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NEWSLETTER NO. 114
3 MARCH 2003
Pakistan hands Alleged 9/11 Plotter To U.S.
March 3 2003
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP)-U.S. authorities have taken the suspected
mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks out of Pakistan to an undisclosed
location after capturing him in a joint raid by CIA and Pakistani
agents, a senior government official said yesterday.
The arrest Saturday of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a senior operative in
Osama bin Laden�s alQaeda network, and two other men outside the
Pakistani capital of Islamabad likely will hurt the terrorist
organization�s ability to strike and could provide the United States
with new clues in the hunt for bin Laden.
�It�s hard to overstates how significant this is,� White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer said. �It�s a wonderful blow to inflict on
al-Qaeda.�
Mohammed, 37, is perhaps the most senior al-Qaeda member after bin
Laden and his deputy, Ayman al Zawahri.
A naturalized Pakistani who was born in Kuwait, Mohammed is on the
FBI�s most-wanted list and. Allegedly had a hand in many of alQaeda most
notorious attacks. The reward of up $25 million for information leading
to his capture.
There also has been suspicion that Mohammed was involved in last year�s
kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and
mayhave even carried out his execution.
A senior Pakistani government official, speaking on condition of
anonymity said Mohammed was �no longer in Pakistan� and had been taken
by U.S. officials to an undisclosed location, The official said the
second foreigner has also been handed over to U.S. officials.
Mohammed was arrested along with an unidentified man of Middle Eastern
origin and a Pakistani identified as Ahmed Abdul Qadoos, a 42-year-old
member of one of the country�s main religious parties, hamaat-e-Islami.
The government official said the Middle Estern suspect was �also
proving to be an important,� but would not disclose his identity.
Mohammed is the third senior al Qaeda figure to be arrested in
Pakistan. He was taken Saturday in Rawalpindi, a city near the Pakistani
capital of Islamabad, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.
CIA officers and Pakistani authorities carried out the operation that
led to Mohammed�s capture, according to American officials, who spoken
on condition of anonymity.
�This is a great success today, but the war on terrorism goes on
tomorrow,� said Jim Wilkinson, a spokesman at U.S Central Command in
Tampa, Florida.
�There�s still a lot of work to do.�
U.S. officials say Mohammed organized the Sept.11,2001, terror mission
that sent hijacked passenger jets crashing into the World Trade Center,
the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000
people.
But even before then, mohammed was wanted in connection with plots in
the Philippines to bomb transinto CIA headquarters. Those were broken up
in 1995.
He also has been linked to April�s bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia.
At least 19 tourists, mostly Germans, were killed then.
Mohammed narrowly escaped capture in a raid about a week ago in the
southwestern town of Quetta, a Pakistani government source said. During
that raid, a Middle Eastern man, arrested, according to the source, who
spoke to The associated Press on conition of anonymity.
�at the time of that raid in Quetta the authorities were looking for
Khalid Shaikh but he escaped and from there they followed him to
rawalpindi,� the official said. �They got information from the man they
picked up in Quetta and from phone calls until they tracked him down to
Rawalpindi.�
Senior government official said the three men were arrested about 3
a.m. local time Saturday at a house where Qadoos, Ahmed�s cousin, said
only Ahmed, his wife and two children were in the house. There also was
a guard outside, he said.
�The police pounded on the gates and then they rushed through. There
was some firing, but no one was hurt and then they beat the guard and
broke the lock on the front door,� Omar Qadoos said.
He said police held the family at gunpoint while they collected
cassettes, a computer and computer discs, leaving the floor littered
with clothes, papers and other items.
Mohammed�s ties to terrorism are deep. He is the uncle of convicted
1993 World Trade center conspirator Ramzi Yousef and one of his older
brothers also belongs to al Qaeda. Another brother died in Pakistan when
a bomb he was making exploded.
He also is said to be close to bin Ladens son, saad.
The Pakistani government says it has handed over more than 420 alQaed
and Taliban suspects to the United States.
Until now, the biggest catch so far was the arrest last March of the
group�s suspected financier, Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi-born Palestinian, was
said to be a link between bin Laden and many of al-Qaeda�s operational
cells.
Abu Zubaydah ran the Khalden camp in Afghanistan, where U.S.
investigators believe many of the Sept. 11 hijackers trained.
