May 13, 2005

SAUDI SECURITY FORCES DETAIN TWO SUSPECTS FROM THE DEVIATING GROUP. THE SECURITY FORCES ARREST ABDUL AZIZ AL-ANZI. ALL 9/11 LAWSUITS AGAINST SAUDI ARABIA DISMISSED. SANAA: AN AL-QAEDA CELL ACCUSED OF PLANNING TO ATTACK BANKS AND RESTAURANTS IN SAUDI ARABIA. THE BRITISH POLICE RAIDS AL-MASARI'S HOUSE AND STOPS HIS RADIO STATION. A suspect of the deviating group was injured and transferred to a hospital in a shootout in Rawabi neighborhood, East Riyadh last Monday evening, an official source at the Ministry of Interior stated. The source pointed out that security men observed a suspected car and asked its driver who was on foot to show his identity card. The driver started shooting at the security men. He tried to seize by force a citizen's car at the scene. Then the security men exchanged fire with him leading to his injury. He was controlled and transferred to the hospital for treatment. One citizen was slightly injured and treated. In the suspected car, the security men found out four highly explosive bombs; four pipe bombs; two Kalashnikov machine guns; two pistols; various ammunition; 9 car plates; documents and a sum of SR 20,000, the source said and added that the incident is still followed up by the concerned security authorities. Supplementing an earlier statement on the suspect of the deviating group who was injured and apprehended in a shootout in Rawabi neighborhood, East Riyadh, an official source at the Ministry of Interior stated that investigations proved that the injured is wanted for security authorities and he is named Abdul Aziz Ibn Rasheed Ibn Hamdan Altowaile'i Ala'nezi, Saudi national. The man is one of the deviating group and worked to promote their misled ideas. He wrote in their publications under several names including "Akho mun Taa' Allah" (brother of whoever obeys Allah, "Farhan bin Mashhoor Alrowaili and "Abdullah bin Nasir Alrasheed. He buried two of his comrades, who died after being injured by security men, in isolated areas and took part in confrontations with security men. Security authorities arrested two terror suspects at a rest house in Riyadh's Zulfi district in a swift operation that gave them no time to put up a fight. One of them owned the car that was seized from four other suspected terrorists who were killed in an encounter with the security forces in the Thuwairat desert north of Zulfi in December. Sources said the raiders seized tapes instigating deviant attitudes, two mobile phones and a jamming device from the suspected terrorist hideout Meanwhile, security authorities have identified a suspected terrorist arrested in Rawabi in eastern Riyadh as Abdul Aziz Bin Rasheed Bin Hamdan Al-Tuwailei Al-Anzi, said to be a university degree holder. Al-Anzi, whose role was to guide and plan terrorist strategies, preached deviant ideas on the Internet and called for the assassination of security officials. Sources said he was among those who buried Basir Al-Rashid and Rakin Al-Saikhan. The two were injured in the Faihaa encounter and died while in hiding. Eyewitnesses said Al-Anzi was wounded in the fighting and that he tried to take hostage three persons in a fast food restaurant but was immediately caught. I was preparing a meal for two at around 10 P.M. and noticed a man, with dark skin and wearing the tradition Saudi clothes trying to enter the place with a gun in his right hand, An Indian working at the fast food said. He tried to hold me and two others hostage in his bid to escape but security officials foiled his plan. He was wounded in the back and his jaw when he entered the fast food joint and was wobbling, the eyewitnesses said. Sources said Al-Anzi presented forged identity documents in the name of Saudi citizen, Eisa Al-Sibaie, when he was cornered. Al-Anzi told his captors that he had a companion who had escaped after trying to waylay the security forces to save him. Majid Al-Usaimi, who lived in the next building, said the security men asked Al-Anzi, who was driving a car, to stop. When he got down, they asked him to show his Ids but he took a gun and fired at them. He tried to seize a silver-colored car but the security men had surrounded him SG. The Ministry of the Interior said that the wanted militant, Abdul Aziz Ibn Rasheed Al-Anzi, a Saudi national, had been arrested. Al-Anzi was arrested after being injured by security forces in a gunbattle. The statement made clear that the gunbattle involved only one militant even though earlier reports had said the number was three. "The suspect is one of the promoters of deviant ideology. He had a major role in promoting takfeer ideology (branding other Muslims as infidels) and is a member of the so-called religious committee in the deviant group," the statement said. "Because the suspect has a university degree in religious studies, his colleagues have made him a major promoter of their sick ideology and have used his statements to justify their corruption and criminal acts," it added. The statement also said that the militant's preaching and statements were used to defame peaceful Islamic principles for evil purposes; he said it was permissible to shed non-Muslim blood and accused other Muslims of being infidels. The suspect also preached that in Islam it was permissible to kill security officers on religious grounds. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the suspect used the Internet as a tool to publish his statements. Al-Anzi was not on the Kingdom's most wanted list of terror suspects. On the other hand, three Saudi princes, several Saudi businessmen and Saudi financial institutions were dismissed as defendants in lawsuits accusing them of supporting Al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks. Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Casey cited the report by the Sept. 11 Commission, which found no evidence that Saudi leaders provided support to the hijackers. "The US State Department has not designated the Kingdom a state sponsor of terrorism," said Judge Casey. He specifically dismissed as defendants Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General; Prince Turki Al-Faisal Saudi Ambassador to Britain; Prince Mohammed Al-Faisal, Sheikh Saleh Kamel and Dallah Al-Baraka, among others. The 9/11 lawsuits allege more than 200 defendants provided material support to Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Prince Turki Al-Faisal Saudi Ambassador to Britain said he was happy that the court rejected all charges against him. "The charges were not true at all. I spent a long time after Osama Bin Laden to bring him to justice". He said he considered Bin Laden an evil man who violated Islamic rules by killing innocent people. Prince Turki thanked the American justice system that acquitted him of all charges. "The court has reviewed the complaints in their entirety and finds no allegations from which it can infer that the princes knew the charities to which they donated were fronts for Al-Qaeda," Casey said. "There are no such factual bases presented, there are only conclusions." "This should restore confidence in the Kingdom about the American justice system," said Martin McMahon, a Washington-based lawyer who represents several of the defendants in the lawsuits. "The judge granted a motion to dismiss this case. In our case it was granted because the plaintiffs failed to state a claim that could be granted. Which means they didn't have a case," said McMahon, head of McMahon Associates. Among financial institutions dismissed as defendants were Al-Rajhi Bank, Saudi American Bank, Arab Bank, and Al-Baraka Investment and Development Corporation. Casey said he found no basis for a bank's liability for injuries resulting from attacks funded by money passing through it on routine banking business. "The judge ruled that just because you're a bank, or investing in a bank, through which money travels that allegedly was funneled to terrorists groups, it is not enough to file a claim against that defendant," said Wendell Belew, who also represents defendants in the 9/11 lawsuits. "In the case of our clients, Saleh Kamel and Dallah Al-Baraka, the allegations were that they invested in various banks," said Belew of the DC-based Belew Law Firm. "The judge decided that was not sufficient to establish any kind of liability." But they say the 9/11 lawsuits have tarnished the Saudi businessmen's international reputation. "With regard to Saleh Kamel, many of the allegations made in the complaint were not factually true," said McMahon. "Sheikh Saleh and other individuals in this case have been accused of horrendous crimes. Where do they go to restore their reputations?" said McMahon. Meanwhile Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi ambassador to Britain, has accepted "substantial" damages and a public apology from Paris Match's publishers after the magazine alleged that he set up Al-Qaeda and was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Prince Turki, a former director of Saudi intelligence, sued Hachette Filipacchi Associes after it printed allegations from the book "La Guerre D'Apres" by Laurent Murawiec. The prince's lawyer Rupert Earle told London's High Court: "In particular he described Prince Turki as having set up Al-Qaeda and thereafter used it as his military organization." The article also pinned on Prince Turki direct responsibility for the atrocity of Sept. 11, 2001, and for Al-Qaeda terrorism worldwide, the lawyer said. He said the magazine also alleged that Prince Turki, who, while heading the Kingdom's External Intelligence Service, had contacts with Osama Bin Laden in the 1980s, had given him $200 million in return for his agreement not to attack Saudi Arabia. He said: "Prince Turki points out that he has sought to curb and then bring to justice Osama Bin Laden once it became evident that he was working to build up Al-Qaeda as a terrorist network and had called for jihad against the United States. "Neither Prince Turki nor to his knowledge anyone in the Saudi government, ever offered any assistance, financial or otherwise, to Al-Qaeda in exchange for their not attacking Saudi Arabia. "Mr. Murawiec's views have been rejected at the highest level in the United States as well as by the 9/11 Commission and French authorities have distanced themselves from Mr. Murawiec," he pointed out. In July this year, the 9/11 Commission exonerated the Kingdom and Islam from terrorist charges. The publisher's lawyer Kathryn Johnson said: "The defendant accepts Prince Turki's assurances that there is no truth in any of these allegations and is happy to withdraw them unreservedly." Prince Turki is to donate the damages he won in the case to the charity Islamic Relief, which works with children and orphans in Afghanistan. The publishers will also pay his legal costs and publish an apology. Prince Turki said the allegations against the Saudi government and him were outrageous. "On behalf of my government, I spent a number of years trying to track down Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice at a time when other governments were less convinced of the threat he posed. Al-Qaeda and all terrorist groups go against everything I believe in and hold most sacred." In Sanaa eight suspected Al-Qaeda militants on trial in Yemen had planned attacks on Western targets in five of the