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Monday,
September 24, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Bin Laden
grooming son US attack
toll put at 6818 Attack
planned two months ago?
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2 die in Bangladesh
pre-poll violence
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Bin Laden’s men leave Al-Qaida camps, disperse Islamabad, September 23 Thousands of Bin Laden’s followers, many of them from Arab and other foreign countries, have abandoned training camps and dispersed in Afghanistan, The Dawn reported quoting highly placed sources. The daily, in a report from Peshawar, said the Al-Qaida camps are now “empty and abandoned”. Bin Laden’s supporters include youth from countries as varied as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Bosnia, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Yeman, Chechnya, besides Uighur Chinese, Uzbeks and Tajiks. The report said the Taliban had initially permitted Bin Laden to conduct an unlimited number of training camps but later asked the Saudi dissident to limit the number of the camps to “a few” in the wake of sanctions slapped on Afghanistan by the UN Security Council in November last year. Laden, who himself has fled to an unknown destination, owns a satellite phone but avoids using it for fear of being traced to his location, the newspaper said. He is, however, known to be making use of landline phones wherever available in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan or spread the word around through contacts and couriers, it said. Washington: Osama bin Laden conspirators might have planned, or may still be planning, dispersing chemical or biological agents from crop-dusting planes, Time magazine reports in its latest issue. US law enforcement officials found a manual on the operation of crop-dusting equipment while searching suspected terrorist hideouts. The discovery has added to concerns among government counter-terrorism experts that Bin Laden conspirators might have had plans to disperse biological, chemical agents from a crop-dusting plane, normally used for agricultural purposes, Time says quoting US officials. Among the belongings of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussoul, were manuals showing how to operate crop-dusting equipment that could be used to spray fast-killing toxins into the air. Consequently, all crop-dusters were grounded nationwide on September 16. The dusters have been allowed to function again, but are not allowed to take off or land from Class B airspace or the skies around major cities. One senior official said that since corroborative evidence was lacking, the FBI did not place “high credibility” in the idea that hijackers explored the possibility of stealing or renting
crop dusters. Jerusalem: The chief of Israeli military intelligence said in an interview published today he saw no signs that Iraq was involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States of America. “I don’t see a direct link between
Iraq and the hijackings and terror attacks in the United States of America,” Major-General Amos Malka, concurring with US assessments, told Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. “I know many people are wondering whether this kind of attack could be carried out without the help of a country and they immediately point at Iraq or Iran,” General Malka
said. PTI, Reuters |
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Bin Laden grooming son Peshawar, September 23 Western intelligence watched the ceremony, in January this year, with interest. It took place at a place two hours drive from Kandahar, the southern desert city that is the spiritual home of the Taliban and where Bin Laden has a key base. It was the Saudi-born dissident’s first public appearance for months and a clear demonstration that Al-Qaeda — his organisation — had strength in depth. Bin Laden’s son Mohammad bin Laden is now emerging as a key figure. Known to be shy and contemplative, he is being groomed by his father, who is now 44 and suffers from back and kidney problems, as a successor. By the age of 17 he had been entrusted with ensuring his father’s security as he slept. One former associate remembered how, when Bin Laden spent the night at the house of an ally near the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, ‘Mohammed spent the entire night at the door to his father’s room with a Kalashnikov in his arms.’ Western intelligence agencies say Mohammed is a deeply devout young man committed to the radical programme of his father, and could easily assume his crucial “figurehead” role. Bin Laden’s role is not that of a military technician but a strategist. He is an inspirational leader full of rhetoric and ideas, said one security source. “If Bin Laden is killed his son will be the son of the martyred Mujahid [freedom fighter] and can take on the leadership role.” Mohammed, one of 13 children by four wives, will also be able to draw on powerful family connections. Taking out Bin Laden junior will be hard. He may already have left Afghanistan. He has spent much of his life in Peshawar and knows it well. Last year a raid on the Spina Wari district in the city missed capturing him by a few hours though two other Al-Qaeda members were caught. The Pakistani authorities are finding it impossible to seal the 1,200-mile mountainous border. There are also many in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency who are long-term supporters of Bin Laden. The ISI was the principal conduit for Western aid to the Afghan Mujahideen in the war against the Soviet Union. The then ruler of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq, encouraged hardline Islamists in the army and the intelligence services to counter more secular opposition to his dictatorship. Ten years later, they have risen to senior ranks. Pakistani police sources told The Observer they believed they failed to capture Mohammed bin Laden last year after he was warned of their raid by ISI jehadi elements. Western security sources blame Osama bin Laden’s sudden decision to leave a meeting of Al-Qaeda commanders in the hours before it was hit by US cruise missiles in 1998, following the East African embassy bombings, on a tip-off from the same source. But Atef is not the only man powerful enough to run Al-Qaeda if Bin Laden falls. At 9pm on August 20 1998, the telephone rang in the cluttered Peshawar office of Rahimullah Yusufzai, a senior reporter on the Pakistani paper The News. Despite the late hour the bazaar beneath the office window was still noisy. Yusufzai could hardly hear the man at the other end of the phone. It was Dr Ayman Al-Zawahiri, calling on a satellite phone from a secret location deep in Afghanistan — and sitting next to him was Bin Laden. Ten days earlier 224 people had died in the bombing of the East African embassies. Zawahiri, a founder of the Egyptian group Al-Jihad, has been with Bin Laden since 1995. He has fused his apocalyptic vision of war between Islam and the West with the experience of Bin Laden and Afghanistan. Zawahiri is believed to be behind Bin Laden’s bribery of Pakistani journalists and to have drafted a letter signed by Bin Laden, seen by The Observer, asking associates in Pakistan to increase their efforts to cultivate key figures on newspapers. In one instance a Pakistani journalist received US dollars 10,000 from Al-Qaeda. According to one arms dealer in Peshawar, Bin Laden’s associates made concerted effort to obtain Stinger-type anti-aircraft missiles. “I received offers of US dollars 200,000 if I could get one and they would take as many as I could provide,” he said. Several dealers confirmed that, from early last year until two months ago, Bin Laden was spending around US dollars 800,000 a month on small arms and ammunition from stockpiles within the former Soviet Union. Bin Laden has often expressed a wish to obtain a chemical, biological or nuclear capability and tried to buy uranium in 1993 but failed. Lateef Afridi, a tribal leader and former member of Pakistan’s Parliament, told The Observer he had been approached four weeks ago and offered uranium. Conventional weapons he bought recently are almost destined for the 055 brigade - a unit of 2,000 Arabs based in the old army barracks at Rishkor just outside Kabul, though currently deployed alongside the Taliban on the frontline 20 miles north of Kabul. According to witnesses in Kabul the ‘Arab Legion’ started digging bunkers and trenches around their camps at the beginning of this month. Indications say that Bin Laden is preparing for a fight. Afghan opposition sources say the district of Nawar Saifalla, in the desert near Kandahar, has been turned into a giant military camp populated almost solely by Arabs loyal to Bin Laden. It is centred on an old Soviet airstrip that has been restored and has been receiving regular flights at night. Many of the volunteers the large planes are bringing in are Palestinian. Many are funded by Gulf and West Bank backers who want to see all the Western aid agencies in Afghanistan replaced by Islamic organisations. A second Afghan fighter recalled following the Soviet withdrawal, Bin Laden had been disgusted by the infighting among Mujahideen groups. “He was very frustrated by it all. He is a very honest, very clean man and when he saw the Arabs arguing among themselves he was sickened by it,” Jammal Nazimuddin said. “He used to tell them they had defeated the Soviet empire because they were united and Allah had blessed them. If they were not united, he said, they could not do Allah’s will.” But Bin Laden’s own men remained loyal to the end. “I had come to Afghanistan to fight for my faith,” said one former fighter with the ‘Arab Legion’ who now is a businessman commuting between his native Algeria and Peshawar. “Then when I got back to Peshawar I went to see Osama because he had more faith than anybody and it was a quiet, strong, modest faith that I liked. We used to sit down as brothers to eat, all fighters together. Everyone was equal. When I wanted to marry a Pakistani girl I had no money for the dowry so he gave me US dollars 1,500.”
