An Iraqi soldier Saturday during a search of a home in Mahmudiya. The search was part of Operation Lightning, an Iraqi effort to restore order. (Alan Chin for The New York Times)
Posted on 06/04/2005 5:48:51 PM PDT by Gucho
DES MOINES, Iowa About 700 Iowa Army National Guard soldiers are coming home and celebrations are being planned in a dozen towns.
National Guard spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Hapgood says ceremonies will be held tomorrow (Monday) at Camp Dodge in Des Moines, in Fort Dodge, Carroll, North Liberty, Davenport and Cedar Rapids. Ceremonies are also planned in Cedar Falls, Denison, Corning and Sioux City tomorrow.
The ceremonies begin tomorrow morning at 7:15 at Camp Dodge and will be held at varous times throughout the day, with the final one scheduled for 7:45 tomorrow night in Sioux City.
On Tuesday, soldiers returning home to Shenandoah will be honored at 11:30 a-m and Council Bluffs will hold a ceremony at noon.
Hapgood says the soldiers will be released to their families after the events.
The soldiers left home in February of 2004 for Fort Hood, Texas. They have been in Afghanistan for the past 13 months.
A senior Iraqi official managed to survive an assassination attempt in Baquba, after an improvised explosive device, or IED, detonated near him on his way to work.
Ali Hasani Ali, a city council member and city manager, walked away from the incident with only slight injuries.
Baquba is located 60 miles north of Baghdad.
In a separate incident, another IED believed to be targeting a US military convoy exploded on a Baghdad street. No casualties were reported.
American troops sealed off the area and searched for other explosives.
Sunday June 05, 2005 (1443 PST) KABUL: The alleged terror network al-Qaeda has claimed shooting down an F-16 with a US-made stinger missile in the Shinkai area of Afghanistan southern Khost province. A video compact disk (CD) received to Pajhwok Afghan News shows al-Qaeda commander Abdul Hadi Iraqi holding a stinger - the most deadly weapon against fighter jets - and pointing at a (US) jet.
Hadi was al-Qaeda's war correspondent in Takhar province and Bagram areas during the Taliban rule.
The stinger hits the jet but it is unclear whether it comes down or not. However, they claimed the jet had been downed.
Through the video, al-Qaeda rejected the US claims regarding the killing of its leader Abu al hiasam Alyamani in a missile attack. US's ABC television had claimed the man was killed in a missile attack in the Khost province near Pak-Afghan border.
The source privy to this news agency claimed they (the US authorities) released the 'false' news regarding the killing of Alyamani to cover up the shooting down of the jet and the casualties.
The one and a half hour duration video shows Abdul Hadi Iraqi along with other Arab fighters holding small and heavy arms and moving in a mountainous area of Khost province.
They have also been shown shifting the arms including RPG -7 rockets and heavy machine guns to their hideouts on camels. The Arab warriors with Abdul Hadi sitting beside them are preparing and sipping tea as well.
Abdul Hadi Iraqi is among al-Qaeda elements who is wanted to United States and also carries head money.
June 6, 2005 - 5:19AM
Afghan authorities have arrested the leader of a gang accused of killing Australian camera operator Harry Burton and three other journalists in 2001.
Harry Burton (riding on the back of the motorcycle) in Indonesia.
The suspect, identified as Zar Jan, was arrested after a shootout with police in Sarobi district, 50 km east of Kabul, a police official said.
"Zar Jan was wounded by several bullets. He will be brought to Kabul today," said the police official, Feraidoon.
Burton and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari, who both worked for Reuters and were aged 33, were killed along with Spaniard Julio Fuentes of El Mundo and Italian Maria Grazia Cutuli of Corriere della Sera on November 19, 2001, at Tangi Abrishum, about 90 km east of Kabul.
Clockwise from left: Harry Burton, Julio Fuentes, Azizullah Haidari and Maria Grazia Cutuli shot dead after their convoy was ambushed by armed men on the road from Jalalabad to Kabul.
The journalists were stopped on the road from Pakistan by a gang of about 12 gunmen while trying to reach Kabul days after the defeated Taliban had withdrawn from the city.
They were shot and killed shortly afterwards.
Authorities have said they had arrested several suspected accomplices of Zar Jan.
One of them, Reza Khan, 29, was sentenced to death in November. He said his gang had been acting on the orders of a Taliban commander.
