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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 ...
By AHSANULLAH WAZIR, Associated Press Writer
WANA, Pakistan - Pakistani forces discovered a mile-long tunnel leading from a besieged mud fortress to a dry stream bed, and said Monday the secret passage may have allowed top al-Qaida suspects to escape toward the Afghan frontier.
The revelation came as Pakistani authorities began DNA tests to identify foreign terrorists killed in the weeklong offensive in South Waziristan, where thousands of troops have been battling hundreds of die-hard militants.
Forces first found a tunnel connecting the heavily fortified compounds of two tribal elders — Nek Mohammed and Sharif Khan — who have been leading supporters of some 500-600 foreign terrorists, said Brig. Mahmood Shah, chief of security for the tribal areas.
From that passage, they found the mile-long tunnel running under the town of Kaloosha, about nine miles from the Afghan border, to a dry stream bed on the edge of the craggy, treacherous mountains that straddle the frontier.
"There is a possibility that the tunnel may have been used at the start of the operation," Shah told journalists in Peshawar, the provincial capital.
Three senior officials have told The Associated Press that they believe al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri may have been at the site, though the government has repeatedly said it does not know who is inside. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that a "high-value" target was likely involved.
The tunnel, which undoubtedly took months to construct, was another indication an important fugitive was in the area at some point. South Waziristan is considered the most likely hideout for al-Zawahri and his boss, terror chief Osama bin Laden.
The Pakistani military has clamped a 20-square-mile cordon around Kaloosha and several other tribal towns in South Waziristan, and say they are confident nobody has escaped the area.
But the cordon did not exist at the disastrous start of the operation Mar. 16, when Pakistani forces who thought they were going to arrest local tribesmen were surprised by a ferocious barrage from within the compound walls. Fifteen soldiers and 26 militants died in the initial assault; the military sent in thousands of reinforcements over the following two days.
Pakistan's military said it was conducting DNA tests to identify six suspected foreign terrorists killed in the fighting, but would not elaborate on whether they included any important terror figure.
Five bodies of what appeared to be 25- to 30-year-old men were displayed to journalists late Sunday at a military mortuary in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian surgeon, is 52 years old.
The bodies were laid out on stretchers and in open coffins in bloodied clothes.
Military officials said they were all foreigners, but it was impossible for journalists to determine their nationalities. They said the sixth body had decomposed and that it would have been inhumane to show it.
"At this moment, whatever information we have about the tests we would not like to give out until we are 200 percent sure who they are," army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told a press conference.
"For us, every foreigner who is caught or killed is important, because we do not know who they are," Sultan told AP earlier. "We took the decision to do DNA tests to confirm the identities of these people."
"I cannot say if any among them is al-Zawahri," he said.
The developments came as Gen. John Abizaid, leader of U.S. Central Command, made a visit to Pakistan. Sultan said Abizaid met with a top Pakistani army official, and insisted the trip had nothing to do with the offensive in Waziristan.
Abizaid's last known visit to Pakistan came on Jan. 16, when he met with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. That trip was just a week after the last major operation by Pakistan's military in South Waziristan.
In that operation, Ahmad Said al-Kadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian citizen suspected of being a top al-Qaida financier, was killed along with seven other suspects.
In Wana on Monday, an 18-member tribal peace delegation crossed through the military cordon for talks with elders of the Yargul Khel tribe, believed to be fighting alongside the al-Qaida militants.
The delegation carried a white flag and brought with it three government demands for the fighters: free 12 soldiers and two government officials taken captive last week; hand over tribesmen involved in the fighting; and kick out any foreigners or show the military where to track them down.
Shah said that "in light of the past experience we are not very hopeful" the delegation would succeed.
Some 5,000-6,000 Pakistani forces have been fighting 400-500 foreign militants and tribesmen in what has become Pakistan's largest military operation in its tribal regions since the government threw its support behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism in late 2001.
Shah said 123 suspects have been arrested in the week-old offensive. He said the homes of 13 tribesmen accused of harboring the terrorists were leveled on Sunday and Monday. Security officials say their prisoners included Pakistanis, Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and ethnic Uighurs from China's predominantly Muslim Xinjiang province.
___
Associated Press reporters Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Paul Haven in Islamabad contributed to this report.
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Monday it was troubled by Israel's killing of Ahmed Yassin, a founder of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, and said it had no advance warning of the attack.
While not condemning Israel's attack, the State Department said it increases tensions and would make it harder to pursue peace in the Middle East. "We are troubled," spokesman Richard Boucher. However, he did not directly condemn Israel's killing of the spiritual leader of Hamas as he left a mosque in Gaza.
Still, Secretary of State Colin Powell intended to discuss the stymied peacemaking process in a meeting with visiting Israel Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom that had been scheduled weeks ago.
