Posted on 06/11/2003 9:32:56 PM PDT by null and void
Vancouver — RCMP interviewed the suspected mastermind of the Air-India disaster shortly before the bombings killed 331 people but the police did not ask him what he knew about an explosion in the woods a week earlier, a recently released internal RCMP report shows.
RCMP officers, accompanied by U.S. Secret Service agents, spoke to Talwinder Singh Parmar and another Air-India suspect on June 12, 1985, 11 days before the Air-India disaster.
However, the Mounties believed that the target of Sikh extremists at that time was Rajiv Gandhi, who was then the prime minister of India, and not Air-India aircraft.
Thai police say a group conspiring to bomb a string of Western targets in Bangkok wanted to carry out the attack this month, in the hope of killing as many tourists as possible. Among the targets was the Australian Embassy. Three Muslim men arrested for suspected involvement in the conspiracy faced court today, as investigators declared they had broken a cell of the feared regional terror group, Jemaah Islamiah.
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts Iran's nuclear energy program will be at the top of the agenda when the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors meets in Vienna next week. This time, Russia may be more inclined to cooperate with efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
. For more than a decade, Washington has unsuccessfully worked to sway Moscow from its cooperation with Iran in areas that can help Tehran develop weapons of mass destruction. Recent revelations by Iranian leaders and officials, however, are prompting the Russians to reassess their cooperation with Iran.
. President Mohammed Khatami of Iran recently disclosed that Iran has been mining uranium and pursuing technologies to reprocess the spent nuclear fuel from its reactor in Bushehr. "We need to com- plete the circle from discovering uranium to man- aging remaining spent fuel," he said.
. Iran has also declared that the spent fuel, which can be used to make nuclear weapons, may not be returned to Russia. Tehran further confirmed the existence of an uranium enrichment facility and plutonium production plant, making fuel supply from Russia eventually unnecessary. The announcements suggest that Tehran is coming close to being able to make nuclear weapons, with or without outside help. These disclosures contradict Iranian commitments to Russia, as well as commitments made by Moscow to Washington.
. A decision by Tehran actually to construct nuclear weapons, however, would be influenced by several strategic considerations. The prospect of losing Russia's support at the International Atomic Energy Agency and other international organizations, for example, could still have a major impact on Iran's next moves. There are also hundreds of Russian scientists and engineers in Iran whose withdrawal could seriously hamper the civil nuclear program - and who are in a position to know what equipment or technology Iran still lacks.
. Recent statements by President Vladimir Putin of Russia and the head of Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy, Alexander Rumyantsev, indicate that Moscow is starting to view Iran's nuclear program with concern. "While Russia is helping Iran to build its nuclear power plant, it is not being informed by Iran of all the other projects that are currently under way," Rumyantsev said.
. Now Moscow is urging Tehran to sign the additional inspections protocol advocated by the IAEA, and it recently announced a decision to delay the signing of an agreement with Iran on spent nuclear fuel. Several articles in the Iranian press also suggest that Russia is beginning to give Iranian officials the cold shoulder on nuclear cooperation.
. All this indicates that Russia is re-examining its nuclear cooperation with Iran. It may be ready now, instead, to cooperate with Washington.
. Departing from previous lines of disagreement with the Putin announced following the summit meeting in St. Petersburg, that "The positions of Russia and the US on the issue are much closer than they seem." Putin has also taken a number of steps as president to take control of the various foreign policy and national security apparatuses that had a free reign in a number of fields during the Yeltsin era. Most important, Putin sacked Yevgeni Adamov in 2001 as head of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy and replaced him with own appointment. In his dealings with the United States, Putin bargains hard, but has generally shown that he know how to implement the agreements he makes.
. In order to succeed, the United States should work quietly with Putin and not give the impression that it is pressuring Moscow. Beyond demanding that Tehran sign the IAEA inspections protocol, Moscow must insist that Iran return the spent reactor fuel to Russia in accordance with its previous commitment. Russia should also join international efforts to demand that Iran halt its uranium enrichment and plutonium production programs, which are clearly beyond the requirements of a civil nuclear program, and condition further cooperation on this. Finally, Russia should encourage its scientists and engineers in Iran to provide information on their projects.
. Iran is at a critical juncture in its nuclear program, and the loss of Russian backing will influence its next steps as well as the actions of European states in international forums. We need Russia at this crucial stage.
. The writer is research director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Agreed. I see an impressionable, idealistic, adolescent who was easy pickings for hardened Hamas leadership. Convenient that the higher-ups in Hamas have teenagers to do the dirty work, eh?
"Until Palestinians decide they love their children more than they hate the Israeli's, the violence will continue."--Golda Mier
Prairie
U.S. jets bomb terrorist training camp in northern Iraq: military
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) U.S. jets bombed what the military called ''a terrorist training camp'' in central Iraq on Thursday, while ground forces pressed forward with a massive sweep north of Baghdad aimed at finding militants organizing attacks on occupation forces.
U.S. planes attacked the site 95 miles north of Baghdad at about 1:45 a.m., U.S. Central Command said. A firefight then broke out, and one coalition soldier was slightly injured. It did specify the location of the camp, or say if there were Iraqi casualties.
Meanwhile, a combined sweep, dubbed ''Operation Peninsula Strike,'' continued for a third day, sending thousands of American troops through an area near the Tigris River town of Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Ryan Fitzgerald said.
Ground troops were backed up by fighter jets, attack helicopters and unmanned aerial drones. About 400 people were detained.
LONDON, June 12 — Britain called on Thursday for greater international efforts to cut off funds for militant Palestinian groups after a suicide bomber killed 16 Israelis and wounded more than 100 on a Jerusalem bus.Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also called for unspecified sanctions against supporters of the militants.
''One of the things that has to come out of this appalling outrage is a greater determination by the international community to clamp down on funding and support for terrorist organisations like Hamas,'' Straw told BBC radio.
''We have got to look at exactly what sanctions can be brought to bear -- and to do so with our European colleagues.''
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