Posted on 06/26/2003 8:33:44 PM PDT by Destro
Al Qaeda Remains a Global Threat, U.N. Report Says
U.N. Report: definitive evidence of Al Qaeda activity in Chechnya via ties to operatives in Bosnia
By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN
UNITED NATIONS, June 26 — Despite "marked successes" in the fight against the Al Qaeda network, a new generation of Al Qaeda-trained terrorists as well as veterans of the Islamic extremist group continue to threaten the global community, according to a report released here today by a United Nations monitoring group.
The report praises the capture of several senior Al Qaeda operatives and successful efforts to block the group's access to traditional financial channels, such as the international banking system, but said that recent bombings in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and elsewhere suggest that Al Qaeda "and its associated groups still pose a significant threat to international peace and security."
Michael Chandler, chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the Security Council to track Al Qaeda and efforts to stamp out the group, told reporters here that his five-member team has found no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein's former regime in Iraq.
"That doesn't mean to say it doesn't exist," said Mr. Chandler, but simply that his team hasn't uncovered evidence indicating such a link. The team relies on data contained in 51 reports submitted by United Nations member states, its own research trips abroad, consultation with law enforcement authorities around the world and information gleaned from public records.
During Security Council testimony in February, before the United States-led war with Iraq, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell alleged that Al Qaeda training camps existed in northeastern Iraq. Mr. Chandler did not contest Mr. Powell's findings directly, but reasserted that his team had found no such evidence. He said that the camps Mr. Powell referred to may have been destroyed during the war.
The report raised alarms about Al Qaeda's potential access to nuclear and chemical weapons and its ongoing ability to finance its activities through the Afghani drug trade. "There is evidence, from al-Qaida training manuals and other intelligence, that al-Qaida has investigated the ways and means of developing" weapons of mass destruction, the report stated.
And the report painted an ominous picture of a new generation of Al Qaeda operatives, who apparently first surfaced in the recent bombings in Casablanca, Morocco. While previous Al Qaeda attacks have been carried out by terrorists trained in Afghanistan, officials here said that evidence suggests that the Casablanca attack was carried out by new operatives who had not been trained in Afghanistan. The reason for Al Qaeda's resilience, the report said, is its religious zeal.
"They retain strong appeal among Islamic extremist elements around the world and are able to draw on a substantial number of cadre trained in Afghanistan or in other training centres associated with the al-Qaida network," the report stated. "There are also indications that the al-Qaida network has been able to reconstitute its levels of support."
The report bemoans the fact that the United Nation's list of Al Qaeda operatives and associates of Osama bin Laden is relatively small, a problem it attributes to the unwillingness of some countries to provide names to the monitoring group. Most of the names thus far, officials here said, have come from the United States.
The most recent addition to the list, which to date includes 125 names, is Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, the former president of Chechnya. The Russian delegation to the United Nations requested that Mr. Yandarbiev's name be added. Mr. Yandarbiev, 50, is the first Chechen to be placed on the list. Mr. Yandarbiyev resides in Doha, Qatar, and Russian authorities have unsuccessfully tried to have him extradited for nearly two years.
Russia conducted a bitter, brutal war with Chechen separatists between 1994 and 1996 and Russian authorities suspect Mr. Yandarbiev of orchestrating an attack on a Moscow theater last October that resulted in the deaths of a number of Russian hostages.
Mr. Chandler said his monitoring group has found definitive evidence of Al Qaeda activity in Chechnya via ties to operatives in Bosnia.
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