In a confession broadcast on state television in August, Khan admitted killing one of the journalists and identified the leader of his gang as Mahmood Zar Jan.
Zar Jan, who was also wanted on suspicion of armed robbery, kidnapping and other killings, was arrested with four of his gang members, said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal.
"I believe that with the arrest of this group, especially the leader of this gang, we have achieved a lot and we'll have a lot less criminal activity," he said.
Marines shoulder burden of policing Iraq's Anbar province
Jun. 05, 2005
BY JAMES JANEGA
Chicago Tribune
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - (KRT) - To reach his battalion stationed at the town of Al Qaim, U.S. Marine Col. Stephen Davis must fly more than an hour by helicopter, to the edge of 30,000 square miles of dusty badland that represents Iraq's most dangerous territory......EXCERPT
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/world/11821456.htm
By SAMEER N. YACOUB Associated Press Writer
June 5, 2005, 4:15 PM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Shiite-led Iraqi government acknowledged Sunday that its forces may have targeted innocent Sunni Muslims in a drive to crush the insurgency in southwestern Baghdad and its suburbs. Saddam Hussein will go on trial within two months on a dozen charges of crimes against humanity, a spokesman for the prime minister said.
Authorities in the northern city of Mosul announced the arrest of yet another key terrorist leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist organization and its Ansar al-Sunnah affilate, the second in seven days, on charges of organizing and financing killing sprees. The terrorist organization is led by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who carries a $25 million bounty.
"There is an improvement in security and in the performance of the security forces, but members of the army and police do cause mistakes, which do happen," said Laith Kuba, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Iraqi prime minister's spokesman Laith Kuba speaks during a press conference in Baghdad Sunday June 4, 2005. Kuba told the conference that Saddam Hussein could face up to 500 charges, but he will be tried on only 12 'thoroughly documented' counts because prosecuting him on all would be a 'waste of time.' (AP Photo / Samir Mizban)
There were also some claims that "soldiers took advantage and helped themselves to cash and other items. One doesn't rule it out. I think the army needs more disciplinary measures in these cases," Kuba said.
In recent days, Sunni Muslim organizations charged that many innocent Iraqis were arrested and most were Sunni's, the minority that dominated the country during Saddam's rule and are believed to form the backbone of the viiolent insurgency.
Regardless of the complaints and the acknowledged mistakes, the crackdown -- dubbed Operation Lighting -- entered its second week Sunday and appeared to have somewhat blunted insurgent attacks in the capital.
The charges of over-zealous behavior by the military and police as they seek to roust the insurgents coincide with government efforts to include Sunni Arabs in the political process, and to get them involved in drafting Iraq's new constitution. Sunni approval is necessary for the charter's adoption in a national referendum. It is to be ready by mid-August and approved in an October plebescite.
"We should not forget the bigger picture, which is that the security forces have a duty to combat the (terrorist) cells that take out their anger and violence on the Iraqi people," Kuba said. "This is not a public relations exercise, this is a tough confrontation, and it is with the best troops we have in our hands."
Although the government has not provided fresh figures on the number of Iraqis arrested so far, the Interior Ministry said last Thursday that 700 people had been detained. The U.S. military said Friday it had detained at least 200 more during a two-day sweep south of Baghdad in an area known as the Triangle of Death.
The worst mistake, already acknowledged by top government officials, occurred on the second day of Operation Lightning, when U.S. forces arrested and later released the leader of Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political party. Kuba said that at least 200 other people had been released so far.
Operation Lightning aimed in its first week to seal Baghdad's entry points to prevent access to the capital for car bombers. It also focused on areas of southern and western Baghdad -- which have predominantly Sunni Arab populations and are the capital's most violent districts.
"Our military has taken the offensive now, taking the fight to the insurgents. This operation really will ensure better security for the capital," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told CNN's "Late Edition" during a visit to Washington.
A key element of Washington's exit strategy from Iraq hinges on the ability of Iraq's American-trained police and military to take control of security. The insurgency has killed at least 836 people since the government took power just over one month ago.
Zebari also said Saddam's trial, which Kuba predicted would begin within two months, would have a positive "impact on the security situation" in Iraq, and should begin the "sooner the better."
But Saddam's trial could prove to be highly divisive in an already turbulent Iraq that shows signs of deepening secular divisions. Starting the court proceedings in two months would overlap with the writing of the constitution.
