November 27, 2002 News                                 http://www.aljazeerah.info                                    

الجزيرة

News Archives 

Arab Cartoonists

Columnists

Documents

Editorials 

Opinion Editorials

letters to the editor

Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine

Islam

Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people 

Media Watch

Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah

News Photos

Poetry

Public Announcements 

   Public Activities 

Women in News

U.N. arms inspectors eye Saddam's palace compounds
Gulf News, 27-11-2002


Showing off state-of-the-art detection technology, U.N. inspectors reminded Saddam Hussein yesterday that his many palaces will no longer be off-limits when they resume their hunt for banned Iraqi weapons on Wednesday.

Four years after giving up their post-Gulf War quest in the face of Iraqi obstruction - notably over access to numerous "presidential sites" - the inspectors said in Baghdad they had returned better equipped and with a stronger United Nations mandate to explore the president's sprawling personal domains.

"The issue of the presidential palaces has been resolved by Resolution 1441," said Dimitri Perricos, the Greek leader of the inspections team from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC).

"It is not a matter of leaving (the palaces) for last and it's not an issue of being first," Perricos said.

"They will be visited when it is required and according to plan, and I can assure you we are not going to tell you."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reminded Iraq that failure to cooperate or to prove its assertions that it has no nuclear, biological or chemical weapons could trigger a U.S.-led attack.

"I believe war is avoidable," he told France's Le Monde newspaper. "It is avoidable if President Saddam Hussein honours his commitments made at the United Nations and cooperates fully with the inspectors."

Under Security Council Resolution 1441 of November 8, Baghdad has until December 8 to provide the Council with an initial report on its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

State media yesterday repeated the official line that it does not have any, having already complied with U.N. resolutions dating back to the 1991 Gulf War demanding Iraqi disarmament.

"The truth is that the weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed," said Al-Thawra, newspaper of the ruling Baath Party.

But given Washington's conviction that Iraq does indeed possess banned armaments, U.S. President George W. Bush has warned that Saddam would be entering his "final stage" were he to stick to such a blanket denial in two weeks' time.

Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix said on Monday that Baghdad would have to provide convincing proof it had no such weapons.

The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose officials are running the nuclear inspections, said, however, that a simple oversight on the part of Baghdad would not automatically trigger a breach of the resolution.

"If there was an oversight in a secondary issue, then of course we will not rush to the Security Council and say Iraq is not cooperating," Mohamed ElBaradei told Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper.

Annan told Le Monde that it would take many months to complete the inspections: "The inspectors have indicated that if the Iraqis cooperate fully, the work can be done in a year."

The inspectors must give their first report to the Security Council by January 27.

Princess orders review of cheques
Gulf News, 27-11-2002


At the centre of a recent controversy over whether a money trail links the Saudi government to two September 11 hijackers is a stream of charitable cheques that the wife of Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States sent to a family in San Diego.

Princess Haifa Al Faisal, who is "very distraught" over the issue, has ordered every cheque since 1994 be scrutinised, an embassy spokesman said on Monday.

"She insisted that Riggs Bank go through the records and clear this as soon as possible. And she is willing to cooperate with the FBI, she wants to come to the truth of this and we are going to track it down," said Nail Al Jubeir, a Saudi Embassy spokesman.

Riggs opened after hours over the weekend to help sort through the cheques.

The controversy involving Princess Haifa is over cheques she sent to the wife of Osama Bassnan, who signed several of them over to her husband and at least one to a woman who may be the wife of Omar Al Bayoumi.

U.S. authorities say Al Bayoumi knew hijackers Khalid Al Mihdhar and Nawaf Al Hazmi when they lived in San Diego a year before the September 11 attacks and helped pay their rent.

In December 1999, Bassnan's wife, Majeda Ibrahim Ahmad Dweikat, wrote to Princess Haifa asking for help, saying she was ill and had five children.

The princess approved a monthly stipend of $2,000 for her that was paid from December 1999 to May 2002, the Saudi Embassy spokesman said.

So far 25 per cent of the cheques have been reviewed and it was found that Dweikat endorsed some of the monthly stipend cheques to her husband and at least one to a woman who may be Al Bayoumi's wife, the embassy spokesman said.

