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Saturday,
September 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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If UN doesn’t act,
USA will: Bush USA may finger-print Pak visitors Pre-emptive action not for India, Pak Global terrorism in the garb of jehad
UK holds 6 for financing terrorism Israelis attack Arafat’s HQ |
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Indian fisherman
released
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If UN doesn’t act,
USA will: Bush
Washington, September 20 The White House acknowledged that Bush’s long-scheduled meeting with two senior Russian officials to discuss implementation of a landmark treaty cutting US and Russian nuclear arsenals could turn to Iraq and the President’s determination to oust its leader, Saddam Hussein. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov were to meet Bush in the Oval Office later to talk about how to execute the Treaty of Moscow signed in May. The pact mandates the reduction of both Russian and US deployed nuclear weapons from about 6,000 to between 1,700 and 2,200 by the year 2012. Russia has said it sees no need for a new UN resolution on Iraq, complicating US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s efforts to negotiate tough language requiring Baghdad to disarm or face the consequences. Washington accuses Iraq of developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Since the Iraqi offers, Bush has tried to stiffen international resolve and made clear his own growing impatience. “For the sake of peace, for the sake of world security, for the sake of a viable United Nations, they must act,” he said on Thursday. “And if they don’t have it in their will to do so, if they’re not willing to fashion a resolution which is new and different and strong, and holds Iraq to account, holds them to the agreements they have made, the USA will be willing to do so.” Bush already has asked the U.S. Congress for authority to “use all means,” including military force if necessary, to disarm and overthrow Saddam if U.N. inspections cannot eliminate Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. The draft resolution restated the U.S. policy of “regime change” and laid out these goals: enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions; defend the national security interests of the United States against the threat posed by Iraq; and restore peace and security in the region. Meanwhile, US military planners are focusing on February as the optimum time to begin a war against Iraq, and they would rely greatly on defecting Iraqi units to topple Saddam Hussein, senior defence officials said today. According to defence sources, February would be the most likely time to strike, with hostilities over by no later than April. This would give the USA and its allies optimum fighting weather before the oppressive heat of the Gulf spring and summer sets in. The officials said, however, that the date has not been approved and that President Bush has not agreed to a plan. The presence of UN weapons inspectors inside Iraq, they said, would be a stumbling block and could prevent Bush from ordering an attack on his timetable. In the meantime, Iraqi forces have stepped up attacks on coalition aircraft enforcing no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq since offering unconditional UN arms inspections, according to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He pointed at the attacks in testimony before the Senate Arms Services Committee as evidence that Iraq’s letter to the UN Security Council on Monday offering the unconditional inspections was a ploy. Meanwhile, a prominent Iraqi defector has warned Iraq could unleash a biological attack on the West by using unsuspecting people travelling abroad as carriers of deadly germs. Nuclear scientist Khidhir Hamza, who left Iraq in 1994 and now lives in the USA, told the US Congress he suspected the Iraqi security service had already used people travelling abroad to reunite with relatives to infect exiled dissidents with the deadly AIDS virus. UNITED NATIONS: Chief UN arms inspector for Iraq Hans Blix has told the Security Council that he hoped to have an advance party in Iraq on October 15, diplomats said. Speaking to the media yesterday after he had briefed the council for about an hour, Mr Blix did not confirm the date, but said he hoped to have a team in Iraq shortly after he completed preparatory talks with the Iraqis early next month. London: British Prime Minister Tony Blair faces an embarrassing revolt by members of his own party during a forthcoming protest vote against the government’s hardline stance over Iraq, the Financial Times said today. Thirty non-Cabinet Labour MPs told a Financial Times survey that they would vote against the government when Parliament is recalled on September 24 for a one-day debate over Iraq. Reuters, AFP
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USA may finger-print Pak visitors The Bush administration is reported to have added Pakistan to the list of
Muslim countries whose nationals visiting the USA will be required to be finger-printed under the new immigration rules to come into force on October 1. According to the WorldNet Daily(WND), an internet news site, the Justice Department fears that Pakistan may be sending terrorists to the USA and has subjected it to the same immigration restrictions imposed on the five known Middle- East terrorist sponsoring countries—Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Syria. The WND claims to be in possession of a copy of an internal official memo outlining the new Justice Department rules. It reports that beginning October 1, immigration inspectors will be required to finger-print, photograph and track Pakistani nationals who enter the USA on visas. Young Pakistani nationals will be matched against federal terrorism and criminal data bases. Predictably, Pakistan is surprised and upset over the new development. Spokesman of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington Asad Hayauddin told the WND that the new rules would leave “a bad taste” among the Pakistanis. “You are going to finger-print and mugshot our people as if they are common criminals,” he said. Mr Hayauddin asserted that the USA had no right to target Pakistanis, contending that none of the terrorists linked to
September 11 attacks were citizens of Pakistan. According to the WND, there are more illegal aliens in the USA from Pakistan than from any other
Muslim or middle -eastern country. It cited a report by the Centre for Immigration Studies saying that the USA Immigration and naturalisation had last estimated that 41,000 Pakistani nationals were living in the USA illegally. |
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Pre-emptive action not for India, Pak
Washington, September 20 Comparing the US claim of pre-emptive strike on Iraq with similar claims that could be made by others, the senior Bush administration official, who requested anonymity, told reporters: “In the cases that have been most often cited, like India-Pakistan, we continually talk to the Indians and the Pakistanis about the available means that they have to deal with the conflict between them.” “And we are very clear with them that the use of military force is not going to resolve that conflict and it is going to make the situation worse. So, when there are other means, you ought to try them. You ought to try to deal with threats in any way that you can, the official said. “But”, he said, “there will come times when, in order to prevent an attack against you, you have to pre-empt that threat.” PTI