The killing of the Hamas leader raised fears of possible retaliation against the United States. "Anytime threats are made against the United States, we take them seriously," a U.S. counterterrorism official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
U.S. counterterrorism officials said they would watch closely after Hamas said it would also hold the United States responsible for the attack.
Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, said Israel gave the United States no advance warning of the attack. And Boucher said no one in the U.S. government had been informed before Israel killed Yassin and two of his body guards with a missile attack.
Bush administration officials urged restraint on both sides in the conflict, while European nations and the United Nations flatly condemned Israel.
Rice said she knew of no consultations between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush about any plan to target the sheik, who helped found the group in 1987.
But Rice, asked about U.S. reaction to the attack during an interview on NBC's "Today" show, said: "Let's remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that Sheik Yassin has himself, personally, we believe, been involved in terrorist planning."
Denouncing Yassin as "the godfather of suicide bombers," Foreign Minister Shalom said Israel was doing everything it could to coordinate with the United States. But, he told reporters after meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney, "it didn't include this action."
Shalom called the attack "pure self-defense in order to protect our people."
Interviewed by Israel TV Channel 2, he said, "Israel is an independent, sovereign country that on defense issues reaches decisions independently."
By contrast to the U.S. response, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the assassination "is unacceptable, it is unjustified and it is very unlikely to achieve its objectives," and other European foreign ministers and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned it as a violation of international law.
After the killing, Hamas directly threatened the United States — something it usually does not do — saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible. "All the Muslims of the world will be honored to join in on the retaliation for this crime," Hamas said in a statement.
In the past, Hamas has insisted that its fight is against Israel and has refrained from targeting U.S. citizens or interests, instead focusing on fund-raising and recruitment within the United States, according to senior federal law enforcement officials. Investigations regarding Hamas in this country have focused mostly on front companies and charities that funnel millions of dollars to the terrorist group.
Earlier this year, FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress that Hamas was a threat within the United States but had not demonstrated it would act violently.
At the White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said it was important for "the parties to exercise maximum restraint."
"We urge everyone to remain calm in the region," he said. "Our policy remains the same" — that those on both sides be aware of the consequences of their actions, McClellan told a White House briefing.
"There was no warning given to us," McClellan said.
Yassin was killed with seven other people early Monday as he left a mosque in the Gaza Strip. The killing also sparked larger, more violent demonstrations throughout the Hamas stronghold of Gaza.
Rice said, "It is very important that everyone step back and try now to be calm in the region."
"There is always a possibility of a better day in the Middle East and some of the things that are being talked about by the Israelis, about disengagement from areas, might provide new opportunities," she said. "And so I would hope that nothing will be done that would preclude those new opportunities from emerging."
A week ago, the Bush administration had warned that meaningful peace talks progress in Mideast peacemaking would be very difficult unless Palestinian leaders cracked down on terror groups. This followed two suicide bombings in Israel.
Message #44:
From: caveofdarkness
Date: Mon Mar 22, 2004 5:45am
Subject: Israel’s and American pigs, you have opened the gates of hell
From the heart of Al-Qaida and the mojahideen to the heart of the Palestinian people and to the Muslim Umma, we send our condolence's to the death of the warrior shaikh Ahmad Yasseen. Israel will not pay for his death alone, America and the rest of the west will pay for backing up of Israel. What Israel and America don't understand is that when ever a leader like shaikh Ahmad Yasseen is assassinated a thousand new leaders are born! This is an Umma that never dies thanks to God almighty. Punishment will follow soon, but this time it will be from all the Muslims at once, in other words Al-Qaida's surprise is coming and we will have a word in the heart of Israel, and you will see soon. Israel's and American pigs, you have opened the gates of hell
Alaah akbaar
Daleel_Almojahid
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Thousands of Palestinians in occupied Iraq (news - web sites) vowed to avenge Israel's killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, saying the battle against the "enemy" was now in a decisive phase.
Joined by members of Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Muslim parties, the Palestinian refugees living in Iraq marched in eastern Baghdad venting their rage against Israel and "treacherous" Arab regimes.
"Sheikh Yassin have no fear, we will redeem you with our blood," pledged the men, women and children who emerged from Al-Qods (Jerusalem) Mosque and marched to the headquarters of the PLO-affiliated National Palestine Movement in Iraq.
They denounced the United States and Israel as "enemies of God", and slammed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who ordered the air attack which killed Yassin as a "butcher" whose crime would not go unpunished.
"I expect huge intifadas (uprisings) to break out in Palestine, across Israel and in the Arab countries. The fires will reduce the enemy to ashes," Hajj Hamza al-Juburi of the Hawza, Iraq's Shiite religious authority, told AFP.
