Thread FULL!!!__AMERICA AT WAR!__Use New Thread!

http://www.fsas.upm.edu.my/~masdec/web/m...

Top 1575. Apr 4, 2002 9:05 AM

» JenL_2 - India - SE Asia Watchdog?

just posted this to the "India-Pakistan" thread:

A new U.S. military cooperation with India in our War on Terrorism. From 4/5 Asia Times

Here's a map of the Straits of Malacca - rt click to open in a new window:

India signs on as Southeast Asia watchdog

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - The proposed India-United States joint patrolling of the sea lanes along the Straits of Malacca represents not only a new high in cooperation between the two countries, but also signals India's emergence as a key player in the region.

The proposal put forward by the US some months back has been approved by India's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), highly placed sources in the Indian government have said.

Reports that Washington was keen on escort operations by the Indian navy of US vessels as part of a larger US proposal of military cooperation first appeared in the Indian media in November last year. Describing the proposal, Prabhu Chawla wrote in India Today that documents in the magazine's possession "clearly indicate that military cooperation is a serious understatement. What the Bush administration has in mind is a full-fledged alliance that is calculated to make India the US' foremost military ally in Asia, with a relationship akin to that of the US and NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] members."

Chawla wrote that at the core of the US proposals is a key role for the Indian navy. It included, among other suggestions, escort operations by ships of the Indian navy for US supply ships every eight to 10 days through the Straits of Malacca.

In that article, Chawla wrote, "For the moment, the alliance idea seems stillborn" as it met with stiff opposition within the CCS. However, the CCS did not throw out the entire gamut of US proposals. Among those acceptable to India, it is clear now, was the proposal for joint patrolling of the Malaccan Straits.

There has been a remarkable change in India-US relations in recent years. India had stayed out of military alliances during the Cold War years. While economic cooperation has grown over the past decade, military ties have blossomed over the past year. In recent months, there has been a sharp increase in frequency of visits and level of exchange between the two countries. However, signals of the emerging strategic relationship were evident even before interaction over the war against terrorism began, indicating that Indian-US shared interests go well beyond the current crisis.

The proposed India-US patrolling of the Straits of Malacca is one example of the kind of long-term and broad interests the two sides are now jointly pursuing.

The Straits of Malacca, which connect the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean and which have Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia as their littoral countries, are critical to maritime trade. The sea line of communication (SLOC) that passes through the Straits is one of the busiest ocean highways in the world. An estimated more than 41,000 ships pass through the South China Sea each year - more than double the number that crosses the Suez Canal and nearly treble the number of ships that use the Panama Canal. The Malaccan Straits handle up to 600 ships in both directions per day. Twenty percent of the world's oil passes through it every day.

Its closure could generate a massive increase in freight rates worldwide and hit bulk shipments hardest. Ensuring that the Straits of Malacca do not fall into hostile hands that might choke the free flow of maritime vessels is a nightmare that many countries are anxious to prevent from being turned into reality.

Malaysia has emerged as a favorite meeting place for al-Qaeda and its allies in Southeast Asia. Simon Elegant writes in Time magazine, "Among the radical groups partly funded by al-Qaeda who meet regularly with arms smugglers in Malaysia are the Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from the neighboring Philippines, the Laskar Jihad and the separatist Free Aceh Movement of Indonesia, and Malaysia's own Kumpulan Mujahideen." These groups pose a significant threat to vessels crossing the Straits.

EC: These are quotes from an article in Times magazine that called Malaysia a "springboard" for the 9/11 attacks. Although the info was generally true - it was presented a manner that unfairly painted Malaysia as a safe harbor for terrorists - which is far from the truth. The Times has since apologized to Malaysia and printed a retraction.....but the damage has been done when the original article continues to be quoted in the media!

Admiral Denis Blair, head of the US Pacific Command, wrote in the International Herald Tribune that many counties have offered to participate in patrolling the Malacca Straits to ensure that terrorists cannot attack shipping there

India, too, has a vital interest in seeing the Straits of Malacca remain in friendly hands. Its "Look East" policy has led to an increasing engagement with Southeast Asia and the sea lanes to India's east are growing in significance for its energy security as New Delhi is looking for oil and gas supplies from Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia. Three years back, India announced that its strategic interests extended all the way from the Persian Gulf to the Straits of Malacca.

