25 September 2001, Copyright © Turkish Daily News

US freezes assets of terrorists

Calling it a "strike on the financial foundation" of terrorists, President George W. Bush signed an executive order on Monday freezing the assets of 27 individuals and organizations.

"They include terrorist organizations, individuals, terrorist leaders, a corporation that serves as a front for terrorism and several nonprofit organizations," the president said in a Rose Garden appearance.

Bid Laden's message

Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite television on Monday quoted Osama bin Laden as urging Pakistanis to fight any assault on Afghanisatan by "crusader Americans."

"We incite our Muslim brothers in Pakistan to deter with all their capabilities the American crusaders from invading Pakistan and Afghanistan," the television reported him as saying in a statement.

"I assure you, dear brothers, that we are firm on the road of jihad (holy struggle) for the sake of God."

The statement faxed to Jazeera was typed in Arabic, signed "Osama bin Laden" in typed letters and signed in handwriting by "Osama Mohammad."

"The new Jewish crusader campaign is led by the biggest crusader Bush under the banner of the Cross," the statement said in a reference to U.S. President George W. Bush.

Bush toughens

Bush was flanked by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill as he spoke. He made his appearance as the nation struggled with its recovery from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed more than 6,000 at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Stocks up at opening

There was some sign of optimism during the day - the stock market opened sharply higher after a week of steep declines.

Bush said he signed the order one minute after midnight, adding, "This list is just the beginning."

"To follow the money is a trail to terrorists," the president said. He called the list "the financial equivalent of law enforcement's most-wanted list."

Pakistan pulls diplomats from Kabul, Taliban say US should change policies

Pakistan announced Monday it had removed its diplomats from Afghanistan, and the hardline Taliban leader said the United States should withdraw its forces from the Gulf and end its "bias" against Palestinians if it wants to eliminate the threat of global terrorism.

Taliban militia said it was dispatching 300,000 fighters to defend its borders - even as fighting stepped up in the north of the country with a coalition of opposition forces.

Despite the threat, the Taliban remained defiant. In a statement faxed to news agencies here, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar said the elimination of bin Laden would do little to remove the threat against the United States.

"If Americans want to eliminate terrorism, then they should withdraw their forces from the Gulf and they should put an end to the biased attitude on the issue of Palestine," Omar said from his headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

"America wants to eliminate Islam, and they are spreading lawlessness to install a pro-American government in Afghanistan," Mullah Omar said. "This effort will not solve the problem, and the Americans will burn themselves if they indulge in this kind of activity."

Taliban also has cracked down on the remaining U.N. relief workers in Afghanistan.

The president's executive order marked the first public step of the financial elements of his declared war on terrorism. He was working on the diplomatic front during the day, meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien at the White House.

At the same time, American military forces are deploying around the world in anticipation of an expected strike against bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.

Bush spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for nearly an hour over the weekend - their third conversation on the anti-terror campaign - and will see Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today.

As he laid the groundwork for a military strike, the president also sought to help restore a sense of normalcy to the nation. He looked on Sunday as Marines raised the American flag at his Camp David, Maryland, retreat to full-staff for the first time since the attacks.

Outside Washington, Americans resumed their routines.

A key area of concern in Washington was the economy, bruised in the aftermath of the attacks. Bush was contemplating a broad array of methods to support it, but heeding the advice of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who urged against an immediate government stimulus package.

Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, disagreed. "I think we have to have a stimulus package immediately that accelerates certain kinds of investment projects, whether it's railroad, road, airports, even something as prosaic as a sewer overflow, for mayors all across the country," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

As Bush signed a bill delivering dlrs 15 billion in federal aid to the nation's ailing airlines, alarming news surfaced of possible new terrorist attacks from the skies. Concerned about possible chemical weapons attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a one-day ban Sunday on crop-dusting from airplanes in domestic airspace.

Probes continue

Investigators continued their wide-ranging work. In a Dallas suburb, the FBI arrested a Palestinian whose name turned up in the address book of a former personal secretary to bin Laden. Ghassan Dahduli is appealing an immigration court deportation ruling for obtaining a work visa through fraud, FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey said.

In Austin, Texas, authorities pulled from an American Airlines flight two men whose names matched those on an FBI list of people wanted for questioning. The two men, identified as Pakistani nationals, were released early Monday, said Austin-Bergstrom International Airport spokeswoman Jackie Mayo.

