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January 27, 2006 |
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***** The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz issued the following Royal order: "As I am planning to leave the Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) on Sunday, 22/12/1426 AH, corresponding to January 22, 2006, I have deputized Brother Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz to manage the affairs of the state and to take care of the interests of the people during my absence," the King said in the royal order. Vice Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz received the Vietnamese Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Hang. During the meeting, they exchanged cordial talks and discussed issues of common interests. Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz Minister of the Interior and Chairman of the higher Hajj Committee has addressed a message of thanks to Prince Sultan Ibn Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz, president of the Youth Welfare for the services provided by the presidency to pilgrims. 120 scouts to part in the Hajj season in Mina. Prince Naif praised the efforts exerted by the scouts in serving the pilgrims. Also Prince Abdul Majeed Ibn Abdul Aziz, Governor of Makkah Al Mukkaramah has lauded the efforts of the scouts who were deployed to work in Makkah and Al Madinah. 400 youth worked in the holy sites offering their help to pilgrims in these areas. Prince Salman Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Governor of Riyadh region, received Pakistan's ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Abdulaziz Mirza on the occasion of the end of his term of office in the country. Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister, received Brazilian ambassador to the kingdom Aznard Bainia who presented to him copies of his credentials as ambassador of his country to the Kingdom in preparation for presenting them to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz. The minister also received Undersecretary of US Treasury Department Stuart Levi. During the meeting, they discussed issues of common interest. The minister also received Vietnamese Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Hang. During the meeting, they discussed issues of common interest. The minister also received Advisor to US Secretary of State John Miller. During the meeting, they discussed issues of common interest. Prince Mohammed Ibn Nawaf Ibn Abdul Aziz, Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland paid a visit to the British House of Commons at the invitation of Head of Saudi-British Parliamentary Group Representative Jim Sharden. The Prince attended part of the House's discussions and held a meeting with the Group's members and a number of members of the British Houses of Lords and Commons. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and ways of their enhancement for the interest of the two friendly countries. The Shoura Council held a regular session presided over by its chairman Sheikh Dr. Salih Ibn Abdullah Ibn Homaid. During the session, the council congratulated Saudi leaders and people as well as Arab and Islamic nations on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha and hailed the success of this year's Hajj while expressing deep sorrow over the two painful incidents which occurred in Makkah and claimed the lives of some pilgrims. The council condoled Kuwait's government and people on the demise of the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah. In a press statement to Saudi Press Agency following the session, Secretary General of the council Dr. Salih Ibn Abdullah Al Malik said that during the session, the council approved the draft regulation of the Lending and Saving Bank. The council also approved a recommendation concerning an amendment to an article of the Judiciary Regulation. The council also discussed other issues and decided to continue their discussion in future sessions. The Shoura Council held a regular session presided over by the chairman Sheikh Dr. Salih Ibn Abdullah Ibn Homaid. During the session, the council issued a statement condemning some Danish and Norwegian newspapers' published insults to the Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him, and Islam. The council called on Danish and Norwegian parliaments to oppose such insults. Recently, the Norwegian "Magazinet" magazine followed the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten and published cartoons blasphemous to the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him. LABOR Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi has admitted difficulties in employing Saudi women in the private sector. I do not have a magic wand to end unemployment of Saudi women overnight. The process needs time, he told a press conference here Saturday. He pointed out that the goal is not only to employ women, but to find a suitable environment of employment for them. They should work for specific hours and get a suitable monthly salary. The ministry has trained 185,000 Saudi citizens. Some 30,000 were left out when the ministry realized that they have jobs elsewhere and some of them were businessmen, owning commercial registers. Al-Gosaibi said that the regulations being followed now according to the market economy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia