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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (1595)	2/19/2002 7:48:01 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

EU source confirms effort to fix Arafat's image By Gil Hoffman JERUSALEM (February 20) - European Union special Middle East envoy Miguel Moratinos and US Consul General in Jerusalem Ronald Schlicher aided Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in drafting a letter last week to US Secretary of State Colin Powell regarding the Karine A arms ship, EU sources confirmed yesterday. A source in the Prime Minister's Office said the help given to Arafat was part of an international effort to help him improve his image. Arafat has received additional public relations help in the US from a lobbying firm headed by former US consul general in Jerusalem Edward Abingdon, who reportedly authored his New York Times column on February 3. "There is a desperate lobby trying to save Arafat, but they cannot save him from himself," the source said. "They can write a clear, articulate letter in good English, but even the best letter cannot hide the true Arafat, the one who calls for a million martyrs to converge on Jerusalem." The source said European nations continuing to embrace Arafat are making a mistake that will only prolong the violence. "This incident with the letter is just further indication of what we said long ago - the European position is imbalanced - and that's why they cannot play any constructive role in this conflict," the source said. A spokesman for Moratinos confirmed he met with Arafat and encouraged him to take steps to clarify his involvement in the Karine A affair, but denied any connection with the writing of the letter. A US State Department official said allegations of Schlicher's involvement are false. The office of Schlicher, who passed the letter from Arafat to Powell, declined to comment. Arafat's letter, according to a State Department official, assured Powell he would act against those responsible in Fatah for the arms shipment, arms smuggling is contrary to PA policy, and he would make that clear to his people. He also said he would not enter into an arms relationship with Hizbullah. The story could cloud Foreign Minister Shimon Peres's two-day visit to Spain, which was supposed to begin today, but was postponed after last night's terrorist attack. Foreign Ministry sources said they are not surprised a meeting of EU foreign ministers failed to reach a compromise on a solution to the conflict. They said recent visits by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and his British counterpart, Jack Straw, were instrumental in ensuring the rejection of a French plan to endorse the creation of a Palestinian state as a starting point for peace talks. In an interview with Saudi Arabian television yesterday, Peres called Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud's diplomatic proposal "an interesting and positive idea displaying a will to progress toward peace and a solution to the conflict in the region." Abdullah told The New York Times he intends to deliver a speech at an upcoming Arab summit in which he will call on Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines in return for full diplomatic relations, normalized trade, and security guarantees from Arab countries. Peres said Saudi involvement is helpful, and could have been helpful had it been volunteered in the past. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer met with Moratinos yesterday and told him the EU must exert far greater pressure on Arafat to persuade him to change his path and order his forces to act against terrorism.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (1595)	2/24/2002 7:40:49 PM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Al Qaeda Gathers for New Terror Onslaught 24 February: A freshly-carved hole in an underground passageway next to the US embassy on Via Veneto in Rome was one of several ominous signals that the al Qaeda terror network has resumed its terror offensive against the US and Europe. According to DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources, counter-terror authorities have been on the lookout in the last two weeks for an unknown number of terrorist squads known to be on their way to West Europe and the Middle East from bases in Iran, Yemen, Pakistan and the Central Asian Ferghana Valley. Their routes west took them through Turkey. At the end of January, two top terror masters dropped out of sight at the same time: Imad Mughniyeh, the Iranian-Lebanese arch-terrorist who is one of bin Laden’s top operations officers, was reported to have passed through the Lebanese Beqaa Valley and disappeared; and Shamil Basayev, the Chechen operative who liaises between the rebel movement and bin Laden’s group, left Chechnya for an unknown destination. Both have long records as organizers, planners and innovators of large-scale terror plots in the name of radical Islam. Their disappearance triggered alarms in both sides of the Atlantic. Saturday, February 23, in Lakewood, Colorado, the FBI went on the alert after sensitive information about roads at Hoover Dam - an engineer’s identification badge and computer hard drives - was stolen from a Federal Highway Administration Office. Situated thirty miles east of Las Vegas, Hoover Dam is the largest man-made reservoir in America. The hole found near the embassy in Rome confirmed the direst fears of the FBI and Italian police working together of an al Qaeda plot to launch a chemical attack on the city, focusing on the centrally-located US embassy. The potential assault was apparently aborted by the arrest in Rome last Tuesday, February 19, of four Moroccan men, members of the extremist Algerian Islamic Armed Group – GIA, associated with al Qaeda. Found in their possession were 4 kilos of cyanide, 10 kilos of explosives, maps of the water, electric and gas networks around the US embassy building and 100 false identity papers. At first, Italian officials claimed the cyanide was harmless. Later, it transpired that an explosion turning the cyanide compound into a toxic gaseous cloud would have caused many deaths – first in the US embassy, then spreading through the tunnels under the center of Rome. The Moroccan cell numbered altogether seven suspects. Three, in addition to the four arrested, were originally charged with possession of forged identity papers. When the Rome police sought to increase the charges to include association with terrorist groups, two of the three suspects were found to have flown. One was picked up in an intensive search; the second is still missing. Italy is especially susceptible to terror strikes. Since September 11, 20 people have been arrested on suspicion of having links with Islamic terrorist groups. According to US investigators, Milan’s Islamic culture center is al Qaeda’s main logistics base in Europe. Surveillance of the four Moroccans arrested last week revealed connections to four Tunisians, fellow members of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group, which operates outside Algeria on behalf of al Qaeda. These Tunisians were sentenced in Milan Friday, February 22, to five years in jail on terror-related charges - criminal association for trafficking in arms, explosives and chemicals as well as forging identity papers. One of the four, Essid Sami Ben Khemais, who is the suspected leader of the al Qaeda’s European network, was involved in a previous failed bombing of the US embassy in Rome in 2001. The trial was closed to the media and public. But the Milan police released evidence of a far-flung terror conspiracy: transcripts with references to attacks in Europe, gathered as part of a joint Italian-German investigation before the September 11 attack. ________________________________________