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Thread Six: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1109459/posts |
Posted on 03/12/2004 8:23:06 PM PST by thecabal
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This week's deadly train bombings in Spain will not lead to a rise in the U.S. color-coded terror threat alert system, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Friday.
"Based on the current intelligence, we have no specific indicators that terrorist groups are considering such an attack in the U.S. in the near term," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
US Credibility Hurt, Survey Finds - Washington Post
Gap Grows Between US, World Public Opinion - Common Dreams
British support for Iraq war tumbles - Ireland On Line
16/03/2004 - 19:35:23
British public support for the war in Iraq has dropped to 43%, from 61% last May at the end of that war, according to a poll released tonight.
The Pew Global Attitudes Project survey found, however, that a slight majority of Britons, 51%, viewed British Prime Minister Tony Blair favourably.
He got higher ratings in the United States (75%) and lower ones in France, Germany and Russia (35, 33 and 36%, respectively).
But 41% of Britons thought Mr Blair had lied about weapons of mass destruction.
President George Bush got 39% approval among Britons, 15% among the French and 14% among Germans.
In the United States, support for the Iraq war dropped to 60%, from 74% in May.
Germans, French and Russians all continued to support their countries’ decisions to oppose the war, by 86, 88 and 88% respectively.
Most Britons, 56%, said they wanted Western Europe to be more independent of the United States, and 50% said they thought a European Union equal in power to the United States would be good.
The poll, conducted by the Washington-based group, found that a majority of people in Germany, France and Russia shared those views.
British support for a more powerful EU dropped to 41%, however, if Europe would have to finance its increased responsibility in international matters.
Most Americans surveyed, 55%, preferred a close US-European partnership, not a more independent Europe, and 50% felt that an EU as powerful as the United States would be bad.
Only the French, among the countries surveyed, felt that the world would be safer if another country were as powerful as the United States, with 54% expressing that view.
Just under half of Britons (43%) felt that would make the world more dangerous.
In Germany, France and Britain, views of the United States were less positive than they had been in May at the end of the Iraq war, but more positive than a year ago, when that war started.
In Germany and France, however, more people held negative than positive views of the United States.
A majority in each country held favourable views of the American people, as distinct from the US government.
Most Americans, 73%, viewed Britain favourably, while 12% held unfavourable views of the country.
Those figures compare with 50% of Americans who held favourable views of Germany, but just 33% who held favourable views of France and 39% with positive views of the EU.
Britons expressed confidence in the United Nations, with 64% giving it a favourable rating.
That compares with favourable ratings from 55% of Americans, 71% of Germans, 67% of the French and 60% of Russians.
And 82% of Britons thought the UN best suited to help form a stable Iraqi government, as did 82% in France and 84% in Germany.
Britons were divided on the claims by British and US officials that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, with 48% saying the leaders were misinformed and 41% saying they lied.
Half of Britons felt the Iraq war had hurt the fight against terrorism.
Just 30% of people surveyed in Britain felt the coalition was doing a good job of rebuilding Iraq, but Britons, like other Western Europeans and Americans, felt strongly that Iraqis would be better off in the long run because of Saddam Hussein’s ouster.
The poll, taken before last week’s train bombings in Madrid that killed 200 people, showed that 63% of Britons favoured the US led fight against terrorism.
Just over half said those efforts had been sincere, but 41% thought they were motivated by a desire to control Middle East oil or to dominate the world.
Cal I thought the media would help Kerry out today after that Boston Globe correction appeared. I thought that the author of the article would at least be interviewed by now. And on top of that Kerry is doing nothing to help himself, so hey.
Yes it does Revel. They have 1,100 troops over there, I don't know in what capacity.
Saudi Arabia's security forces have killed a man identified as one of al-Qaida's chiefs of operations. Khaled Ali Haj was known as the "most dangerous" al-Qaida operative in the region, is ninth on Saudi Arabia's list of 26 most wanted terror suspects PDF
and once served as a body guard to Osama bin Laden. A U.S. counterterrorism official said Haj's killing was a "major, very significant blow" to al-Qaida.
Saudi Arabia says killing of local al-Qaida chief shows success of anti-terror effort - By Associated Press - Tuesday, March 16, 2004
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia is making progress in its campaign against terrorism, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said Tuesday - a day after security forces killed the suspected chief of al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula.
The suspected militant was shot dead with an alleged accomplice in a Monday afternoon clash at a checkpoint in eastern Riyadh, the capital.
Saudi Arabia says its security forces killed an al-Qaida leader in shootout in the capital
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's security forces have killed a man identified as al-Qaida's chief of operations on the Arabian Peninsula.
The man was killed with another alleged militant in a shootout Monday in the capital, U.S. and Saudi officials said.
The Saudi Interior Ministry identified the alleged chief of operations as Khaled Ali Haj, a Yemeni and the other militant as Ibrahim bin Abdul-Aziz bin Mohammed al-Mezeini, a Saudi.
Haj, who also uses the name Abu Hazim al-Sha'ir, was the ``most dangerous'' al-Qaida operative in the region, a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He once served as a body guard to Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida.
