2002 News

Quran Case Decision Expected Soon

.c The Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Small-group discussions of a book about the Quran were scheduled for Monday at the University of North Carolina - barring late action by a court considering whether the summer reading assignment violated religious freedoms.

Attorneys for a conservative Christian group on Friday asked an appeals court to stop Monday's two-hour discussion sessions of a book that interprets the Islamic holy text. Members of the Virginia-based Family Policy Network and three unnamed UNC-Chapel Hill freshmen contend the assignment is unconstitutional because it promotes Islam.

A lower-court judge in Greensboro, N.C., rejected that argument on Thursday.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond had not announced a decision by Sunday afternoon, spokesmen for the group and the university said.

Lawyers for the state-supported university say thousands of incoming students would lose their free-speech rights if they were barred from discussing the book, which interprets parts of the Islamic faith's holy text.

About 4,200 incoming freshman and transfer students were expected to read about 130 pages of ``Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations,'' by Michael Sells, a religion professor at Haverford College.

A university committee selected the book after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to introduce students to unfamiliar ideas shared by about 1 billion Muslims around the world, state attorneys said in a court brief filed Saturday.

08/18/02 19:10 EDT

Pakistan Court Orders Christian Freed

By MUNIR AHMAD
.c The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered authorities Thursday to release immediately a Christian sentenced to death in 1998 for blasphemy, the state-run news agency said.

Defense attorney Abid Minto told the court Thursday that his client, Ayub Masih, had never made the allegedly blasphemous statements, but instead was a victim of a plot to steal his land, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. The court agreed and ordered Masih released.

Masih was arrested in Punjab province in 1996 after a neighbor complained that he made statements supporting British writer Salman Rushdie, who was condemned to death by Iranian leaders because his novel ``The Satanic Verses'' was considered blasphemous to Islam.

Masih was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to death, a decision that sparked nationwide protests by minority Christian groups and human rights organizations. Nevertheless, lower appeals courts upheld the conviction.

Minto produced evidence that the accuser had used the conviction to force Masih's family off of their land and then acquired the deed to it through a housing program, the agency reported.

Under Pakistani Islamic law, only the word of a Muslim accuser is needed to prosecute a non-Muslim on blasphemy charges, which can carry the death penalty upon conviction.

About 97 percent of Pakistan's 145 million people are Muslim, according to government figures. Christians are said to constitute a small portion of the remaining 3 percent, though Christian leaders insist that they are at least 6 percent of the total population.

08/15/02 12:49 EDT

Bush Opposes New Aid to Egypt

By BARRY SCHWEID
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush is notifying Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he will oppose any additional aid to Egypt to protest the prosecution of a human rights campaigner.

Egypt responded angrily. ``We do not give into pressure,'' Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said.

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a university professor who holds Egyptian and American passports, was convicted last month on charges of embezzlement, receiving foreign funds without authorization and tarnishing Egypt's image.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison in a case that drew the attention of international human rights groups.

The State Department said it was ``deeply disappointed'' in the conviction.

On Thursday, a senior U.S. official said it made additional aid ``impossible.'' The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ``it is a very important issue to us and we are raising it with Egypt at the highest level.''

Bush's letter to Mubarak does not bear on the nearly $2 billion in economic and military assistance the United States provides to Egypt annually. Nor had any new assistance for Egypt been announced.

However, Israel is to receive $200 million in counter-terrorism assistance and Egypt might have been considered for special aid as well.

``My only reply is we do not give in to pressure.'' Maher said. ``Everyone knows that.''

The foreign minister said Egypt's court system is independent of the government ``and we ask everyone to respect our judiciary like we respect theirs.''

Amnesty International protested the conviction. The president of American University in Cairo, John Gerhart, said when Ibrahim was convicted that he had ``courageously pursued his vocation as a committed scholar while remaining at all times a patriotic Egyptian.''

The prosecution contended Ibrahim had used funds raised through a research group he founded, ran for personal gain and lured his staff into an embezzlement scheme.

Twenty-seven co-defendants, all staff members of the research group, were convicted of bribery and fraud charges and received sentences of one to three years.

``Egypt is an important friend and ally and the United States has expressed its deep concerns about this particular case,'' said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan, traveling with the president Thursday.

``We will meet our Camp David commitments,'' she said. ``But at this time we don't contemplate additional funds beyond the Camp David commitment.''

