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Al-Qaeda link to SA 'ludicrous'
News24

Posted on 08/03/2004 2:31:17 PM PDT by Ironfocus

Johannesburg - The government was urged on Tuesday to help two South Africans being detained in Pakistan on suspicion of being recruits of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

A Pakistani official said Abu Bakar and Zubair Ismail had told interrogators they had planned to attack tourist sites in Johannesburg.

Last week, the foreign affairs ministry named the two men as Feroze Ganchi, a medical doctor from Fordsburg, Johannesburg, and 20-year-old student Zubair Ismail, from Laudium, Pretoria.

The Media Review Network, an advocacy group which aims to dispel myths and stereotypes about Islam, urged the government and human rights organisations to insist on immediate access to the two South Africans.

MRN chairman Iqbal Jassat described the claims as "ludicrous".

The men were arrested last week in the eastern Pakistani city of Gujrat along with Tanzanian al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.

Fears of torture

Jassat questioned what possible motives the two could have had to plant explosives at tourist sites in Johannesburg.

"South Africa has resolutely stood by its principles that any action taken in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere must be done under the aegis of the United Nations or other multilateral organisations. Why should they risk alienating the South African government?" he said.

"This statement issued by the Pakistani intelligence, probably at the behest of their masters in the American Central Intelligence Agency/Mossad, surely cannot be considered by even the most dimwitted, as credible."

Jassat said he feared the two South Africans were being tortured into making the confessions.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; alqaedasouthafrica; muslims

1 posted on 08/03/2004 2:31:18 PM PDT by Ironfocus
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To: cyborg; Clive

Ping


2 posted on 08/03/2004 2:31:57 PM PDT by Ironfocus
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To: Ironfocus
Jassat said he feared the two South Africans were being tortured into making the confessions.

One can only hope.

Since we caught a Paki on the terrorist list with an SA passport, attempting to slip across the southern border (with $7,000 cash in her pocket) last week, I'd say there's a lot to explain.

3 posted on 08/03/2004 2:34:54 PM PDT by livius
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To: Ironfocus

The Media Review Network, an advocacy group which aims to dispel myths and stereotypes about Islam, urged the government and human rights organisations to insist on immediate access to the two South Africans.

** That's all I need to read.


4 posted on 08/03/2004 2:40:47 PM PDT by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: livius

Two words -- let's roll.


5 posted on 08/03/2004 2:45:22 PM PDT by jojodamofo
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To: Ironfocus

The ANC Red Communists, showing their true colors. Instead of being thankful, they say "why us, we are not allies of those Capitalist Pig Americans!" Many here in the West were all worked up about boycotting SA back before the ANC took power, but I think now it is really high time we boycott SA!


6 posted on 08/03/2004 3:32:22 PM PDT by GOP_1900AD (Stomping on "PC," destroying the Left, and smoking out faux "conservatives" - Right makes right!)
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To: livius

There is apparently concern that the fake passports were an inside job in SA. Now I must ask, was it perhaps a covert op, sanctioned by the Chi Com loving, Islamist bootlicking, West hating ANC?


7 posted on 08/03/2004 3:33:51 PM PDT by GOP_1900AD (Stomping on "PC," destroying the Left, and smoking out faux "conservatives" - Right makes right!)
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To: Ironfocus

South Africa is home to "Ask the Imam", a site where Islam proudly puts its bizarre obsession with bodily fluids, purity, self-absorbtion and violence on display every day - and this Imam is probably among the moderate ones.

It would be asking too much to believe that there aren't cockroaches among the crickets in South Africa.


8 posted on 08/03/2004 4:00:58 PM PDT by John Valentine ("The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein)
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To: GOP_1900AD
sanctioned by the Chi Com loving, Islamist bootlicking, West hating ANC?

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. SA is apparently "Counterfeit Passport Central" nowadays, so the government or some of its employees are clearly getting something out of the deal. And, despite all that we have done for SA over the years, the leftist government there hates us and always will, and it would not surprise me in the least if there's a bit of wink-wink, nudge-nudge when it comes to doing something that might injure us.

Thanks, UN, Bill C., World Council of Churches, etc.

9 posted on 08/03/2004 4:06:32 PM PDT by livius
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To: cyborg

** That's all I need to read


Exactly.


10 posted on 08/03/2004 4:39:07 PM PDT by Wolfhound777 (It's not our job to forgive them. Only God can do that. Our job is to arrange the meeting)
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