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Monday, June 13, 2005
Holes in story about California arrests
By Khalid Hasan
Washington: Experts continue to find holes in the FBI’s case against a California father and son, both of Pakistani extraction, and the existence of “terrorist training” camps around Rawalpindi.
Marvin Weinbaum, a South Asia expert at the Middle East Institute, expressed scepticism in an interview published by the San Francisco Chronicle at the weekend about the presence of a camp near Rawalpindi.
According to the newspaper, “The former State Department analyst expressed scepticism about the assertion in the original FBI affidavit, deleted from a later affidavit, that Hamid Hayat had been given a first-class tour of all the inner workings of terrorist camps and had seen ‘hundreds of attendees from various parts of the world.’
The presence of so many Arabs and Muslims from outside the region would be hard to hide, Weinbaum said. He also questioned the assertion that Hamid’s father, Umer Hayat, had visited ‘several operational training camps’ and ‘observed weapons and urban warfare training, physical training and classroom education.’ ‘You don’t share that information with trainees. You create tight cells,’Weinbaum said.
In addition, he said, ‘it is very difficult to approach these camps.’ But he added that there are Al Qaeda cells all over the country as well as militant training camps run by Pakistani and Kashmiri jihadi groups.”
The newspaper quoted Pakistan foreign office official Naeem Khan as having rejected the assertion. “There are no training camps in Pakistan,” he said. “We are the frontline state in the fight against terrorism. How could we allow such camps in our country?” The newspaper also quoted Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusafzai, who said it was “unlikely that even if such a camp existed it would be close to Rawalpindi.” He said two large training camps at Muridke and Mansehra had been dismantled after 9/11. They may have been established elsewhere, he added.
Michael Krepon, founder president of Stimson Centre, was, however, of the view that al Qaeda has long maintained a support network in Pakistan’s remote, mountainous border with Afghanistan, and most experts believe that clandestine training sites operated by different jihadi organisations are concentrated in the North-West Frontier Province, in Waziristan, in the Punjab and in Azad Kashmir.
The San Francisco Chronicle report said other allegations made by the FBI had also raised questions. “The government’s first affidavit said the training camp the Lodi man allegedly attended was operated by Maulana Fazlur Rehman. In a second affidavit, however, his name was omitted, and it is unclear what, if any, role Rehman has in the current investigation.”
Arnaud de Borchgrave, director of the Transnational Threat Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Rehman “used to brag that he was a friend of Osama bin Laden,” even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The veteran anti-Pakistan American journalist in the past has made several sweeping claims that have remained unproven, such as the declaration that Osama bin Laden is living in Peshawar city.
It is obvious that the FBI has confused two men with the same name: Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the JUI and Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil of the former Harkat al-Ansar. There is also much confusion about the arrest and “rendition” to the US of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who is not on the US wanted list of al Qaeda leaders but whom the Pakistan government has billed as the “No. 3 man in al Qaeda.”
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_13-6-2005_pg7_1
CAIRO, 13 June 2005 — Egyptian authorities yesterday released 163 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood who were among hundreds detained in a crackdown on the opposition movement during May protests, a judicial source said. Police arrested hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members during the protests for political reform and then jailed hundreds more in later demonstrations calling for the release of those held. An Interior Ministry source said 486 people were still being held for ties to the Brotherhood.
They include leading members of the group, which like other opposition groups says recent political reform by the government aims to secure power for the incumbents rather than allow more competition. The Brotherhood says a constitutional amendment replacing the old referendum on a single candidate for the post of president with a system allowing multi-candidate elections in fact aims to bar it from fielding a candidate.
To contest the election, the Brotherhood would have to win the approval of at least 65 members of Parliament and the support of members of other elected bodies, which are all dominated by the ruling party. Close to 200 have now been released but the movement’s main leaders remain behind bars, including secretary-general Mahmoud Ezzat and Issam Al-Iryan, another senior Brotherhood official.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65317&d=13&m=6&y=2005