08/15/02 11:26 EDT

Evangelist: Muslims Not Aiding N.Y.

.c The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - The son of evangelist Billy Graham, adding to his harsh criticism of Islam, said Muslim leaders haven't done enough to show their sorrow over Sept. 11, and he challenged them to help rebuild New York or compensate the victims families.

"I'm certainly not preaching against Muslim people," Franklin Graham said Wednesday on WBT-AM radio. "I am concerned about our nation, and on Sept. 11 last year, we were attacked by followers of Islam, claiming to do this in the name of Islam.''

"The silence of the clerics around the world is frightening to me," he said. "How come they haven't come to this country, how come they haven't apologized to the American people, how come they haven't reassured the American people that this is not true Islam and that these people are not acting in the name of Allah, they're not acting in the name of Islam?''

Franklin Graham, his 83-year-old father's chosen successor to lead the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, also spoke at a book signing in Charlotte on Tuesday and suggested the compensation for victims' families.

Dr. Masood Khan, chairman of the Charlotte Islamic School board, said local Muslims were outraged by Graham's statements.

"What surprised us is that he's a leader of such stature. But instead of respecting other faiths, he's spreading hate,'' Khan said.

Graham writes in his new book, "The Name,'' that "Islam - unlike Christianity - has among its basic teachings a deep intolerance for those who follow other faiths.''

Graham also drew widespread criticism in October after he called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion.''

08/14/02 12:59 EDT

Saudi Arabia: Friend or foe

From "The Los angeles Times: August 8, 2002"
U.S. Disavows Report on Saudis, From Times Wire Services

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration distanced itself Tuesday from a Pentagon briefing that described Saudi Arabia as an adversary of the United States and a backer of terrorism, with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld saying the briefing doesn't represent the views of the U.S. government and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell repeating that message in a call to the Saudi foreign minister.

The White House also distanced itself from the comments, and in Jidda, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal denounced the briefing as "pure fiction."

The briefing to the Defense Policy Board, a Pentagon advisory panel made up of former senior officials and retired top military officers, recommended that U.S. officials demand that Saudi Arabia stop supporting terrorism or face retaliation.

"The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain," asserted the briefing, which was delivered July 10 by Laurent Murawiec, a Rand Corp. international security analyst. It also said, "Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies."

The briefing recommended that the United States target Saudi oil fields and financial assets if the Mideast nation didn't take certain actions against terrorism.

"It is unfortunate that there are people in some quarters who are trying to cast doubt and undermine the solid and historic ties between our two countries," Saud said in a statement. "I am confident that they will not succeed."

"Saudi Arabia is a long-standing friend and a long-standing ally," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "We very much appreciate the way they are cooperating in the global war against terrorism."

Rumsfeld did acknowledge differences with the Saudis.

"It is nonetheless a country where we have a lot of forces located and we have a had a long relationship, and yet ... a number of the people who were involved [in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks] happen to have been Saudi individuals," Rumsfeld told Pentagon employees.

U.S. lawmakers are among those who have complained that Saudi Arabia hasn't done enough to rein in support for the Al Qaeda terrorist network, discourage suicide bombings by Palestinians or support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.

Saudis say the U.S. does not do enough to pressure Israel to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians.

Bush Denounces 'False Religion'

.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - After President Bush condemned ``some kind of false religion'' for motivating Mideast terror attacks, his spokesman hastened to emphasize Thursday that the president believes Islam is a peaceful religion.

In a picture-taking session with Jordan's King Abdullah, Bush said he grieved for the seven people killed in a bomb blast in Jerusalem on Wednesday, including five Americans.

``I just, I cannot speak strongly enough about how we must collectively get after those who kill in the name of some kind of false religion,'' Bush said.

Asked about the remark, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush was referring to terrorists who distort Islam to justify violence.

``The president believes very deeply that Islam is a religion of peace,'' he said. ``There are people who use the pretext of religion as an excuse to kill Jews, to kill Israelis, and now to kill Americans. And the president will oppose that with every fiber in his body.''

Muslims were angered last year when Bush described his war against terrorism as a ``crusade.'' The Crusades were wars fought in the Middle Ages after Christian armies traveled to Palestine, or what is now Israel, to attack the Muslim armies that then controlled Jerusalem.

08/01/02 15:03 EDT

Sept. 11 Fake ID Suspect Flees U.S.

