MILNET's Middle East Terrorism News
For the week ending 1/31/2005

Domestic


1.  U.S. Freezes Assets of Syrian Said to Finance Iraq Insurgents

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 - The Bush administration acted Tuesday to freeze the finances of a Syrian man accused of helping finance insurgents in Iraq by providing support to Al Qaeda's top operative there. The Treasury Department's action against the Syrian, Sulayman Khalid Darwish, means that any bank accounts or financial assets belonging to him that are found in the United States are frozen. Both the United States and Syria are asking United Nations members to freeze his assets.

The administration says Mr. Darwish provided financial and other support to terror networks run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leading Qaeda operative in Iraq. "This terrorist financier is helping support al-Zarqawi, who has launched violent acts against our troops, coalition partners and the Iraqi people," Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said in a statement. "Identifying financial operatives and choking off the flow of blood money moves us closer to our ultimate goal of fracturing the financial backbone of the Iraqi insurgency and Al Qaeda."

The Syrian Embassy said Mr. Darwish was "on top of the wanted list by Syrian security forces and counterterrorism intelligence agencies." The United States alleges that among other things, Mr. Darwish served as a Zarqawi operative and was involved in fund-raising and recruiting for the organization.

Source: New York Times

 

2.  Judge Bars Terror Evidence Against Sheik

In an important victory for a Yemeni sheik charged with financing terrorism , a federal judge yesterday prevented prosecutors from introducing what they have described as vital evidence during their initial presentation to the jury.

The judge in federal court in Brooklyn, Sterling Johnson Jr., ruled that the prosecutors cannot display three items they have said are their only corroboration for secretly recorded conversations in which they say the sheik and an aide plotted to take money for terrorist organizations. In arguing unsuccessfully to persuade the judge to change his mind, a prosecutor, Kelly Moore, said the items the judge barred yesterday were "a significant part of the government's evidence in this case."

The ruling was important because the items the judge banned were the prosecutors' only way of proving that the defendants' supposed plan to take money for Al Qaeda and Hamas was part of a long-running effort to provide financial support to terrorist organizations.

The sheik, Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, 56, and his aide, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31 are charged with conspiracy and providing financial support for Al Qaeda and Hamas. The ruling, which created palpable anxiety among the prosecutors, said the prosecutors cannot show jurors an application of a mujahedeen fighter for entry into an Al Qaeda training camp. The prosecutors said the application, found in Afghanistan in 2001, listed Sheik Moayad as the fighter's sponsor.

The ruling also stopped prosecutors from introducing into evidence address books taken from two Muslim fighters in Bosnia in 1996. The prosecutors said the books included entries for Sheik Moayad. Judge Johnson said that "we don't know what the source" of the Al Qaeda application was and that the address books were from a time too remote from the alleged fund-raising by the sheik in 2003. Judge Johnson said they dated back to before Al Qaeda was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States government.

Source: New York Times

 

3.  Odd Detour Disturbs Terror Jury

Some of the jurors in the terrorism trial of the lawyer Lynne F. Stewart complained yesterday that they had felt threatened on Tuesday when their van drive  took an unexpected turn outside court. He steered through a crowd of news camera crews and then rolled down his window to shout at a cluster of Ms. Stewart's supporters, they told the judge.

The episode clearly rattled the jurors, who sent the judge a note yesterday morning. It was another distraction from deliberations that started on Jan. 12. Since then, the jurors have met only sporadically, completing barely four and a half days of discussions.
For seven months, Ms. Stewart has been on trial with two co-defendants, all of them accused of conspiring with Egyptian Islamic terrorists. Not even the judge, John G. Koeltl, knows the names of the people on the jury, which is anonymous. They are identified only by number. They are driven to and from the Manhattan federal courthouse in vans with darkened windows.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the driver was taking 6 of the 12 jurors home when he left his usual route. Spotting a sign in support of Ms. Stewart, the driver rolled down his window and loudly asked, "Who's Lynne Stewart?" His question prompted one demonstrator to move forcefully toward the van, the jurors told the judge, before the driver sped away. They told the judge that the same driver had previously made anti-gay and racial remarks and had refused requests to turn on the van's heat or its air-conditioning.

Under close questioning by Judge Koeltl, all six jurors said they did not think the incident would affect their ability to reach a fair verdict. The proceedings yesterday were closed at first, but then the judge later opened them to the public. He rejected a defense motion for a mistrial and did not allow defense lawyers to interview the driver, whose name was not disclosed. The judge also barred him from driving the jurors in the future.

Source: New York Times

 

4.  FBI rules out Boston terror threat

BOSTON - The FBI said Tuesday that the possible terrorist plot reported against Boston by a tipster last week was a false alarm stemming from a dispute  involving the smuggling of illegal immigrants across the Mexican border.