Sheikh Saad al-Juburi of the Iraqi Association of Sunni Ulemas accused Sharon of having killed off the Middle East peace process and said Yassin's assassination would have "very bad repercussions for our region".
The clerics locked arms with leaders of the 30,000-strong Palestinian community which decreed three days of mourning for Yassin, a paraplegic cleric whose killing by Israel was seen here as a wake-up call for Arab leaders.
"Our Arab regimes in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, all of them are rotten to the core because they are bowing to American pressure," said 71-year-old Rafic Fares, a refugee from Haifa.
Anaam Khaled, whose family like many Palestinian refugees in Iraq was uprooted from Haifa after Israel's creation in 1948, said Sharon's "criminal aggression will not stop us from doing our duties to recover Palestine."
Another mourner in the cortege that was preceded by armed men from the Hawza who fired a few rounds into the air when a mock coffin draped in the Palestinian flag was produced, said Yassin's death was a painful day.
"The Jews are criminals who robbed us of our rights and now they killed Sheikh Yassin. They say we are terrorists when all along they are the God of terror," said Hassan Othman.
Palestinian community leaders told AFP the death of Yassin was a "tragedy" and a turning-point in the struggle to recover Palestinian statehood.
"We are not members of Hamas. We belong to the Palestine Liberation Organisation. But this abject murder will strengthen our resolve and ranks against Israel," said their leader Qusay al-Madi.
"This is not Hamas' battle alone. It is a decisive battle because the enemy (Israel) has overstepped the limits," said Anwar al-Sheikh, a member of the Palestinian National Movement in Iraq.
"The retaliation will be thunderous. Even the trees in the Zionist entity will be uprooted," he said, although he did not expect any violence to occur in Iraq.
Rassmiya Abdel Sayyed, who lives in a UN-supplied tent at the sports compound where Palestinians began receiving condolences for Yassin, said Arab leaders were to blame for failing to stand steadfastly with the Palestinians.
"The Arab leaders pretend to be helping us but they are only interested in keeping their seats" of power, she said.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been dislodged from their homes since the US-led war in Iraq launched a year ago and 40 families still live in desperate conditions at the Haifa Club Palestinian sporting club.
For Wissam Abu Ibrahim, a Hamas member deported by Israel from Gaza for taking part in anti-Israeli activities, the time has come to return to the field of battle.
Sharon "has opened wide the door to war. We will fight Israel inside and outside its borders," said the 39-year-old, whose wife and six children still live in Gaza.
By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT, Lebanon - The largely dormant Lebanese-Israeli front erupted in fighting Monday, with Hezbollah guerrillas shelling Israeli positions in a disputed area and Israel retaliating with airstrikes.
The escalation, the first since January, came amid outrage in the Arab world after Israeli missiles killed Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas, earlier Monday.
Lebanese officials said Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets and mortar shells at Israeli military outposts inside the disputed Chebaa Farms area near the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel.
Hezbollah's Al Manar television reported that Hezbollah fighters attacked "the Zionist occupation positions in the occupied Lebanese Chebaa Farms."
In a statement to The Associated Press, Hezbollah linked the attack to Yassin's assassination, saying it attacked "all Zionist enemy positions in the Chebaa Farms, using direct weapons and rockets and scoring direct hits."
It said the targeted positions were Roueissat el-Alam, al-Samaka, Zibeddin, Roueissat al-Karn, al-Radar and Ramtha.
The Israeli army said its fighter jets were responding and troops also used artillery fire against suspected guerrilla hideouts near the Chebaa Farms. The army said Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles.
Lebanese officials said Israeli warplanes fired two missiles into valleys and mountainous areas near the villages of Kfar Chouba and Hilta, they said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Monday's was the first attack on the Chebaa Farms in five months.
On Oct. 27, 2003, Hezbollah guerrillas shelled Israeli positions in the Chebaa Farms, wounding an Israeli soldier and triggering Israeli airstrikes.
In the most recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli warplanes struck Hezbollah guerrilla bases in southern Lebanon after an Israeli soldier was killed and another wounded when Hezbollah guerrillas fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli military bulldozer that crossed into Lebanon.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which led a guerrilla war against Israel's 18-year occupation of a border zone in southern Lebanon that ended in 2000, occasionally attacks Israeli troops in the Chebaa Farms.
The Chebaa Farms is uninhabited farmland on the foothills of Mount Hermon that Lebanon, backed by Syria, claims as its own. Israel captured the territory when its forces seized Syria's Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war. The United Nations says the region is Syrian and that Syria and Israel should negotiate its fate.
Israel and the United States regard Hezbollah as a terrorist group, but Lebanon regards it as a legitimate resistance movement against Israeli occupation of Arab lands.
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