Key rings of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein are one of the latest fashion items being sold in Baghdad. The Iraqi government said today it would bring just 12 charges of crimes against humanity against Saddam Hussein although there were more than 500 possible cases against the ousted dictator.(AFP/Sabah Arar)
"There should be no objection that a trial should take place within that time," Kuba said. "It is the government's view that the trial of Saddam should take place as soon as possible."
Kuba added that before Saddam's trial starts, the National Assembly must "legitimize" the special tribunal that will hear the case against him and his chief aides. The process will begin soon, Kuba said, without elaborating.
The prime minister's spokesman said prosecutors had narrowed their case against Saddam to about a dozen well-documented charges.
A list of allegations supplied by the tribunal consists of 14 charges, including the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja, where an estimated 5,000 people were killed and 10,000 others were hurt on March 16, 1988.
In Mosul, authorities said, the captured the purported financier of the al-Qaida in Iraq group's cell in that northern city. Mutlaq Mahmoud Mutlaq Abdullah, also known as Abu Raad, was arrested on May 29 and is considered a key facilitator and financier for a militant identified by the alias Abu Talha, the purported head of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror cell in Mosul.
Also Sunday, Australia's top Islamic cleric said he had seen hostage Douglas Wood and said the 63-year-old California-based Australian engineer is "still alive and in honest hands. " Sheik Taj El Din al-Hilaly is in Iraq on a mission to secure Wood's release and said the kidnap victim had received medication for his heart condition. .
Australia's leading Muslim cleric, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, talks to reporters at a press conference in Baghdad June 5, 2005. Douglas Wood has been seen alive and well by the Australian mufti who is trying to negotiate his release, a local Muslim leader said. Wood, a 63-year-old engineer, has been held hostage for more than three weeks in Iraq. REUTERS/Atef Hassan
The Australian was abducted in late April and a militant group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq released a video recording on May 1 that showed the captive pleading for Australia to withdraw its 1,400 troops from Iraq.
Mohammed Ghazi, a translator working for the U.S.-led forces in Kirkuk, was killed by gunmen as he was walking to his home, said police Lt. Hawar Mohammed.
Gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on Iraqi security forces Sunday in eastern Baghdad, killing a policewoman and injuring a policeman, Col. Ahmed al-Alawi said. Police are routinely targeted by insurgents who regard them as U.S. collaborators.
An Iraqi truck driver was killed by gunmen in a second drive-by shooting during the afternoon, this time in western Baghdad's Abu Ghraib district while he was transporting concrete blast walls for the U.S. military, said police Lt. Akram al-Zubaee.
(AFP)
5 June 2005
DAMASCUS - Several thousand Kurds demonstrated on Sunday in the Syrian town of Qamishli demanding to “know the truth” about the killing of Kurdish cleric Mohammed Maashuq Khaznawi, Kurdish officials said.
The popular Islamic leader’s death was announced Wednesday by a Kurdish political leader, following the cleric’s disappearance on May 10.
The Syrian government announced it had arrested two of a five-member “criminal gang” charged with kidnapping Khaznawi, but Kurdish officials and Khaznawi’s family remained sceptical and have called for a complete investigation.
The demonstrators wanted to march through Qamishli, the northeast Syrian town 680 kilometres (420 miles) from Damascus where the cleric was born, but were prevented by Syrian security forces, said Aziz Daud, head of the Democratic Progressive Kurdish Party.
He said the demonstrators were able to walk 500 metres (540 yards) before they were dispersed, emphasising that the march was a ”peaceful demonstration.”
The demonstrators called for the formation of “an impartial commission composed primarily of Kurdish lawyers.”
The 46-year-old Kurdish cleric was vice-president of the Centre for Islamic Studies in Damascus and was held in high regard by Kurds and Syrians alike.
He was a staunch defender of Kurdish rights in Syria and harshly criticised the Syrian state.
Shortly before he disappeared, Khaznawi took a trip to Europe where he met with Kurdish officials as well as Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanuni, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamist group is banned in Syria.
The Kurdish population in Syria is estimated at 1.5 million, about nine percent of the population. They are fighting for recognition of their language and culture. Some 200,000 Kurds have been denied Syrian citizenship, which makes it difficult for them to find work in the socialist, government-controlled economy.