Last year, India set up a tri-services command in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. While a major task of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) would be to check the growing Chinese presence in the waters close to India - according to Indian Intelligence reports the Chinese-built radar facility on Myanmar's Coco Islands provides Beijing with input on India's missile tests in Orissa - the ANC signals India's force projection up to the Malacca Straits.

The significance of the ANC lies in its geographic location, says Shishir Gupta in India Today. "The islands sit at the mouth of the Straits. Most ships approach the Straits through the 10 Degree Channel, which bisects the Andaman Islands and the Great Nicobar Islands. Indira Point, the southernmost tip of India, is actually separated by the Great Channel from Indonesia's strife-torn Banda Aceh territory. This means that by setting up the ANC, India will now have the capacity to protect and monitor sea traffic bound for the South China Sea."

The ANC signals India's capacity for monitoring the seas to its east to prevent narcotics smugglers and gun-runners from supplying weapons to India's strife-torn northeast.

India's credibility as a naval power capable of providing maritime security received a boost three years ago when its navy recovered a Japanese merchant ship hijacked in the Straits of Malacca. Japan has since been at the forefront of countries encouraging India to play a bigger role in checking maritime piracy.

For India, the joint patrolling of the Malaccan Straits is endorsement of its claim that its interests stretch up to the Straits. For the US, the joint patrolling is the beginning of a larger military engagement with India.

more info on the Malaccan Straits:

http://www.fsas.upm.edu.my/~masdec/web/s...

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

http://armedforces.nic.in/navy/ships.htm
http://www.indianarmedforces.com/navy/na...

Top 1576. Apr 4, 2002 9:35 AM

» Lawhawk - Re: India - SE Asia Watchdog?

In response to message posted by JenL_2:

Here's some links to info on the Indian Navy:

http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/carriers... - which I read to suggest that the Indian Navy is only adequate at best to the task of defending against certain threats (China) but is probably more than capable of handling escort duties. I think India's hesitancy to engage in a wider use of its navy reflects its acknowledgement that it is not in a position to take on much more while handling its current defense mission.

-- posted by Lawhawk

Top 1577. Apr 4, 2002 11:45 AM

» BPyles - Abu Zubaydah

Some of the details about what Abu Zubaydah and others did after fleeing Afghanistan.
------------------------------

The Terrorists Next Door
Al Qaeda Suspects Posed as Traders Before Capture in Pakistan

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 4, 2002; Page A08

FAISALABAD, Pakistan, April 3 -- When new tenants showed up in the big house off Canal Road in late February, the word went out that they were in the import-export business, Arab traders looking to move shirts and sheets to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. It was a credible cover in an industrial city dominated by textile factories. If the label says "Made in Pakistan," the product was almost certainly made in Faisalabad.

But the illusion lasted barely a month. Shortly after midnight last Thursday, scores of Pakistani police surrounded the rented home that officials now say had become a provisional headquarters for the al Qaeda terrorist network. Two hundred miles from the Afghan border, the safe house was commanded by Abu Zubaida, a Saudi-born Palestinian who was about to become the highest-ranking al Qaeda official captured in the war on terrorism.

Outside, a Pakistani police officer armed with a bullhorn woke the occupants with the news that they were surrounded, according to senior police officials here. Rather than surrender, however, Abu Zubaida and several confederates scrambled up an interior staircase to the roof, then leapt into the darkness.

They landed on a neighbor's flat roof, where four police officers stood waiting. In the tumult that followed, amid cries of "God is Great," an al Qaeda suspect wrested an AK-47 assault rifle from an officer's grip. Other officers opened fire, and Abu Zubaida was among the three suspects who fell wounded.

It would be another five days until Abu Zubaida's identity was confirmed publicly. But Pakistani police say three U.S. agents recognized their prize as soon as the scene was secured and they walked among the captives, glancing from the faces in front of them to the book of photos they carried.

The photo of Abu Zubaida, which had been photocopied and handed out to 40 Pakistani officers before the raid, showed a man with a beard; the wounded prisoner was clean-shaven. But the resemblance was strong.