By WAYNE PARRY
.c The Associated Press

PATERSON, N.J. (AP) - A man who allegedly sold fake IDs to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers apparently fled the country for Egypt just before authorities came to arrest him in a raid on his home and businesses Wednesday, investigators said.

Interpol was notified to be on the lookout for Egyptian immigrant Mohamad El Atriss.

Atriss sold a fake ID card to Khalid Almihdhar, who was on the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon, and one to Abdul Aziz Alomari, who was aboard one of the planes that destroyed the World Trade Center, Sheriff Jerry Speziale said.

Speziale and FBIs spokeswoman Sandra Carroll said they do not know whether Atriss knew of the hijackers' plans.

Atriss operated businesses in Paterson and Elizabeth where he sold the identification cards, Speziale said. Authorities raided his home and business Wednesday afternoon and were told Atriss had taken a flight from Newark to Egypt, the sheriff said.

Five minutes before the raid, Atriss called a New Jersey phone number from somewhere outside the country, Speziale said.

``Obviously, its very disappointing,'' the sheriff said.

Authorities were unsure if the flight he took left on Tuesday or Wednesday. Atriss was last seen by authorities in New Jersey on Monday, investigators said.

In Cairo, Egyptian government officials refused to comment.

Wednesday's raids followed a four-month investigation by sheriffs in northern New Jersey, the Paterson police and the FBI, Speziale said. Atriss had not been under round-the-clock surveillance, sheriff's Lt. Robert Weston said.

Speziale would not say why authorities believe Atriss was the one who sold IDs to the hijackers.

Three employees at his stores - Clara Ortubia, 28, Yanelis Fabian, 32, and an unidentified person - were arrested during the raids and charged with manufacturing and distributing fraudulent documents and conspiracy.

Inside the Paterson office, investigators found large rolls of plastic laminating sheets and backings used to make driver's licenses in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and several other states. A sign outside the building identified it as a provider of international driver's licenses and ID cards, notary public, fax and passport services and a money transfer station.

Authorities said investigators have gathered 75 fake IDs that Atriss generated and sold for as much as $800 each, and believe he made many more.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Paper Trail, began after police in northern New Jersey started finding similar fake IDs, Speziale said.

Authorities were tipped to Atriss by a St. Paul, Minn., company after he contacted it about paying cash for a high-speed copier capable of embossing seals.

Atriss never bought the copier from Minnesota but contacted a Paterson company about a similar purchase, Speziale said. That company became suspicious and called the FBI when Atriss offered to pay cash for the machine, the sheriff said.

FBI agents posed as merchants at the store and sold Atriss the copier, Speziale said. Law enforcement authorities also bought fake IDs at Atriss' stores.

07/31/02 15:51 EDT

Egyptian Academic Convicted Again

By NADIA ABOU EL MAGD
.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - An Egyptian-American academic was convicted a second time Monday of tarnishing Egypt's image and other charges and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in a case international human rights groups have condemned as politically motivated.

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, 63, was sentenced last year to seven years for embezzlement, receiving foreign funds without authorization and tarnishing Egypt's image. An appeals court ordered a retrial, which began April 27 and ended with Monday's verdict.

The U.S. charge d'affaires in Cairo, Gordon Gray, issued a statement expressing ``disappointment'' at the verdict and reiterating U.S. concerns about the ``fairness of the process'' against Ibrahim.

Amnesty International ``strongly condemns'' the verdict and the trial, Sara Hamood, a London-based Amnesty official, said in a telephone interview.

Negad Borai, a leading Egyptian lawyer and political reform advocate, said the verdict revealed ``that Egyptian laws are autocratic by nature.''

Human rights organizations in Egypt and abroad have said the case is aimed at limiting political debate in Egypt. Ibrahim, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo, is an outspoken human rights and democracy advocate.

The defendant, wearing a blue T-shirt and perspiring in the un-airconditioned courtroom - temperatures in Cairo topped 100 degrees Monday - listened to the verdict without visible reaction. Later, he told The Associated Press he believed the verdict was ``politically motivated'' and said he would appeal again.

``I am as determined to fight on as ever for freedom and democracy and pay whatever it takes,'' he said.

His wife, Barbara, called Monday ``the saddest day for Egypt that I have seen in the 27 years I lived in this country. The rule of law died today in Egypt.''