In March 2004, several days of violent clashes pitted Kurds against Arabs and Syrian security forces. Kurds claimed 40 were killed, Syrian sources said 25.
(AP)
5 June 2005
AMMAN - Fourteen men charged with plotting terrorism and sparking riots, which killed six people in southern Jordan in 2002 told a military court on Sunday that their confessions were extracted under duress.
“Interrogators forced me to sign a guilty confession under beating and torture,” testified defendant Mohammad Ahmad al-Chalabi, the purported leader of a 108-member cell which allegedly plotted to strike in the southern city of Maan.
“I neither committed any act of terrorism, nor have I plotted to strike Maan or kill anyone,” added al-Chalabi, also known as Abu-Sayyaf, echoing testimonies by the other 13 alleged cell members in police custody.
The 14 defendants, along with 94 others at large who are being tried in absentia, are charged with seven crimes which include launching terrorist attacks in November 2002 in Maan, 210 kilometers (130 miles) south of Amman. Six people, including two police officers, were killed in shootouts between gunmen and police during unrest in the southern desert city.
Prosecutors claim al-Chalabi urged his followers to rebel against Maan city officials, including the mayor and police chief.
The defendants have pleaded innocent to all the charges, which also include illegal possession of automatic arms and explosives, importing arms, holding illegal gatherings and rioting.
If convicted on all counts, the defendants face the death penalty.
Al-Chalabi is serving 15 years in jail for another case in which 13 men were charged with plotting terror attacks against U.S. targets in Jordan.
The trial was adjourned for a week.
Palestinian militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Fatah movement, parade with their weapons in Gaza City. Militants loosely affiliated to the Fatah party of Mahmud Abbas stormed public offices in Nablus under a hail of gunfire, accusing the Palestinian leader of failing to honour security promises.(AFP/File/Mohammed Abed)
Palestinian militants storm Nablus offices to denounce Abbas
(AFP)
5 June 2005
NABLUS, West Bank - Militants loosely affiliated to the Fatah party of Mahmud Abbas stormed public offices in Nablus under a hail of gunfire Sunday, accusing the Palestinian leader of failing to honour security promises.
The band of 20 militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades barged into the local interior ministry office in the northern West Bank city, opened fire and ordered everyone out, Palestinian security sources said.
The gang then stormed the governor’s office at the other end of town, ordered out all staff under gunfire and lightly wounded one man, they added.
Nablus governor Mahmud al-Uol was in Ramallah at the time.
“We demand that the Palestinian Authority, especially Abu Mazen (Abbas), keeps their promises. He promised us jobs in the security services and that he would secure our safety. We have seen none of it,” Al-Aqsa said in a statement.
The organisation accused Israel of still trying to track, arrest or kill its members despite promising at a Middle East peace summit in February to halt such operations.
“We are still observing the ceasefire, but the Israeli army is still pursuing us and trying to kill or arrest us,” said Al-Aqsa.
Abbas made security reform a major priority after being elected leader in January following the death of Yasser Arafat. Since his election, Palestinian militant groups have been observing a de facto truce on the ground.
The Al-Aqsa brigades, while loosely associated with Fatah, is largely autonomous from the mainstream party. The group was founded at the beginning of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.
Jalal Talabani (L), the first Kurdish President of Iraq smiles beside Massoud Barzani (R), president of the Kurdish region, as they walk into the building for the opening session of a new Kurdish parliament, in Irbil, Saturday June 4, 2005. Kurdistan's 111-member regional assembly Saturday opened its inaugural session since the Jan. 30 national elections that swept long-oppressed Shiites and Kurds to power. The session is expected to deal with the future of oil-rich Kirkuk, the drafting of the national constitution and relations with the central government in Baghdad. (AP PHOTO/Sasa Kralj)
First Iraqi Republic flag flown at opening of Kurdistan Parliament
05/06/2005 KurdishMedia.com
New York (KurdishMedia.com) 5 June 2005: When the Kurdistan National Assembly in Hewler (Erbil) held its first session since the Iraqi national general elections yesterday, the current Iraqi flag commonly displayed in Baghdad was nowhere to be seen.
Rather, the flag of the first Republic of Iraq, used after General Abdul-Karim Qassem was flown for all flag ceremonies involving the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and hung in the Parliament.
