Posted on 06/19/2002 8:50:09 AM PDT by RCW2001
JOHN R. BRADLEY, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, June 19, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/06/19/international1138EDT0596.DTL
(06-19) 08:38 PDT JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) --
Saudi Arabia will not allow outside investigators to question al-Qaida suspects who tried to shoot down a U.S. military plane, according to a government-controlled newspaper report Wednesday, a day after the kingdom announced its first such arrests since Sept. 11.
The daily Okaz newspaper said access to the 11 Saudis, an Iraqi and a Sudanese will be limited to Saudi authorities because "the crimes that they committed or planned to carry out occurred or were going to take place on Saudi territories."
The kingdom announced Tuesday that the suspects "were planning to carry out terrorist attacks against vital and important installations in the kingdom, by using explosives and two (surface-to-air) SA-7 missiles, smuggled into the kingdom and hidden in different places around the country."
U.S. officials said the Sudanese suspect, identified as Abu Huzifa, acknowledged firing a missile at a U.S. warplane at Prince Sultan Air Base, south of the capital of Riyadh.
The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported Wednesday that the Sudanese suspect fled Saudi Arabia through Iraq and then made his way to Sudan before he was returned to Saudi custody.
Al-Hayat also reported that the suspects' weapons and explosives were smuggled in from neighboring Yemen. Several al-Qaida members are believed to have found shelter in lawless Yemen, where the USS Cole was attacked in October 2000, killing 17 American sailors.
Also in custody are six Saudis who appear to have been his accomplices as well as five others and an Iraqi who apparently helped smuggled the Sudanese man out of the country. The arrests are the first in Saudi Arabia since Sept. 11, when 15 Saudis and four other Arabs carried out the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Since then, there has been criticism in the United States that the Saudis did too much to support Afghanistan when it was run by the Taliban and al-Qaida and too little to hunt down terrorists or inspire friendlier attitudes toward the West.
It took five months before the kingdom acknowledged that 15 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi. It has not taken part in a worldwide asset freeze of accounts linked to al-Qaida chief and exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden or changed laws -- as other Gulf states have -- to crack down on money transferring or Islamic banking practices that al-Qaida may be abusing.
Saudi Arabia has in the past resisted what it sees as interference from U.S. officials in terrorism cases. In 1996, the oil-rich nation reportedly refused a request from U.S. officials to interrogate four Saudis who confessed to a car bomb attack at a U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh, which killed five Americans. The four suspects were beheaded weeks later.
Saudi Arabia first invited troops to the country during the 1991 Gulf War to help defend the oil-rich nation against Saddam Hussein's forces. Bin Laden has based his opposition to the United States in part on the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia -- home to Islam's holiest shrines.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington issued a statement Tuesday saying that Saudi Arabia has asked Interpol to assist in the arrest of 750 people, including 214 Saudis, "many of which are suspected to be involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist-related activities."
©2002 Associated Press
Why would the Saudis prevent the US from discovering more about the 911 Atrocities?
ANSWER: It would interfere with their
telethons to fund more attacks on Western democracies.
Saudi Minister: "Constantinople."
Powell: Ignore the man terrorist supporter under the pizza tablecloth.
I guess the State Department warned the Saudis that Americans were getting a tad angry at their lack of cooperation. This AM, I heard a few people interviewed on Fox with the opinion that "now the Saudis are getting serious." State Department mission accomplished?
Saudi "interrogation:
Interrogator: "By Allah, did you make these plans?"
Suspect: "Allah be praised! I made these plans, to blast the infidels!"
Interrogator: "Then take this small gift of $20,000, and go with God. Next time, try not to get caught. OK? Allah be praised, Peace be upon him"
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