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| Arabia |
| Saudi with royal links seized in CIA terror swoop |
| 2003-07-06 |
| Didn't know whether to put this in East/Subsaharan Africa or Arabia, Fred - reassign as you please EFL A SAUDI Arabian with close connections to Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the desert kingdomâs defence minister, was among five people who were arrested in Malawi on suspicion of channelling money to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. The five are believed to have been on a CIA watch list since the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which more than 200 people died and thousands more were injured. The men were arrested two weeks ago in an early-morning operation carried out in Blantyre, Malawiâs commercial centre, involving the countryâs National Intelligence Bureau and the CIA. Two days later they were deported in defiance of an order by a high court judge who had instructed the authorities to bring them to court instead. They are believed to have been flown on a charter aircraft to another African country en route for Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or to another American detention centre. The Saudi, who was named as Fahad Ral Bahli, is a director of Prince Sultanâs Special Committee for Relief, a charity set up by the minister which has offices in a number of African countries. Now that's gotta be embarrassing lol The other detainees were two Turks, a Kenyan and a Sudanese. The organisationâs Malawi office, based in Limbe, was registered in March last year when Dr Faisal bin Jafar Bali, the manager of religious affairs in the Saudi army and who has the rank of major-general, was nominated as chairman. He also chairs the charitable committees in Mali and Nigeria. Another of the directors is a Saudi colonel. Nobody at the Saudi embassy in London was available for comment. Tap tap....whotta surprise?....er, nope. No PR spin from Al-Jubeir (AKA Atom Ant)? The other four men, all of whom lived in Blantyre, have been identified as Ibrahim Itabaci, the Turkish executive director of the Bedir international school; Arif Ulusam, owner of the Istanbul takeaway restaurant; Mahmud Sardar Issa, a Sudanese director of the Islamic Zakaat Fund and Khalifa Abdi Hassan, a Kenyan teacher at the Blantyre Islamic Mission. Islamic teachers involved in terrorism? Tap Tap...nope... Three of the five detainees are also said to be connected to Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, an Al-Qaeda operative and leading suspect in last Novemberâs attacks on an aircraft and an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and the 1998 Nairobi attack. According to local reports, President George W Bush called Bakili Muluzi, Malawiâs president, on the day of the arrests and spoke to him for seven minutes. âThe president assured Bush that Malawi would continue to help in the fight against terrorism,â said one source in Malawi. âThat is the reason why Muluzi agreed to have the five suspected Al-Qaeda suspects flown out of the country despite the case being in the High Court.â The deportations prompted violence by some Muslims, who make up 20% of Malawiâs 11m people. Rioters burnt and looted seven churches and also ransacked the offices of Save the Children USA. Muslims tearing up a charity that feeds all Malawi children? Where's the backlash from the rest of the people? too cowed? Police opened fire on a demonstration last Monday, injuring several people. Yesterday hundreds of protesters threatened to disrupt elections if the suspects were not returned. Noel Chalamanda, a lawyer acting for some of the suspects, attacked the move. âIf government officials acted against the orders of the court, they should have answered for their contempt,â he said. âThe government should not be in the forefront of defying court orders.â too bad they're gone. Wonder who's paying the lawyers? |
| Posted by:Frank G |