The U.S. agents "were tremendously happy," said Faisalabad police superintendent Tasaddique Hussein. "No, they were not dancing. They conveyed their good wishes to the Pakistan police officials" by applauding, he said.

The full implications of the raid on the towering house known as Shahbaz Cottage may not be known for months, if ever.

The main prize was Abu Zubaida, 30, who senior Pakistani intelligence officials said was transferred to U.S. custody on Sunday and remains hospitalized with three gunshot wounds in the leg and groin.

Long one of the chief recruiters for Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, Abu Zubaida is believed to have extensive knowledge of al Qaeda's undercover cells around the world. Moreover, as the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan has driven al Qaeda from its base there, intelligence officials had worried that Abu Zubaida had been dispatched to Pakistan to activate the network, possibly via the Internet connections that are plentiful here but almost nonexistent in Afghanistan.

Indeed, police and Pakistani newspapers said Thursday's raid recovered computer equipment and disks from the house, which was otherwise almost entirely unfurnished. Intelligence experts are scanning the hardware for phone numbers, names and evidence of plots already in place.

"There were a lot of CDs," Hussein said.

Also captured were more than two dozen other Arabs, all presumed to be members of al Qaeda. Their identities have not been made public, but given their proximity to Abu Zubaida they may prove more valuable to U.S. interrogators than the foot soldiers captured on Afghan battlefields. Testimony in last year's trial of al Qaeda members who bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa repeatedly described a pyramid hierarchy in which only recruits who advanced above the rank and file were trained and dispatched to serve as agents abroad.

In Faisalabad, 12 suspects from the upper echelon were arrested with Abu Zubaida, according to police. They lived without furniture -- just pillows and sleeping mats, according to witnesses -- in the high-ceilinged rooms of an imposing house owned by a local travel agent. It was reportedly rented for about $650 a month through a commercial agent. The Pakistani man who represented the tenants reportedly remains in custody.

The residents' names are listed in Arabic on a duty roster a photojournalist found taped to the wall of a ground floor room, spelling out kitchen duty: "Friday: Daud and Abu Kamel. Saturday: Osama. . . . "

In a neighbor's compound, police found four passports Tuesday that apparently had been pitched from the roof when the fugitives realized they were cornered. Hussein said one from Saudi Arabia belonged to Abu Zubaida.

Located on the edge of town behind a large charity hospital, the house offered a degree of privacy rare in Pakistan. The compound's high brick wall had been extended by barbed wire, electrified in a makeshift manner by a power cable. It is bordered on two sides by acres of dusty open lots. Police and local reporters said the Arabs never ventured out. A Pakistani servant went to the market for food. A cook prepared it.

"They must be leading a very quiet life," said Tallat Mohmood Tariq, the police deputy inspector general. "Nobody noticed them."

Across the city, police last Thursday also captured 16 suspected al Qaeda members who had taken up residence in a prosperous neighborhood known as Muslim Town. They shared a compound with the Niazi family, two members of which are reported to be involved with one of Pakistan's radical Islamic parties, Lashkar-i-Taiba, or Army of God. The party, which Pakistan's government banned in January, is among those that encouraged young militants to cross into Afghanistan to fight the U.S. military.

Hussein, the police superintendent, said such Pakistani "jihadists," or holy warriors, were providing shelter to their fugitive allies in al Qaeda. Faisalabad would be an especially effective place for that, Tariq observed, because this city of more than 2 million has not been regarded as a likely refuge for radical Muslims.

"In Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, they expect these people might come," he said, listing Pakistan's largest cities.

In front of his Muslim Town compound, Hameedullah Khan Niazi, whom Pakistani police sources called the local chief of the Lashkar party, denied any involvement with that group or any al Qaeda suspects.

"Islam is a peaceful religion," Niazi said. He then praised the professionalism of his U.S. interrogators and embraced a pair of American reporters before hurrying off to evening prayers.

Standing nearby, his nephew also denied involvement with the Lashkar party. Rizwan Niazi, laughing, blamed his own detention on the longish black beard he tugged playfully.

"I think the perfect Muslims are being targeted for going to mosque and offering prayers," he said. "Some Muslims are taking part in jihad against America and anti-Muslims. And America is striking back at innocent Muslims."