The Bush administration promised to offer evidence of bin Laden's role in the attacks. "I think we will put before the world, the American people, a persuasive case that there will be no doubt when that case is presented that it is al-Qaida, led by Osama bin Laden, who has been responsible," Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

"What we want to do is to make sure that his activities are stopped and that he is stopped," Powell said on ABC's "This Week." "One way or the other."

Washington - The Associated Press

Islamic world warns America of a backlash

As U.S. forces took up positions around the world on Monday, Islamic countries warned against any unilateral retribution for attacks on the United States that could sow the seeds of another whirlwind of violence.

With the British foreign secretary and the European Union beginning trips to the Middle East and Asia on Monday, Islamic leaders also urged a halt to Israeli attacks on Palestinians.

Iran and Syria said any unilateral "anti-terrorism" offensive would have grave ramifications and should be under the United Nations, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said.

"If the United States attacks Afghanistan, the crisis will grow," IRNA quoted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as saying in a telephone conversation with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

Iran and Syria, both on Washington's list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism, have condemned the assault on U.S. symbols of power and wealth.

President George W. Bush has said all evidence so far pointed to wealthy, Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, who lives in Afghanistan as the "guest" of its ruling Taliban, as responsible for the suicide plane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that left 6,800 people dead or missing.

Washington has warned Kabul it could face attack if he is not turned over to the United States.

Gulf states qualified support

Gulf Arab states pledged support for the U.S.-led drive to bring to justice those behind the attacks.

Saudi Arabia and its five allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council -- all of whom took part in the 1991 U.S.-led war against Iraq -- didn't specify what help the oil-rich states could offer.

The Washington Post said on Saturday Saudi Arabia resisted a U.S. request to use a new command centre at a Saudi base.

Bin Laden has cited the continued deployment of U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia that began during the 1990-91 Gulf Crisis and which he sees as a desecration of Islam's holiest shrines as the genesis of his "holy war" against the United States.

Asked how Gulf states would view a U.S. attack on Muslim Afghanistan, a Gulf official who attended the meeting told Reuters: "It is not acceptable. It's too much. This would be American terrorism on poor hapless people."

With growing calls in the Arab world for an international alliance to stop Israeli attacks on Palestinians, the meeting also urged the U.N. Security Council, the United States, Russia and the EU "not to be distracted from state terrorism practiced by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people."

Diplomats and analysts say an offensive against Afghanistan might provoke attacks on American interests in pro-Western Gulf Arab countries and moderate Muslim countries in Asia.

Embarrassed by support

Analysts said Saudi Arabia and some of its Gulf allies felt embarrassed by popular support in their countries for bin Laden.

"They must get something in return," said Abdelbari Atwa, editor of the London-based al-Qods. "The West, particularly the U.S., must realize that terrorism has political roots. The Arab-Israel conflict and failure to achieve a just settlement is also an embarrassment."

Nevertheless, the United States won its first victory in the region when the United Arab Emirates on Saturday broke off diplomatic relations with Afghanistan's Taliban.

Washington is trying to build a global coalition that would not only back retaliation for the worst single attack on U.S. soil but root out extremist networks, led by bin Laden's shadowy al Qaeda organization, by cutting off their financial lifelines.

Although several countries -- Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Cuba and Libya among them -- were said to be harboring thousands of members of these shadowy networks, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington was broadening its investigations into their financial sources.

Facing an enemy operating in 60 countries, including in Europe and the United States, U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld said troops would not be engaged in a conventional war.

Second wave of attacks

In Jakarta, a series of explosions that rocked the parking lot of a busy shopping centre on Sunday was probably the handiwork of a Malaysian group that Kuala Lumpur said received training in Afghan guerrilla camps.

The blasts caused moderate damage but no casualties.

Police have said the Malaysian group was also involved in Muslim-Christian clashes in Indonesia's Molucca islands, where thousands have died in more than two years of savage violence.

The blasts followed threats of violence by Indonesian Muslim radicals if Washington attacks Afghanistan.

Indonesian police said it had assigned snipers to protect the U.S. Embassy, which told its citizens to "exercise maximum caution" after receiving information that extremists may be targeting U.S. interests in Indonesia.

Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are considering a regional anti-terror coalition in the wake of last week's attacks, officials said.

Biggest mobilization since Gulf

The United States was positioning military forces around the world in its biggest mobilization since the 1991 Gulf War, with B-1 and B-52 bombers, dozens of fighters, and support aircraft ordered to the Gulf and Indian Ocean region, along with elite Special Operations troops.

Defense officials, who asked not to be identified, said about a dozen more aircraft, including refueling planes, would soon be moved to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean to join nearly 350 U.S. warplanes at land bases and on two aircraft carriers.