six Gulf Arab states, the prosecutor said. The eight defendants, accused of conspiring to attack the British and Italian embassies in the Yemeni capital, also planned attacks in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Said Al-Aqal told the court. Targets included "joint venture banks, American restaurants ... US and other expatriate hospital doctors, and managers of foreign companies and international schools," Aqal said, citing documents seized by police. The eight defendants, who include an Iraqi and two Syrians, went on trial on March 21, the same day that verdicts were delivered in the related trial of 11 Yemeni suspects. The eight stand accused of forming an armed gang, forging passports and other documents, and possessing arms and explosives. At a previous hearing on March 28, Iraqi defendant Anwar Al-Jilani, 20, admitted collecting information on Western targets in Sanaa but denied any role in carrying out attacks. Abdul-Aziz Al-Samawi, the defense lawyer of Al-Jilani, rejected the new charges and told the court he wanted to review the documents. "Based on these documents, my client must have been acting like the Pentagon," Al-Samawi told the court. The seven other suspects standing trial are Khaled Al-Batati, 23; Salah Othman, 33; Omran Al-Faqih, 31; Abdurrahman Basira, 25, and Majed Mizan, 21, both former residents of Saudi Arabia; Mohammad Abdulwahab Bakri, a 24-year-old Syrian, and his brother Ahmad, 22. The 11 Yemenis whose related trial concluded on March 21 are currently facing an appeal by prosecutors after five were acquitted and six received two-year jail terms for forging passports and other documents. The appeal court announced it would deliver its verdict on June 18 after a final hearing on Saturday. In London, police officers have raided the house and office of Dr Mohammed Al-Masari (Saudi dissident) and took 12 computers used to broadcast his satellite channel. Sources said the police and the security services are concerned about a video tape related to the Australian Engineer Douglas Wood 63, who is detained by Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Masari confirmed that his broadcasting station has stopped, while a Scotland Yard spokeswoman stressed that the raid was based on an order from Bow street court. U.S.-led forces have recovered a letter they believe was addressed to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi complaining about low morale among his followers and the incompetence of leaders in his terror network, the military said. The Pentagon said it may be an indication of growing weakness and dissension among al Qaida in Iraq, the terrorist organization that al-Zarqawi leads, but warned that the network remained capable of carrying out significant attacks. The letter was seized during a raid in Baghdad, which also yielded an undated document listing targeting information and sketch maps for kidnappings and bombings, the U.S. military said in a statement. The military said it was written by Abu Asim al-Qusaymi al-Yemeni, whom they identified as a member of Al-Qaida in the Land Between the Two Rivers, a former name used by al-Qaida in Iraq. The letter, dated Wednesday, is addressed to "the sheik," a title used by al-Zarqawi's followers to refer to their leader, the military said. In Washington, Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said the letter was believed to be authentic. "The letter gives the indication that his (Zarqawi's) influence and effectiveness are deteriorating," he said. "It describes low morale and weak and incompetent leadership." But Whitman said Zarqawi's organization can still carry out significant attacks and said this letter should only be regarded as once piece of data suggesting weakness in his organization and dissension in the ranks. The author, Abu Asim al-Qusayami al Yemeni, was believed to be a close associate of Zarqawi and a veteran of the fighting in Fallujah, Whitman said. The "Sheik Abu Ahmad" referred to Zarqawi. The letter advocated a jihad, or holy war, and praised "the sheik" for being "a thorn in the mouth of the Americans," the military said. But it also described low morale, weakening support for the insurgency, and the incompetence of many militant leaders, the statement said. The author also reportedly admonished the "the sheik" for abandoning his followers since Fallujah -- an insurgent stronghold that was hit hard by a major U.S.-led assault in November. Pakistani security forces have rounded up about two-dozen Al Qaeda suspects after arresting a man President George W. Bush called "a top general" of Osama bin Laden, intelligence officials said. They said Abu Faraj Farj al Libi, who US counter-terrorism agents say became Al Qaeda's third most important figure two years ago, could provide clues to the whereabouts of bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri. Pakistan says Libi was the ringleader of at least two assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003. Al Libi's capture was announced, and he has been brought to Rawalpindi, the garrison town close to Islamabad, for questioning. "Raids are being carried out in several cities after his interrogation," a Pakistani intelligence official said. US security officials said they had supplied information that helped track Libi down, but the White House emphasised that Pakistan took the lead in the arrest. Some Pakistani security sources said the Central Intelligence Agency had been monitoring Libi's movements since February, and orders for the arrest came when it seemed the risk of losing him outweighed the chance of him leading agents to bin Laden or al-Zawahri. There were varying