The young man gestured toward himself.

"Excellent example," he said.

Special correspondent Kamran Khan in Karachi, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

-- posted by BPyles

Top 1578. Apr 4, 2002 4:53 PM

» mitelo - Indonesia

Violence between Christians and Moslems erupts.

9000 deaths in this conflict in Indonesia in the past two years.

Fox News--Shepard Smith--Around the world in 80 seconds.

-- posted by mitelo

Top 1579. Apr 4, 2002 6:23 PM

» BPyles - Abu Haadi

Two more suspected alQaeda arrested and one identity confirmed, Abu Haadi, who was with one of the groups arrested earlier.
--------------------

2 more Al Qaeda men arrested

By Asif Shahzad , Dawn, Pakistan

LAHORE, April 3: Police late on Wednesday night picked up two more suspected Al
Qaeda men from a house in Township. On condition of anonymity, a senior police officer told Dawn the arrests were made on the identification of some 14 suspected Al Qaeda men who were picked up in two raids in Lahore late Monday night.

The officer identified the two arrested men as Abdullah and Fazalullah, hailing from Tunis and Peshawar, respectively. Fazal is said to have been working for Al-Jazira
TV in Afghan war, he said.

Meanwhile, one of the 14 people arrested from Lahore on Monday included an
important member of Al Qaeda, the senior police official said.

The official said so far the investigation had found that at least one of the arrested men had links to the Al Qaeda leadership and its terrorist network. "He has been identified as Abu Haadi," he said.

"It's too early to say anything about any important man among the arrested one,"
Lahore District Police Officer (DPO) Javed Noor told Dawn. A majority of them are foreigners, he said, claiming the operation was conducted solely by Lahore police. No other agency whether foreign or Pakistani took part in the raids, the DPO said and added the arrested men were being interrogated. For more raids, Mr Noor said, it
"depends on the information derived from the suspects" and their interrogation.

The arrests were made in two raids conducted in Township by police commandos late Monday night. Besides, the commandos also seized some documents,photographs, cell phones and other belongings from the two houses.

According to the official, the arrested men included at least nine foreigners. "Most of the foreigners are said to be Arabs and Afghans," he said.

-- posted by BPyles

Top 1580. Apr 7, 2002 7:38 PM

» JenL_2 - Operation Mountain Lion

This from 4/6 Seattle PI with pics from CNN & Webshots.com:

<img src="http://images.webshots.com/ProThumbs/54/..." width=280 height=210 align="left">Mountain Lion, Flathead Valley, Montana © Roma Stock

Allied Soldiers Explore Caves

By MICHELLE BOORSTEIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Braced for booby-traps and hidden tripwires, American soldiers searching elaborate cave complexes along the Pakistan border found jail cells and dossiers complete with photographs and fingerprint samples.

After landing at Bagram air base Saturday aboard waves of Chinook helicopters, men from the 101st Airborne Division recounted the 5-day mission into the Zhawar Mountains that took them deep into enemy caves in a hunt for intelligence information before they destroyed the abandoned hide-outs.

The mission, dubbed Operation Mountain Lion, took about 500 troops to an area not far from where American forces battled Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in last month's Operation Anaconda. But the soldiers, many of whom fought in Anaconda, said this mission was different because of the absence of fighting and the feeling that they had found a key spot.

"The locals were saying these were the caves where Osama bin Laden was, and we were destroying munitions and felt like we were doing something important," said Capt. Lou Bauer, 29, of Windsor, N.Y.

U.S. and other allied special forces units have been in the area of Paktia province off and on in recent months, identifying cave hide-outs and looking for intelligence to be used in the hunt for al-Qaida and Taliban forces. Operation Mountain Lion was launched to send in a larger force go through caves inch-by-inch, remove all relevant information, then blow them up.

"A battalion of 500 searching is different from a few people," Maj. Bryan Hilferty, a U.S. military spokesman at Bagram, said. "So we thought from the intelligence and evidence we saw it was worthwhile for us to go back again."