A U.S. military team was in Pakistan on Monday to discuss Washington's hunt for bin Laden, the world's most wanted man.

On the diplomatic front, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw begins a groundbreaking trip to Iran on Monday -- the first by a British foreign secretary since the 1979 Islamic revolution -- on a tour that also takes him to Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

The EU team, led by Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, also sets out on Monday on a week-long trip which will take it to six predominantly Muslim nations -- Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

The tour is a "coalition-building trip," one EU diplomat said. "The EU has special ties with Arab countries. This can be helpful in coalition building."

The EU leaders declared the United States was entitled to strike back at those responsible and states that aid them. They also called for the "broadest possible global coalition against terrorism" under the aegis of the United Nations.

Islamabad - Reuters

FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER The CIA, through Pakistan, supplied hundreds of missiles and launchers to mujahedeen

Stingers unlikely to threaten US troops in Afghanistan

American-made Stinger surface-to-air missiles remain in small numbers in Afghanistan, left over from when the United States supported rebels fighting the Soviet Union more than a decade ago.

The shoulder-fired, heat-seeking Stinger is capable of bringing down a low-flying plane or a helicopter. Both Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia and the rebels of the Northern Alliance are believed to have a small supply of the missiles. Experts said it is unlikely they will present a great threat to U.S. aircraft flying over the country.

During the late 1980s, the CIA, through Pakistan, supplied hundreds of missiles and launchers to the Afghan rebels, the mujahedeen. The rebels used the Stingers effectively, bringing down scores of Soviet helicopter gunships.

The introduction of Stingers into the conflict is widely regarded as a turning point in the war, as it gave the rebels a high-tech weapon to oppose the Soviets. The Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989, and the communist government there fell a short time later.

The missiles still in Afghanistan are at least a decade old and have not been properly maintained. U.S. aircraft and helicopters have newer countermeasures and flares to divert the missiles.

Stingers also are more effective in daylight, when a gunner can more easily pinpoint his target before firing. U.S. helicopters carrying special forces will probably operate only at night, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a think tank in Alexandria, Virginia.

"You think about American forces - we own the night," he said.

Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, said the Stingers supplied to Afghanistan also had "friend-or-foe" receivers that only let them be fired at Soviet aircraft. Those can be removed by a clever engineer, he said.

"The Stinger weapons are kind of obsolete weapons at this point," Cannistraro said. "They have a mythological status."

Several Taliban soldiers were seen toting Stingers in a recent military parade in Kabul. The missiles still see action from time to time in Afghanistan's ongoing civil war.

In 1999, a Stinger fired by the Northern Alliance brought down a Taliban Su-22 fighter-bomber. At the time, it was estimated that between 50 and 100 Stingers remained in the country.

Several years ago, the United States launched a buyback program, offering to purchase remaining Stinger missiles for $80,000. Washington said it feared the missiles could be used by terrorists against civilian aircraft.

The missiles, built by Hughes Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona, have a range of about two miles (three kilometers) and can hit targets at altitudes around 12,000 feet (3,600 meters).

Washington - The Associated Press

Bin Laden's Arab fighters divide Afghans, Taliban

In the bleak capital of Kabul, Arabs drive the dusty, rocket-rutted streets hidden inside cars with blackened windows. Jittery residents cross the street and keep their eyes lowered when an Arab walks by.

The Americans aren't the only ones who would like to see suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his thousands of militant Arab followers leave Afghanistan. So would many Afghans.

Relatively few Afghans are willing to talk about the Arab militants, and none - even Taliban officials - would agreed to be quoted by name. However, the suppressed antipathy between Afghans and the militants - most but not all of whom are Arabs - is palpable.

Many Afghans go out of their way to avoid contact with the Arabs, whom they consider hostile and overbearing.

One storekeeper on Kabul's Chicken Street said they worry when Arabs come into the shop.

The Taliban recently ordered foreigners to leave Afghanistan, but the order was enforced only for Westerners. The Taliban said that was because the safety of Westerners cannot be guaranteed if a U.S.-led international force launches an assault on Afghanistan.

Several Kabul residents - some Taliban officials - said the threat to Westerners isn't from Afghans or even Taliban troops. They said the real danger comes from the Arab "guests," as followers of bin Laden's al-Qaida movement are known.

According to Western military estimates, there are as many as 10,000 Islamic militants in Afghanistan, more than half from Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan and Egypt. The rest come from Pakistan, the breakaway republic of Chechnya and Uzbekistan.

