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To: Ilaine who wrote (24737)	11/5/2002 12:14:53 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Three Held in HK for Alleged Al Qaeda Missile Deal story.news.yahoo.com Tue Nov 5, 8:49 AM ET By Dominic Lau HONG KONG (Reuters) - Three men have been arrested in Hong Kong over an alleged attempt to buy four Stinger anti-aircraft missiles for al Qaeda from undercover U.S. FBI (news - web sites) agents, the Hong Kong government said on Tuesday. It was the first time that Hong Kong authorities had reported any al Qaeda-linked activities in the Chinese territory. The case is certain to revive worries of Hong Kong being used as a trans-shipment center for the clandestine transfer of arms and as a transit point for illegal immigrants. "Based on remarks made to the FBI agents, it is believed that the defendants intended to deliver the Stinger missile systems to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely the al Qaeda," the Hong Kong government said in a statement. The Stinger is a small shoulder-launched missile designed for attacking aircraft at low altitude, possibly during take-off or landing. The three detainees, two Pakistanis and a U.S. citizen of Indian origin, appeared in a Hong Kong court on Tuesday to fight an extradition request from the United States. They had been arrested on September 20 for trying to sell 600 kg of heroin and five tons of hashish to fund the purchase of the missiles, the statement said. The court remanded them in custody until November 15 pending further information from Washington, the government said. "All three refused to consent to surrender," it said. Hong Kong, a former British colony which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, has an extradition agreement with the United States, although Beijing does not. A Hong Kong-based security expert cautioned against reading too much into the arrests being made in Hong Kong. "We have to be careful not to read too much into the location of the arrests because Stinger missiles are not Chinese weapons, they are American weapons and neither are drugs manufactured in Hong Kong," said Stephen Vickers, president and chief executive officer of International Risk Ltd, a risk assessment consultancy. STING "In such sting operations, places like Hong Kong and Singapore can sometimes be used to effect arrest if necessary because they have credible law enforcement and judiciary systems, unlike other places where systems are not as solid." "The dynamics of where the arrest was made may have been dictated by the FBI. Therefore Hong Kong may not necessarily be the relevant factor in the case," Vickers said. Hong Kong has of late gone all out to close possible loopholes to guard against being used by terrorists as a money-laundering center. It recently enacted an anti-terrorism law compelling banks and financial institutions to report suspicious transactions and accounts as a part of the global fight to cut funding to the extremist militant network. A U.S. court issued a warrant for the arrest of the three -- Syed Mustajab Shah, Muhammed Abid Afridi and Ilyas Ali -- on September 17, the statement said. Washington blames al Qaeda, the radical Muslim group led by fugitive Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), for the hijacked airliner attacks on Nw York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites) on September 11, 2001, that killed 3,000 people. On Friday, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Robert Mueller said he believed that the al Qaeda network had been disrupted but remained capable of carrying out coordinated multiple mass casualty attacks. Mueller said the al Qaeda network had the potential to carry out attacks both overseas and in the United States. Last month, a bombing in the Indonesian resort of Bali killed nearly 200 people. Some foreign governments believe that the Southeast Asian Islamist group Jemaah Islamiah, which has been linked to the al Qaeda network, was involved in the attack.