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Tuesday,
September 18, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Two posing as Indians held for attacks
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Laden network active
in Scandinavia Don’t retaliate sans proof: Grand Sheikh |
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Two US ships leave port in Japan Life in America won’t be the same
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Two posing as Indians held for attacks Washington, September 17 Investigators added 70 new names to their “wanted” list throughout the world bringing the total number of people being sought for questioning by the FBI to 170. Ayub Khan (51) and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath (47) were taken into custody yesterday at a railway station in Fort Worth, Texas and flown to New York for questioning. They were in custody “in the strongest possibility we have yet” in the nationwide FBI probe, Texas law enforcement authorities said. A New York report said the duo had told the authorities that they were Indians but Texas authorities said the men lied about their nationality and had no legitimate identification. Meanwhile, US investigators pursued more than 40,000 leads as they tried to pin down an international network of militants believed to be behind devastating terror attacks that killed thousands. What started as a probe on the US east coast has now spread around the world, involving thousands of investigators on all continents, becoming the largest investigation in US history. “This is an enormous, worldwide terrorist effort. It’s a network. They operate around the world,” US Attorney-General John Ashcroft told Fox Television, describing the suspects. Two people were in custody yesterday on material witness warrants issued in the wake of Tuesday’s attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, officials said. The authorities also have detained 25 people for immigration law violations. The group included Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Amath, detained at the train station in Forth Worth, Texas, MSNBC television reported, citing law enforcement sources. The two men had $ 5,000 in cash in addition to box cutters, the same type of weapon allegedly used by the hijackers to commandeer the planes that were later rammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The authorities said the two men then got on an Amtrak train but were pulled off it at Fort Worth on Wednesday for a drug check, which targeted several passengers at random. CNN, quoting sources, said the duo had extensive knowledge of terrorist network. Law enforcement sources said they were trying to find out if Azmath and Khan could be linked to a doctor from San Antonio, who is also in custody, according to the TV network. A man named Al Bader Al-Hazmi was detained by federal authorities in San Antonio, Texas, and flown to New York on Friday for questioning, officials disclosed. Federal agents also searched yesterday an unspecified number of apartments and motel rooms across south Florida where several of the alleged hijackers lived, said a law enforcement official. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported that a motel in Deerfield Beach and apartments in Pompano Beach, Delray Beach and Vero Beach were among search sites. At Delray Beach, FBI agents searched two apartment complexes and a club once attended by hijacking suspects Saeed Al Ghamdi and Ahmed Al-Nami, who were aboard the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, the daily reported. The agents also combed a Vero Beach apartment once occupied by Amer Kamfar, another suspected hijacker. At least 13 New Jersey men — some found with box cutters, large sums of cash and, in one case, a one-way plane ticket to Syria — have been detained by the FBI for questioning, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.
PTI, AFP |
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Kill Americans, Osama tells followers Islamabad, September 17 An e-mail message purported to be from Bin Laden and received by the Pakistani media says all Muslims were expected to kill American civilians and military personnel and their allies, reports Online news agency. “We — with God’s help — call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. “We also call on Muslim (clergy), leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan’s US troops and the devil’s supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.” The statement also flays the USA for stationing troops in Saudi Arabia and continuing its military aggression against Iraq. LONDON: Britain publicly identified Osama bin Laden for the first time on Monday as the “prime suspect” responsible for the bloody terrorist attacks in the USA. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said it was clear from intelligence reports that the Saudi-born terrorist mastermind was the main suspect. Meanwhile, Britain’s Al-Muhajiroun organisation headed by radical Syrian Islamist Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed has called on a group of 50 young men and women to travel to Afghanistan and give their lives in the defence of Islam, the Daily Telegraph reported on Monday. ZAMBOANGA (Philippines): A captured Philippine Muslim rebel leader has named Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, linked by Washington to terror attacks on the USA, as a financier of his group, the military said on Monday. Jimmy Theng admitted to Bin Laden’s alleged tie-up with the Muslim fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf group during interrogation after his capture on Saturday on the southern island of Basilan, a military statement said. “Significantly, he revealed that the Abu Sayyaf group is receiving financial support from Osama bin Laden,” it said.