On Sept. 11, 2002, Ramzi Binalshibh, a would-be hijacker who could not
get into the United States, was captured in the southern port city of
Karachi. He was an aide to Mohammed and a key moneyman for the attacks.
Binalshibh also was the former roommate of hijacker Mohammed atta.
Conference on Iraqi Shiites to be held in Tehran.
March 3, 2003
A conference named �Future of Iraqi Shiites� is to be held on March 3,
2003 in Tehran, IRAN quoted member of the political bureau of Iraq�s
Islamic Hezb al-Dawa, Ali Adib, as saying.
Adib who is a member of the organizing committee of the conference said
a number of Iraqi personalities who have attitudes related to Shiite
jurisprudence would partake in the conference.
The conference was due to convene on February 24 with participation of
150-200 Iraqi Shia figures but it was postponed as a result of delay in
the Salahaddin meeting in Iraq�s Kurdistan.
The Tehran conference would be organized in collaboration with Iraqi
Shiites, opposition and Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq
(SCIRI) as well as Hezb al-Dawa.
Iraqi opposition opened a two day meeting in Salahaddin, Arbil on
February 26 to discuss coordination for a transitional administration to
replace the Iraqi government.
Academic in Court
March 3, 2003
Law university professor Mahmoud Kashani has appeared before the Bench
1408 of Tehran Court of common Pleas in connection with a complaint by a
hardline cleric, the pro-reform newspaper reported.
Deputy Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Marashi had complained against Kashani,
core member of the Bar association, over Kashani�s criticism of certain
clauses in the third five-year national plan.
Two Palestinians killed in Gaza Raid
March 3, 2003
Gaza (Reuters)- Israeli tanks and troops rolled into the central Gaza
Strip yesterday, killing two Palestinians in gunbattle and demolishing
10 homes, witnesses said.
The violence came hours before Israeli Prime Minister April Sharon�s new
ministers, sworn in last week, took up their posts.
Palestinians have voiced concern that Sharon�s hawkish new cabinet may
use tough tactics to quell the 29-month Palestinian uprising despite a
message from Washington that the United States planned to press for
peace after any war in Iraq.
�The raid on khan Younis is a prelude to reoccupy all of the Gaza Strip,
exploiting the world�s preoccupation with the Iraqi crisis.� Said
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat. �We condemn this aggression in
the strongest possible terms.�
An Israeli army commander said the raid yesterday targeted Palestinian
snipers and militants waging repeated attacks against Israeli troops and
Jewish settlements in the seaside strip following the death of an
Israeli soldier by snipers fire on February 23.
�The army is making an effort to out the militant groups in the area on
the defense,� he told Reuters.
Last month a bomb planted by the militant Islamic tank crewmen in the
Gaza Strip in what the group said was retaliation for Israeli killings.
Israel responded to that attack and Hamas�s launching of rockets at a
southern Israeli town with raids into Gaza in which some 40
palestinians, many of them gunmen, were killed.
Top UN Refugee official in Afghanistan to
Discuss Return of Displaced Persons.
March 3, 2003
Lubbers is in Afghanistan as part of a 10-day mission to the region,
during which he is scheduled to also visit Pakistan and Iran.
Upon arrival in Mazar-I-sharif, lubbers opened the first meeting of the
Afghans� Repatriation commission, a team sponsored by the Afghan
government to resettle displaced persons. The participants discussed
concrete measures to resolve some of the issues that prevent them from
returning to the north.
There are more than 720,000 internally displaced Afghans, including both
families who left their homes due to security incidents as well as
people who lost their livelihoods as a result of the long drought that
seems to be ending in some regions.
Today�s meeting, chaired by the Minister for Refygees and Repatriation,
Enzyatollah nazari, brought together the region�s main leaders,
representatives from the afghan human Rights Commission and the UN
Assistance mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
Lubbers is scheduled to visit Pul-I-khumri and also plans to visit
Nahrin district in Balkh Province, where the UN refugee agency and its
partners have helped rebuild more than 5,000 homes destroyed during two
recent earthquakes.
****** End of the News***********
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Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV), a
non-governmental organization devoted to promote a non-violence
culture,in Special Consultative Status to the Economic and Social
Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), associated with the United
Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI)
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Tel : + 98 21 895 49 28
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