None of the cheques reviewed were endorsed directly to Al Bayoumi. "We're looking for two issues: when were the cheques endorsed over and why," Al Jubeir said.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador, does not know Bassnan nor Al Bayoumi and the royal Saudi couple receives thousands of requests for assistance annually, Al Jubeir said.

Intellectuals blast anti-Saudi campaign
By Saleh Fareed, Gulf News,  27-11-2002


Responding to this week's charges by some U.S. agencies and politicians that the Kingdom had financed September 11 hijackers, Saudi intellectuals, and businessmen angrily reacted and felt that such voices are aiming to put more pressure on the government to force it to join the war on Iraq.

They believed that "all such terror funding charges are baseless and meant to undermine the U.S.-Saudi relations which are deeply-rooted in history."

Gulf News spoke to some intellectuals and businessmen on the current anti-Saudi campaign in the U.S.

Dr. Abdulaziz Al Nasir, a writer and researcher, said angrily that "these accusations are nothing but lies.

"It is really frustrating that the U.S. media is leading a huge campaign to damage the reputation of the Kingdom and working hard to get it involved in everything that is related to the September 11 terror attacks. The Saudi government has been dealing wisely with such issues.

" We all know that the Zionists' lobby in the U.S. is behind this campaign and we do not care as long as we are doing the right thing."

Mohammed Al Jadani, a businessman, denounced the charges saying that Saudi Arabia never financed September 11 hijackers.

"It is so ridiculous to hear such allegations against a country which is doing its best to fight terrorism. This campaign against the Kingdom is just part of the previous series and it will continue but they have to realise that Saudi Arabia will not bend down. The Kingdom will take all the necessary action to clarify its position," he said.

Abdul Hameed Al Fouzan, a prominent businessman, told Gulf News that the current campaign will fail as the previous ones.

"It is definitely a failure campaign and it will not harm the old and solid relations between Saudi Arabia and United States. The charges which were published in Newsweek magazine are baseless and a bunch of lies.

"It is not a strange thing that a member of the royal family assists a citizen, it happens everyday and in every part of the world wherever a Saudi citizen needs help. They turn to Princes or Princesses for help and they get it. So, what is the big deal," he said.

During the past two days, Saudi writers continued to voice their concerns through local newspapers that such a campaign is meant to destroy the good relations between the two countries. They denounced  the endeavours to spoil friendly relations under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

Al Riyadh newspaper said in an editorial yesterday: "Under the current strategy to hit Iraq, suspicions and accusations are being used by American foxes to pressure the Kingdom to directly enter the war against Iraq."

The daily Al Watan said: "The campaign is a political one which clearly aims to blackmail Saudi Arabia, distort its reputation and try to influence its positions and turn others against it."

BETHLEHEM, West Bank, 27 November 2002 — Israeli troops swept across the West Bank yesterday arresting dozens of Palestinians in reoccupied cities, after raiding the central Gaza Strip with tanks, helicopters and bulldozers. Bethlehem, which has been reoccupied by Israeli troops since Nov. 22, was declared a closed military area by the army. The decree means journalists will no longer have access to the city.

A group of reporters including an AFP reporter saw the document, which officially makes the area a closed military area and is valid until Dec. 30.

In a late night development, two Palestinians were killed when an Israeli missile hit a house in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.

Sabagh, 25, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martrys Brigades, a group linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, and Imad Nashati, 23, a member of Hamas’ Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, were killed when a missile hit the building they were in, the sources said.

In Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, more than 100 soldiers carried out house-to-house searches with sniffer dogs, arresting 35 men, Palestinian security sources said.

The Hamas local political leader, Sheikh Abdel Majid Ata, was arrested in addition to three other members of the group, a Palestinian organization dealing with prisoners’ rights told AFP.

An army spokesman confirmed the arrest of nine Palestinians “either on Israel’s wanted list or wanted for questioning” in Bethlehem.

In systematic sweeps overnight, Israeli troops arrested dozens of suspected militants and their relatives in the reoccupied towns of Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and Hebron.

Among them was an official from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah, captured in Ramallah over his suspected involvement in a Jan. 17 bombing of a ballroom in northern Israel that left seven people dead.

