21 November 2005
MADRID — Police find maps of Spanish trains, the London Underground and Montreal’s rail system on the computer of a man questioned over the Madrid bombings.
The Spanish daily El Pais reported Abdelhak Chergui, a 32-year-old Moroccan who studies telecommunications in Spain, was arrested in May along with his brother Abdelkhalak in connection with the investigation of the bombings in March last year that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500 people.
At the time, police said the two were suspected of helping to finance the attacks and providing weapons to people accused of carrying them out.
Del Olmo released them for lack of evidence, however, after ordering them to surrender their passports.
The investigation continued and an examination of Chergui's computer found detailed information on the Madrid, London and Montreal train systems, El Pais said, quoting a police report submitted to the judge in September.
Police have declined to comment on the report.
El Pais did not say if Spanish police suspected Chergui of any role in the London bombings which killed 56 people in July.
The Madrid attacks were claimed by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda.
A total of 26 people are in jail in connection with the Madrid bombings, but about 80 more who were questioned and released are still considered suspects.
The first trial of these suspects is expected next year.
[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
New U.S. 'Matrix' mines in Iraq hit by rights group
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, November 21, 2005
U.S. Army plans to deploy remote-controlled anti-personnel mines in Iraq are being called into question by a New York human rights organizaiton.
Officials said the army would deploy a new mine termed Matrix. They said this would enable an operator with a laptop computer to detonate the mine via a radio signal.
The system was designed to detonate a Claymore mine. The Claymore was said to propel lethal fragments up to 60 meters.
The use of the Matrix has sparked concern by human rights group. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Defense Department has failed to discuss the potential harm the Matrix could pose to innocent civilians.
The army's plans to deploy 125 Matrix systems in Iraq by the Stryker Brigade. Officials said the mines would help protect military bases.
Officials said Matrix would mark the precursor of an advanced mine termed Spider. The Spider would use new munitions rather than Claymore mines.
HRW said U.S. Army tests indicate that the Claymore mines have a far larger lethal area than reported. The group said the actual hazard range of the Claymore could be as much as 300 meters and expressed doubts whether a soldier could identify his target from such a distance.
"A faraway blip on a laptop screen is hardly a surefire method of determining if you are about to kill an enemy combatant or an unsuspecting civilian," said Steve Goose, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Division.
The Matrix was also said to have been designed with a "battlefield override" feature that substitutes activation by a victim for detonation by command. Victim-activated Claymore mines were banned by the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, ratified by 152 nations but not the United States.
"The Pentagon needs to give concrete assurances that innocent civilians can't accidentally detonate these new Matrix mines," Goose said. "Otherwise, this system would end up functioning like the old-fashioned anti-personnel mines that more than three-quarters of the world's nations have banned."
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453694.552777778.html
Report: Iran hiding nuke program in tunnels
Associated Press
November 21, 2005 - 04:17 PM
WASHINGTON — Iran has expanded the tunnels it uses to hide a major part of its nuclear weapons program to a network covering a large area of southeastern Tehran, an Iranian exile who opposes that nation's Islamic government said Monday.
Alireza Jafarzadeh said the secret construction of missiles extends well beyond Parchin, a military zone 20 miles southeast of the Iranian capital. Jafarzadeh told reporters in September about the Parchin tunnels.
On Monday, Jafarzadeh said that on orders of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian defense ministry has taken over an area in eastern and southern regions of Tehran.
Jafarzadeh is credited with having aired Iranian military secrets in the past, but U.S. officials consider some of his assertions to have been inaccurate.
Despite accusations from the United States and the European Union, Iran denies any nuclear weapons ambitions, saying its nuclear program is purely for civilian needs. It has rejected new inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, and expressed opposition to a proposal by European countries to have reprocessing of Iran's nuclear material done in Russia.
North Korean experts have cooperated with Iran in the design and building of the complex, producing blueprints, for instance, Jafarzadeh said.
A leading Iranian aerospace group, Hemmat Industries, is located in the area and is building three versions of Shahab and Ghadar missiles, he said.
The Shahab 3 has a range of 1,300 to 1,900 kilometers and Ghadar, still in the production stage, 2,500 to 3,000 kilometers, he said.
Some of the tunnels are located in Kahk Sefid Mountain, he said.
In an interview, Jafarzadeh said the most significant development was that Iran was concentrating its work on missiles and nuclear warheads all together in tunnels underground in the Tehran area.
"I think the United States should be doubly worried about this because President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sped up its nuclear weapons program and the revolutionary guards are now dominating all three branches of power — executive, legal and judicial," Jafarzadeh said.
"It's a nightmare," he said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack agreed that Iran has a covert nuclear program. "It's hidden from sight and it's hidden through a variety of means," he said.
However, McCormack said he did not know about Jafarzadeh's latest disclosures. And there's been "a very mixed record in terms of some of these groups in talking about so-called revelations about Iran's nuclear programs."
Negotiations between the European Union and Iran are stalemated.
Paul Leventhal, founding president of the Nuclear Control Institute, a private watchdog group, criticized the Bush administration for trying to defuse the standoff by endorsing a Russian proposal to let Iran enrich its own uranium so long as the enrichment is done in Russia.
"The United States has stepped onto a slippery slope," he said, and given Iran's record of concealment and deception, "this is an approach that invites serious trouble for the future."