EXCERPT
Swiss hold 8 over Saudi suicide bombs
Alison Langley in Zurich, and Brian Whitaker
Saturday January 10, 2004
The Guardian
The Swiss authorities have arrested eight people in connection with suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia.
The arrests on Thursday were part of a national operation by 100 police officers who raided homes in Geneva, Bern, Zurich, Vaud and Aargau and questioned about 20 suspects.
Those arrested are suspected of providing logistical support for a series of attacks by Islamic militants on housing compounds in Riyadh last May which killed 35 people, including nine assailants.
Officials said all the suspects were foreigners, but refused to disclose their nationality or give any other details.
The investigation is thought to have been triggered by the arrest in Pakistan last March of Khaled Sheikh Muhammad, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. "Inquiries identified incoming and outgoing calls from Khaled Sheikh's phone," the Saudi daily al-Watan reported last month.
As a result Swiss federal prosecutors obtained the names and phone numbers of people living in Switzerland who had been in contact with him.
The Swiss authorities then obtained court permission to listen in to relevant phones, according to court records ob tained by several Swiss newspapers. Andrea Sadecky, the spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office, would not say whether information from those calls led to the arrests.
A UN report last month criticised Switzerland for failing to prevent support reaching Osama bin Laden's network and the Afghan Taliban. It alleged that Switzerland was being used as a revolving door for weapons smuggling and that money for terrorism was passing through the country.
The report focused on two businessmen in Switzerland, Youssef Nada, an Egyptian, and Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, of Ethiopian descent. Both are linked to businesses allegedly involved in financing al-Qaida.
Last month the Swiss authorities found evidence linking Bin Laden and al-Qaida's alleged deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to Swiss bank accounts during the 1990s.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,1119964,00.htmlEXCERPT
Russia hesitant to seize materials terrorists desire
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
(January 10, 2004)
Russia is reluctant to join an 11-nation U.S.-led effort to seize illegal shipments of nuclear and other proliferation materials that could fall in the hands of terrorists, senior U.S. officials said yesterday.
Even though discussions are still in their initial stage, the officials said the Russians are not yet convinced of the legality and merits of the plan, known as the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and proposed by President Bush in the spring.
"They are not ready to join the process," a senior State Department official who asked not to be named told reporters. "They are interested but are raising a lot of questions."
Russia, which has a big navy despite its decline since the Soviet Union's collapse more than a decade ago, would be an "important player" in the PSI, the official said.
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http://washingtontimes.com/world/20040109-085154-4217r.htm