Agencies |
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Laden network active in Scandinavia Stockholm, September 17 Swedish and Norwegian anti-terrorist officials said these networks were active in raising funds and spreading propaganda for Bin Laden’s worldwide terror campaign. “Terrorists that belong to Osama bin Laden’s network, as well as those from Pakistan, are operating in Sweden,” Mr Kurt Malmstrom, Deputy Director of the Swedish National Security Police, told IANS. In Oslo, Mr Stein Vale, Deputy Director of the Norwegian National Security Police, also confirmed that the same was true in Norway. “We are cognisant, and have been for a considerable time, that there are many people actively operating in Norway and have direct ties with Bin Laden’s Al-Quaida group and other known terrorist groups in Pakistan,” Mr Vale said. Mr Gosta Carlsson, an expert on Asian terrorist groups, said: “The terrorists are able to enjoy immunity because neither Sweden nor Norway have signed the UN convention that bans financing of terrorism.” “This has provided a safe haven for terrorist groups from Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir as well as the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. The amount they collect in Sweden and Norway, and its logistic significance to their respective organisations is incalculable.”
IANS |
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Don’t retaliate sans proof: Grand Sheikh Cairo, September 17 “Each country has the right to fight against whoever assaults it. But Islamic law says that punishment must come to the one who commits a crime and that no punishment should be imposed before concrete evidence is produced,” said Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawy, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar. “Punishment must be imposed only on the culprit who committed this horrendous crime,” he told reporters. Washington has vowed to punish the perpetrators of Tuesday’s devastating attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, as well as those who protect them. Egypt, a key regional ally of the USA, has urged Washington to be careful in apportioning blame, and said it was cooperating with a U.S. investigation into the attacks. President Hosni Mubarak, who also urged it not to jump to conclusions, has said his country would support “very tough action” in response to the attacks. ALGIERS: Algeria, fighting an Islamic insurgency in which more than 100,000 people have been killed, has called for U.N.-led action against terrorism after last week’s attacks against the USA. “The tragic developments that occurred in the USA underline the urgency and the pressing need for a universal action,” President Abdelaziz Bouteflika told a Cabinet meeting late on Sunday. In remarks carried by state-run El Moudjahid newspaper on Monday, Bouteflika said the action had to be “organised within a concerted strategy” in conformity with “international commitments agreed upon under U.N. auspices”. Bouteflika added that Algeria, which has suffered “for a decade from the same barbarity that saw tens of thousands of her children die from the brutality of a terrorism that strikes blindly and without distinction...sympathises sincerely with the pain of American people”. SOLLOUG
(Libya): Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi warned the USA that it would face a Soviet-style quagmire in Afghanistan if it retaliated there for devastating terror attacks in New York and Washington. “The USA has the right to seek revenge”, the Libyan leader, who has often assailed Washington for its policies in the Middle East and elsewhere, declared yesterday. Mr Gaddafi, who said 20,000 Soviet soldiers had died in Afghanistan during their 1979-1988 occupation of the rugged country, urged the USA “to show maturity”. “Bin Laden and his men will disperse in the mountains and this could cause another 20,000 deaths”, he said. BAGHDAD: Iraq urged Washington to reconsider its foreign policy in the wake of the attacks on US cities and said the horror was a consequence of American unfairness. “We hope that American politicians will take this (attack) as a stimulus for quiet reasoning and reassessment of America’s role in the world”, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said on Sunday. Mr Sabri refused to comment on whether Iraq, which is on a US State Department list of “state sponsors of terrorism”, expected to be a target of US retaliation. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein advised the USA on Saturday to use wisdom, and not force, in retaliating.