The mission took the troops through a dry, narrow valley - like a creek-bed - between two mountains. The caves, some well-hidden and others with openings like small roman arches, opened onto the valley. The valley is a road for some locals, and soldiers described seeing sporadic traffic of people, camels, sheep, and one truck.

<img src="http://www.cnn.com/interactive/world/020..." width=400 height=300 align="left">CNN cameras accompanied soldiers of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division on Operation Mountain Lion, a mission to search and destroy caves once used al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan.

The troops searched and destroyed some 15 caves. Man-made and built into mountainsides, the caverns were interconnected and formed networks of tunnels. Bauer had drawn a map with pencil that went on for three pages, showing how one cave went some 1,000 feet deep.

<img src="http://www.cnn.com/interactive/world/020..." width=400 height=300 align="right"> When other methods did not work to destroy the caves, some of which were fortified with brick walls, steel beams and reinforced ceilings, Army engineers used C-4 explosives to bring them down, Bauer said.

The searches netted five trash bags full of documents, including folders that looked like dossiers, with photos and fingerprint samples attached. Soldiers also came across medical supplies, including syringes and antibiotics, rocket propelled grenades and, deep inside one cave - three cells with bars.

<img src="http://www.cnn.com/interactive/world/020..." width=400 height=300 align="left"> Hilferty would not comment on what was found in the documents nor the value of the other information, but said "everything that we find is significant."

The soldiers said they also encountered their share of mysteries that will now be up to intelligence officers to sort out.

In many caves they found white powder everywhere, and jars of it in an abandoned village nearby. Sitting on their duffel bags at Bagram, soldiers also wondered among one another about the purpose of a T-shaped trench, 3 feet wide and 5 feet deep, found in one cave.

Perhaps the most out-of-place item located was a copy of USA Today from May 17, 2001.

Local Afghans were friendly, the soldiers said, and there were anti-Taliban forces running checkpoints on many hilltops. An Associated Press photographer heard an Afghan soldier tell an American officer that some 800 al-Qaida and Taliban soldiers had regrouped a few miles away, just over the border, in Pakistan. The soldier, translating for his commander, complained that "the Pakistanis aren't doing anything about it."

The Pakistani government insists it is patrolling the border vigilantly.

The Americans encountered no hostility - neither from locals whose villages they trooped through nor from enemy forces. The only combat sounds they heard were those from locals celebrating one night, banging steel pipes, singing and firing off their guns.

On a search of the village of Shodiaka, which locals said had been recently abandoned, soldiers found made beds, children's books and food. Nearby, they came across a cemetery of hundreds of graves, marked by stones and colorful flags. In the cemetery was a small, clay building, just big enough for a table inside. Spread out on the table was a not-yet decomposed body, covered with brightly colored blankets.

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 1581. Apr 7, 2002 11:46 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Indonesia - Malaysia - Singapore - Philippines Front

In response to message posted by mitelo:

On the India-Pakistan Crisis thread we've been cheering Musharraf's closing Pak Islamic Madrassas and sending foreign students home to their own countries. But Singapore's Straits Times says "Hey - we don't want 'em back!". An analysis from 4/8 Straits Times Singapore's largest English newspaper:

Terrorism: Can S-E Asia be safe again?

By Lee Kim Chew

PAKISTAN'S President Pervez Musharraf, by shutting down madrasahs, or religious schools, in his campaign against Islamic militants and expelling thousands of unregistered foreign students, is, in effect, re-exporting an irksome problem.

The hordes of displaced Afghans, disillusioned Arabs and disenfranchised Rohingyas that he sends packing home are a combustible lot who had sought refuge and religious instruction in Pakistan's madrasahs.

These students are a problem for two main reasons: First, most of them have no marketable skills beyond Islamic knowledge and they are virtually unemployable.

Second, they have been indoctrinated with the ultra-conservative brand of Islam that the likes of the Taleban practise. As such, they are natural recruits for Osama bin Laden and those of his ilk.

By ridding Pakistan of these unwelcome guests, General Musharraf has passed the buck, as it were.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is among those in South-east Asia who will have to grapple with a growing number of these madrasah returnees.

He has a problem because Islamic students from Malaysia had enrolled in Pakistan's religious schools in droves over the past few years, and they now form the biggest group among the foreigners studying there.

