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Iraqi Support for Terrorism Abu Nidal was known to be living in Iraq in 2001, when Jordan's state security court sentenced him to death by hanging, along with four of his followers, for his role in the January 1994 assassination of a Jordanian diplomat in Beirut (the last known terrorist attack by the ANO. Iraqi authorities refused to extradite him to Jordan. Nor has Iraq made any attempt to punish Abu Nidal for the numerous Americans, British and French citizens, and other nationals injured or killed in ANO attacks over the years. In an interesting side note, Abu Nidal's former spokesman, Atef Abu Baker, has claimed in an interview with al-Hayat that Abu Nidal was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Abu Baker claims that Abu Nidal himself informed ANO leaders of his responsibility for the bombing (Nidal was living in Libya at the time). This statement contradicts verdict reached in the Lockerbie trial and has received some publicity in Europe. Nevertheless, it appears to be merely a cheap attempt to dismiss Libyan involvement in the bombing. The death of Abu Nidal, and its announcement by the Iraqi intelligence chief appear to be part of another disinformation campaign by Iraqi intelligence. The most recent skirmish of that campaign was in May of this year, when Iraqi authorities granted permission for CBS reporter Lesley Stahl to interview the only participant in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing not in prison. Abdul Rahman Yasin was indicted for the bombing, but later escaped to Iraq. Stahl also interviewed Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, who claimed that Yasin had been in prison in Iraq since 1994. Aziz asserted that Iraq had offered to hand Yasin over to the United States in 1994 and later in October 2001, in order to prove that Iraq was not involved in the 1993 bombing. The Americans refused, Aziz stated. A U.S. intelligence official was quoted by CBS as saying that the Iraqis failed in their attempt to have the Americans sign a document confirming Yasin's whereabouts since 1993; apparently, U.S. officials did not agree with the Iraqi version of the facts. Another example of Iraq's providing safe haven to a known terrorist leader is the case of Abu al-Abbas (Mahmoud Abbas), secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF). Abbas was responsible for the October 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, and the killing of elderly disabled passenger Leon Klinghoffer, an American citizen. In 1998, within the framework of the Oslo agreements, Israel permitted Abbas to return to the Gaza Strip. Fearing an extradition request by the United States, he chose the confines of Baghdad instead. In October 2000, with the outbreak of the current Palestinian intifada, Abbas announced on Iraqi television that the PLF would resume confrontations with Israel; this, following the "call made by President Saddam Hussein to open the door for volunteering [which] is an order to fight for us." Iraq recruited and trained PLF activists in Iraqi camps and equipped them with weapons, which they then used to carry out terrorist attacks in Haifa (April 2001) and the West Bank (July 2001). In July 2001, Mohammed Kandil, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was arrested upon the discovery that he was recruited by Iraqi intelligence in order to build a terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank. Apparently, his operational plans included infiltrating Ben Gurion International Airport with a car bomb. Lately, Iraq has also revived its proxy organization, the Arab Liberation Front (ALF), with the specific mission of encouraging suicide operations against Israel from the West Bank and Gaza. One of ALF's leaders, al-Hajj Rateb al-Amleh, is responsible for providing material support to the families of Palestinian suicide terrorists. This support has included public events at which the presentation of $25,000 Iraqi checks payable to the families of "martyrs" is used to glorify Saddam Hussein and encourage solidarity between the Iraqi regime and the Palestinian people against their common "Zionist" and "imperialist" enemies. Conclusion It is ironic to read news articles with titles such as "Saddam Cuts Off Terror Links Following Abu Nidal's Death." The crude lies that the Iraqi chief of intelligence has proffered to the media constitute yet another attempt of the Saddam regime to hide its past -- and possibly present -- involvement in international terrorism. It took the United States five years to unearth juridical evidence connecting Iranian intelligence agents and the Lebanese Hizballah with the Khobar Towers bombing, even though the information had been available in 1996 at the beginning of the investigation. Notwithstanding this evidence, no political or military action followed. Hopefully, the