The current Iraqi flag has its historical roots in Arab nationalism and features the Arabic words "Allahu akbar", with a kufic script having replaced Saddam Hussein’s handwriting that was featured prior to the fall of his dictatorship. This flag is virtually nonexistent in portions of the South (Iraqi) Kurdistan region under the control of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, including Hewler.
Soldiers loyal to President Maaouiya Ould Taya stand guard in the centre of Nouakchott, Mauritania, June 2003. Eighteen soldiers were killed and at least 20 injured in an attack on an army base in a remote region of Mauritania overrun by armed bandits and smugglers, Mauritanian military sources said.(AFP/File/Seyllou )
Mauritania blames al Qaeda ally for deadly raid
05 Jun 2005 22:13:11 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Ibrahima Sylla
NOUAKCHOTT, June 5 (Reuters) - Mauritania said on Sunday 15 of its soldiers were killed in a weekend raid by militants belonging to an Algerian Islamic fundamentalist group allied to al Qaeda.
Defence Minister Baba Ould Sidi told reporters the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) was behind a dawn attack on a remote military post in northeast Mauritania on Saturday.
"A unit of our national army ... was attacked at dawn on Saturday by the terrorist group known as GSPC," he said.
He said 15 Mauritanian soldiers were killed in the attack, 17 more were wounded and two were missing. Five of the 150 attackers, who were well-equipped, were killed, he said.
The attack took place in the village of Limgheiti, not far from the border with Mali and Algeria. The gunmen stole six military vehicles and burnt two others, the minister said.
The desert triangle between the three countries is a haven for smugglers and bandits. The United States says it is also a training ground for Islamist recruits.
Mauritanian troops were put on maximum alert, military sources said.
Travellers who came from Limgheiti to Zouerat, which lies 400 km (250 miles) to the west, said gunshots had been heard near the military post, which was guarded by about 50 soldiers, on the night of the attack.
The army sent reinforcements from the capital Nouakchott, 750 km (465 miles) south of Zouerat.
In recent months, Mauritania has arrested around 50 suspected Islamists saying they had links to the GSPC. Security forces have searched mosques and confiscated religious texts .
Ould Sidi said the detainees were behind Saturday's attack and that 20 Mauritanians had been trained in GSPC camps for "terrorist attacks". Three of them had been arrested, he said.
The Islamic republic, which critics say is taking advantage of the U.S.-led "war on terror" to crackdown on Islamic opponents, straddles black and Arab Africa.
There have been three coup attempts since June 2003. Some of the dissident soldiers wanted for the failed bids to overthrow President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya are still at large.
Taya, who seized power in a 1984 coup, has angered many Arabs in his country by shifting support from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to the United States and Israel.
In 1999 Mauritania, which hopes to start pumping oil this year, became only the third Arab League member country to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
Jun. 5, 2005
Kuwait appointed two women to its municipal council for the first time on Sunday, in another historic move after the Gulf Arab state granted women suffrage last month. "The six Municipal Council members have been appointed and they include two female personalities," Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah told state news agency KUNA, which said the move was the first in Kuwait's history. Official sources told Reuters four men were also appointed to the 16-member council, six of whose members are named by decree. They said the four are believed to be liberals. Women were excluded from the municipal polls on Thursday to elect the remaining 10 members because a law passed in May for them to vote and run in elections came too late for this round. The council is responsible for city planning, public health and property issues, and monitors restaurants and construction.
Kuwaiti women will vote for the first time in the 2007 parliament elections followed by the 2009 local polls. The suffrage bill was seen as a breakthrough in Kuwait, a strategic U.S. ally that has pledged democratic reform. Kuwaiti women had hailed as historic the May 16 decision by the all-male parliament to allow women to vote and run for office which was taken despite fierce resistance by Islamist and conservative MPs. The move won praise from around the globe. KUNA identified one of the appointed women as Sheikha Fatima al-Sabah of the ruling family and an architect who is an assistant undersecretary at the office of the country's ruler. The second is Fawziya al-Bahar, an engineer. Conservative tribal candidates won six seats in Thursday's council polls, a likely outcome in largely tribal pro-Western Kuwait. Two liberals, one Islamist and a Shi''ite Muslim from the minority sect in Sunni-ruled Kuwait won the other seats.