Barbara Ibrahim, a native of Palatine, Ill., who met her husband when she was a student and he a teacher at Indiana's DePauw University, has been one of his most active defenders.

The president of Ibrahim's university, John Gerhart, said Ibrahim had ``courageously pursued his vocation as a committed scholar, while remaining at all times a patriotic Egyptian, loyally and effectively representing his country in accordance with its most notable scholarly traditions.''

In his closing arguments last week, prosecutor Sameh Seif told the State Security Court that Ibrahim was using funds raised through his think tank for personal gain and lured his staff into an embezzlement scheme.

Eighteen co-defendants, all staff members of a think tank Ibrahim founded and ran, were convicted of bribery and fraud charges and received sentences ranging from one to three years Monday. Of those co-defendants, 14 were given one-year suspended sentences.

Ibrahim and the four co-defendants who did not receive suspended sentences were handcuffed and taken from the courtroom to a court house jail. They were expected to be transferred later Monday to a Cairo prison.

Barbara Ibrahim expressed concern about her husband's health, saying he had not even brought his medication to court Monday because he had not been expecting a verdict. Ibrahim, who walked with the aid of a cane on Monday, suffers from a neurological disorder that prevents sufficient oxygen from reaching deeper recesses of the brain. He had earlier requested permission to travel abroad for treatment but never received a response from judicial authorities.

It was not immediately clear if the seven years Ibrahim received Monday was the total of different terms on each of the charges or if it was the longest of terms to be served concurrently. Court officials said a full explanation of the verdicts and sentences would be issued later.

At the heart of the case against Ibrahim were democracy-building grants his think tank received from the European Union that included money to monitor and encourage participation in Egypt's legislative elections in 2000.

The European Union has said in an affidavit it did not believe its grants, which totaled about $250,000, were misused by Ibrahim's Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies. One of the main defendants, Khaled Fayad, said he was forced during his imprisonment to falsely accuse Ibrahim of embezzlement.

Among the democracy projects was a documentary meant to encourage voting by, in part, noting that election fraud is less likely when citizens participate. Prosecutors claimed passages in the documentary showing problems with Egypt's electoral system tarnished Egypt's image.

Egypt's government is sensitive to criticism about the treatment of Coptic Christians. A report Ibrahim did on the status of Copts also was cited to prove the tarnishing charge.

"American Taliban" pleads guilty

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (July 15) - John Walker Lindh, the American captured in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban, agreed Monday to plead guilty to two charges in a surprise deal with prosecutors that spared him from life in prison.

The deal, which caught even the trial judge off guard, was announced on the first day of what was supposed to be a weeklong series of hearings at which defense lawyers hoped to get statements Lindh made to investigators thrown out of his trial.

''There is a change in plea,'' defense attorney James Brosnahan told U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III at the outset of Monday's proceeding in federal court here.

Lindh's lawyer said his client would plead guilty to one charge of supplying services to the Taliban and another charge, not originally in the indictment, alleging he carried explosives in the commission of a felony.

Under terms of his deal with prosecutors, Lindh, 21, would serve two 10-year prison sentences and would cooperate fully with U.S. authorities in the investigation of the al-Qaida and terrorism.

Lindh was slated to begin trial on in late August on 10 charges that he conspired to murder U.S. citizens, contributed services to al-Qaida and the Taliban and used firearms during crimes of violence.

Three of counts carried the maximum of life imprisonment for Lindh, who was captured in early December and transferred to civilian custody in late January.

Brosnahan told the court a deal was completed late Sunday night, on the eve of a hearing that was to determine whether statements Lindh made to interrogators after his capture would be admissible in court.

The judge had opened the hearing by discussing procedures for protecting the identity of confidential witnesses in the proceedings planned for this week.

Ellis stopped when the defense attorney announced the plea change.

With his parents and younger sister seated behind him, Lindh rose in his green prison jumpsuit to face the judge, who asked him whether he wished to waive his right to trial.

''Yes, sir,'' Lindh responded.

Ellis then declared, ''the court finds John Lindh fully capable and competent.''

The judge asked Lindh a series of standard questions about his background.

''I attended some college in California as well as Yemen,'' Lindh explained in a soft voice.

The judge asked him to speaker louder. ''Do you feel as though you can make a decision about your future today?'' Ellis asked.