Within the Taliban movement itself there is a growing split over the presence of Arab militants in Afghanistan. The chasm is likely to widen if the United States launches punishing retaliatory strikes against Afghanistan to flush out bin Laden.

One senior Taliban leader who wants his movement to break ties with the Arabs said anyone who makes public statements against them will be put in jail. He said the Arabs' influence is strong on the government, but not on the nation or on the Afghan people.

Despite public resentment, the Arabs enjoy the support of Taliban leaders, in part because the Taliban need the militants to help fight opposition forces in the north.

After 23 years of civil conflict, many Afghans have grown weary of war. As a result, the Arabs have become the backbone of the Taliban fighting force.

The influence of the Arabs, particularly the Saudis and their predominantly Wahabbist sect, was evident in March when the Taliban blew up the stone statues of Buddha, hewn from the cliffside of Bamiyan in the third and fifth centuries.

The Wahabbists are especially keen on enforcing Quranic prohibitions against creating human images - which they consider idolatry.

The senior Taliban official said his idea is to rebuild Afghanistan, but the idea of the Arabs is to destroy it and he believes the Afghan people will eventually rise up again them.

Islamabad - The Associated Press

ETA dealt blow by arrests in France, Spanish minister says

Police have "decapitated" the logistics operation of outlawed Basque separatist group ETA following the arrest of five suspected ETA leaders in France, Spain's interior minister said on Monday.

French police arrested the suspected logistics chief of ETA, Asier Oiartzabal Txapartegi, alias "Baltza," and four others in Dax and Saint Etienne on Sunday as they were plotting to steal explosives, officials said.

"With this operation we can say that the logistics apparatus of ETA has been decapitated," Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy told reporters at a news conference in Madrid.

"The general awareness against terrorism today is stronger and more intense (following the attacks on the United States). The governments fighting terrorism understand that terrorism is currently the greatest threat," he said.

Baltza was the head of ETA's infrastructure in France and a member of ETA's executive committee, Rajoy said.

ETA has claimed responsibility for 35 killings since it ended a cease-fire in December 1999, many of them using car bombs or other explosives believed to have been made from dynamite stolen in France.

ETA, which stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has been blamed for about 800 deaths since 1968 in its campaign for an independent state in northern Spain and southwestern France.

A police crackdown on the group has yielded dozens of arrests in recent months.

In addition to Baltza, police detained another Spanish man, two Spanish women and a French man, all considered "important terrorists" by Rajoy. They were all wanted in connection with previous crimes including murder, he said.

Police seized about 20 detonators, several handguns, false documents, internal ETA documents, about one million French francs ($140,000), a computer and a car, the minister said.

French judicial police and Spanish Civil Guard worked together for months on the case, Rajoy said.

Madrid - Reuters

HK to cut 2001 its GDP growth forecast again

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Antony Leung said on Monday the government will cut its economic growth forecast for 2001 in the wake of devastating attacks on the United States.

"The external economy would certainly be affected," Leung told reporters after meeting with top business figures to discuss the impact of the September 11 attacks on Hong Kong's economy.

Asked if Hong Kong would lower its gross domestic product forecast for 2001, Leung said: "Looking at the circumstances we will, but as to how much we will tell you at an appropriate time."

The United States is Hong Kong's second largest export market after mainland China.

The attacks have heightened fears that the world economy could tip into recession and sent share prices reeling worldwide.

The Hong Kong government cut its full year GDP growth forecast on August 31 to one percent from three percent -- a figure that already had been revised down from four percent in May.

It announced the revision soon after releasing weaker-than-expected second quarter GDP data which showed the impact of the global slowdown on exports had been worse than expected, putting the territory on the brink of its second recession in three years.

A number of local banks cut their 2001 forecasts for GDP growth to below one percent soon after.

The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce slashed its growth forecast to 0.7 percent from 2.8 percent, saying there would be no real growth in the second half of the year.

Businesses gloomy

A poll released by the British Chamber of Commerce on Monday found only 40 percent of members surveyed were optimistic about this year's business outlook.

However, the poll also found that members expected a quick return to profitability with 55 percent optimistic about 2002 and 83 percent anticipating more prosperous times in 2003.

Within the next three years, 70 percent of members said they expected to make an investment in mainland China, compared with 74 percent in 2000.

Most members said they expected China's entry to the World Trade Organization to be positive for their companies, with 42 percent calling it very positive, 45 percent somewhat positive and 13 percent doubting it will have any effect. China is expected to be admitted to the world trade group later this year.

The vast majority of those surveyed were happy with Hong Kong's business climate.