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Global terrorism in the garb of jehad This month Americans, or for that matter all partners in the international coalition against global terrorism, will be assessing their success after about a year of crackdown on this menace. The crackdown has started on October 7 to bomb out the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which had hosted Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida gang which is considered responsible for the September 11 terror in New York and Washington. The coalition did achieve considerable success in Afghanistan but not enough to break the back of global terrorism, which its perpetrators spread in the name of religion. The coalition’s action in Afghanistan in the past one year has succeeded in throwing out the Taliban Government together with its Al-Qaida guests; has installed the Hamid Karzai Government which has done much in restoring normalcy and human rights; has facilitated the return of King Zahir Shah from 29-year of exile; and has made it difficult for the Pakistan Government to continue its traditional open support to Islamic terrorists. That is all. The threat of religion-related terrorism remains intact. The whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s chief, remain a puzzle. Nobody can say with surety whether they are dead or alive after the bombing of Afghanistan. Osama’s anti-America, anti-West message has been spreading like poison in Muslim countries, particularly in Pakistan. Attacks on churches, the kidnapping and the subsequent brutal murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl and bomb attacks that have killed about a dozen Fernchmen in Karachi as also attacks on foreign establishments in Afghanistan all indicate the Al-Qaida activists and their sypathisers in Pakistan and Afghanistan are reorganising themselves and can cause an incident more devastating than the one seen in America last year. So whatever the American Government may claim, their mission in Afghanistan has not been a great success story. What the USA and the West fails (or refuses) to understand is that Pakistan’s Kashmir policy has been a camouflage to hide breeding of terrorists not only for Kashmir but also for the USA and the West, which Osama has described as Anti-Islam. Pakistan has officially encouraged Jehadis in the name of “freedom” struggle in Kashmir. Now it is being found that the terrorist activities of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba in Kashmir and of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s terror against Shias were only a camouflage to hide their affiliation with Al-Qaida. One just cannot deny the fact that Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba always enjoyed the present military government’s patronage. General Musharraf banned these two organisations on January 12 under tremendous pressure from the USA. Until India cut-off air and land links with Pakistan and deployed its forces on the border after the December 13 attack on Parliament House, the USA and the West did not take India’s complaints against Pak-supported terrorism in Kashmir seriously. After the Indian action they had to take it seriously because they knew that a war between India and Pakistan at this juncture would frustrate their mission against terrorism. There has been a flurry of visits of high officials from the United States, Britain and other western countries to India and Pakistan this year to persuade their leadership to start a dialogue on Kashmir. These visits have not yielded the desired results because they have failed to make Pakistan stop cross-LoC infiltration — a condition that must be fulfilled before India agrees to talk to Pakistan. The truth is that General Musharraf today finds himself between the devil and the deep sea. He cannot altogether discard Pakistan’s well rooted, terrorism based Kashmir policy for fear of his colleagues in the Army and the ISI. On the other hand, he needs the USA badly not only for its financial support but more so for its blessings for his farce of democracy that he is going to stage on October 10. Americans seem all for this farce as long as Musharraf remains their “man of his words.” But will that end terrorism? |
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UK holds 6 for financing terrorism London, September 20 Scotland Yard, which led the raids through its anti-terrorism cell along with the British intelligence agency MI5, is questioning the suspects. But the six were all believed to be part of an Islamic group that has been raising money to finance terrorism at several places abroad. The arrests would reportedly be of interest to India, which has been asking the British government for long to crack down on groups funding terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. Five other men who have been working with these six were detained for immigration offences. They are reported to be involved in sending young British Muslims abroad for training at terrorist camps. The arrests come under the Anti-Terrorism Act introduced last year to check financing of terrorism. Several Islamic groups that are reported to have been raising money to fund terrorism in Kashmir were banned under that Act. The arrested men are reported to have come from those banned organisations and raised funds under different banners. Indian security and intelligence officers are being kept informed of developments, according to official sources. Indian officials are particularly trying to see if the men were associated with groups led by Ayub Thakur, who represents what he calls the World Kashmir Freedom Movement. Indian authorities had lodged a strong complaint against him over money he transferred to groups and individuals in Kashmir.
IANS |
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Israelis attack Arafat’s HQ Ramallah, September 20 The Israeli military issued a statement saying that it was stepping up its activities all over the West Bank, and at Mr Arafat’s headquarters the forces were “isolating the area which is providing refuge to about 20 wanted persons bent on terrorism.” An Israeli Cabinet statement after a rare emergency session late yesterday put the blame for the bombing on Mr Arafat,“who had established the coalition of terror.” It said operational decisions had been made. Palestinian officials said the USA had stepped in, urging them to hand over 19 men on Israel’s''wanted''list. Also, US officials suggested that the Palestinians appoint representatives to negotiate with the Israelis on defusing the situation, the Palestinian officials said. US officials were not available for comment. Soldiers with loudspeakers called on wanted Palestinians inside Mr Arafat’s compound to surrender, naming Tawfik Tirawi ,commander of the Palestinian intelligence, an Israeli official said. The Israeli army arrested 23 Palestinians from Mr Arafat’s besieged HQ compound late last night but were not part of a group of those whose surrender the army is demanding. AFP
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Indian fisherman
released Colombo, September 20 “They are being sent back with the help of the Indian Coast Guard,” official sources said. They were released from the custody of a fishermen’s association that acted on its own. Officials said the fishermen, along with 26
trawlers, were seized by their local counterparts off the coast of Talaimannar, on the north-western coast, and brought to Pesalai in Mannar district.
PTI |
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Strike on Iraq planned in Feb
Ramallah, September 20