''Yes,'' responded Lindh, who would be 41 when freed from prison under terms of the plea deal, if the judge accepts it.

Lindh, a young man from a middle-class family in Marim County, California, broke onto the American scene in December when he was discovered among Taliban prisoners captured in Afghanistan.

With long hair and a beard, he gave a hospital bed interview to a freelance reporter for CNN explaining describing his allegiance to the Taliban.

In military interrogations, he also claimed to have met Osama bin Laden once, government lawyers claim.

It was those statements that his lawyers were seeking this week to keep out of the trial before the deal was reached.

While Lindh's team had disputed government accounts of his statements, prosecutors contended that he described enlisting in the Taliban; training at a camp the government says was run by al-Qaida; meeting with bin Laden in Afghanistan in the summer of 2001; and learning from others at the camp that the al-Qaida leader had sent operatives to carry out suicide missions against the United States and Israel.

In advance of Monday's announcement, Lindh's lawyers had been plotting a strategy aimed at challenging the use in court of statements he made while still in Afghanistan. They had contended that the failure to tell him of his right to remain silent and have an attorney present violated his rights. They also had said that Lindh was malnourished, deprived of sleep, bound and blindfolded, conditions that should invalidate anything he said.

Prosecutors responded that the Miranda rule spelling out a defendant's rights has no place on the battlefield. They argued Lindh was treated as well as U.S. soldiers in the field.

AP-NY-07-15-02 1104EDT

Louis Farrakhan in Iraq

.c The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan arrived in Baghdad for a two-day visit Saturday to discuss steps that could be taken to avert a possible U.S. military campaign against Iraq.

``Our purpose here is to see the people of Iraq, hopefully the leadership, and to see what we can do to possibly stop a war,'' Farrakhan told reporters on his arrival in Baghdad. Farrakhan opposes U.N. sanctions against Iraq.

Farrakhan, whose Nation of Islam is based in Chicago, has already been to Qatar, Yemen and Lebanon as part of a Middle East tour.

A frequent visitor to the Middle East, Farrakhan's views on race relations in the United States and Jews have made him a source of concern to U.S. authorities.

The U.N. Security Council and the United States accuse Iraq of trying to rebuild its banned weapons programs and of supporting terrorism. The world body has failed to persuade Iraq in talks held in Vienna to allow the return of U.N. weapons inspectors.

The United States has warned Saddam he faces unspecified consequences if he does not allow the return of the inspectors, who left ahead of 1998 allied airstrikes launched to punish Iraq for blocking inspections.

Iraq has been under U.N. sanctions since it invaded Kuwait in 1990. The sanctions can be lifted only when inspectors certify that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been destroyed, along with the long-range missiles that could deliver them.

Report: Arab Development Lags Behind

By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The entire Arab world is suffering deficits in three critical areas: freedom, women's empowerment and knowledge, according to a U.N.-commissioned report released Tuesday.

``Out of the seven regions of the world, Arab countries had the lowest freedom score in the late 1990s,'' according to the first Arab Human Development Report.

``The Arab region has the lowest value of all regions of the world for voice of accountability,'' particularly in regard to political processes, civil liberties, political rights and media independence.

The world's seven regions are Sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Oceania, North America and Arab states.

Arab scholars spent 18 months writing and researching the report, which was commissioned by the U.N. Development Program. It is the first to focus on a specific region and similar reports on other regions are expected to follow.

The Arab report's findings were discussed at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday. Arab League chief Amr Moussa said the report showed that Arab nations should double efforts to develop the region.

``The crisis is real and very serious,'' he said. ``The road is still long.''

The report project was headed by former deputy Jordanian prime minister Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, the United Nations' current assistant secretary and director of the Bureau of Arab States.

``What we have is not a blueprint of an action plan, but a comprehensive analysis of problems in the Arab world and a united vision for the way forward,'' Hunaidi told The Associated Press.

The report found that about 50 percent of Arab women were illiterate, while only 3.5 percent of all parliamentary seats in Arab states were filled by women. Arab women also suffered from unequal citizenship and legal entitlements.

``Sadly, the Arab world is largely depriving itself of the creativity and productivity of half of its citizens,'' the report said.

In terms of scientific development, the Arab region spent less than 0.5 percent of its gross domestic product on scientific expenditure, compared to 1.26 percent in Cuba and 2.9 percent in Japan.