versions of when and where Libi was run to ground, but the most detailed account was given by a policeman in North West Frontier Province and several intelligence sources. Libi was caught along with four comrades, said Amanullah Khan, deputy superintendent of police in Mardan, a town 110 km (68 miles) northwest of Islamabad. Intelligence sources say the militants had been hiding at a shrine on Mardan's outskirts when they were first discovered, but police and security forces cornered them when they fled to a nearby house. Khan said tear gas was used to force the men out after they refused to surrender. "We tried for half-an-hour to 45 minutes but he remained quiet," Khan said. "We tried to break down the door but it was bolted from inside. So, we broke windows and threw a tear gas grenade inside. "He came out unarmed with hands in the air and his head slightly bowed. "We found a cell phone on him. He was immediately whisked away by the intelligence agency." The White House called the arrest the most significant since that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in March 2003 and was the alleged mastermind of Al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Al Libi was a successor to "KSM" -- "in some sense the leadership is a bit constrained, he was not only doing operations, he was a facilitator, he was into finance, he was into administration," national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters. Pakistan has decimated Al Qaeda in the past three years, arresting and killing hundreds of militants, but bin Laden's network struck back by enlisting like-minded Pakistani Islamist militants. Hundreds of Al Qaeda members have been handed over to the United States in the past, but it was uncertain if Pakistan would do the same with someone who had tried to kill Musharraf. After catching Libi, security forces closed the net on other suspects with several raids elsewhere in the country. They also recaptured a man sentenced to death for his role in one of Libi's plots to kill Musharraf. Mushtaq Ahmed, a member of a Pakistani militant group that had forged links with Al Qaeda, was caught on the road from Lahore to Islamabad earlier this week, a senior security official said. He had escaped last December with embarrassing ease from air force base in Rawalpindi last December. The official said the timing of Ahmed's recapture was a coincidence, unrelated to operations surrounding Libi's arrest. But in other swoops in Lahore, the capital of the eastern province of Punjab, Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, and the Bajaur tribal area of the NWFP had already netted more than 20 other Al Qaeda suspects, officials said. "In one raid last night, in Lahore, six men and two women were arrested," the official said, adding that automatic rifles and more than three dozen hand grenades were seized. In Oman a state security court convicted 30 people of plotting to overthrow Oman's sultan and install an Islamic government, but spared them the death penalty. Another defendant was convicted of a lesser crime. The 31 were among as many as 100 suspected religious extremists arrested across Oman earlier this year amid unconfirmed reports some planned to attack events at a popular shopping and cultural festival. Officials have said many of those arrested were let go. The government released little information about the arrests, and only a few senior Omani journalists were permitted inside the courtroom for the trial in this small nation on the southeastern corner of the Arabian peninsula. Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty since the trial began April 18. But the court sentenced six defendants to 20 years in prison, 12 to 10 years and 12 to seven years. One person was convicted only of illegal possession of automatic weapons and got a year in prison. Chief State Security Justice Hilal Bin Hamad al-Busaiedy, who presided over the trial, said the defendants have the right to appeal to the country's ruler, Sultan Qaboos, within 30 days. Abdullah al-Qassimi, one of the lawyers handling the case, said the defense team had expected the convictions and called the sentences "acceptable." "Conviction was expected. It was a matter of what the sentences would be," he told The Associated Press. "One cannot say the sentences were harsh, since the (usual) punishment for plotting an armed coup is the death penalty." Al-Qassimi said the defense team would review procedures for filing an appeal to the sultan. In 1994, authorities convicted 200 people of belonging to a secret, violent group and handed down sentences including prison terms and execution orders. Sultan Qaboos later pardoned them. The verdict issued said the defendants formed an illegal armed network with a central cell to draw up strategies and subsidiary groups to carry out plans and recruitment. The defendants held clandestine meetings and organized military training using illegally possessed weapons, the verdict said. A Dutch national employed as a satellite-imagery analyst with UNMOVIC, the United Nations weapons inspections agency, was briefly detained for questioning a few hours after the explosions, a U.N. official said. The New York police and the FBI said the man was not a suspect. Police said he was detained only because he was asked not to cross a police tape and did so anyway. A police official said the man may have been drinking. In Brussels member states of the European Council have agreed to implement a project for the implementation of joint fight against terrorism and illegal immigration. The draft will be signed in the Council's next meeting which will take place in Poland.