terrorist nature of Saddam Hussein's regime and its belligerent ambitions will beaddressed more seriously and swiftly. He suspected Abu Nidal as a Mossad operative and openly talked about it with other field agents. The CIA's "disappeared" prisoners [see link] also include Abu Zubaydah, a close aide of Osama bin Laden, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who but for his failure to get a U.S. visa might have been one of the 9/11 hijackers, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, alleged the mastermind of the U.S.S. Cole bombing. What about Abu Zubaydah and Abu Nidal? Quote:1. Safarini and four others In June 1988, five Palestinian men of the Abu Nidal group, Zayn Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, Wadud Hafez al-Turk, alias Suleiman Ali al-Turk, Jamal Sa'id 'Abd al-Rahim al-Saad, Mansoor al-Rashid and Muhammad Id Khalil Hassan were convicted by a special court which conducted the trial in camera inside Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, for hijacking a Pan Am plane on 5 September 1986 on its flight to New York and killing 22 people, including two US citizens, in the course of the hijacking. The men had reportedly disguised themselves as security staff and boarded the aircraft at Karachi airport; they demanded to be flown to Cyprus and for a group of Palestinians detained there, to be released. Pakistani security stormed the aircraft at Karachi airport after 16 hours of negotiations and ended the hijacking. The five men were arrested and charged with several offences.(48) On 6 July 1988, the five men were sentenced to death on several counts. In December 1988, the government of Benazir Bhutto issued a general amnesty commuting all death sentences to life imprisonment; the detainees' sentences arising from convictions under different sections of the penal code amounted to 307 years' imprisonment each. They filed an appeal (Criminal Appeal 102/1988) in the Lahore High Court at the Rawalpindi bench requesting to have their sentences run concurrently, rather than consecutively. Their petition was not heard for over 10 years; they then filed an application for early hearing; by this time the record of their case had been shifted to the principal seat of the High Court in Lahore. Returning the record to the Rawalpindi bench of the High Court took another two years. Finally a Division bench of the High Court in Rawalpindi in early 2000 converted the consecutive sentences into a single life term of 25 years for each prisoner; four were also given substantive fines or one year additional imprisonment in lieu of payment of fine. The appellants were also given entitlement to obtain remissions of sentence under section 382B Criminal Procedure Code. The High Court further directed that the detainees be deported from the country forthwith as soon as they completed their sentences. On 23 May 2000, one of the detainees, Wadud Hafez al-Turk alias Suleiman Ali al-Turk completed his full sentence after gaining various remissions, but he was not released on account of an internment order of the government of Punjab issued on the same day under the Foreigners Act of 1946 for the purpose of detention pending completion of the deportation of the detainee by the concerned embassy. When he was not released, he filed a petition against his continued detention (CM No 526/2000); in mid-2001, a division bench of the Lahore High Court said: ''The Federal Government in the Ministry of Interior is expected to take expeditious steps to ensure that the said convict namely Salman Ali Al Tarakai [Suleiman Ali al-Turk] is deported without any further loss of time and positively within two months from today.'' To date, he is being held in Adiala Jail. On 11 June 2001, the other detainees completed their entire sentences on account of remissions (i.e. substantive sentence and imprisonment in lieu of paying fines); they too are being held under internment orders of the Punjab government. There are no further charges pending against the detainees and their detention during the period since their completion of sentence appears arbitrary and unlawful since it ignores court orders that they be deported forthwith after completion of sentence. The government of the United States has apparently been demanding the extradition of the five men since their arrest in 1986. According to the petition of the detainees, the government of Zia ul-Haq resisted this demand in the mid-1980s by stating that justice would be done in accordance with law in Pakistan and that in the absence of a bilateral extradition treaty there was no obligation to hand the detainees over. After the completion of the Palestinians' sentences, the US authorities are apparently renewing their efforts to obtain the custody of the men. It is not known if the US government has formally sought their extradition. The five men, including Safarini, were