But on a positive note, the report said the ``Arab region has dramatically reduced poverty and inequality in the 20th century. It can do so again in 21st.''

The report's editor, Egyptian economist Nader Fergany, said they studied a range of elements about Arab society, from its lack of freedoms to problems from a growing population, expected to hit at least 400 million within 20 years.

The report covers 22 Arab countries inhabited by about 280 million people. It found that 65 million adults are illiterate, 10 million children do not attend school and the unemployment rate is at 15 percent, the world's highest.

The report also touched on the Mideast crisis, saying Israel's occupation of Arab lands is ``one of the most pervasive obstacles to security and progress in the region.''

Hunaidi said the report's aim was not to frustrate Arabs but ignite their determination for change.

``The report is not the end of the road, but a beginning of a deep dialogue,'' she said.

On the Net:
UNDP: http://www.undp.org/rbas/

07/02/02 13:13 EDT

Paper: Italian Church Attack Plotted

Muslims can never stand the truth. muhammad burns in hell, 1300 years after his overdue death, and they can't stand the idea that a 15th century painting depicts this. It is, after all, the same place where the 9/11 terrorists have gone, so they'll all be in good company.

By Associated Press

June 23, 2002, 10:21 AM EDT

ROME -- Suspected Islamic militants were plotting an attack on a northern Italian church that has been the subject of protests by Muslims in the past, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Milan daily Corriere della Sera said the San Petronio basilica in Bologna was targeted apparently because it contains a 15th century fresco that depicts Islam's prophet Muhammad in Hell, being devoured by demons.

Plans for 'Islamic bomb' are well underway

By: Dr.Walid Phares
http://www.jewishworldreview.com

It is no secret to any average analyst of the Jihadist movement worldwide, that al-Qaida has become an organization of global geo-politics. It's planning and moves are of regional and international scope. Not only were they able to score a deep hit inside the United States on September 11, drawing Washington into Central Asia, but apparently, they are about to succeed in drawing both India and Pakistan into a regional clash of the Titans.

I contend that the current state of quasi war between the two old enemies was carefully triggered by a successive series of moves and action on behalf of the Jihadist coalition. Remember the speeches of Bin Laden back in the Fall. He said in Arabic: "our enemies are the Crusaders, the Zionists and the Hindus." Al-Jazeera aired multiple programs accusing India-Israel-USA of forming an alliance against Islam. And. last but not least, several statements were made by Jihadist groups, including Osama's, about the "need to use the magnificent nuclear resources of Pakistan."

Now the facts. Back in October, and after President Bush committed the United States to an international campaign against Terrorism, it was clear to al-Qaida that the US strike was coming to Afghanistan. Hence, a second line of defense was established in Western Pakistan and in the streets of Lahore, Islambad and other Pakistani cities. There, the Islamic Fundamentalists mobilized the neighborhoods and pressured Musharref. The main leverage the Jihadists had over him was their capability of inflaming Kashemire. The Pakistani self proclaimed President knew he had to act fast. Once American-led forces were moving to Tora Bora, he clumped on his hardline Islamists and delivered his historic speech against militant religion.

Moving to the next stage and in order to punish him, the al-Qaida allies set fire to their territory in Kashemire. Their plan was simple: Drag India and Pakistan into a war, so that they would topple Musharraf, and ultimately take over the nuclear facilities of the country. India and Pakistan have a old conflict about their mutual existence.

Nationalist forces on both sides resents the international borders as designed since 1947. The two countries clashed in three wars since their independence. In the center of the conflict, the specific question of the province Cashmere.

While India considers it part of its historic lands, Pakistan raises the fact that the majority of it's people are Muslims, and therefore should separate. But between the two countries, a third player is taking advantage of the conflict: The Jihadist movement. Since the early 1990s, various Islamic Fundamentalist organizations established themselves in Cashmere, and were backed by Pakistan's intelligence. Among them a number of veterans from the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan.

By the mid 1990s, and as the Taliban took over in Kabul, the Bin Laden factions infiltrated the Cashmere Jihadist groups. After September 11, Bin Laden's initial plan was to inflame the sub Indian region. In his October video tape he openly attacked the Hindus, and called the Cashmere situation a "jabha", meaning a "battlefront." By the end of the Fall, al-Qaida's allies attacked Indian sites, including later on the Parliament. These deliberate attacks drew India into mobilization, and hence mobilized Pakistan.