The Malaysian government has no clue just how many of its nationals are in the madrasahs, which are unregulated and privately funded.

As of December last year, about 100 of the 3,500 foreign students attending religious schools in Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi are Malaysians, according to Indian security expert B. Raman of the Institute of Topical Studies in Chennai, India.

This is a rather conservative estimate, given the thousands of madrasahs with their hordes of unregistered foreign students in Pakistan.

Mr Juhaidi Yean Abdullah, an aide to Kelantan's Umno liaison chief Mustapa Mohamed, says these graduates often set up their own madrasahs when they return to Kelantan and Terengganu, the two east-coast states ruled by Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), as they are unable to get jobs.

It becomes a self-perpetuating problem when these Islamic schools produce yet more religious graduates to swell the ranks of the unemployable.

Marginalised, they could become disaffected Islamic militants and radicalise Malaysian politics.

Is this, then, an Islamic fundamentalist time-bomb in the making?

PAS (Malaysia's Islamic Party) shrugs off the problem as it supports the madrasahs, now a principal means of propagating its political influence as it seeks to turn Malaysia into an Islamic theocracy.

Much as the federal government wants to, it is unable to control the madrasahs in Kelantan and Terengganu as they are PAS-affiliated and come under the purview of the state authorities.

Says Mr Juhaidi: 'This is not just about Parti Islam and its political influence. It's about fanaticism and the militant tendencies of students who are taught in these madrasahs.

'That's the danger. In fact, some of them who graduate from the madrasahs ask: Why work for a government in Kuala Lumpur which is kafir (infidel)?'

There is little dispute that Pakistan's madrasahs, which also admit scores of radical Muslims from the southern Philippines and Rohingyas from Myanmar's Arakan region, promote Islamic militancy.

Besides religious lessons, they teach their students how to kidnap, wage war and use firearms and explosives.

It is this, more so than just an increase in the ranks of the unemployed, that gives countries that have to take back madrasah graduates from Pakistan the bigger headache.

The Philippine government tackles the problem by letting American troops into Mindanao to support its military operations against the Abu Sayyaf rebels, who have links with Osama's Al-Qaeda outfit.

Myanmar's secretive military junta, in contrast, keeps the problem of the Rohingya Muslims under wraps.

Whether the generals admit it or not, the Rohingyas they have disowned pose a grave security threat to Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist government.

There is yet another factor that aggravates the region's security problems - the sleeper agents whom Osama deploys in his terrorist war against the US.

Mr Raman said: 'Osama recruits people, he motivates them.

'He gives them money, he gives them training, and he asks them to cultivate local support.

'But he tells them to lie low. When he needs their support, he activates them.'

Against this backdrop, Indonesia's reluctance to act against militants such as Abu Bakar Bashir, an Osama supporter, leaves a gaping hole in regional security.

Osama's modus operandi is to work through intermediaries.

He uses local people who can give him logistical support, shelter and contacts when he launches an operation.

Which is why he tries to recruit people locally in different countries.

According to Mr Raman, Al-Qaeda - an exclusively Arab and Saudi-centric organisation of some 600 members - has contacts in South-east Asia.

It operates directly, if not through the International Islamic Front, which links pan-Islamic organisations from six countries.

Pakistan's Harkat-ul-Mujahideen has active links with radical Islamic elements in South-east Asia through the Abu Sayyaf group.

But this pervasive secret network is hard to detect even when Asean countries exchange intelligence.

Another security expert, Dr Rohan Gunaratna of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, notes that although Al-Qaeda's network in the US, Europe and East Africa has been broken, its cells and support structures in Asia are largely intact.

In Malaysia, Al-Qaeda is believed to have political ties with PAS and military links with Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia.

Al-Qaeda has also tried to develop relations with several Indonesian Islamic radical groups, including Laskar Jihad.

Mr Raman, who was here recently for a seminar organised by the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, told The Straits Times: 'Osama practises punishment terrorism directed against the US and Israel.

'He operates anywhere and whenever he thinks conditions are favourable for the success of his operations.

'For example, he may not view Singapore as anti-Islam, but if he thinks that the conditions in Singapore are favourable for him because he has local support to launch a successful operation, he would not hesitate.'

