US concerned by reported al-Qaeda links to Lebanon terror suspects

WASHINGTON, May 16 (AFP) - The United States said Friday it was concerned by reported links between nine suspected terrorists arrested in Lebanon this month and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. "We take very seriously reports that these individuals are connected to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and have been involved in planning attacks on US and western facilities including possibly official US personnel and diplomatic facilities," said Nancy Beck, a State Department spokeswoman.

"The security of official US personnel and the American citizen community in Lebanon is our highest priority and we will continue to work closely with the Lebanese government regarding this investigation and to ensure that proper preventative measures are taken to thwart any terrorist attack," she said. Beck declined to comment on the specifics of the arrests, saying the investigation was ongoing and referred all questions about the probe to Lebanese officials.

But she said Washington had "been in close communication" with Beirut about the situation even before the arrests were announced on Thursday by the Lebanese army which announced it had broken up a series of planned attacks against US ambassador Vincent Battle and the embassy.

Lebanon, which along with neighboring Syria has been the target of US criticism over support for what Washington considers to be terrorist organizations. Those groups, however, are anti-Israel organizations not directly tied to al-Qaeda.

Beck said that despite the recent arrests, the United States still believed there were significant threats to US interests in Lebanon and pointed to the latest State Department travel warning for the country released on May 6. The department "continues to warn US citizens to consider carefully the risk of travel to Lebanon," it said. "Americans have been the targets of  numerous terrorist attacks in Lebanon over the years. "The perpetrators of many of these attacks are still present in Lebanon and retain the ability to act," it said.

Western countries on edge amid spike in al-Qaeda terror "chatter"

by Matthew Lee

WASHINGTON, May 16 (AFP) - Alarmed by a huge increase in intercepted communications indicating that al-Qaeda-related terrorist attacks may be imminent, western countries have put their citizens on alert in the Middle East, East Africa and Southeast Asia.

The United States, Australia and Britain -- which have stepped up their intelligence cooperation since the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington -- have issued a flurry of terrorism warnings in recent days. Other nations -- such as Germany and Denmark -- have followed suit. The fears have been made all the more real by Monday's triple suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia, blamed on al-Qaeda, which killed 34 people at compounds housing western nationals, officials say.

"There has been a definite increase in chatter over the past couple of weeks," said one US official, referring to intercepted telephone and e-mail conversations and interrogations of terror suspects by intelligence agencies. "We are very concerned about possible attacks," a second US official said. "I don't know if I could characterize them as 'imminent' in the sense of the next hour or day, but there are a lot of signs that something or some things are being planned and are coming, coming soon," the official said.

The officials said the intercepts were gathered not only from suspected al-Qaeda operatives but also from people believed to be affiliated with the network who either operate on their own or as part of a group that shares Osama bin Laden's anti-West agenda.

Since the beginning of this month, the US State Department has released regional terrorism alerts covering the Middle East, North Africa, the Gulf and East Africa to supplement an April 21 global warning. Over the same time, the department has issued country-specific alerts for Saudi Arabia -- where it has ordered all non-essential diplomats and the families of all embassy and consulate personnel to leave -- as well as for Kenya and Malaysia.

And the US embassies in Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia have put out so-called "warden notices" alerting Americans to the danger. On May 9, the embassy in Dar es Salaam said extremist Muslim groups may mark this week's anniversary of  the birth of the prophet Mohammed with terrorist attacks.

The latest warden notice -- issued late Thursday by the US consulate in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia -- warned of an unverified but specific threat against the al-Hamra neighborhood in the Red Sea port city. "There is information suggesting that further terrorist attacks may be possible," the Australian foreign ministry said Friday in an updated alert for Saudi Arabia that referred to the US warning about Jeddah.

Later Friday, the British Foreign Office said there was a "clear terrorist threat" in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, a day after it suspended all commercial flights to Kenya. "In each case, we assess that there is a clear terrorist threat," it said. The British flight suspension came after the State Department warned on Wednesday of terrorist attacks in East Africa generally and Kenya specifically.

"Supporters of al-Qaeda and other extremists are active in east Africa," the department said, noting a deadly November 2002 car bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and an unsuccessful attempt to shoot down and Israeli airliner flying out of there the same day.

Kenyan authorities called the suspension of flights "extreme" but said they had information a man indicted for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam that killed 235 is at large and plotting an attack. Australia on Thursday boosted its travel warnings for countries throughout Southeast Asia -- Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, East Timor, Singapore and Brunei -- saying the perpetrators of last year's bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali retained the ability to stage further attacks.

Canberra's move came after Washington on Wednesday issued a new terror alert for Malaysia, particularly the state of Sabah, where it said members of  the banned al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) were still active. In that warning, the State Department said attacks similar to that carried out on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in October continued to pose a threat.

JI is believed to have been behind the Bali attack, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. The first suspect in the bombing went on trial in Indonesia this week. Australia issued an updated alert for Indonesia on Wednesday. In the Middle East, Lebanon said on Thursday that it had arrested nine suspected terrorists thereby foiling a plan to attack US diplomats and the US embassy in Beirut.