``There were in fact no terrorist plans or activity under way,'' the statement said. ``Because the criminal investigation is ongoing, no further details can be provided at this time.'' Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones, one of 16 people sought for questioning about the alleged terror plot, was detained over the weekend in Mexicali, a Mexican border town near San Diego. His son, also named Jose, was detained Monday.

According to a law enforcement official there, the two men were involved in smuggling Chinese migrants across the border and told investigators that smugglers had squabbled over a deal, and that one had anonymously called in the false tip to U.S. authorities as revenge. The source, who asked not to be named, did not say which smuggler had made the call. The official from the Baja California Attorney General's Office said the men told investigators the claim was nothing more than a tall tale.

The two were later released because they had obtained a court injunction preventing their arrest. Relatives at their houses told reporters Tuesday that they were not at home.  The FBI statement did not say whether Quinones and his son had provided the information that allowed the threat to be ruled out, but the bureau did thank Mexican law enforcement agencies for their help.

Almost immediately, officials stressed that they doubted the credibility of the terror tip. A leading theory had been that the plot was called in to exact revenge on Chinese immigrants that failed to pay for being taken across the border. The tipster claimed members of the group had talked about material supposedly called ``nuclear oxide'' that would follow them from Mexico to Boston. The implication was that the group was plotting to detonate a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' that spews hazardous material and can sicken or kill people.

Source: Boston Herald

 

4.  FBI in Talks to Extend Reach

WASHINGTON — The FBI is significantly expanding its intelligence-gathering activities  in the U.S., including stepped-up efforts to collect and report intelligence on foreign figures and governments, a function that long has been principally the CIA's domain, intelligence and congressional sources said Thursday.

The bureau in December launched discussions with top CIA officials to rewrite the two-decade-old ground rules covering how the agencies conduct their intelligence efforts in the U.S. and abroad. That effort reflects an acceleration of the FBI's foreign-intelligence collection efforts in the U.S. in recent months, as well as the desire of top bureau officials to assert what they view as their legal duty to track CIA activities in the U.S. and coordinate with the agency's operations.

The moves are causing concern among some current and former CIA officials, who see them as another sign of the diminished standing of the beleaguered agency, which also is confronted by recent Pentagon moves to increase its military intelligence collections abroad.

The CIA was singled out for harsh treatment by the independent panel that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks, and is undergoing painful restructuring under new leadership. Some worry that new Director Porter J. Goss is not doing enough to fight off the bureau's push.

"This is the kind of thing that the [director of central intelligence] ought to be standing up on his hind legs and making a fuss [about]," said a former senior CIA official. "This is a battle for survival."

Other agency officials say those concerns are overblown. A CIA spokesman declined to comment.

Officials familiar with the FBI's thinking say they hope that a tentative draft of the procedures — which are classified — will be completed next month; they said the bureau also hoped to obtain new assurances that the CIA would share information about its U.S. activities with the FBI.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and Goss have been actively involved in the discussions. The procedures would have to be approved by the attorney general and whomever is named as national intelligence director, the new post that will oversee all of the nation's intelligence-gathering agencies.


Source: Los Angeles Times

 

5.  Bank fined $16 million for hiding accounts

WASHINGTON -- Riggs Bank agreed to pay a $16 million fine  Thursday after pleading guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by hiding transfers of millions of dollars in accounts controlled by Chilean despot Augusto Pinochet and top officials of Equatorial Guinea.

The bank, one of the oldest and most prestigious in the capital, set up accounts under deceptive or phony names, ignored requirements to file federal reports on transfers of significant sums and even helped establish dummy corporations in the Bahamas where banking laws are notoriously lax, according to federal investigators.

U.S. Atty. Kenneth Wainstein described Riggs' failings as "long-term and systemic misconduct."

"Despite numerous warnings from regulators, Riggs courted customers who were a high risk for money-laundering and helped them shield their financial transactions from scrutiny," the prosecutor said at a news conference after the court hearing.

In addition to the fine, which prosecutors described as the largest criminal penalty ever imposed on a bank of Riggs' size, Riggs agreed to 5 years of probation and to cooperate in ongoing investigations of former Riggs officers.

The fine is subject to the approval of U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina, who has scheduled a sentencing hearing March 29.

The felony guilty plea is an especially rude knock for an institution that once advertised itself as the "most important bank in the most important city in the world," one that for generations catered to Washington's diplomatic, military and political elite.

Founded in 1836, Riggs counted Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as customers as well as Ulysses Grant, Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower.

A Riggs subsidiary, J. Bush & Co., a money-management firm, is run by Jonathan Bush, President Bush's uncle.

Banking regulators and the Justice Department also continue to investigate the possible misuse of Riggs property by Joe L. Allbritton, a major Riggs shareholder and its former chief executive, and his family.