Similarly, Osama does not see Manila as an enemy of Islam, but as an oppressor of its Muslim nationals and a surrogate of the US.

Malaysia is considered as inadequately Islamic, but it has Osama's approval for keeping its distance from the US, he adds. 'Singapore is an important place as a target for Osama because of the visible American presence here.'

Osama's decision whether or not to strike will depend on his assessment of the effectiveness of the security apparatus in Singapore.

'If it is effective, he would not launch his operation from here. He would go somewhere else.'

He thinks Al-Qaeda still has enough funds for at least another two years, even though the bank accounts linked to it have been frozen.

'The Taleban government has fallen, but the war is not won yet...Osama's recruiting ground is everywhere. Al-Qaeda does not have to go to Malaysia to recruit.

'It can go to the madrasahs in Karachi, even now.'

This is an unsettling thought.

Can South-east Asia ever be safe again in such a grim set-up?

...Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 1582. Apr 8, 2002 6:52 PM

» rasputin101 - Saddam may have fired the first shot

.
from the April 09, 2002 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0409/p01s0...

US vs. Iraq: Saddam may have fired the first shot
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
SALAHUDDIN, NORTHERN IRAQ, AND PARIS - An assassination attempt against a leading pro-Western Kurdish leader in northern Iraq underscores the risk that the US and its allies are taking as they weigh options to topple Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.

The wily Iraqi leader – long the nemesis of Washington – may not wait for the US and its allies to make the first move. Kurdish sources say that Ansar al-Islam, a radical Kurdish Islamist group, last week targeted Barham Salih – the erudite, pro-Western prime minister of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The group is reportedly supported by Mr. Hussein and has links with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

At the time of the attack, a US diplomatic delegation, led by Ambassador Ryan Crocker, was visiting. One Kurdish source says Mr. Crocker "could hear the gunfight very clearly." Five bodyguards and two of the attackers were killed in the 10-minute exchange at Mr. Salih's house. Salih was apparently "saved" by a telephone call he received just seconds before stepping out the door.

Kurds have made no secret of their willingness to serve alongside American units if the US decides to oust Hussein. This attack, experts say, could have been a message to the US delegation, or one to the Kurdish leaders, à la Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Masood, who was killed by representatives of Osama bin Laden just days before the Sept. 11 attacks.

"It's not clear yet whether this was a preplanned hit against [Salih], or as a show of challenge to the US team present," says a Kurdish source who requested anonymity.

Mr. Crocker's visit is the second – to put diplomatic and military pieces of the puzzle in place – since he made an initial appraisal of the US-protected safe area of northern Iraq last December.

Kurdish sources in Iraq tell the Monitor that there are comparisons to this assassination attempt and a successful one carried out by Ansar al-Islam in February last year against Franso Hariri – the top Christian politician in the region. In both cases, a taxi was purchased two days before the shooting; the same name was used both times to buy the car.

One surviving attacker, now in Kurdish custody, according to columnist William Safire in the New York Times, said a cadre of "60 Islamic terrorists, trained in Afghanistan by Osama bin Laden" were assigned to infiltrate northern Iraq and "kill Kurdish leaders."

And a defiant Hussein urged Arabs on Sunday to strike at US interests, after President Bush warned that "all options" were on the table. "Half your air defense capacity is destroyed. You fight with the other half, and if the other half is destroyed, you fight with daggers."

Kurds say that this attack was a brutal message, one that says Kurds are increasingly vulnerable as they prepare for any military action. But they also say this isn't likely to change their minds.

Still, Kurdish leaders are concerned about any new alliance because of past failed alliances with the US. Before taking part in any future US mission, Kurdish leaders want ironclad guarantees that any future US mission will be seen through to the end; that their people will be protected and emerge with self-rule at least as strong as what they enjoy today; and that they will not be betrayed again.

Kurdish guerrilla Hasko Aziz will never forget the heady days of mid-February 1991, after the Gulf War, when then-President George Bush called on "the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands." Mr. Aziz was among the first to enter Rania – the first Kurdish town to be "liberated" in the uprising following the Gulf War.

"People were dancing in the street, shouting, and shooting at pictures of Saddam Hussein," says Aziz, a commander the time. "This gave us great hope to continue and liberate all of Kurdistan."