do not permit the ministry to interfere in the private sector in specifying the salaries and other matters. A court specialized in terrorism cases will launch the trial of six people on charges of operating for Al-Qaeda, including four who were repatriated from Guantanamo a year ago. A source quoted in the pro-government daily September 26 said that among the defendants are Mohammed Hamdi Al-Ahdal, also called Abu Asem Al-Macci, and Ghaleb Zaidi, who were arrested in Sana'a in December 2003. Al-Ahdal reportedly admitted during interrogation he received large amounts of money from overseas through intermediaries in Kuwait. Al-Ahdal, believed to be the No. 2 Al-Qaeda man in Yemen after Sinan Al-Harithy who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in eastern Yemen in 2002, said he distributed the money to the families of Al-Qaeda prisoners and detainees in Guantanamo. The four other defendants who were handed over to Yemen by the U.S. authorities a year ago rejected accusations of being involved directly in terrorist activities, but acknowledged they have forged travel documents and identity cards for Al-Qaeda operatives. The Yemeni government describes Al-Ahdal as one of the most active and dangerous members of Al-Qaeda in Yemen. They said he was involved in fighting with Al-Qaeda in Chechnya and Afghanistan, where he was wounded and had his leg amputated. After becoming disabled, Al-Ahdal shifted from field action to the administration and financing of Al-Qaeda operations in Yemen. Investigations by intelligence agencies revealed Al-Ahdal was directly involved in bombings attacks in Yemen and terrorist plans which were aborted. In the Netherlands the trial of 14 young radical Muslims is attracting widespread attention in Holland and elsewhere. Mohammed Bouyeri, who is already serving a life sentence for the murder of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in November 2004, is among the 14 young Muslims whose trial started on 2005 December. All 14 have been charged with membership in a criminal terrorist organization, the so called Hofstadgroup (Hofstadt being another name for The Hague), of which Bouyeri was one of the leading figures. The Hofstadgroup is mainly comprised of second-generation Dutch youth of Moroccan descent. Members of the Hofstadgroup were under surveillance by the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD since 2002. Group members are thought to have been planning attacks on Dutch politicians and institutions. Houses where the boys lived were wired, and excerpts of the taped conversations form part of the evidence against them. Moreover, the contents of their computers and their postings on radical websites and in Internet chat rooms will also be used as evidence. Apart from Bouyeri, who killed Van Gogh, only two other members of the group were actually caught in a criminal act. Jason Walker is charged with throwing hand grenades at the police team that came to arrest him last year, badly wounding some policemen. Moreover, Nouredine el Fathni was arrested last June in Amsterdam with a loaded machine gun in his sports bag. Dutch intelligence had reason to believe he was on his way to assassinate a politician in Amsterdam. Both he and another of Bouyeri's friends, Samir Azzouz, provoked a state of high alert among the Dutch security services. Consequently, special security was put in place for all members of the Dutch cabinet, the parliament, the buildings of ministries, and Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Their success in discovering and dismantling this network notwithstanding, the Dutch authorities have made clear there are likely many more similar networks in operation. Home minister Johan Remkes has claimed that there are ten to twenty networks of radical Muslims in the Netherlands that have the propensity to resort to terrorism. Hundreds of people are believed to be involved and the networks are described as "fluid," as members enter and leave the organization. Some of the groups are exclusively local, while some have strong and wide-ranging international contacts. At the opening of the trial, one of the women refused to repeat her allegations in court, allegedly after receiving threats. The women's testimony shows the spread of radical thinking between friends, as described by the American forensic psychiatrist Marc Sageman. Sageman's study of Islamic terrorists showed that many of them had no religious background, and became radicalized among a group of people in the same position: in a foreign country, lonely, homesick and feeling in some way humiliated. The Hofstadgroup is interesting because it clearly shows the dynamics of the group as Sageman describes it, and also the attraction of it for other young people. For even after most of the members had been detained, the group remained attractive to other young Muslims. While in prison, Bouyeri and Samir Azzouz found new followers, prompting the authorities to incarcerate the two young men in solitary confinement. Politicians in the Netherlands have called for stronger laws to prevent people like Samir Azzouz from being acquitted. Dutch law makes it difficult to try people for their intentions. This problem might arise in the trial of the Hofstadgroep, which is expected to last for at least two months. More than 5,000 workers are involved in the construction of a new high-tech Jamrat Bridge in Mina, which will be completed in three years, according to Habeeb Zainul Abideen, Deputy Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs. He said work on the new bridge, which is designed to hold more than three million pilgrims in peak hours, would start soon after removing the debris of the old bridge, which is being demolished. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has sanctioned the project to avoid stampedes. A national company, which won the contract, has set up a large factory in Bahra, near Jeddah, to manufacture pre-cast concrete blocs required for the project. Zainul Abideen said the launch of the project soon after the Hajj has nothing to do with the stampede in Jamrat this year. "The project was approved by authorities in the middle of last year," he said. The project includes expansion of the area around Jamrat, its automatic cleaning and transportation of pilgrims from tents to the Jamrat and back by train. The new Jamrat, with four floors apart from the ground floor, will have electronic stairs, 12 entrances and 12 exits and will be linked with tents by hanging bridges. Zainul Abideen said the project also included setting up of the most advanced early warning systems in order to avoid overcrowding and stampedes. There will be three tunnels: One near King Faisal Street and the second below Souk Al-Arab Street and the third close to a new road. "The tunnels will be linked with the basement of the new bridge," the minister said, adding that first-aid service facilities would be available at the basement. Ambulance vehicles could be taken to the different floors of the bridge through its vast escalators. The new bridge will also have an air-conditioning system. Meanwhile, Mohammed Idrees, deputy dean of King Fahd Hajj Institute at Um Al-Qura University and head of the institute's Jamrat Bridge design team, said the project would reduce the density of pilgrims at the entrances of the bridge. The ground and first level of the bridge are designated for pilgrims coming in from east Mina, who represent the majority. The second level is for pilgrims coming in from Makkah side, the third from north Mina and the new pilgrim residences in the tent city, and the fourth level is for pilgrims coming in from south Makkah through King Abdul Aziz Road. "This way we can fragment the density of the pilgrims before they reach the throwing site," Idrees told Arab News. The Secretary General of the Arab League Amre Moussa stressed the Arab policy built on the necessity to free the Middle East of weapons of mass destructions and nuclear weapons. He said this apply to Iran and Israel and any other country. He said that are no exceptions and all countries have to abide by these rules. President Jacques Chirac said that France was prepared to launch a nuclear strike against any country that sponsors a terrorist attack against French interests. He said his country's nuclear arsenal had been reconfigured to include the ability to make a tactical strike in retaliation for terrorism. "The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would envision using . . . weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and fitting response on our part," Chirac said during a visit to a nuclear submarine base in Brittany. "This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind." The French president said his country had reduced the number of nuclear warheads on some missiles deployed on France's four nuclear submarines in order to target specific points rather than risk wide-scale destruction. "Against a regional power, our choice is not between inaction and destruction," Chirac said, according to the text of his speech posted on the presidential Web site. "The flexibility and reaction of our strategic forces allow us to respond directly against the centers of power. . . . All of our nuclear forces have been configured in this spirit." At the same time, he condemned "the temptation by certain countries to obtain nuclear capabilities in contravention of treaties." The United Nations' newly appointed head of the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, arrived in Lebanon. The Belgian Serge Brammertz, who would take leave of absence from a deputy prosecutor of the Hague-based international Criminal Court, pledged to be impartial in the inquiry that has divided Lebanese people and heightened the tension between Syria and the United States. "I am actually aware of the expectations on the part of the families of the victims, the people of Lebanon and the international community. I will do my utmost to meet these expectations," the 44-year-old Brammertz told reporters at Beirut airport. He also praised his predecessor, the German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis who stepped down last month, and promised that the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) would continue to execute its mandate with independence and impartiality. The commission will provide appropriate technical assistance to the Lebanese government's inquiry into the series of political murders, which have occurred along the border between Lebanon and Syria since October 2004, Brammertz said. The interim report to the UN Security Council has already implicated Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services in the killing of Hariri and 22 other people in a truck bombing in Beirut on