The Observer, London |
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US attack toll put at 6818 New York, September 23 In New York, 6,585 people were killed or listed as missing from the World Trade Center disaster (comprising 252 confirmed dead and 6,333 missing, presumed dead). Workers have identified 183 bodies, including those of 34 firemen. At the Pentagon, 189 people are confirmed dead or missing. So far, 117 bodies have been recovered, of which 52 have been identified as of Friday. The missing figure at both sites includes the 157 passengers and crew of the two hijacked aircraft that crashed into the World Trade Center and the 64 on the one that flew into the Pentagon.
AFP |
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Attack planned two months ago? London, September 23 The Guardian quoted Naik as saying he received the first indications of an attack at a July meeting in Berlin attended among others by former U.S. Assistant Secretary of state for South Asia Karl Inderfurth. “The Americans indicated to us that in case the Taliban did not behave and in case Pakistan also did not help us to influence the Taliban, then the USA would be left with no option but to take an overt action against Afghanistan,” Naik, who attended the meeting, reportedly said. “I told the Pakistani government, who informed the Taliban via our foreign office and the Taliban ambassador here.” A serving Pakistani general and two retired Pakistani generals also attended the meeting, the report said, adding Pakistan told the Taliban they would face an attack if they did not surrender Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. Before September 11, the USA wanted Bin Laden for his alleged role in the bombings of two American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The Guardian said. Americans, Russians, Pakistanis and Iranians attended the meeting called “Brainstorming on Afghanistan.” Three Americans attended the Berlin meeting — Inderfurth, Tom Simons, a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, and Lee Coldren, who headed the office of Pakistan, Afghan and Bangladesh affairs in the State Department until 1997. The meeting was held with U.N. blessings and its official agenda was finding a solution to the civil war in Afghanistan, ending terrorism and heroin trafficking, and discussing humanitarian aid. Inderfurth told The Guardian: “There was no suggestion for military force to be used. What we discussed was the need for a comprehensive political settlement to bring an end to the war in Afghanistan that has been going on for two decades and has been doing so much damage.”
IANS |
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Sharon scraps Peres-Arafat meet Jerusalem, September 23 Israeli government officials said Sharon vetoed plans by his Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat because anti-Israeli violence had not stopped after a ceasefire announced last Tuesday. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Nabil Shaath said that in an effort to take the high ground, Arafat and other Palestinian officials would still turn up for the meeting at Gaza
airport. “The venue of the meeting and the time was agreed between U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Arafat and Peres last night. Now they (the Israelis) have to explain what they are doing,” Shaath said. Sharon’s decision was another slap in the face to the dovish Peres, whose plans to meet Arafat and try to kickstart a U.S.-backed talks-to-truce plan have been vetoed repeatedly by the right-wing leader of Israel’s “national unity” government. As examples, Israeli officials cited a mortar bomb attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza on Saturday and what they said was the failure of Palestinian authorities to detain a man wanted by Israel suspected of being involved in the killing of a West Bank settler last week. Jibril Rajoub, a Palestinian security chief in the West Bank, told newsmen the suspect was under arrest and interrogation. But the attacks provided ammunition for right-wing members of Sharon’s ruling coalition to pressure the Prime Minister — who called Arafat a terrorist in a CNN interview on Friday — to scrap the talks. Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo responded angrily to news of the last-minute cancellation.
Reuters |
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2 die in Bangladesh
pre-poll violence Bhola (Bangladesh), September 23 Yesterday night’s violence in the coastal Bhola area, about 320 km southeast of Dhaka, appeared to be between supporters of the two main parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League, and came despite the recent deployment of army troops in the area. Meanwhile, former US President Jimmy Carter has cancelled a trip to Bangladesh because of the September 11 hijacked plane attacks in New York and Washington, the election monitoring group he was to lead said today. Mr Carter was to arrive in the capital Dhaka on September 28 as head of a 30-member team from the Washington-based National Democratic Institute and the Carter Center to monitor the October 1 parliamentary election.
Reuters |
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