EU foreign policy chief Solana says Lebanon backs Mideast "roadmap"

BEIRUT, May 16 (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said here Friday following talks with President Emile Lahoud that Lebanon backed the international "roadmap" for Middle East peace. "Mr Lahoud said Lebanon would support whatever the Palestinians accept. You know very well the Palestinians support the 'roadmap.' The conclusion is clear," Solana told reporters.

The roadmap, drawn up by the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States, aims to end the 31-month intifada and establish a Palestinian state by 2005. Solana recalled "the Israelis have not given a final yes or no to fully accepting the 'roadmap,'" but said he hoped Israel's response would be positive.

The plan, handed to the Israelis and Palestinians on April 30, also touches on the Lebanese and Syrian tracks, but does not go into details. Previously, Lebanon, which is home to some 376,000 Palestinian refugees, had expressed reservations to the plan, saying it did not guarantee the right of return for Palestinian refugees who lost their homes when Israel was created in 1948.

Many treasures escaped Baghdad museum looting: US military investigator

by Jim Mannion

WASHINGTON, May 16 (AFP) - Many of the treasures of Baghdad's National Museum of Antiquities were moved to bank vaults, a bomb shelter and another still secret location before looters sacked the building as the Iraqi capital fell, a US investigation concluded Friday. "It must be stressed that the loss of a single piece of mankind's shared history is a tragedy. But it is clear that the originally reported number of  170,000 (items lost) was a gross, if dramatic, exaggeration," a preliminary report of the investigation said.

Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, who led the investigation, acknowledged however that no master list of the museum's holdings exists, record keeping was poor, and investigators based their assumptions on incomplete inventories produced after the fact by museum staff.

"We know what's missing from certain rooms but when you get to storage rooms that contain upwards of a 100,000 different pieces, each of which has to be individually counted, catalogued and compared against an original excavation site number, that is going to take time," he said.

Moreover, while major collections have been traced to where they were hidden before the war, their Iraqi custodians have refused to turn them over until a new Iraqi government is in place, he said in a videoconference from Baghdad.

Investigators have recovered 951 artefacts, including one of the earliest known free-standing Sumerian statues, one of the oldest known bronze relief  bows and a pottery jar from the 6th millennium BC, he said. Investigators found that major collections of ancient gold and jewelry, including the famed treasure of Nimrod, have been kept in underground vaults of the Iraqi central bank since the first Gulf War in 1990.

The bank vaults are sealed but museum staff have produced an incomplete inventory of their contents, he said. Investigators also discovered a trove of 39,543 ancient books, Islamic manuscripts and scrolls secreted at a bomb shelter in western Baghdad several months before the start of the latest war.

Local residents objected to their return to the museum, so US military authorities satisfied themselves with an inventory of its contents and left it under a 24 hour neighborhood watch, he said. Bogdanos said most of the pieces displayed in glass cases in the museum's public galleries were removed weeks before the fighting began, and hidden in a  secret location. "Museum officials admit several members of their staff know of its existence but are sworn to secrecy, vowing not to divulge its location until a new government in Iraq is established and US forces leave the country," he said.

"Officials have, however, promised to provide the investigators with a complete inventory of the items stored in the secret place by the end of this week," said Bogdanos, a reservist who in civilian life is a New York homicide prosecutor.

The museum was abandoned by its staff on April 8 as US forces were on the edge of the city. Over the next four days it was ransacked by indiscriminate looters, thieves who knew what to look for, and thieves with intimate knowlege of the museum's workings, Bogdanos said.

The heaviest looting took place in the museum's offices, which were stripped of equipment and furniture. In the public galleries only 42 pieces were stolen but they include a priceless Sumerian vase that dates to 3,000 BC.

Looters ransacked the museum's storage magazines on the first and second level, which contained clay pots, vessels, jars and shards from excavation sites. Investigators estimate that over 2,100 pieces were stolen, of which almost 800 were recovered.

Thieves also broke into a basement storage magazine, zeroing in on a single corner where they cleaned out 30 boxes holding cylinder seals, amulets, pendants and jewelry. In attempting to steal "the most trafficable and easily transportable items stored in the most remote corner of the museum," the thieves showed initimate knowledge of the museum and its storage practices, Bogdanos said.

US announces capture of another wanted Iraqi official

DUBAI, May 16 (AFP) - US-led coalition forces have captured Adel Abdullah Mahdi al-Duri al-Tikriti, another Iraqi official on the 55 most-wanted list drawn up by Washington, US Central Command said Friday. It said the former Baath party chairman of Dhi Qar governorate in southern Iraq was captured on Thursday during a raid by US soldiers of a regime safe house in Al-Dawr, north of Baghdad. "The raid resulted in the capture of 262 Iraqis," including Adel al-Tikriti, the statement said.