Source: Chicago Tribune

 

6.  Unions Strongly Disagree With Ridge on New Personnel Rules

Bush administration officials and federal unions offered competing visions yesterday of how new personnel rules would change the workaday lives of employees at the Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said pay and personnel system changes would make the department more agile to counter terrorism and would give managers greater flexibility to deploy personnel when intelligence or circumstances warrant it.

"Our job collectively, as we look at this, was to balance the rights of the men and women they represent and the needs of the department, in the country, in terms of maintaining its mission," Ridge said at a late-morning news briefing. "I think we have come up with a good balance." Kay Coles James, director of the Office of Personnel Management, said the new rules "can truly serve as a model for the rest of the federal government." The administration plans to ask Congress to let other agencies follow in Homeland Security's path, officials said.

But federal unions hold a sharply different vision of what the Homeland Security changes mean. In the afternoon, labor leaders announced they would file a lawsuit to block the regulations, on the grounds that the department's rules go too far in curbing union rights and employee appeals. "This isn't any improvement," John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said. "This is gutting the civil service. This is depressing federal pay, and this will hurt federal employees that we represent."

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said many employees do not object to compensation based on job performance. But, she added, "front-line employees know who the best employees are, and the first time they see the wrong employees being rewarded is when this system will fail . . . and that won't take long." The debate was joined yesterday, even though the rules are still under wraps until they are published this week in the Federal Register. In previewing the rules, Ridge stressed that they should be viewed as "a multiple-year evolution" and told reporters that the department will move cautiously as it phases in systems to evaluate employees and link job ratings to pay raises.

Source: Washington Post

 

7.  Pressure mounts over Guantanamo detainees

Rising demands for the Pentagon to end the legal limbo of the 558 alleged terrorists  being held at the US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have intensified pressure on officials to justify long-term detentions. The Pentagon says the long-term prisoners at Camp Delta are "enemy combatants" who represent valuable sources of intelligence or would pose a threat if released, or both.

Plans are under way to build a new camp for long-term detainees, and many others are expected to be released or transferred. But the US military, legal and political establishments are pulling in different directions, undermining the administration's case for detentions. "The US military has been given the task of running the camps, and it is determined to make its specific mission seem like a success, even if the political, human rights and legal aspects, for which the military are not responsible, are a failure for their political masters," said a senior legal official within the US military.

The decision to send home an Australian and four Britons within the next few weeks despite their designation as "enemy combatants" may weaken the case for detaining others in Cuba, particularly if the five are released without charge on their arrival home. The definition of "enemy combatants" has been in doubt since a Washington judge ruled last November that it was inadequate as the basis on which to try the former driver of Osama  bin Laden,  the al- Qaeda  leader. An appeal has been lodged against the ruling.

Lawyers are preparing to contest the detentions in US courts, whose decisions could further undermine the conclusions of combatant status review tribunals held in Camp Delta. The final such tribunal was held on Sunday but only three of the 558 hearings have led to detainees being released. Officials will not say how many are regarded as a potential threat, although many prisoners are living in a medium-security block after co-operating with prison guards and interrogators. The Financial Times revealed two weeks ago that 25 per cent of the prisoners are regarded by senior US defence officials as being of some intelligence value.

"I wouldn't be wasting my time here if there wasn't valuable intelligence to be had," said General Jay Hood, commander of the force that runs Camp Delta. "In the last 90 days we have seen intelligence that has been of significant value to us and has been relayed to allies that may also have an interest," he said. European security officials said yesterday that information from detainees at Camp Delta had played a key role in a decision by German police to arrest 22 people on terrorism charges in five cities across Germany on January 12.

The case for the release of co-operative prisoners whose intelligence value is high because they have been prepared to speak is likely to be the strongest.  But their value as sources of information means interrogators are likely to be reluctant to see them leave. "A lot of what we know (about the prisoners) we learn from other detainees," said a senior interrogator at the maximum-security Camp Five prison on the base.

Their co-operation may stop if they realise that it will not lead to an end to their incarceration. Keeping the isolated prisoners ignorant of what they can expect has been central to the detention strategy. But as more are visited by lawyers, this is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. "When detainees are summoned for interrogation, we tell them to respond by saying: speak to my lawyer," said one lawyer.

Allegations made by FBI agents and the International Committee of the Red Cross that prisoners were abused between 2002 and 2003 during interrogations, have intensified criticism and led to renewed demands for proof that the intelligence-value criteria applies to prisoners who have been held for up to three years. Senior officials at the prison have cast doubt on the allegations, which are being investigated by the Pentagon. "Since the start of this activity here, there have been thousands of interrogations, and there haven't been rampant reports about abuses," said Steve Rodriguez, director of intelligence operations at the prison. "If I felt there was something (needed) above and beyond the (interrogation) techniques available, I would request them," he said.

