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

To: NickSE who wrote (98677)	5/21/2003 1:57:20 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 281500

Ghostrider....To say I am surprised there hasn't been any comment on this article by Louis J. Freeh, FBI director under Clinton, is a gross understatement! I have not ever seen him be this candid before....Good for Mr. Freeh....! Remember Khobar Towers Nineteen American heroes still await American justice. by Louis J. Freeh, former FBI director Tuesday, May 20, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT opinionjournal.com >>>>>>>>> snip In order to return an indictment and bring these terrorists to American justice, it became essential that FBI agents be permitted to interview several of the participating Hezbollah terrorists who were detained in Saudi Arabia. The purpose of the interviews was to confirm--with usable, co-conspirator testimonial evidence--the Iranian complicity that Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the Mabaheth had already relayed to us. (For the record, the FBI's investigation only succeeded because of the real cooperation provided by Prince Bandar and our colleagues in the Mabaheth.) FBI agents had never before been permitted to interview firsthand Saudis detained in the kingdom. Unfortunately, the White House was unable or unwilling to help the FBI gain access to these critical witnesses. The only direction from the Clinton administration regarding Iran was to order the FBI to stop photographing and fingerprinting official Iranian delegations entering the U.S. because it was adversely impacting our "relationship" with Tehran. We had argued that the MOIS was using these groups to infiltrate its agents into the U.S. After months of inaction, I finally turned to the former President Bush, who immediately interceded with Crown Prince Abdullah on the FBI's behalf. Mr. Bush personally asked the Saudis to let the FBI do one-on-one interviews of the detained Khobar bombers. The Saudis immediately acceded. After Mr. Bush's Saturday meeting with the Crown Prince in Washington, Ambassador Wyche Fowler, Dale Watson, the FBI's excellent counterterrorism chief, and I were summoned to a Monday meeting where the crown prince directed that the FBI be given direct access to the Saudi detainees. This was the investigative breakthrough for which we had been waiting for several years. Mr. Bush typically disclaimed any credit for his critical intervention but he earned the gratitude of many FBI agents and the Khobar families. I quickly dispatched the FBI case agents back to Saudi Arabia, where they interviewed, one-on-one, six of the Hezbollah members who actually carried out the attack. All of them directly implicated the IRGC, MOIS and senior Iranian government officials in the planning and execution of this attack. Armed with this evidence, the FBI recommended a criminal indictment that would identify Iran as the sponsor of the Khobar bombing. Finding a problem for every solution, the Clinton administration refused to support a prosecution. <<<<<<<<<< snip

To: NickSE who wrote (98677)	5/22/2003 12:23:30 PM
From: NickSE	Respond to of 281500

Iraq's Artists Strive for Freedom nytimes.com BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 19 — For 30 years Daoud al-Qaysi sang the praises of Saddam Hussein, bartering his modest musical talent for a dictator's favors, and now he has paid the price. The court bard of the dead regime was killed on Sunday. Unknown gunmen shot Mr. Qaysi in the head in the doorway of his home in Baghdad, silencing a man who had helped silence any artist who refused to glorify his patron. In its brutal way, the killing demonstrated how profoundly Mr. Hussein had corrupted creative life in Iraq. He manipulated artistic expression so completely that many musicians, writers and artists now wonder if they can ever again find their own voices. [cont'd...] Tales of Iraqis' Silent Suffering Now Find Voices nytimes.com NAJAF, Iraq — The sprawling cemetery that surrounds this city is called the Valley of Peace, a striking misnomer for a place that has known so much violent death. Over 14 centuries, its boundaries advanced methodically, keeping pace with the normal rhythm of life and death. But in one decade of Saddam Hussein's rule, the cemetery expanded to eight times its previous size to accommodate the casualties of war and repression. Its humble stone tombs, sun-bleached to the color of sand, tell just a few of the stories of Iraqi suffering. Only now, after the collapse of Mr. Hussein's government, are people in Najaf able to recount the events of those years to outsiders. [cont'd...]