Reuters |
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USA becoming ‘more Pak-oriented’ “WHAT
will the USA do now ? I just hope Bush do not use the terrorist attacks for a much broader agenda , which I fear they are about to do,” says Professor Judith Stein, Professor of History at the City College of New York and the Graduate Centre of the City University of New York. Professor Stein visited Chandigarh in July last year. In a letter to The Tribune, while describing the situation, especially in the light of increased incidence of violent attacks on members of minority communities in general and Sikhs in particular, she says: “I do not think that describing the situation in terms of good and evil ( President Bush’s way) is very helpful. Although he and other political leaders have been good in trying to avoid the scapegoating of people who look like West Asians, his vocabulary encourages it .” “There have been a few instances. In one instance, I think a Sikh man was harassed. Someone mistook him for a West Asian. But in general, there has been not much although Muslim communities here are anxious. “I fear , too, that whatever Pakistan does , it will put the USA more in support of conservative and military states like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which is a part of the US problem. While the US Government asks Pakistan to do several things, I wonder what Pakistan is going to get in return. On the other hand, people on the left respond simply that the USA supported the Afghan fundamentalists, a truth, but not the only truth and one that seems to lead nowhere. “I assume that in Chandigarh, given its history, people are sympathetic to victims of terrorism,” adds Professor Stein who lives about three miles north of World Trade Center near Central Park. Like much of the world, my first glimpse of the attack was on TV. “For the first few hours, nobody knew the extent — rumours of planes all over. But then it stopped and it began to sink in. I never really liked those towers until now that they are missing. As you probably heard, people responded magnificently, led by our Mayor whom I and others had criticised constantly. But his calmness, constant communication, and determination were inspiring. In a situation which encouraged cliches, he always used plain English. “At Columbia University on Thursday afternoon on the steps of Low Library students had a five-foot-wide ribbon of brown paper on which everyone was writing thanks to them in every language — French, Spanish, English, Parsi. Yesterday was the first day New York below Canal Street was open and I took the opportunity to go and see for myself. “The whole area of lower Manhattan was covered with a heavy brown dust. Shopkeepers everywhere were using water hoses on buildings, streets. Despite tall buildings, the streets are so narrow, and were clogged with trucks carrying bodies, personnel, portable electric generators, etc. “I spoke to a welder who was taking a break from breaking up the iron on the site and he said he had nightmares. American flags were everywhere, as these were throughout the city, where such displays are not common. Many people carry them in their backpacks, paste them on lamp posts, store fronts, etc. On the way home on the subway. I stopped off to volunteer at the American Red Cross, which is coordinating a huge effort. I passed a fire station in which 12 members were missing, probably dead. Over 300 fire fighters were caught when the buildings collapsed. “It seems to me that some good old-fashioned detective work, better airport security, etc. would have been very useful. Of course, in hindsight it is easy to say this, but somehow I believe that low-tech solutions like detective work and politics would be fine, but doubt that they will choose such things,” she said. |
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Two US ships leave port in Japan Tokyo, September 17 The guided missile cruiser, USS Vincennes, and the USS Curtis Wilbur, a guided missile destroyer, left Yokosuka base at the mouth of Tokyo Bay, US navy spokesman Lieut Chuck Bell told the AFP. On Saturday, the guided missile cruiser, Cowpens left Yokosuka and Japanese media reports said the aircraft carrier, USS Kitty Hawk could leave this week. Bell confirmed the departure of the three vessels but added: “Under the circumstances we can’t comment on the specification of any mission The Curtis Wilbur, Vincennes and Cowpens are able to carry Tomahawk cruise missiles as well as anti-aircraft and anti-submarine missiles. The 9,516-tonne cowpens and the Curtis Wilbur, 8,400 tonnes, are both equipped with Aegis air defence systems, enabling simultaneous attacks on multiple targets, the Kyodo news agency said.
AFP |
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Life in America won’t be the same IN the aftermath of the worst-ever terrorist attacks on the U.S. soil, things will never be the same for America — they will be for the worse.. This grim prognostication comes from eminent American historian David McCullough, and his analysis is shared by several U.S. Congressmen. In an interview to The Hill, a journal devoted to the happenings on the Capitol Hill, Mr McCullough, predicted that the impact of the
September 11 terrorist attacks on the American psyche, and on the American life in general, would be far greater than two other traumatic events in recent American history, the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour and the 1963 assassination of President John F.Kennedy. “This is worse than Pearl Harbour because it happened to us here, not some place faraway,” he said. “This is not a time of war. It was an attack on innocent civilians rather than military
targets. This will make people afraid of cities, of targets of any kind. We may start taking out our revenge on the wrong people.” Mr McCllough said the psychological impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks was so powerful because “there was no psychological buildup. This was not just a bunch of bad guy terrorists. This was well organised, well planned, and well
thought out. Nobody knew we were living in such tense times.” “Things will never be the same for the USA that is for certain”, he said. “They will be for the worse”. The Hill reported that as Mr McCllough watched the indescribable scenes of carnage and destruction being played out on the
television. As the tragic events unfolded on the Tuesday last, faith and spirituality came to the fore on Capitol Hill as lawmakers headed for nearby churches. “This nation is great because it is good,” senator Orrin Hatch was quoted as saying. “I recommend all people of faith go to a place to pray. We will never be subjugated to foreign domination if we are a righteous nation..” “The power of prayer is an important buttress at a time like this,” said Eric Ueland, chief of staff to senator Don Nickles. “It has a significant role.” |
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Russian chopper shot, 9 dead Moscow, September 17 The downing of the Mi-8 helicopter was claimed in a telephone call to the AFP by Movladi Udugov, a spokesman for a radical Chechen separatist group.
AFP |
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