Mr Rodriguez, who took charge of the interrogation operation after the period of the alleged abuses, denied Red Cross claims that prisoners' medical records are shared with interrogators. He also said he had found no evidence to support an FBI claim that a prisoner had been draped in an Israeli flag to humiliate him. "What I have angst over is the fact that there are many things going on in many countries, and there are all kinds of torture and abuse and peoples' heads being cut off on television, and you and I are talking about an Israeli flag," he said.

Source: Financial Times

 

8.  Marine Helicopter Crash Kills 31 in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A U.S. Marine helicopter transporting troops crashed Wednesday in the desert of western Iraq, killing 31 people, American military officials said . It was the deadliest crash of a U.S. military helicopter in Iraq.

A Pentagon source said the helicopter was a CH-53 Sea Stallion, which is normally configured to carry 37 passengers, but can take up to 55. There was no immediate word on how many people were on board or what caused the crash. The military officials did not specify the nationalities of those on board or say how many were soldiers.

It was the biggest loss of life in a helicopter crash in Iraq - and could be the deadliest single incident for American forces since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The helicopter went down about 1:20 a.m. near the town of Rutbah, about 220 miles west of Baghdad, while conducting security operations, the military said in a statement. The aircraft was transporting personnel from the 1st Marine Division.

A search and rescue team has reached the site and an investigation into what caused the crash is underway, the military said. "We can confirm casualties, but not what type or numbers yet," a U.S. spokesman, Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, said.

Previously, the deadliest incident involving U.S. troops was a Nov. 15, 2003, crash of two Black Hawk helicopters that collided while trying to avoid ground fire in Mosul, killing 17 U.S. soldiers and wounding five. Earlier that month, a Chinook transport helicopter was shot down by shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile near Fallujah, killing 16 American soldiers and wounding 26.

Source: Associated Press

 

9.  US to back crackdown on Muslim separatists in Philippines

MANILA (AFP) - The United States will back President Gloria Arroyo in the fight against breakaway Muslim militant groups threatening fragile peace talks  in the southern Philippines, its envoy to Manila said. US ambassador Francis Ricciardone said negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government were being made difficult by many groups claiming to be legitimate separatist rebels.

While the ongoing peace negotiations brokered by Malaysia to end the MILF's 28-year insurgency were welcome, Ricciardone said Washington would provide military support against those continuing to carry out attacks. He said 70 US military personnel were training troops in the southern Philippines in intelligence gathering, leading to the arrest or killing of "25 identified, known, no-doubt-about it terrorist leaders" last year.

Development assistance would also continue in the mostly poverty-stricken southern Mindanao island and in Muslim areas, he said.
"Our concern is not merely to get a piece of paper ... a peace accord. What we want to see is a peace (agreement) that will be durable and that will permit development to go ahead," Ricciardone told foreign correspondents.

But if certain elements of the MILF were "going to hide bombers from Bali, or train bombers or hide kidnappers, or get involved in the drug trade, the law enforcement and security forces of the Philippines are going to go after them and we are going to help them," Ricciardone said.
"We are going to help, we are going to keep making inroads, and the kidnappers and bombers at the end of the day are going to lose," he said.

Renegade MILF rebels two weeks ago attacked and burned to the ground an army detachment in Mindanao, where the guerrillas have been waging a war for independence since 1978.

Source: Agence France Presse



International


1.  Iraqi officials: Nabbing three cohorts brings Zarqawi closer

BAGHDAD (AP) — Authorities in Iraq have arrested three close associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , officials said Friday, claiming to be close to capturing the al-Qaeda-linked terror mastermind himself two days ahead of historic elections that extremists have vowed to subvert.

The announcements, made days after the arrests, appeared aimed at helping reassure Iraqis about security ahead of Sunday's polls. Still, violence continued: Insurgents, meanwhile, killed two U.S. soldiers, set off a suicide car bomb that killed four policemen in Baghdad and targeted more polling sites across the country. American troops and insurgents exchanged fire on a major Baghdad thoroughfare. The crackle of gunfire could be heard over the noon call to prayer. U.S. fighter jets thundered through the skies over Baghdad throughout the morning in a show of force against the militants.

The arrested al-Zarqawi associates included Salah Suleiman al-Loheibi, the head of his group's Baghdad operation, who met with al-Zarqawi more than 40 times over three months, said Qassim Dawoud, a top security adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Dawoud said Ali Hamad Yassin al-Issawi, another associate, was also captured. Dawoud said the two arrests took place in mid-January but gave few details.

Also captured was al-Zarqawi's military adviser, a 31-year-old Iraqi named Anad Mohammed Qais, 31, said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh. Asked by reporters if authorities were close to arresting al-Zarqawi himself, Saleh replied: "We are getting close to finishing off al-Zarqawi and we will get rid of him."

