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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (14979)	12/28/2001 10:46:47 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I have a feeling the "rules of engagement" have been drastically changed since Sept 11th. Too bad there hadn't been more common sense when the Cole was bombed. The riflemen standing watch on deck didn't even have magazines loaded in their rifles, and they couldn't shoot until shot at, no matter how close a boat came to them. Hawk

To: Ish who wrote (14979)	12/28/2001 10:54:06 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 281500

Al-Qaeda trained more than 40 Britons SATURDAY DECEMBER 29 2001 Al-Qaeda trained more than 40 Britons BY DANIEL MCGRORY thetimes.co.uk MI5 has found disturbing new evidence in Afghanistan of how up to 40 Britons were recently given terrorist training at al-Qaeda camps and who it fears have been sent home to carry out new atrocities. Details of their names and passport numbers have been given to police so they can urgently trace the men who, like Richard Reid before his arrest in America, may be sheltering in safe houses in Britain and major European cities. Their documents, discovered by US and British agents in recent days in Kandahar and Jalalabad, appear to prove that far more British-born Muslims volunteered to be trained in sabotage and bomb-making techniques at al-Qaeda camps than had previously been thought. Until now estimates of how many Britons went to Afghanistan came after unsubstantiated boasts by militant Muslim groups who had a vested interested in exaggerating the numbers. But in a painstaking search of files and interrogation of prisoners, intelligence teams sent to Afghanistan have found biographical details of several British volunteers as well as the particular skills they acquired during their training. One security source said last night: “The numbers are greater than we first thought and this investigation is still in its early stages so that figure must grow. “The question is where are these people now and what names are they using.” Al-Qaeda was scrupulous in keeping records of its recruits, particularly regarding their nationality so that it could place volunteers where they were best suited. While Western intelligence agencies are having to sift through piles of documents left by fleeing al-Qaeda and Taleban units, they have been told that priority must be given to finding other sleepers like Richard Reid. The 28-year-old Londoner made a second, brief appearance in a Boston court yesterday where an FBI agent, Margaret Cronin, testified that tests on his shoes showed they did contain enough plastic explosive to blow a hole in the fuselage of American Airlines Flight 63 if Mr Reid had managed to detonate it. The magistrate ordered that he should be held without bail while the FBI continues its investigations. It was Mr Reid’s mission that has heightened fears that Islamic terrorists have embarked on a new series of violent outrages. The difficulty in tracing the terrorists is that the records found inside Afghanistan show how among the techniques the British and other recruits were given was how to operate in sleeper cells and how to await their instructions. The authorities admit they still do not know who was sheltering Mr Reid, and giving him the money to pay for his extensive airline trips and the substantial amount of cash he was carrying when he was arrested after the American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami was forced to land at Boston’s Logan airport. The authorities are also still trying to confirm suspicions that while Mr Reid was in Pakistan in August, he did visit an al-Qaeda camp in neighbouring Afghanistan. In the time he spent in Amsterdam and Paris preparing for his mission there is no record of him using a credit card, nor of registering at a hotel in his own name which suggests he was sheltered by his terrorist handlers. The 19 hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks never attempted to cover their identities when paying bills or booking hotel rooms and flight tickets. The only time Mr Reid appears to have used his real name is when flying. The Britons whose details have been found are all believed to have been trained at two camps outside Kandahar. As well as being taught how to handle automatic weapons, the evidence found by the CIA and MI5 shows there were classes in dealing with various explosives and techniques to hijack and blow up aircraft. Both the British and American governments stressed the need for its intelligence services to get to al-Qaeda’s records before they could be destroyed or looted so that they can properly assess the terrorist threat the network still poses. The British recruits were mainly of Pakistani origin, though some have an Arab family background, but all are reported to have been born in the UK. Some of those who were trained are likely to have stayed to fight alongside the Taleban. They could therefore have been killed in US bombing raids.