Feb. 14. Syria has repeatedly denied the accusation. Hariri's killing triggered a wave of protests, which led to the end of Syria's 29-year presence in Lebanon in April. Based on the report which Mehilis submitted on Dec. 12, the United Nations Security Council, in Resolution 1644, requested that the Syrian government cooperate "unambiguously and immediately" in all necessary probes, and extended the mandate of the commission for at least another six months until June 15, 2006. Different media outlets reported that armed confrontations between military and security troops and Al-Houthi supporters entrenched in the mountains of Sa'ada governorate have entered their fourth week. Media sources stated that armed confrontations between Al-Houthi supporters and Sheikh Al-Aujari's men, backed by the government, lasted one week. Last Friday's confrontations were the fiercest since fighting broke out once again between Al-Houthi followers and government troops and tribesmen standing with them. Some Al-Houthi followers managed to control Al-Fakhdhain Mountain where Sheikh Al-Aujari, standing with the government, was entrenched Friday night following fierce fighting that claimed the lives of two Al-Aujari tribesmen and injured another eight, including two sons of Al-Aujari's brother. Al-Fakhdhain Mountain was subjected to extensive missile and mortar firing by the army in Nishour. According to sources, government forces used different weapons to attack the mountain until noon Friday. This eased the task of Al-Aujari's men regaining control of the mountain after suffering deaths and injuries. Four Al-Houthi followers reportedly were killed and three wounded in fighting to assume control of the mountain. Military troops and Al-Aujari tribesmen dominated Al-Fakhdhain Mountain and continued firing missiles and mortars at Al-Baidha Mountain where Al-Houthi followers were hiding earlier in the week. According to the same sources, government troops never scored a commendable victory. Bloody confrontations between Al-Houthi supporters and the army are spreading to different areas of Sihar District, the fiercest of which was in Al-Sharj, where Al-Houthi supporters destroyed armored vehicles and seized three soldiers. Many fighters on both sides reportedly have been killed in the area. Night raids and guerrilla warfare are spreading in the mountains of Anm, Fillah, Bani Muad, Al-Khazaen and Al-Talh. Government forces destroyed a number of buildings belonging to Al-Houthi supporters in Bani Muad, sources said. Journal and tribal sources said Salim's area was under heavy bombardment until this past Monday, with approximately eight people killed during Eid. These developments came in the wake of reconciliation efforts the past two weeks, led by Al-Baidha governor, Brigadier Yahia Al-Shami. Sources say Al-Shami and the area's military field commander, Brigadier Ali Muhsin, met with Al-Houthi envoy Abdul Kareem Ameeradeen Al-Hothi. Results of the talks are not known, however pessimism prevails amid the massive bombardments. In Al-Jawf Governorate tension still prevails following official evacuation of Jabal Ham residents in Al-Zahir and Al-Mitoon districts. The evacuees are accused of being Al-Houthi followers. Observers fear the evacuation could be the beginning of attacks similar to those in Sa'ada. Jordan's king advised the visiting Lebanese Prime Minister that all parties should cooperate with an ongoing UN investigation into a Beirut assassination last year, the official Petra news agency reported. King Abdullah II's remarks come as a new head of the UN commission into the assassination of former Premier Rafiq Hariri began work in Lebanon. Syria, already implicated in the probe, has been accused of not cooperating. The Monarch expressed to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora "his desire to see differences over the Hariri investigation resolved through negotiations," Petra said. He stressed the "importance of cooperation between all concerned parties with the UN investigators." New evidence demonstrated in 2005 that torture and mistreatment have been a deliberate part of the Bush administration's counterterrorism strategy, undermining the global defense of human rights, Human Rights Watch said in releasing its World Report 2006. The evidence showed that abusive interrogation cannot be reduced to the misdeeds of a few low-ranking soldiers, but was a conscious policy choice by senior U.S. government officials. The policy has hampered Washington's ability to cajole or pressure other states into respecting international law, said the 532-page volume's introductory essay. "Fighting terrorism is central to the human rights cause," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But using illegal tactics against alleged terrorists is both wrong and counterproductive." Roth said the illegal tactics were fuelling terrorist recruitment, discouraging public assistance of counterterrorism efforts and creating a pool of unprosecutable detainees. U.S. partners such as Britain and Canada compounded the lack of human rights leadership by trying to undermine critical international protections. Britain sought to send suspects to governments likely to torture them based on meaningless assurances of good treatment. Canada sought to dilute a new treaty outlawing enforced disappearances. Some of the foreigners killed in the U.S. airstrike in