Mr Al-Arian has been the focus of investigation for some time
Al-Arian trial set to begin Monday
BY PEDRO RUZ GUTIERREZ
The Orlando Sentinel
Posted on Sun, Jun. 05, 2005
TAMPA, Fla. - (KRT) - A former college professor is set to enter Tampa's federal courthouse in shackles and handcuffs Monday, taking center stage in one of the most anticipated trials of a young and fearful century.
Former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian faces terrorism charges along with eight co-defendants in a case that began percolating a decade ago but took on new meaning and controversy after Sept 11, 2001. Only four of the nine will be in court as opening arguments begin - the rest are still at large overseas.
Al-Arian and the others face 53 counts including racketeering, conspiracy to kill civilians, money laundering and giving material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group. The PIJ has claimed responsibility for at least 100 deaths in Israel, including several Americans. The group is led by former University of South Florida instructor Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, one of the defendants still at large.
But the Al-Arian case has grown to be about more than the people sitting at the defense table. Fueled by debate about civil liberties and homeland security, the saga became a major issue in Florida's U.S. Senate race last year. And it has prompted concerns that such prosecutions inflame anti-Muslim sentiments.
The 47-year-old Al-Arian, in court documents and in statements after his arrest, argues the government has sought to criminalize his speech and muzzle his unpopular political views. He calls himself a political prisoner.
His wife, Nahla, said in an interview Friday that the case only proves that civil liberties and academic freedom are under siege by an overzealous government after Sept. 11.
"Unfortunately, the government exploited the atmosphere of fear, hatred and suspicions," she said. "The great Constitution of this country is under attack."
But prosecutors are adamant that the indictment is not about Al-Arian's First Amendment rights to freedom of expression and association. In a trial expected to last at least six months, jurors will have to decide how far Al-Arian took his speech and private conversations, hours of which were secretly recorded by FBI intelligence units.
According to the government, two nonprofits he founded in Tampa - the Islamic Concern Project and the World Islam Studies Enterprise - were used by him and others to secretly fund suicide bombings and to provide cover for suspected or known terrorists who visited the United States in the 1990s. ICP, also known as the Islamic Committee for Palestine, and WISE were once affiliated with the University of South Florida and held annual scholarly conferences and fundraisers.
It was at one of these gatherings in 1988 that Al-Arian was videotaped shouting, "Death to Israel!" In a 2002 interview with the St. Petersburg Times, he claimed his quote was taken out of its cultural context and he only meant "death" to Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands.
Al-Arian's arrest in February 2003 capped years of surveillance by FBI agents whose wiretaps and intelligence work were not allowed in criminal cases before the USA Patriot Act of 2001. That law, passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, broke down the barriers between intelligence and criminal investigations and broadened the reach of government prosecutors.
"It's going to be tough to overcome all those wiretaps and all that other evidence, especially when it's his own words," said Bill West, a retired immigration agent who helped launch one of the Al-Arian investigations in 1995. "When the government is going to present evidence in his own words, and he will be praising those very terrorist acts. How do you reconcile those? He wanted his day in court. That's what he wanted, and that's what he will get."
Al-Arian, who has been held without bail since his arrest, is a permanent U.S. resident but is not a citizen of any nation. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, he was raised and educated in Egypt and eventually obtained advanced computer-engineering degrees at North Carolina State University and the University of South Florida. His application for U.S. citizenship is pending.
For much of the past 10 years, Al-Arian was accused and suspected of being a terrorist sympathizer, but he was never charged with actively supporting terrorism. The suspicions were first aired in a series of articles by the Tampa Tribune in 1995 and picked up momentum later through coverage of the government's detention in 1997 and subsequent deportation of Al-Arian's brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar.
Al-Arian became the subject of controversial TV spots in Florida's senatorial campaigns last year, when candidates traded jabs over his treatment.
GOP Senate candidate Mel Martinez's staff criticized his Democratic opponent, former University of South Florida President Betty Castor, for not doing enough in the 1990s to remove Al-Arian from campus. They used Al-Arian's case to portray her as soft on terrorism.
But Castor's camp shot back that Al-Arian was such a low security threat that he was able to cozy up to then-presidential candidate George W. Bush for a photo at Plant City's Strawberry Festival in 2000 and was invited to the White House after Bush won.
As the trial gears up, Tampa Bay's Muslim community of about 40,000 is uneasy. Ahmed Bedier, director of communications in Florida for the Council on American Islamic Relations, said he recently met with law-enforcement agencies, fearing a possible backlash.