The captured official had been wrongly identified by residents of the area on Thursday as Abdel Baqi al-Karim Abdullah, Baath party leader of northeastern Diyala province. The raid took place near Tikrit, stronghold and hometown of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

New US boss bans top Baath members from Iraq public sector

by Marc Carnegie

BAGHDAD, May 16 (AFP) - One day after pledging to wipe out the remains of  Saddam Hussein's regime, the new US administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, on Friday banned all top members of his Baath party from government jobs. The decree comes amid growing fear among Iraqis that the regime could claw its way back to power as government ministries re-open and the US-led coalition tries to speed up the return of day-to-day life.

An official from the US Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) said the move could affect between 15,000 and 30,000 senior Baath members, although relatively few are believed to be seeking back their old jobs.

"We recognise this is not going to be a very tidy process," the official said, acknowledging there could be unwarranted accusations and a long investigation period to check out allegations. "The risk of doing this is a lot less than the risk of not doing it," the official said. "We've got to keep our eyes on the big picture. Baathism is finished. It's over."

Bremer's written decree said Baath leaders were banned from "positions of authority and responsibility in Iraqi society" so that "representative government in Iraq is not threatened." The ban was to apply to state institutions like universities and hospitals, state-run firms and civil servants.

The decree also outlawed portraits of Saddam and other known Baath leaders in public spaces and government offices. The United States has been criticised for the time it is taking to restore order and re-open ministries, as well as for working with known former Baathists as it tries to get the country back on its feet.

In his first press conference since taking up the reins of post-war Iraq this week, Bremer acknowledged Thursday the US dilemma when he vowed to eradicate the party's remnants. "We have a very tough problem. We are trying very hard to work with Iraqis to restore essential services. We are trying to work with the people available in those ministries who are capable and technically competent," he said.

"We are determined that the Baathists and Saddamism will not come back to Iraq," he said. US officials have admitted that they are focussing on getting people back in their jobs while background checks are carried out on civil servants, a process that can take weeks.

Under Saddam it was all but impossible to hold a major post without pledging party loyalty. The ORHA official said loosely organised groups of Baathists were believed to be responsible for some of the crime wave that has gripped the nation since Saddam was knocked from power.

"What we see here is small pockets of Baathists organising themselves into criminal gangs," the official said. "But I don't think there is a risk the Baath party will rise from the ashes." The bouts of anarchy have fuelled criticism of the US handling of its military victory, with charges that the United States had no effective plan to prepare for what would come after Saddam's fall.

Baghdad, a city of five million, has descended into lawlessness and chaos.Violent crime is on the rise, guns are widely available and many shopkeepers are afraid to re-open for business. Some US officials suggest that attacks on key infrastructure sites like the power grid may be carried out by Baath loyalists in a bid to undermine the US-led coalition's control over the country.

Bremer expected to get earful from Iraq parties over UN proposal

by Maher Chmaytelli

BAGHDAD, May 16 (AFP) - The new US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, was expected to get an earful of criticism Friday at his first meeting with Iraqi political groups since taking the reins in Baghdad this week. Officials said they would press Bremer on a controversial US proposal to bring Iraq's oil revenue under the control of the US-led coalition for at least one year as part of a larger scheme to rebuild the war-battered nation.

"We will ask for clarifications about the goal of this resolution and its impact on any independent Iraqi government," said Hoshyar Zibari, the external relations official for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). "It's a vital issue," he said. The United States offered new wording Thursday to a draft resolution at the United Nations to lift UN sanctions on Baghdad but left unchanged the proposal that would effectively leave oil revenue in the hands of the US-British coalition.

The fund handling the money would be audited by an international advisory board and its money disbursed at the direction of the US and British occupying powers. The proposal has revived charges here that the United States launched the war to topple Saddam Hussein in order to get control of Iraq's vast oil reserves, the second-largest in the world after those of Saudi Arabia.

But Washington insists that the oil revenue will be used to pay for the massive rebuilding process, which Bremer is now overseeing since his arrival in Baghdad on Monday to take over the US administration here. Bremer was to meet Friday with the so-called leadership council, a seven-man body helping to prepare a national congress to select an interim government in the coming weeks.

The top British envoy to Iraq, John Sawers, was also to attend the meeting, at which Zibari said the seven Iraqis would voice a "unified position" over the wide-ranging oil proposal. The council includes KDP leader Massoud Barzani, the other main Kurdish faction of Jalal Talabani, the Pentagon-backed Ahmed Chalabi, two Shiite Muslim religious parties, a liberal Sunni Muslim and a secular Shiite leader. Talabani also blasted the proposal this week as a threat to Iraqi sovereignty.

US officials have repeatedly underlined the importance of lifting the sanctions, slapped on Baghdad after Saddam Hussein's regime invaded Kuwait in 1990, in order to resume oil sales to pay for Iraq's rebuilding. The Pentagon said Thursday exports were urgently needed to avoid storage problems from causing bottlenecks in the country's refineries and leading to gasoline shortage.

"Iraq cannot produce much more oil or refine much more gasoline without approaching its maximum limit of storage," said Douglas Feith, the US undersecretary for defence policy. It was not known if all seven would attend Friday night's meeting with Bremer, who in addition to guiding the reconstruction process will also oversee the development of the interim Iraqi government.

There has been no indication from the United States when it would be prepared to hand over power to that government, or how long it could take to move to national elections thereafter.