How the Khilaafah will be restored & Man-made law destroyed" -- Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad in London
14 March 2004. This chilling image is prominently displayed on a London-based Jihadi website advertising a conference of Islamists which was held in London on March 3, 2004. The English-language website, Al-Muhajiroun, is operated by an organization led by Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad.
The conference was held in commemoration of the eightieth anniversary of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
Although this Al-Qaeda related group is based in London, it has branches here in the United States. On their activities page, it clearly states at the top "..::MAIN EVENT IN NEW YORK, USA::..". According to the graphic below, events were still being held in the United States as recently as February 22, 2004.
What?! OMG! Pegita, prayers for London please!
One of the detained suspects, centre hooded, alleged to be connected to the train bomb attacks in Madrid last March 11 is seen outside the Nuevo Siglo telephone calling centre in Madrid Tuesday March 16, 2004 accompanied by two plain clothed police officers. The police took the unidentified suspect, already under arrest, to the telephone calling center where they made a search and took away various items. The telephone calling centre is where Jamal Zougam of Morocco, who Moroccan officials believe haslinks to al-Qaida worked before he was detained in connection with the bombings. (AP Photo/ EFE, Ballesteros)
Six Moroccans Suspected in Madrid Blasts
By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain - Police reportedly now suspect at least six Moroccans took part in the Madrid train bombings, and the United States is assisting a growing international investigation that is increasingly focused on Islamic militants possibly linked to al-Qaida.
A 45-year-old woman died of her injuries Tuesday, raising the death toll from Thursday's bombings to 201. Of the more than 1,600 wounded, eight are in critical condition.
Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela led a Mass at Madrid's cathedral Tuesday night remembering the victims of the bloodiest terrorist attack in Spain's history.
"The tragic attacks of March 11 have sunk us all into deep pain," intoned Varela, a huge black ribbon hanging from a wall above the altar. "To kill your own kind, to kill a brother, is to attack God himself."
The main suspect in custody in the attacks, Moroccan immigrant Jamal Zougam, has already been identified by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon as a follower of Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of Spain's al-Qaida cell who is jailed on suspicion he helped plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The daily newspaper El Pais reported Tuesday that police believe they have identified five other Moroccans who directly participated in the attacks and are at large. Spain's Interior Ministry refused comment.
Two people who were traveling on one of the attacked trains have said that Zougam was aboard just before the bombs began exploding, El Pais said.
With signs that the bombings were carried out by Islamic extremists who operate and have confederates in several countries, FBI agents are helping Spanish police in using fingerprints and names to seek a full picture of Zougam and four other suspects in custody, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said in Washington.
Spanish police have also arrested two more Moroccans and two Indians, but their possible role in the attacks has not been specified. European countries were searching their databases for any information pertinent to the attack.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "it's increasingly likely Islamic extremists were involved in these attacks. In terms of assigning responsibility, it isn't clear."
"It's not clear who these groups were," the official said, referring to whether they had links to al-Qaida and other extremist groups or even to the Basque separatist group ETA.
A suspected link between the Madrid bombings and suicide bomb attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, last year grew stronger Tuesday when French private investigator Jean-Charles Brisard described a phone tap in which Zougam said he had met with Mohamed Fizazi, the spiritual leader of Salafia Jihadia, a clandestine Moroccan extremist group.
Salafia Jihadia is suspected of involvement in the Casablanca attack, which killed 33 people and 12 bombers and has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.
Brisard told The Associated Press the tapped call is cited in a lengthy report written for Garzon's inquiry of the Sept. 11 attacks. Brisard, who is helping investigate the Sept. 11 attacks for lawyers representing some victims' families, has a copy of the report.
The Garzon document says that in the August 2001 monitored phone call, Zougam told Yarkas: "On Friday, I went to see Fizazi and I told him that if he needed money we could help him with our brothers," Brisard said.
Fizazi was among 87 people sentenced in Morocco in August in a trial that centered on the Casablanca attacks. Fizazi received a 30-year sentence after being convicted of preaching radical Islam in mosques and meeting with the Casablanca attack's perpetrators.
Police in the Basque city of San Sebastian, meanwhile, said they detained an Algerian who allegedly talked about a terrorist attack in Madrid two months before it happened.
Ali Amrous, an apparent indigent, was picked up Monday to learn if he had advance knowledge of the attacks, police said. He was first arrested in January after a neighborhood disturbance and while being questioned told police, "We will fill Madrid with the dead," according to authorities.
He was expected to be brought to Madrid for questioning. Police said they did not believe Amrous had any contacts with ETA, which the government initially blamed for the attacks.
Authorities have been tracking Islamic extremist activity in Spain since the mid-1990s and say it was an important staging ground, along with Germany, for the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Madrid attacks are now one death short of the 202 killed in October 2002 in the nightclub bombing in Bali — blamed on an al-Qaida-linked group — which was the deadliest terror attack since Sept. 11, 2001.
___
Associated Press writer John Leicester contributed to this report from Madrid.
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