"We were concerned about how this trial is going to impact anti-Muslim sentiment, and whether that's going to provoke individuals' anger and hate crimes against us."
Bedier said his national organization does not defend or condone Al-Arian or his co-defendants, but they want to ensure they are treated fairly.
"It's difficult for a Muslim to have a fair trial in America, especially when you play the terrorism card," he said. "It scares people even though this case has nothing to do with 9-11."
DoD Identifies Army Casualties No. 558-05 IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 5, 2005
The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
They were killed on June 3 at Forward Operating Base Orgun-E in Afghanistan when their convoy vehicle was struck by an improvised expolsive device. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.
The soldiers are:
Staff Sgt. Leroy E. Alexander, 27, of Dale City, Va.
Cpt. Charles D. Robinson, 29, of Haddon Heights, N. J.
For further information related to this release, contact Army Public Affairs at (703) 692-2000.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gestures as he chats with dignitaries before a dinner at a meeting of defence ministers from around the world in Singapore June 3, 2005. REUTERS/Luis Enrique Ascui
By Kathleen T. Rhem American Forces Press Service
BANGKOK, Thailand, June 5, 2005 – In a driving monsoon rain, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived here today after spending the weekend at a regional-security conference in Singapore.
Rumsfeld will meet with Thai leaders to discuss security cooperation in the region and to thank the Thai government for facilitating multilateral cooperation in disaster-relief operations following the Dec. 26 tsunami that devastated a large swath of the area surrounding the Indian Ocean.
"From time to time, some question the priority America places on its Pacific partnerships," Rumsfeld said in a June 4 speech at the Asia Security Conference, known as the "Shangri-La Dialogue," in Singapore. "Yet the atmosphere in the tsunami's aftermath ... demonstrated again that whenever friends and allies in this region confront threats or hardship, whether caused by man or nature, we stand at their side."
As of late March, Thai government statistics put the number of dead from this country at 5,395, with 8,457 injuries and 2,932 still missing.
"Thailand, despite its own casualties and tragedy, quickly consented to the use of its bases to serve as the combined support facilities for the relief efforts," the secretary said in his speech.
A senior defense official, speaking on background about a week before Rumsfeld's departure for Asia, said the regional response and international cooperation in the area surrounding the tsunami validated theater security cooperation efforts that had been under way in the region for several years.
Close cooperation in training and in brainstorming possible scenarios for cooperation allowed the United States and several countries in the region to set up a joint task force at Utapao, Thailand, within two days after the disaster.
"And it functioned better than anyone could imagine," the official said. "It validated that what we were doing was right, and we probably should have been doing it more aggressively."
After his visit to Thailand, Rumsfeld will travel to Norway to visit a NATO training facility in Stavanger, and to Brussels, Belgium, where he will attend a meeting of NATO defense ministers
Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division inspect vehicles waiting to enter the Iraqi police traffic control point in Tikrit, Iraq. Photo by Sgt. Matthew Acosta.
Pvt. William Davenport, from the 1st Armored Division, monitors the radio and his Common Remotely Operated Weapons System while on patrol in Taji, Iraq. This system allows the machine gunner to ride inside the vehicle instead of in an exposed position in the turret. Photo by Kevin Bromley.
Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, search for insurgents on the west side of the Diyala River near Baquba, Iraq. Photo by Spc. Gul Alisan.
Afghan girl with burns treated by Coalition
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – A 3-year-old Afghan girl was treated for 2nd-degree burns to her left arm from the wrist to the elbow after she was evacuated to Kandahar Airfield’s U.S. medical facility May 23.
The girl’s condition was brought to the attention of Coalition forces when her mother brought her to a forward operating base north of Shinkay hoping for medical assistance. Medical personnel there, fearing the girl’s arm was in danger of amputation, transported her to Kandahar for more intensive treatment.
While Afghan medical facilities have improved since the fall of the Taliban, burn treatment is still a critical area U.S. forces are able to assist with.
“She’s doing fine,” said Dr. (Maj.) Michael Woll, general surgeon at the Kandahar medical treatment facility, who, along with Dr. (Lt. Col.) Ronald Place, treated the girl. “In fact, right now, she’s playing catch with a kid in the next bed that has a broken leg.”