The Israeli Army also rolled into the town of Deir Al-Balah and the nearby refugee camp in the center of the densely-populated Gaza Strip, demolishing the house of a senior Hamas leader.

In another development, Palestinian officials said yesterday they planned to step up contacts with the Israeli peace camp in a bid to persuade Israeli voters that Palestinians are committed to peace.

“We discussed the issue of reviving and increasing dialogue with the Israeli peace camp in Monday’s leadership meeting,” Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Al-Khatib told Reuters.

Israeli army arrests dozens in W. Bank, storms Gaza Strip

In Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, more than 100 soldiers carried out house-to-house searches with sniffer dogs, arresting 35 men, Palestinian security sources said.

The Hamas local political leader, Sheikh Abdel Majid Ata, was arrested in addition to three other members of the Islamic resistance group, a Palestinian organisation dealing with prisoners' rights told AFP.

An army spokesman confirmed the arrest of nine Palestinians “either on Israel's wanted list or wanted for questioning” in the southern West Bank city, which was declared a closed military area Tuesday.

The Israeli army invaded Bethlehem last Friday, a day after a Palestinian suicide bombing on a bus in occupied Jerusalem killed 11 people.

Following a surge of Palestinian attacks inside Israel over the past two weeks, the occupation army also continued to tighten its grip on the rest of the West Bank.

In systematic sweeps overnight, Israeli troops arrested dozens of suspected activists and their relatives in the reoccupied towns of Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and Hebron.

Among them was an official from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fateh, captured in Ramallah over his suspected involvement in a Jan. 17 bombing of a ballroom in northern Israel that left seven people dead.

The Israeli army overnight also rolled into the town of Deir Al Balah and the nearby refugee camp in the centre of the densely-populated Gaza Strip, demolishing the family home of a senior Hamas leader, an army spokesman said.

The army accuses him of orchestrating a string of anti-Israeli attacks, including last week's killing of an occupation soldier near the southern Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif.

Palestinian security forces said three people, including a 15-year-old boy, were injured although troops met little resistance during the attack, an almost daily occurrence in Gaza, which Israel sees as a hotbed for anti-occupation activities.

Israel has opted for methodical and sometimes lengthy sweeps of West Bank militant strongholds, apparently dropping its controversial policy of “targeted killings.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is walking a thin line, wary of incurring US anger by stirring up tensions in the region as Washington piles pressure on Iraq, while trying to appear as the country's strongman ahead of crucial elections.

Sharon was looking to maintain the comfortable lead he has in opinion polls over Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will challenge him for the leadership of the right-wing Likud Party on Thursday night.

Despite the meteoric rise of the Labour Party's new dovish leader Amram Mitzna, the polls suggest Netanyahu is the only man who can prevent Sharon from continuing as prime minister after the Jan. 28 general election.

While the raging electoral battle gives no breathing space to the Palestinians, it has also appeared to freeze any breakthrough on the diplomatic level.

An official from Sharon's office said Tuesday that Israel had demanded and obtained from Washington a pledge that no definitive version of the so-called road map for peace in the Middle East be adopted before the new government is sworn in.

“This decision should take the line of the future cabinet into account and will depend on the outcome of the vote,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The document, which calls for an unequivocal commitment by Israel to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, is to be discussed by the “quartet” of Middle East diplomatic players — the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia — in Washington on Dec. 20.

Labour's Mitzna and Likud Party have widely different views on the creation of a Palestinian state.

The Cairo-based daily Al Ahram, considered a mouthpiece of the Egyptian government, suggested Tuesday that Israel and the Palestinians should resume negotiations while agreeing to a six-month truce.

The proposal follows reports by the Israeli media that recent talks between Hamas and Fateh in Cairo supposedly aimed at agreeing on an end to suicide attacks were actually a drive by the Islamic resistance movement to forge closer ties with Egypt and sideline Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

Hamas denies the charge.

Press reports quoted Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo as saying the Palestinians will continue their contacts with Israel's peace camp to explore solutions to the conflict.

He said a commission had been set up and added an agreement could be reached “before or after the elections” in Israel.

In Geneva, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said a British employee killed Friday in a West Bank refugee camp by Israeli troops was shot in the back at a time of no military activity in the area.