The Jordanian-born Al-Zarqawi heads al-Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq, which like other militant groups has threatened to kill anyone who takes part in Sunday's election. It repeated those warnings in a new Web message Friday, telling Iraqis they could get hit by shelling or other attacks if they approach polling stations, which it called "the centers of atheism and of vice." "We have warned you, so don't blame us. You have only yourselves to blame," it said.

Source: USA Today


 

2.  Pakistan hands Tanzanian Al-Qaeda bombing suspect to US

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan has given American officials custody of a key Al-Qaeda figure wanted for the 1998 bombing of US embassies in East Africa and the suspect has been flown out of the country. Tanzanian Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani, who is on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists and had a five million US dollar bounty on his head, was arrested last July and handed to the US last month, a security official said.

"Ghailani has been handed over to US custody because he wasn't wanted in any crime over here," the Pakistani official, who declined to be identified, told AFP. He did not give any further details. Ghailani has been indicted in the US for his involvement in the bombings more than six years ago of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which left more than 200 dead.

Pakistan, a key ally in Washington's so-called war on terror in the wake of 9/11, has already captured around 600 alleged Al-Qaeda supporters including some major operatives. Most have been handed to the United States and are thought to be held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. "We have no information on Ghailani's whereabouts," a spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad said.

Pakistani investigators told AFP that they transferred Ghailani to American custody despite earlier promising him that they would not do so. "He said he wouldn't be satisfied unless the person who was interrogating him takes an oath on the holy book (the Koran) that he would not be handed to the US," said another official speaking on condition of anonymity.

Source: Agence France Presse

 

3.  al-Qaida Official Admits to U.N. Assault

BAGHDAD, Iraq Jan 24, 2005 — An al-Qaida lieutenant in custody in Iraq has confessed to masterminding most of the car bombings in Baghdad , including the bloody 2003 assault on the U.N. headquarters in the capital, authorities said Monday.

Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, "confessed to building approximately 75 percent of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad" since the Iraq war began, according to the interim Iraqi prime minister's spokesman, Thaer al-Naqib. A government statement said Al-Jaaf was taken into custody Jan. 15 and was responsible for 32 car bombings, including the bombing of the U.N. headquarters that killed the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and 21 other people.

The suspect, a top lieutenant of al-Qaida's Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also built the car bomb used to attack a shrine in the Shiite holy city of Najaf that killed more than 85 people, including Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, in August 2003, the statement said. It said he also assembled the car bomb used in May to assassinate Izzadine Saleem, then president of the Iraqi Governing Council.

Two other militants linked to al-Zarqawi's terror group also have been arrested. They included the chief of al-Zarqawi's propaganda operations and one of the group's weapons suppliers, the government statement said The government offered no evidence to support its claims, and the announcement followed a series of car bombings, kidnappings and assassinations of Iraqi security personnel, all of which have lowered public morale as the nation prepares for elections next weekend.

Since June 28, when the interim Iraqi government took power, there have been 202 car bombings across Iraq, including 70 in the Baghdad area, according to an Associated Press tally. The attacks have killed 1,061 people and injured 2,753. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has been promising to crush the insurgency and restore public order if he holds onto his job in the new government.

Source: Associated Press

 

4.  Kuwait refers 13 suspected militants to prosecution following clashes

KUWAIT CITY - Thirteen suspected Islamist militants arrested following separate clashes  with security men in Kuwait have been referred to the public prosecution for questioning, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday.

The source said the suspects, believed to be linked to the Al-Qaeda network, were referred late Monday and that a second group is expected to be transferred to judicial authorities on Tuesday. The source did not state the charges levelled against the suspects by police but Al-Qabas newspaper said Tuesday that they are allegedly linked to militants in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and to the group of Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The suspects were “plotting to attack US targets” and were”authorised to clash with Kuwaiti security forces if necessary”, the daily said. According to Kuwaiti law, suspects are referred to the judiciary by the police on the basis that they require questioning by a higher authority based on evidence supplied by the police.

The prosecution is at liberty to take a number of measures, including referring them to court or releasing them. A January 15 gunbattle between militants and Kuwaiti security forces left one Saudi gunman killed in Umm al-Haiman, south of the capital near the border with Saudi Arabia.

The shootout near the largest US military base in Kuwait, came five days after another clash closer to the capital left two security officers dead. The authorities have seized arms and explosives in subsequent raids around the tiny oil-rich emirate.

Source: Agence France Presse


5.  Britain Announces Sweeping New Anti-Terrorism Powers

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain announced sweeping powers Wednesday  to impose house arrest on terrorism suspects regardless of nationality, replacing a policy of jailing foreigners without trial that had been thrown out by a court. The announcement amounts to a major overhaul of security policy after the country's highest court ruled that earlier emergency powers violated basic rights.