Although the medics at the base originally thought her arm was in danger, the Kandahar medical team were happy to discover the burns were not as bad as originally thought.
“She had minor, 2nd-degree burns that most likely won’t require a skin graft of any sort. We’re going to hold her here for a week or so to observe her recovery and make sure she’s okay, but after that she will probably be sent home,” Woll said.
The girl’s injury occurred when scalding milk spilled on her, Woll explained. He and Place took her into the operating room to remove the dead tissue from the burned area, then applied an antibiotic to help the healing process.
“We probably treat four to five Afghan children a week,” Woll said. “Although burns are a common injury, we also see too many kids that are hurt by land mines, unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices. They’re kids, and like any other kids they sometimes play with or around things that they shouldn’t.”
By John Elliott and Nick Fielding
June 06, 2005
FAMILY photographs of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are to appear in the first biography in English of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The book includes pictures of Zarqawi with his Jordanian bedouin mother and father, both of whom are dead. Other photographs show him shortly before his journey to become a fighter in Afghanistan and in prison in Jordan in the 1990s.
Zarqawi's group in Iraq has been linked to numerous insurgent atrocities, including several beheadings of hostages.
The biography, Zarqawi: The New Face of Terrorism, claims that Zarqawi, as part of an attempt to build a Europe-wide network of sympathisers, has developed close links with an Islamic cleric under house arrest in Britain.
"With Osama bin Laden out of circulation or incapacitated, Zarqawi ... is probably the most important figure within the radical Islamists," said Jean-Charles Brisard, the book's author and a French terrorism investigator.
Mr Brisard recounts how Zarqawi, now 37, was expelled from school. He worked in a paper plant and then as a maintenance worker before drifting into crime.
According to the book: "Those who knew him in those years say that he drank like a fish and covered his body with tattoos, two practices condemned by Islam. They called him 'the green man' on account of his many tattoos."
Zarqawi was later convicted for wounding with a knife. He was also arrested for shoplifting, drug dealing and a rape allegation.
His mother was so concerned about his criminality she enrolled him at a local mosque.
There, under the tutelage of a radical preacher, he decided to travel to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet occupiers. By 1989 his conversion to radical Islam had begun.
Since then Zarqawi has spent two periods in Afghanistan and two in Jordanian prisons.
In 2000-01 he began to build his own network based at Herat in western Afghanistan.
The book says Zarqawi has used his European network to recruit fighters to Iraq and to make contact with Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric now under house arrest in Britain.
Qatada was described by a Spanish judge as the spiritual guide for al-Qaeda and bin Laden's personal representative in Europe.
Mr Brisard has previously published the controversial book Bin Laden: the Forgotten Truth, which argued Washington planned its "war on terror" years before the September 11 attacks on the US and that an American desire for access to Central Asian oil blinded it to national security concerns.
Meantime a former personal bodyguard to bin Laden has revealed how the al-Qaeda leader survived at least three assassination attempts in Afghanistan and rejected several requests to return to his native Saudi Arabia - including one delivered in person by his mother.
Abu Jindal, 35, a Yemeni who claims to have worked for bin Laden from 1995 until 2000, said he was given the authority to kill the terror chief if he seemed about to be taken by his enemies.
"I was the only member of his bodyguard who was given this authority," he said when interviewed in Yemen by London-based Arabic newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi.
"I took care to keep the two bullets in good condition and cleaned them every night ... If enemy forces surrounded Sheik Osama and there was no possibility that he would escape, I was to kill him before they could catch him alive," he said.
Abu Jindal said there were at least three assassination attempts during his time with bin Laden in Afghanistan.
The first was in 1998 by a young Uzbek, allegedly sent by the Saudis and offered a reward of 2 million Saudi riyals - $730,000 at today's rates - and Saudi nationality.
"He was only 18 and had been deceived. He was crying in a very pathetic manner and said, 'I made a mistake'. Finally, Sheik Osama said to release him."
Following another failed assassination attempt in Jalalabad, Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, convinced bin Laden to move to the comparative safety of Kandahar in the south.
"At one time the Saudi Government sent his mother and his half-brother by a special Saudi plane that landed at Kandahar airport," said Abu Jindal.
The ex-bodyguard, whose real name is Nasir Ahmad Nasir al-Bahri, served a short prison sentence after returning home. He is now free, although closely watched by the intelligence services.
Worm Bait
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