While generally positive on Hong Kong, the survey members were particularly unsatisfied with the territory's environmental efforts, citing the air quality, conservation measures and the quality of the environment as key areas of concern.

Other major concerns included the standard of English language proficiency, the availability of low cost labour and the level of commercial rents.

Hong Kong - Reuters

MIDDLE EAST Arafat to pay Syria reconciliation visit today

Palestinians kill Israeli woman in West Bank

Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli woman in the West Bank on Monday, striking a new blow to hopes of starting truce talks that could boost U.S. efforts to forge a global anti-terror alliance.

Salit Sheetrit, 28, was killed in her car as she and her husband drove through the Jordan Valley, Israeli police said, after one of the quietest days in almost a year of violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon canceled talks planned on Sunday between his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on turning a shaky cease-fire into a lasting truce.

New pressure overnight from the United States, which fears the violence could upset its efforts to bring Arab states into its anti-terror coalition, had fuelled hopes that the talks would start on Monday. But the shooting dampened those hopes.

A militant Islamist group, the Jerusalem Brigades of Islamic Jihad in Palestine, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement issued in Lebanon.

"We...assert through this attack that we are continuing our Jihad (holy war) and resistance and that we are not concerned with what is called a cease-fire. More attacks in the heart of the Zionist enemy are on their way," it said.

Avshalom Margolim, who arrived at the scene of the West Bank shooting minutes after it happened, told Israel Radio: "I got there two minutes after the shooting and I saw a commercial vehicle that had been completely shot up."

"There was a wounded woman lying on the street. People were trying to resuscitate her," he said.

Arafat to visit today

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will make a long delayed visit to Syria today, his first after years of differences over how to achieve Middle East peace, Palestinian sources said on Monday.

He had originally been scheduled to visit Damascus on Sept. 12 but that was postponed after the attacks on the United States the day before. Both the Palestinian Authority and Syria have condemned the attacks on New York and Washington.

Khaled al-Fahoum, former speaker of the Palestinian National Council and a leading critic of Arafat's interim accord with Israel, told Reuters in Damascus that the Palestinian leader would visit the Syrian capital today.

"By God's will, brother Arafat will visit Syria on Tuesday (today) for talks with the Syrian leadership and other Palestinian leaders based in Damascus," Fahoum said.

Powell telephones Sharon

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Sharon on Sunday to make clear he was eager for a Peres-Arafat meeting to take place.

The cancellation of talks also threatened a crisis in Sharon's broad left-right coalition, of which Peres's Labour Party is a key member.

After Washington stepped up its pressure for the meeting to help it build an anti-terror alliance, Sharon said it seemed the cease-fire was holding, paving the way for the talks.

Powell said in Washington that Sharon had "confirmed to me that he is interested in having talks". He said he expected a Peres-Arafat meeting in the "near future". Powell also spoke with Arafat on the issue, Palestinian officials said.

But after the latest shooting, Israeli officials said it now seemed unlikely Arafat and Peres would meet on Monday.

Cabinet Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, a member of Sharon's right-wing Likud party that holds a majority in the broad coalition, said most ministers opposed talks at this time.

"Even before this attack...no one understood, except for the Labor Party ministers...the urgency leading Peres to want a meeting when Arafat is not fulfilling even his minimum obligations," Hanegbi told Israel Radio.

Sharon blamed mortar attacks, roadside bombings and grenade attacks in recent days for his decision to cancel the talks. Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo accused Sharon of not being serious about ending the violence.

"Even if it is calm 100 percent, he (Sharon) will invent more pretexts and excuses in order to stop and block any possible dialogues between the two sides," Abed Rabbo told Israeli television in an interview.

Peres threatens to resign

Sharon's decision to call off Sunday's talks was another slap in the face for the dovish Peres, whose plans to meet Arafat to kickstart a U.S.-backed truce-to-talks plan have been vetoed repeatedly by Israel's right-wing leader.

Israeli radio stations said Peres threatened to resign and was rounding up support from Labour Party colleagues, although Israeli analysts said the politically weak Labour Party was unlikely to quit Sharon's "national unity" government.

Previous meetings between Peres and Arafat have failed to end the bloodshed since a Palestinian uprising erupted against Israeli occupation last September after peace talks stalled.

Although fighting has subsided to a great extent, sporadic violence has continued. Three Palestinians and an Israeli have been killed since the cease-fire was called a week ago.

A Palestinian died on Sunday of wounds sustained in earlier fighting, Palestinian officials said, bringing the toll over the past year to least 587 Palestinians and 169 Israelis killed.

Jerusalem - Reuters

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