Ed, FYI...BTW "DPA"= Deutsche Presse Agenteur"...
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News Article by DPA on September 22, 1998 at 20:43:56:
Owner of Sudanese factory comes under scrutiny in wake of US strikes
By Hans Dahne
Khartoum (dpa) - The enigmatic owner of the Shifa pharmaceuticals
factory in the Sudanese capital Khartoum has come under intense
scrutiny since the U.S. targeted the plant last month, destroying it
in a cruise missile attack.
Salah Ahmed Idris, the Sudanese-born owner of the plant, has not
attended any of the state-orchestrated protest demonstrations that
have taken place outside the gutted factory.
The U.S. claims that chemical weapons were produced at the plant,
and charged that Idris has links to Osama bin Laden, a Saudi
millionaire who Washington regards as a financier of international
terrorism.
Little is known about Idris. He is in his mid-forties and now holds
a Saudi Arabian passport. Business associates have described him as
"very discreet" and as someone who likes to stay out of view.
He has been on a veritable shopping spree in Sudan for the past two
years, according to businessmen in Khartoum. First he bought Bitar,the country's largest firm, which sells everything from cooking oil
and detergents to office supplies and engineering contracts.
Idris then bought a textiles and battery factory and invested in a
company that produces television sets under licence: He also bought a
military-industrial complex on large 25 square kilometre site.
"All that must have cost at least 300 million dollars. Where did
all that money come from?," asked one businessman who asked not to be
identified.
The man had a three-month war of nerves of Idris, who bought his
factory. "He told me the check would be there in an hour, and then he
disappeared by plane for three months."
Idris allegedly has good contacts to key leaders of Sudan's Islamic
fundamentalist regime.
"Who else would invest in Sudan?" another businessman asked."The
banks are not solvent and they only give to loans to friends of the
regime. Then the taxmen ask for exorbitant taxes. These Moslems make
life so difficult that you're happy to sell (your factory), even for a
dollar and 50 cents."
Businessmen in Khartoum do not believe that Idris is the generous
philanthropist that he likes to portray himself as, the man happy toinvest his wealth in his impoverished home country.
"This is one huge money laundering operation, maybe even for Osama bin Laden", one contact in the Sudanese capital told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Idris' attorney, Ghasi Suleiman, has rejected any links between
Idris and bin Laden. "Idris has never met bin Laden or spoken with
him. They are different sorts of people."
Another theory making the rounds in Khartoum is that the factory
was destroyed because it had been financed privately by people close to the fundamentalist Sudanese regime. The bombing would wipe out these investments, as no insurance company will reimburse the investors under the circumstances.
A diplomat who also refused to be cited by name said that the
opposition Umma party of Sadiq el Mahdi had put the United States' CIA on to the Khartoum factory.
The factory, on the outskirts of Khartoum, was destroyed August 20
in a cruise missile attack in retaliation for the bombing of the U.S.
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that is believed connected to bin
Laden, a multimillionare Saudi extremist.
The U.S. government in Washington said the factory was targeted becase of its links to terrorism and Iraq, and that clandestinely
obtained soil samples indicated the plant was involved in the
production of precursor agents for VX nerve gas.
El Shifa's former export manager, Alamaddin el Shibli, is convinced
that the soil samples allegedly taken on the premises was faked.
"The factory was tiled throughout, and there was asphalt
everywhere outside the buildings. Where could anyone have taken a
sample?" Shibli said.
Idris now wants to rebuild the factory elsewhere in Khartoum,
according to Shibli. The Sudanese government wants to turn the riun
into a momument.
The factory's owner plans to keep paying his employees for three
months.
"After that disaster will hit. I supported nine people with my
pay," says one former employee, Adam Umbade, an engineer. "How can I feed them? Am I a magician? |