US asks Saudi Arabia to do ‘still more’ in war on terror
By P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News Staff

WASHINGTON, 27 November 2002 — The White House urged Saudi Arabia yesterday to “do more” in the war on terrorism and said that aides to US President George W. Bush were working on how to enhance Riyadh’s participation in the global campaign.

“Saudi Arabia is a good partner in the war against terrorism but can do more,” said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer.

“The job of the United States is to work with the government of Saudi Arabia to push them to do more.”

Those comments came after The Washington Post reported that a National Security Council task force was urging Bush to adopt a plan meant to pressure Riyadh into cracking down on alleged terrorism financing by Saudi nationals.

Fleischer said that a “working group” of low-level officials was mulling ways to improve Saudi Arabia’s abilities to battle terrorism but said the Post’s report reflected “one person’s opinion not the whole group’s opinion.”

The US daily said that the task force would give Riyadh 90 days to put the suspects out of business or US would act unilaterally.

Another senior US official, who asked not to be named, denied the report that a panel of aides to President Bush is recommending a plan to force Riyadh to crack down on alleged terrorism financing by Saudi nationals.

“The basic facts of it are inaccurate,” said the US official.

The Post, citing senior officials, said in its report the United States could present Riyadh with intelligence and evidence against individuals and businesses suspected of financing Al-Qaeda or other terrorist organizations.

The US daily quoting senior US officials said that US intelligence agencies have compiled a list of nine wealthy individuals — seven Saudis, one Pakistani and one Egyptian — believed to be the core group of financiers for terrorist groups including Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.

Another US official also denied the Post report telling AFP: “There’s no 90-day deadline, there’s no list of nine and no high-level NSC task force sitting in judgment of targets.”

  MQM coalition likely to rule in Sindh Province
By Salahuddin Haider, Special to Arab News

KARACHI, 27 November 2002 — The Sindh Province will for the first time since its inception in 1970 have a Mohajir or an Urdu-speaking chief minister, sources here said. The sources confirmed that an agreement to this effect had been reached between the pro-government Pakistan Muslim League-Q and the Muttehada Quami Movement (MQM). The sources also hinted that former chief secretary of the province Syed Sardar Ahmad will be nominated for the post.

Earlier, parties were trying for a consensus on Arbab Ghulam Rahim, the loyalist MPA from Tharpakar, but MQM with its 45 seats in the assembly held fast and have finally been given the go ahead to lead the provincial Cabinet.

Earlier, members elected to Punjab and NWFP assemblies took the oath of office yesterday. Also governors of the four provinces too were administered fresh oath of office under the 1973 constitution.

The PPPP, despite being the single largest group in Sindh, has been kept out of power in its stronghold following the defection of four of its members to the ruling PML(Q). One member from the PML Nawaz faction also joined the ruling party in the Punjab province. The Sindh Assembly will have its inaugural session on Nov 28. It was originally scheduled to meet yesterday, but had to be postponed for three days.

The MMA, the PML(Q), and the NA, with eight or more seats, will form a coalition with MQM, the sources added.

Pakistan provincial government to block Al Qaeda hunt in tribal area

"We have opposed the government's pro-US policies, particularly operations aided by (the US) and we shall maintain our opposition," Akram Durrani, the likely chief minister of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), told AFP in an interview.

"We will neither allow our land to be used for terrorist activities, nor will we allow any operation particularly involving FBI agents. People who voted for MMA voted against such actions," he said, a day after the NWFP parliament took oath.

Durrani, from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic party alliance which swept last month's polls in NWFP and controls 68 seats in the 124-seat house, is the only candidate so far for chief minister. The position will be chosen by the provincial assembly on Friday.

The Islamists campaigned with fervent pledges to end the US-assisted hunt for Al Qaeda and top Taleban extremists fleeing the US-led military assault in neighbouring Afghanistan. Thousands of Pakistani troops have been manning the hunt since late last year.

Most of the 422-plus Al Qaeda suspects captured in Pakistan in the past 12 months were nabbed in the wild border belt.

The MMA's firebrand clerics vowed to throw US troops off Pakistani airbases, where they have been based for operations in Afghanistan, and to expel US Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) experts who have been tipping off and guiding Pakistani troops in flushing out Al Qaeda fugitives.