charged on 28 August 1991 in the US District Court for the district of Columbia in a 126 count indictment relating to the crimes committed during the hijacking. The charges included murder of US nationals outside the US; conspiracy to murder US citizens outside the country; attempted murder of US citizens outside the country; causing bodily harm to US nationals; hostage taking; weapons offences and damage to US aircraft. A press release of 23 April 2001 by the London-based Arabic Islamic Observation Centre (IOC) reported that US sought extradition of the convicts. In early August 2001, one of the men, Wadud Hafez al-Turk, alias Suleiman Ali al-Turk, appealed to the President of Pakistan to extradite him on humanitarian grounds to an Arab country, not to the US. On 21 September 2001, a team of agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, accompanied by Salman Silayyem, First Secretary of the Palestinian Embassy in Islamabad, reportedly visited Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi where the men are detained and took their pictures and fingerprints. Under the Prisoners Act of Pakistan, 1920, only a magistrate can direct a police officer to take photographs or other identification of a prisoner. According to US Justice Department officials, one of the men, Zayn Hassan Safarini was on 28 September 2001 arrested by FBI agents. Upon his release Safarini was given a Jordanian passport. It appears that his family had obtained a direct flight to Jordan for him but that Pakistani and/or Jordanian authorities arranged for him to fly via Bangkok where he was arrested at the airport. He was then flown to Anchorage, Alaska, where he was made to appear on 1 October in the Anchorage district court for a hearing. The judge ordered that he should be taken to be tried in the District Court for the district of Columbia where he had been charged. If convicted, Safarini may face the death penalty. On 1 October 2001, President Bush publicly stated that US authorities had arrested Safarini and cited Safarini's extradition as progress in the 'war on terrorism' and that it showed that al- Qa'ida terrorists were not the only militants being sought by the US administration.(49) Attorney General John Ashcroft confirmed that Safarini had been brought to the US in the custody of special agents of the FBI and added: ''This arrest demonstrates the commitment of the United States to track down persons charged with having committed terrorist acts against Americans, no matter how long it takes.'' FBI director Robert Mueller said that countering terrorism required a global reach and strong international cooperation among law enforcement and prosecutors worldwide. ''Today demonstrates the benefit of that principle.'' The five Palestinians are not believed to be linked to the events of 11 September 2001. On 2 October 2001, in an attempt to prevent being handed over to the US, the remaining four detainees, who continue to be held in Adiala Central Jail, Rawalpindi, filed a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking their release from jail and asked the High Court to direct the Federal Government to arrange a place for their internment if necessary other than a jail and provide a subsistence allowance up to the time of their deportation to their home country. On 5 October 2001, a judge of the Lahore High Court bench in Rawalpindi asked the Government of Pakistan to explain the 'circumstances under which the Palestinian hijacker left Islamabad and landed in the United States'. On 18 March 2002, the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench ordered the release of the four Palestinians and directed the federal government to make arrangements for their deportation.(50) Safarini is not the only person of Middle Eastern origin who has come to be in US custody in violation of extradition protection in connection with offences allegedly committed earlier. On 26 October 2001, a Yemeni national, Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, was reportedly handed over to US authorities by Pakistani agents, in secret and without any formal deportation or extradition proceedings. He was wanted in the US in connection with the bombing of the US destroyer USS Cole, in Yemen in October 2000, in which 17 US servicemen were killed and some 40 others injured. According to The Washington Post, Mohammed was handed over by masked agents of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI, one of the intelligence organizations of the military) to US agents who arrived at Karachi International Airport 'under highly secretive circumstances'. It has subsequently been reported that he has been taken to Jordan but Amnesty International has not been able to confirm this; the organisation has requested the US authorities to inform it about the current whereabouts and legal status of Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed. As of late May 2002, it has received no reply. 