Rounding up Al-Qa'eda
The American government has intensified the pressure to crack down on Al-Qa'eda. Anayat Durrani reports from Washington
As the United States steps up its search for remaining Al-Qa'eda cells around the world, increasing attention has been focussed on Iran. The Bush administration has long believed Iran to be harbouring Al-Qa'eda operatives.
US intelligence officials believe senior Al- Qa'eda members hiding in Iran may have been behind the 12 May bombings in Saudi Arabia that killed 34 people, including eight Americans.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said last Thursday that Iran had detained several Al-Qa'eda suspects but had not yet learned their ranks within the network. Iran has said it has deported some 500 Al- Qa'eda suspects in the past year, including members fleeing from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Iran previously denied that there were any Al-Qa'eda operatives within its borders.
"Al-Qa'eda members have been arrested in Iran, but the persons imprisoned are not important leaders of Al-Qa'eda," Asefi said.
The Bush administration accused Iran last week of sheltering senior Al-Qa'eda members, including high ranking Al-Qa'eda intelligence and security chief Saif Al-Adil, Osama Bin Laden's son Saad, and operational commander Abu Musab Zarqawi, who the US believes is linked to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there was "no question there have been and are today senior Al-Qa'eda leaders in Iran, and they're busy".
The Washington Post reported that the administration has severed contacts with Iran and "appears ready to embrace an aggressive policy of trying to destabilise the Iranian government". The US cut diplomatic ties with Iran following the 1979 Islamic revolution but has maintained some contact since then. Iran has cooperated with regard to Al-Qa'eda by handing over Al-Qa'eda officials to Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan following the 11 September attacks.
"The issue with Iran is pretty clear," Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told NBC television's Today programme. "We have to eliminate the safe havens where the terrorists are and Iran of course has some of the Al-Qa'eda members," he said. "The reports are that Al-Qa'eda has been in Iran off and on for some time, particularly after our actions in Afghanistan," Myers said.
The Bush administration has also accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons and has kept a close eye on its weapons programmes. Iran was included in President Bush's "axis of evil" last year along with North Korea and Iraq. Senior US officials are planning to meet Tuesday to discuss US strategy towards Iran, including the possibility of mobilising a popular uprising to overthrow the current government. Iranian officials suspect that they may be the next targets and that the US is moving closer towards its goal of toppling Iran's Islamic government.
Meanwhile, preventing Al-Qa'eda from carrying out attacks remains a priority for the Bush administration. Following 9/11, no terrorist attacks have been carried out in Western countries by Al-Qa'eda. Attacks have, however, occurred in Kenya and Bali and, most recently, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. As a result, the US and Europe have heightened security measures. The US raised its domestic terror alert status to orange -- the second- highest level, and Britain suspended flights to and from Kenya. Britain, the US, Germany and Australia issued a warning that Al- Qa'eda member Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, believed to have been involved in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar Al-Salaam, had entered Kenya and may be planning more attacks.
Although the Bush administration may have struck at the base of the Al-Qa'eda organisation in Afghanistan, the attacks in Riyadh and Casablanca suggest that the threat from Al-Qa'eda is not over and that the network remains a global threat. Although there is no conclusive evidence that Al-Qa'eda was directly involved in the suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, it is believed that Al-Qa'eda may have cooperated with local terrorist groups in the planning of the attacks.
Canada has been suspected of having Al- Qa'eda sleeper cells within its borders, though none of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks entered the US through Canada. According to Newsweek, the Canadian connection to Al-Qa'eda goes back to Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian arrested in December 1999 while attempting to enter the state of Washington from British Columbia in a rental car packed with explosives. Ressam's arrest foiled a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebrations.
The recent bombing in Saudi Arabia involved an alleged Al-Qa'eda operative named Abdul-Rahman Jabarrah, who holds a Canadian passport. A British intelligence document obtained by Newsweek suggested that the terror cell that plotted the attack Ressam was to carry out at the Los Angeles airport remains active. Ressam was convicted in a US federal court in 2001 of nine counts of smuggling explosives and terrorism.
In related news, Canadian authorities arrested Adil Charkaoui, 30, a Montreal resident and Moroccan national, on the grounds that he is considered a threat to national security. Charkaoui is believed to be a "sleeper agent" for Al-Qa'eda and to have links to the recent Morocco bombing. He is suspected of having associated with Al-Qa'eda members, possibly including Ressam, in the late 1990s, according to Montreal's La Presse newspaper. Canadian authorities have so far produced no solid evidence against Charkaoui, however intelligence officials are expected to release evidence this week of his alleged connections to Al-Qa'eda.