the remote Pakistani village of Damadola were of Egyptian origin, according to a knowledgeable source. U.S. officials have said "very solid" intelligence indicated that senior al Qaeda members were expected to attend a dinner celebrating the end of the Muslim holiday of Eid and that Osama Bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, could very well be among them. Although these officials believe a number of "significant" al Qaeda figures were killed in the attack, there is no evidence so far that al-Zawahiri was among them. Pakistani officials have said he apparently was not there. The knowledgeable source -- who declined to be identified more specifically -- it was not clear how many foreigners were killed by the airstrike, but said, "certainly some of them were of Egyptian origin," and had direct ties with al-Zawahiri. A Pakistani provincial official said that "four or five" foreign fighters were killed in the strike. U.S. sources said that the remains of about 12 bodies, including as many as eight foreigners, were quickly retrieved by a group of men after the airstrike, and taken elsewhere for burial. Numerous violations and reports of fraud marred Iraq's Dec. 15 election, an international assessment team said in a report released, but it did not question the final results. The International Mission for Iraqi Elections, a 10-nation monitoring body led by Canada, recommended changes for future elections but made no call for repeating any voting from the December vote. The results from the voting have not been announced, but are expected to show a large victory for Shiite parties. Sunni Arab leaders have denounced the voting, calling into question the results. Some of Iraq's 220,000 election workers were among those blamed for violating their code of conduct with "questionable or illegal practices," said the report from the election officials received around 2,000 complaints that alleged ballot box stuffing and theft, tally sheet tampering, intimidation, violence, incorrect voter lists, ballot shortages, multiple voting, improper police and military conduct, campaigning within polling centers and violations of a pre-election ban on campaigning. The report also said some Iraqi security forces voted on election day after voting previously on an earlier day set aside for them. Despite the problems, the mission said Iraqis should be commended for an election that operated smoothly under harsh circumstances. "Despite these conditions, the people of Iraq have voted in numbers that would do credit to democracies in more settled parts of the world," the report stated. The mission gave no overall assessment on the likely integrity of the results, but said the elections' legal framework, institutions, and procedures were "designed to meet international standards." The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, which oversaw the vote, investigated and resolved the most serious complaints, dismissing staff members or levying fines on those blamed for violations, the report said. Some violators were referred for criminal prosecution, it said. The IECI also voided vote results from many polling stations where fraud was documented. But the IECI did not have the means to investigate all complaints and did not probe "a large number." It also said additional fraud "in all probability" went undetected. Richard Clarke, a former White House security adviser who is now an ABC News consultant, told "Good Morning America" that bin Laden's "truce" offer was nothing more than a repackaging of his demand that the United States withdraw from all Arab countries. "That's not a real truce offer. That's just his definition of victory for him," Clarke said. "If there is a major attack in the United States, he'll be able to say, 'Look, we gave the United States a chance and they didn't take the offer.' " Clarke told ABC News Radio that sensitive targets in the United States remained vulnerable to attack. "If they were smart, and if they planned, and if they took advantage of our many vulnerabilities in this country that we still haven't addressed, they could do a lot of damage," he said. Clarke added that an attack on a gas or chemical plant, for instance, might leave 17,000 Americans dead. The United Nations Compensation Commission has made available a total of $ 284,816,396.27 to eight Governments for distribution to 42 successful claimants. Payment is being made in respect of 21 claims in category "D" (claims of individuals for damages above $ 100,000), 13 claims in category "E" (claims of corporations, other private legal entities and public sector enterprises) and 8 claims in category "F" (claims of Governments and international organizations). The present round of payments is being made in accordance with Governing Council decision 256 (S/AC.26/Dec.256 (2005)). As a result of this payment, claimants will be paid up to $13,600,000.00 or the unpaid amount of the award, if less. In order to fully disburse the funds available for this round of payments, a number of claims will be paid up to $ 15,600,000.00, depending on the order in which they had been approved. The attached table lists the countries receiving funds, and the amounts of money to be made available to each of them. The present payment brings the overall amount of compensation made available to date by the United Nations Compensation Commission to $ 20,339,995,563.64. |