3. Handing over of Pakistani and Arab suspects arrested in Punjab province Amnesty International fears that some of the Pakistani and foreign detainees arrested in the first two months of 2002 in Punjab (see above) were handed over clandestinely to US custody in violation of Pakistan's extradition law similar to those known to have been handed over in March 2002. Asked at a press conference in Islamabad about whether the men arrested in early January would be handed over to the USA, Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on 19 January 2002 said: ''Pakistan is cooperating with the United States with regard to the entry into Pakistan of al-Qa'ida members but I do not have an answer to your specific question.''(53) Local media coverage has thrown some light on arrests and handing over of detainees to US custody in March 2002. On 28 and 29 March 2002, some 65 alleged members of al-Qa'ida were reportedly arrested during simultaneous raids in Faisalabad, Lahore, Multan and Karachi undertaken by what appears to have been a joint operation of Pakistan police and the FBI. Local newspapers reported that no charges were brought against any of the arrested men nor were the arrests entered into the diaries of local police stations. Names and whereabouts of the arrested men were kept secret. Pakistani newspapers(54) claimed that among the 24 foreigners arrested in Faisalabad, there were two Moroccans, six Sudanese, seven Palestinians, nine Saudi Arabians in addition to 21 Pakistanis. Other papers claim there were 27 foreigners and provide different nationalities. According to press reports, within days, at least 22, but perhaps as many as 29 of the detainees were transferred to US custody without undergoing any legal process. In the early morning of 28 March 2002, nine simultaneous raids were carried out in Faisalabad in which 45 of the 65 people were arrested. During a shootout in one house in Faisalabad in which a person later identified as Abu Zubaydah tried to escape, was fired at and arrested, at least one Syrian, Abu al-Hasnat, was killed and at least two other Arab men, besides Abu Zubaydah, and three Pakistani police officers were injured. Some reports mention a further Syrian man, Dawood, as killed in the shootout. The detainees were reportedly taken to local police stations in Faisalabad and then to Lahore where some of the Pakistani detainees were released. The injured persons were taken to Faisalabad's Allied Hospital and transferred to Lahore on the following day. During the crackdown computers and other communication equipment, which the group had apparently used in maintaining its communication network, was seized. A cyber café in Faisalabad was also raided and those running it arrested and their equipment confiscated. At least 16 more people, mostly men of Middle Eastern origin, were arrested in three simultaneous raids in Lahore and Multan during the same night and the following day. Sixteen of the Pakistani suspects, including a professor of a government college in Faisalabad from among 45 men arrested in that city, were released three days later. According to these men's reports, they were dropped blindfolded outside their homes by commandos on 31 March 2002. Some of those released reported that foreigners who had covered their faces had been amongst the raiding party. They also reported being interrogated in the local police lines by masked police officers. The reported positive identification of al-Qa'ida leader Abu Zubaydah, a 32-year old Palestinian born in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who was also known under the aliases Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, Al Wahab, Abd al-Hadi and Tariq, among those arrested took some time due to the fact that he had received three bullet injuries while trying to escape. Finally, on 2 April, White House spokesperson Ari Fleisher stated that there was 'overwhelmingly strong' evidence that the captured man was Abu Zubaydah. A positive identification of Abu Zubaydah was made by electronic voice imprints and later by the suspect's own admission. Media reports suggested that Abu Zubaydah had left Afghanistan to reactivate group members and other Islamist groups around the world. In 2000, a Jordanian military court had reportedly sentenced Abu Zubaydah to death in absentia for conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks. According to reports Pakistan had received several requests since 1998 to track down Abu Zubaydah but Pakistan agencies had not succeeded earlier. News agencies and local Pakistani media concur that the arrest of around 65 suspects had been facilitated by US officials, belonging to different agencies who had interrogated Pakistani detainees in Afghanistan(55) and obtained relevant information. Pakistani officials also admitted that the raids were carried out on the basis of information of the FBI. But many local media reports also suggested a more direct role of US agencies in the operation: according to eye- witnesses of the arrests in Faisalabad quoted in local papers, FBI personnel supervised the operation and entered the premises after suspected al-Qa'ida and Taleban members had been overpowered and handcuffed to begin their investigation of the identity of the detainees. During the raids, FBI members were reported to have carried photographs of wanted men. Some of the released detainees also stated that their belongings taken during the raid were returned to them with FBI markings on them.