The Islamic parties made stunning gains on the back of the anti-US sentiment, although voters also said they were backing the Islamists because of disillusionment with both military rulers and past lay politicians perceived as corrupt.

They multiplied their seats in the federal parliament from four in the 1999 elections to the current tally of 60.

The clerics had toned down their rhetoric since Oct. 10 polls as they negotiated with President Pervez Musharraf's regime for a possible place in the new civilian government. Talks broke down over their demands that Musharraf resign as army chief and roll back new powers he gave himself over the parliament.

Durrani's latest comments indicate a return to their campaign pledges, now that the MMA has settled for an opposition role at the federal level.

He said the Islamic parties would also prevent foreigners from using Pakistan as their base and stop "foreign agencies" from operating in the country.

Washington and Islamabad have admitted to the presence of up to 12 FBI communications and intelligence experts in Pakistan, to assist local troops.

"If they (foreigners) want to carry out activities, they should go to their respective countries," Durrani said.

Another Islamist leader from Durrani's fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Party, federal MP Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, said there would be no backdown in pledges to thwart the Al Qaeda hunt.

"People throughout Pakistan have voted for us in large numbers for our resistance against all such operations, and we will not withdraw from this stand," Ahmed told AFP.

A senior security official said last week that Pakistani forces were planning a fresh operation in both the tribal belt and cities to crack down on lingering Al Qaeda elements, following the surfacing of an audio cassette which US intelligence believe carried Osama Ben Laden's voice.

If authentic the tape indicates Ben Laden was alive until at least late October.

UN worker shot while no military activity taking place

Speaking to reporters, UNRWA spokesman Rene Aquarone also made what he called an “earnest” appeal for UN staff safety to be respected.

British engineer Iain Hook, 53, who was the project manager of UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency, for rebuilding Jenin camp, died before reaching hospital.

The Israeli army on Saturday acknowledged its troops killed Hook, saying two soldiers thought he was a Palestinian gunman holding a pistol.

The army said there had been shooting coming from the UNRWA compound.

Aquarone said an investigation had been launched by the United Nations in New York, but he said “certain elements” were “quite clear at this stage already”.

“One is that Mr Hook was shot in the back, a single bullet, while he was inside the United Nations compound,” he told a UN news briefing.

At the time, he said “there were no military activities in the vicinity, no shooting taking place, and certainly no activists of any kind inside the UNRWA compound which was inhabited at that time solely by UNRWA staff.”

Hook was organising the evacuation of his staff at the time of the shooting, he said.

“Following this incident, immediately an ambulance was dispatched and it was prevented from accessing the victim for some time,” Aquarone told reporters.

“Now I can't give you exact time delays because that is currently under investigation,” he said.

The UN spokesman described the incident as a tragedy, and added: “It also gives rise to concern, serious concern at the agency at the attitudes which we see vis-a-vis international law and international humanitarian law in this particular case.”

He continued: “We feel that there is a lack of respect, in fact almost some kind of disdain vis-a-vis the framework in which we render, and others render humanitarian assistance.”

“So UNRWA wishes to make an earnest call for respect for the immunities of its staff, for the safety of its staff, and respect for the freedom of movement of its ambulances,” Aquarone said.

The Israeli army has said that immediately after the incident the army began coordinating the transfer of Hook's body to hospital and has expressed regret over his death.

Rocket hits building in centre of Kabul

KABUL - A rocket hit a building in the centre of the Afghan capital, close to many major government buildings late yesterday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, officials said.

Kabul security director Basir Salangi said the missile struck a location directly opposite the finance ministry and within half a mile of the ministries of justice and defence and the presidential palace. "The rocket exploded close to the finance ministry but nobody was killed or injured," Mr Salangi said.

Police at the scene said the device, which they identified as a BM-10 rocket, struck the kitchen of a hotel causing minimal damage. "This is the work of the enemies of the government, the work of international terrorists who create panic," police director Salim Zurmati said. Kabul police Deputy-General Mohammad Kahlil Amin Zarda said the missile was fired from the east. - AFP

http://www.aljazeerah.info

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.