Indeed, throughout March 1991, Kurdish forces in the north and Shiite Muslim rebels in the south – driven in part by what they believed to be a promise of support from the US to help them depose Hussein – took control of large regions of Iraq.

But hope of US intervention evaporated quickly, as Hussein's Army counterattacked, and US aircraft watched but did nothing.

For Aziz, the most devastating moment came only weeks after the Rania jubilation. He watched as Iraqi helicopters emerged over the horizon from the city of Arbil, and swept across the rolling green fields toward his position, flushing out columns of desperate refugees.

"We will not be hired guns," says Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, when asked before the assassination attempt if Kurds would trust the US again. "The experiences we have seen have given us lessons. We want concrete assurances on the future of the Kurdish people. An overt, serious, and clear US policy would make sure these tragedies are not repeated."

Jalal Talabani, leader of the PUK, also interviewed before the Salih assassination attempt, says: "Tomorrow if America comes with a real guarantee, we will trust. If they come with only words, we will not."

But trust is a relative term in Kurdistan. Both Kurdish factions say they are grateful that the US has enforced a "safe haven" in northern Iraq, allowing them to begin building their own pseudo-state.

But both Mr. Barzani and Mr. Talabani led forces during the failed 1991 uprising. And Barzani's father, Mustafa, made an American-guaranteed deal with the Iranians to fight Baghdad in the early 1970s, but in 1975 then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger abandoned the Kurds overnight when the Shah of Iran struck a separate accord with the Iraqi leadership.

As the Kurds draw lessons from these cases of realpolitik – and seek ironclad guarantees – there are lessons today for Americans, too, says Anthony Cordesman, a regional strategist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This is a very dangerous game to play unless you realize that pawns can be sacrificed," says Mr. Cordesman. "If you don't want to sacrifice them, you shouldn't play with these pieces."

"We've got to remember that if we start anything here and fail, the implications in the region will be devastating," he adds.

-- posted by rasputin101

Top 1583. Apr 9, 2002 11:33 AM

» BPyles - Abu Zubaydah

Sec. Rumsfeld's best quote - to date: "I don't know that I want to give a day-to-day report on how enthusiastic he is about his situation."
---------------------------

Captured al Qaeda leader 'not well'

WASHINGTON (CNN) --Captured al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah is ill, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday. "He is not well," Rumsfeld told reporters. "He's got several bullet holes in him that may very likely have been fired by some of the people with him. And how fast he'll recover and when he'll start cooperating, time will tell."

Zubaydah is recovering from gunshot wounds to the groin, thigh and stomach he suffered when he tried to flee during a Pakistani raid two weeks ago, according to U.S. officials. They described his condition as "stable and improving."

Pakistani authorities turned him over to U.S. custody.

U.S. officials have said little about what they are learning from Zubaydah, where he is being held or about his capture.

But sources close to the terrorism investigation said Monday that, contrary to a report in Newsweek, it was not information from Ibn Al Shayk al Libi that led investigators to Zubaydah.

Al Libi, a trainer in the al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, is in Egyptian custody. It is
unclear when he was transferred from U.S. custody. The sources said al Libi is providing information to interrogators, but they refrained from calling it cooperation.

Asked whether Zubaydah is cooperating, Rumsfeld said, "I don't know that I want to give a day-to-day report on how enthusiastic he is about his situation."

Last week, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Zubaydah's arrest "assists in helping prevent another terrorist attack," but offered no details.

Rumsfeld said last week that access to individuals such as Zubaydah -- described as being in charge of al Qaeda operations and responsible for recruiting new members -- helps in "intelligence-gathering." He said Zubaydah was "a man who knows about additional terrorist acts."

Sources said material gathered from safe houses in the raids where Zubaydah and other leaders were arrested in Pakistan is providing hundreds of leads to investigators.

The material includes names of recruits, phone numbers, and computer disks. At least two of those arrested with Zubaydah are considered his top lieutenants and are being interrogated, officials said.

Zubaydah, a Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia, is also wanted by Jordan, which indicted him for his alleged role in a thwartedmillennium bomb plot.

-- posted by BPyles