(56) Pakistani newspapers concluded that the operations were planned and handled by US agents and commandos whereas local intelligence and police helped secure suspects for the US to interrogate.(57) Senior US administration officials confirmed that the raids in Faisalabad had been carried out with information supplied by US intelligence and that FBI and CIA officers were present.(58) Commander in Chief of US Central Command, Gen. Tommy Franks said on 29 March 2002 that ''US assets'' had been involved in the raids but not US military troops: ''I think there was cooperation between assets of our government and assets of the [Pakistan] government.''(59) Despite the statement by FBI director Robert Mueller that the FBI had been involved in Abu Zubaydah's arrest in a 'support capacity'(60), Pakistani authorities denied this. On 29 March 2002, Punjab Inspector General of Police, Asif Hayat, stated that no foreign agency had been involved in the 28 March raid in Faisalabad: ''No foreign force or foreign personnel were involved in this. The entire operation was conducted by the Punjab police, Punjab Elite Police, CID [Criminal Investigation Department] and one of our national agencies. They built up the information jointly and police conducted the raid.''(61) Official statements about the handing over of Abu Zubaydah and other detainees into US authorities were contradictory and confusing as well. Some Pakistani observers believe that Abu Zubaydah was handed over to US custody immediately after his arrest in the early hours of 28 March and was transported out of Pakistan via Lahore airport in the early morning of 31 March as soon as Zubaydah's condition had sufficiently stabilized. At least 21 other al-Qa'ida suspects, including 19 Arabs and two Pakistanis were also handed over along with Abu Zubaydah and left Pakistan in the same manner. According to local reports, the detainees were escorted by a 16-member FBI team and taken to Lahore airport in armed personnel carriers from Chuhng sub-jail in Lahore and channelled through the special terminal set up for pilgrims.(62) The location of those still in Pakistan is not known. Local journalists believe them to be in police detention centres in or near Lahore. First indications that Abu Zubaydah was in US custody came early on 31 March when AFP reported a senior US official as saying that US authorities were holding a man believed to be Abu Zubaydah: ''The individual is now in US custody.''(63) On 1 April, US officials stated that some 29 Middle Eastern and Afghan detainees were in US custody without disclosing the location. On 2 April, the White House spokesperson confirmed that Abu Zubaydah had been captured: ''We believe that one of the individuals captured by Pakistani authorities in a recent raid is Abu Zubaydah .... He is currently receiving medical attention. For security reasons we are not going to discuss his location. He will be interrogated about his knowledge of ongoing plans to conduct terrorist activities ... .''(64) The Pentagon in mid-April said that Abu Zubaydah was held and treated for injuries suffered during his arrest at an undisclosed location but not under military surveillance. Interrogation had reportedly begun by 12 April 2002 according to US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld.(65) On 31 March 2002, Interior Ministry official Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema said that Pakistani investigators were interrogating the detainees and that the FBI was collaborating with Pakistani intelligence to establish the identity of the men: ''We keep sharing information with the FBI agents.'' On 1 April 2002, foreign ministry spokesperson denied reports that the Arab detainees had been handed over to the US.(66) ''At the moment they are in custody'', Aziz Ahmed Khan said on 1 April 2002. When President Musharraf was in Kabul to discuss the 'prevention of sanctuaries for terrorists on both sides' of the border with Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, he admitted before the press on 2 April 2002 that the al-Qa'ida suspects arrested in the Punjab had been handed over to the US. Official denials of the handing over were reported for several more days.(67) Source: Web.Amnesty.org