against the forces of terrorism and extremism, especially over the past two decades, he said. It is a sustained battle against a blind terror that continues to resurface to threaten Egypt's citizens, their lives and livelihoods, it is a battle against alien attempts to shake the tolerance of the society and drive a wedge between its Muslims and Christians, he added. Egypt's security and stability will always remain a priority and a main requirement for achieving the hopes and aspirations of the next phase, President Mubarak said. The march towards reform in all spheres is irreversible to build on what has been achieved in the past and to proceed towards a modern society on the road of democratic, economic and social reform within the context of comprehensive and integrated development, he added. Protecting Egypt's stable and safe atmosphere will attract more investments and encourage tourism, provide jobs, confront unemployment and give a new push to market activity and the various production and service sectors, he said. The President hailed the policemen for maintaining the country's security and efforts to safeguard voters and election process during the latest elections. He vowed to continue the democratic experience and begin the implementation of more constitutional and legislative reform. President Mubarak has asserted the importance of Egypt's security and stability and that we will not be lenient with anyone who would threaten the country's security and safety. The President asserted the need to move ahead with reform in all domains, especially democratic, economic and social reforms within the framework of comprehensive development in order to realize the modern society we aspire for. Safeguarding Egypt's security and stability will remain one the main priorities in order to realize aspirations of the coming stage, he added. Maintaining the atmosphere of stability in Egypt encourages more investments and tourism and therefore provides job opportunities and gives momentum to the market and the various production sectors, he said. In Munich at a major security conference in Munich, French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie ratcheted up the pressure on Iran by repeating President Jaques Chirac's warning that terrorists or states targeting France with atomic weapons could face a nuclear response. Alliot-Marie said Paris was looking at ways of honing in on decision-making centers to avoid massive civilian casualties. In London Tony Blair promised that the police and courts would take action in future against demonstrators who carried placards praising terrorism and calling for more suicide bombings. After seeing off another revolt by Labour MPs and securing backing for a new offence of glorifying terrorism, he said the Government had won the argument for tougher anti-terrorist laws. The new law, which has still to be approved by the Lords, would send "a clear signal" that those who incited acts of terrorism or glorified terrorism would be prosecuted. "The law that we passed today will allow us to take far stronger action against people who don't just directly engage in terrorism but indirectly incite it," he said. "And the important thing is that the type of demonstrations that we saw a couple of weeks ago, where I think there were placards and images that people in this country felt were totally offensive, the law will allow us to deal with those people and say, 'Look, we have free speech in this country but don't abuse it.' " |
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