But some civil liberties campaigners charged the new measures were even more draconian than the old ones. "The threat is real and I believe the steps I am announcing today will make us better able to meet this threat," Home Secretary Charles Clarke told parliament.

He said 11 foreign terrorism suspects held under the old powers would remain jailed until the new measures were in place. Some could be deported to other countries if Britain can negotiate guarantees they will not be killed or tortured. Under the new powers, the government would no longer be able to jail suspects without charge, but could forbid them from meeting certain people, impose curfews or electronic tagging on them or confine them to house arrest.

Unlike the previous measures, which were based on immigration law and applied only to foreigners, the new measures could be used against British nationals. The government would not have to prove suspects had committed a crime. Like the Supreme Court in the United States, British courts made historic rulings last year placing limits on how far the state can go to restrict basic rights in the fight against terrorism after the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks.

Source: Reuters

 

6.  Detainees 'to sue US government'

TWO of the Britons who were freed from the US jail for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay will file a lawsuit against the US government over their treatment there , their lawyer said today. Clive Stafford-Smith said his clients Moazzam Begg and Richard Belmar, who returned to Britain yesterday and were facing questioning under Britain's own anti-terrorism law, were the victims of torture.

"I guarantee they will sue the American government," Stafford-Smith said after visiting the London police station where they are being held with the two other Britons who were released yesterday. But Stafford-Smith said they did not want money and any award given to them by a court would go to charity.

He said: "They want a simple apology. But I realise that sorry seems to be the hardest word for some governments these days." All four had been kept in legal limbo as suspected terrorists at the US naval base on Cuba for up to three years, and released after extensive discussions between the British and US governments.

After reportedly pushing strongly in private for the men to be freed, the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair handed Washington a stiff rebuke in June. Proposed military tribunals for some Guantanamo prisoners did not "offer sufficient guarantees of a fair trial in accordance with international standards", British Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith said.

The four were all arrested in Afghanistan or Pakistan, or had previously visited one or both of the countries, and US authorities have linked them to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups. However, the men's lawyers insist they are innocent, saying yesterday that they should be set free without delay after their alleged mistreatment in US custody.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke meanwhile announced yesterday that Britain would end a controversial policy of detaining foreign terror suspects without trial, replacing it with a series of "control orders". Suspects, who would be kept in prison for the time being, would eventually be subject to sanctions such as curfews and electronic tagging instead, Clarke told parliament.

Source: Agence France Presse

 

7.  Terror suspects set free without charge

FOUR British citizens who were detained in the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay for three years without formal charge or trial were set free yesterday within a day of returning to Britain .

Their release and sweeping changes to British detention laws left the anti-terrorist measures of Tony Blair's Labour Government in disarray, with 12 more terror suspects likely to be released soon.

The Guantanamo four were arrested under the Terrorism Act when they arrived at an air force base near London, but were released without charge and reunited with their families. Police questioned them all day but announced at 9pm there was no reason to hold them.

The four – Muazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar – all claimed to have been beaten and tortured while prisoners in the military base in Cuba. Home Secretary Charles Clarke was forced to introduce new measures when he announced the imminent release of foreign terrorist suspects being held without charge in the top-security Belmarsh jail in southeast London.

A decision by Law Lords last week ruled their detention illegal, thereby forcing what was seen as a massive government backdown on internal security. Mr Clarke said new "house arrest" conditions would be introduced for the released men.

"They will be very closely monitored," he told the House of Commons amid widespread derision from opposition MPs.

He also was forced to admit that phone taps taken by the two major British security service, MI5 and MI6, could not be used in court as evidence. Five British detainees who returned from Guantanamo Bay last March were also released within a day and have never been charged with terrorism.

Source: The Advertiser

 

8.  ‘Al Qaeda, Baathists in alliance against polls’

TIKRIT: Al Qaeda and Baathist supporters of ousted president Saddam Hussein have formed a “marriage of convenience”  to mount violent opposition to Sunday’s Iraqi elections, a top US commander said.

Major General John Batiste, commander of US troops in the sector north of Baghdad that includes many insurgent hotspots, also warned that more suicide bombs and other attacks were likely during the landmark vote.

Batiste, head of the 1st Infantry Division, said more than 750 insurgents, including members of Al Qaeda and foreign fighters, had been detained since January 1 in the four provinces in the sector - Salaheddin, Diyala, Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk’s Tamim province.

During an interview late Tuesday with reporters at his office in a Tikrit palace formerly belonging to Saddam, Batiste named Al Qaeda and its frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the biggest threats to the election.

He said Osama bin Laden’s group and Zarqawi want “to destroy what is going on at all costs. They don’t care what they do.” Former supporters of the fallen dictator, whose hometown was Tikrit, are also behind trouble in the sector, which includes insurgent troublespots Baquba, Baiji and Samarra.

Funding militants: The United States on Tuesday accused a Syrian of bankrolling Al Qaeda and rebels in Iraq, a first step toward an international freeze on his bank transfers and travel.

The US Treasury said Sulayman Khalid Darwish provides money and material to Al Qaeda and its group in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. “This terrorist financier is helping support Zarqawi, who has launched violent acts against our troops, coalition partners and the Iraqi people,” Treasury Secretary John Snow said in a statement.

Source: Agence France Press

 

9.  11 policemen killed in Baghdad clashes; gunmen slay senior Iraqi judge

An American hostage pleaded for his life with a rifle pointed at his head  in a video released Tuesday while 11 Iraqi police died in fierce clashes and gunmen assassinated a senior judge in slayings highlighting security risks ahead of this weekend's elections. On a day that the U.S. military said six American soldiers had died, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi also said the time was not right to talk of a U.S. troop withdrawal and that Iraq must first build up its security forces to confront the insurgents.

In the video, hostage Roy Hallums spoke slowly, rubbing his hands as he sat with the barrel of the rifle inches from his head. He said he had been arrested by a "resistance group" because "I have worked with American forces." He appealed to Arab leaders, including Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, to act to save his life. Hallums, 56, was seized Nov. 1 along with Filipino Robert Tarongoy during an armed assault on their compound in Baghdad's Mansour district. The two were working for a Saudi company that does catering for the Iraqi army. The Filipino was not shown.

"I am please asking for help because my life is in danger because it's been proved I worked for American forces," the bearded Hallums said. "I'm not asking for any help from President Bush because I know of his selfishness and unconcern for those who've been pushed into this hellhole." Hallums said he was asking for help from "Arab rulers especially President Moammar Gadhafi because he's known for helping those who are suffering."

In December, his wife, Susan Hallums of Corona, Calif., said she has not heard from the kidnappers. "I want to plead for his life and send out prayers and hope that he will be released," said Susan Hallums, who is separated from her husband, the father of their two daughters. Fighting erupted Tuesday in Baghdad's eastern Rashad neighborhood as police fired on insurgents who were handing out leaflets warning people not to vote in Sunday's national elections.

Source: Associated Press


10.  Saudi man held in Philippines is financier of Abu Sayyaf: official

MANILA - A Saudi national being held by immigration authorities in the Philippines  is an alleged “financier of the Abu Sayyaf” Muslim kidnap gang, Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez said on Tuesday.

Mohammad Abdullah Sughayer, 38, was arrested minutes after he arrived at the airport in southern Zamboanga city on January 17. He had earlier arrived in this country from Indonesia. Sughayer will be deported and his name included in the immigration bureau’s “blacklist” to prevent him entering the country again, Fernandez said.

“He was placed in our blacklist at the request of the intelligence community which tagged him as one of the financiers of extremist groups operating in the south,” Fernandez. Quoting unnamed “military authorities” Fernandez said Sughayer ”has been making contacts with personalities identified with the ASG (Abu Sayyaf group)”.

A detained Abu Sayyaf gunman, Muhammad Umug, has also positively identified the Saudi national “as one of the financiers of the ASG head Khadaffy Janjalani,” the immigration commissioner said citing his own sources. Umug has been linked to a series of bomb attacks in the southern Philippines, including that of a shopping mall in General Santos City in 2003 that left several dead.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of self-styled Islamic separatists which is considered a terrorist organization by the Philippines and the US government. It is feared for a series of bombings, kidnappings for ransom and other attacks mainly aimed at Christians and foreigners in the south. Intelligence agencies in the region have said that at one time, the Abu Sayyaf had links with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. However Fernandez did not say if the detained Saudi was linked to Al Qaeda.

Source: Agence France Presse

 

11.  Police clash with Islamic vigilantes in Bangladesh

Police used batons and tear gas to disperse stone-throwing Islamic vigilantes protesting  the death of three friends in a mob attack, leaving at least 50 people injured, an official said Tuesday. About 200 members of the Jagrata Muslim Janata _ Vigilant Muslim Citizens _ demonstrated in northwestern Rajshahi district Monday after three group members were killed by villagers who suspected them of killing a farmer in a bomb attack.

Sixty-four vigilantes were arrested on charges of attacking police, said Mahbub Hossain, a local police official. He did not provide details about those injured. The clashes Monday occurred after police stopped the vigilantes from holding a protest march through Bagmara village, the site of the weekend killings, 230 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of national capital Dhaka.

Hossain said police were investigating the weekend bomb attack and the deaths of the three Muslims. Founded in April, the vigilante group operates in remote villages in the northwestern districts of Rajshahi, Natore and Naogaon and has vowed to fight Maoist rebels seeking to turn Bangladesh into a communist state.

The group also reportedly has members linked to al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan, local media has claimed. The vigilantes have reportedly killed 22 people, including liberal politicians, since last April and invoked strict Islamic codes like forcing women to wear veils and men to grow beards.

Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim nation of 140 million people, is a parliamentary democracy and governed by secular laws. But Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's governing coalition has two Islamic allies _ Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote, which both campaign for the establishment of Islamic laws.

Source: Associated Press

12.  Militants await ceasefire response

RAMALLAH: Militant groups have agreed to halt their attacks  as they near a final ceasefire deal with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and await Israel's response to their moves, a senior Palestinian official said yesterday.

Ziad Abu Amr, the Palestinian official overseeing the dialogue with the militants, said the Palestinian parties had "agreed to calm the situation and we are waiting to see if Israel is ready to respond to that and then to hold a truce".

Mr Abu Amr spoke to Voice of Palestine radio hours after Mr Abbas said in a TV interview he was close to sealing a ceasefire deal with the militant groups. "They (the armed groups) have calmed things down on the ground for a few days," Mr Abu Amr said. "And they will continue doing that for some time to see if Israel is ready to accept demands and hold the truce.

"Now Israel must take concrete steps, including withdrawing troops from Palestinian cities, stopping military operations, home demolitions and arrest raids." He added Palestinians also wanted "a release of prisoners from Israeli jails".

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said yesterday Israel would refrain from conducting military operations in Palestinian areas if the militant groups halted attacks. In the past month, Israeli military officials have indicated the army would withdraw troops from West Bank and Gaza Strip areas under the control of the Palestinian security forces.

A senior Israeli official yesterday said Israel would be willing to consider a release of Palestinian prisoners within the context of formal discussions with Palestinian leaders. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not elaborate.

Source: The Australian

 

13.  Pakistan police arrest 16 Afghans on suspicion of ties to al-Qaida, Taliban

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Police in Pakistan said Friday they have arrested 16 Afghan nationals in overnight raids  in this southwestern city of Quetta on suspicion of links with Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. The suspects were captured from three neighbourhoods of the city late Thursday and are being interrogated, said Chaudhry Mohammed Yaqub, the police chief in southwestern Baluchistan province of which Quetta is the capital. He said some of the detainees had held "important positions during Taliban's tenure" in Afghanistan and "we suspect that some of them have close links with al-Qaida."

Yaqub said the suspects were rounded up in well-coordinated raids, which were conducted on a tip that some terror suspects were hiding in the neighbourhoods of Kharotabad, Pashtun Abad and Nawan Kili. "Right now, these people are in our custody. They are being interrogated and everything will be clear in a day or so, "he said.

However, Mullah Hakim Latifi, who claims he speaks for Taliban, denied that any of their former government officials or Taliban leaders had been arrested in Quetta. "There is no truth in this claim. Our people live in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan," he told The Associated Press on phone from an undisclosed location.

Pakistan used to be a supporter of Taliban, but it switched sides after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in America to support Washington. The U.S.-led coalition forces ousted the hardline Islamic militia from power in late 2001. Since then, Pakistani police and intelligence agents have arrested more than 600 terror suspects, including some al-Qaida operatives, who were later handed over to the U.S. officials for further investigations.

Source: Associated Press


14.  French embassy in Kuwait issues new warning following clashes

KUWAIT CITY - The French embassy in Kuwait has advised its citizens in the Gulf state  to avoid shopping malls and only move around when necessary following clashes between suspected militants and security forces, sources in the community told AFP Friday.

The embassy contacted its wardens asked them to convey the new warning to French nationals, the sources said, adding that the advice was “precautionary” and not based on any specific terror threat. Two Kuwaiti security officers were killed and at least four others wounded in two gunfights with suspected militants on January 10 and 15.

Two suspects, including a Saudi, were also killed in the clashes. The French warning followed a new advisory from the US embassy on Thursday warning of the danger of more unrest, saying residential complexes for Westerners could be targetted.

The British embassy also warned its citizens of a continued threat to Westerners in Kuwait. The sources said the French warning was issued at the instructions of the foreign ministry in Paris and was the embassy’s first since January 15.

Kuwait, which served as the main launchpad for the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, is home to 800 French, some 12,000 Americans and 9,000 Europeans, mostly Britons. Kuwaiti security forces have arrested about 15 suspected militants, according to Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, but an unspecified number, including the group’s spiritual leader, are still at large.

Sheikh Nawaf acknowledged last week that the militants belonged to an “organized group,” but the country’s national guard chief, Sheikh Salem al-Ali al-Sabah, said some of the group were members of Al Qaeda. The authorities say they have seized large quantities of arms, ammunition and explosives since the clashes.

Source: Agence France Presse


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