The al-Qaida moves on the "Cashmere battlefront" were clearly designed to deflect the international campaign against Terrorism. What al-Qaida really aims at is the following: a) All out military operations between India and Pakistan regardless of nuclear use and consequences. b) Use the opportunity to move against the regime in Pakistan, topple Musharraf, if possible. c) As a result, take over the commands of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.

JWR contributor Dr. Walid Phares is a professor of Ethnic and Religious Conflict at Florida Atlantic University. He is an expert on the Middle East and the Jihad movement and a frequent contributor to MSNBC.

Mexico May Expel Islamic Missionaries

.c The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Some foreign missionaries working for an Islamic group in the southern state of Chiapas have been asked to leave Mexico because they lack proper residency documents, a Mexican immigration official said Sunday.

The missionaries - who include Basque converts to Islam from Spain - have converted a number of Chamula and Tzotzil Indians, but have never applied for status as a religious organization, said Javier Moctezuma Barragan, assistant secretary of the National Immigration Institute.

Because their missionary group, Mision para el Dawa en Mexico, doesn't have legal status here, it has never asked for minister's visas for the men. The missionaries apparently entered Mexico on tourist visas that prohibit them from working here, even on a volunteer basis.

Authorities began investigating the group, which is linked to the Morocco-based Murabitun World Movement, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Moctezuma Barragan told the government news agency Notimex.

He did not say how many missionaries had been asked to leave.

However, the request that they leave the country - in the form of letters recently sent to them by the government - was apparently based only on the alleged violation of immigration laws, not terrorism concerns.

The Murabitun World Movement has a generally leftist slant and a strict interpretation of Islam. Some reports suggest its Mexican missionaries may have had links to both the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas and Basque separatists in Spain.

The missionaries were not immediately available to comment.

06/16/02 19:44 EDT

U.S.-Saudi Relations Show Strains

.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S.-Saudi relationship may be headed for trouble because of growing differences over the Mideast and continued strains because of the war on terrorism.

U.S. officials still praise the Saudi Arabian government for cooperating in the war against al-Qaida, and for pushing a peace plan to try to solve the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.

But Saudi citizens continue to plot terror attacks against Americans - the latest an alleged plot uncovered by Moroccan officials to target U.S. and British ships in the Strait of Gibraltar.

The Saudi government also remains at odds with U.S. officials over how to deal with those accused in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 U.S. servicemen.

U.S. lawmakers, as well as the public, continue to complain that Saudi Arabia isn't doing enough to rein in support for al-Qaida, discourage suicide bombings by Palestinians or support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.

With President Bush expected to soon outline his plans for the Mideast - plans that probably will disappoint Arab allies - the strains may worsen.

``The relationship is a very tense one at the moment,'' said Ted Galen Carpenter, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute. ``They want the Bush administration to put far more intense pressure on Israel than the administration has done at this point.''

Strong mutual interests continue to bind the two countries, making any sharp or immediate rupture unlikely. Saudi Arabia depends on the United States for military protection while the United States depends on Saudi Arabia to keep oil markets stable. Both share a desire for a stable Mideast free of turmoil caused by Iraq, Iran or Islamic extremists.

But ordinary Saudis, in turn, are beginning to think that Americans, because of their support for Israel, are biased against them, said Edward Walker, a former U.S. diplomat in Saudi Arabia.

``We may be creating an entire generation that has no confidence in the United States, that believes it is prejudiced against Arabs and against Islam,'' said Walker, who met with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah during a visit to the region two weeks ago. ``We are looking at the potential for long-term alienation.''

The crown prince himself remains hopeful that Bush soon will unveil a plan pushing for a Palestinian state, Walker said, despite Bush's strong words recently - supporting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - that a peace deal isn't possible now because Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat can't be trusted.

Abdullah has proposed Arab peace with Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state on land Israel won in 1967. His foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, was meeting Bush at the White House on Thursday.

Beyond the Middle East, many other tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States have emerged.

The arrests in Morocco of three Saudis for allegedly planning attacks on U.S. and British war ships at Gibraltar show Saudi Arabia still has far to go in curbing Islamic militants, Carpenter said.

Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 suicide hijackers were Saudis, a fact that some U.S. investigators have attributed in part to the relative ease Saudis had getting visas to the United States, because of their affluence.

In a related matter, Saudi officials have assured U.S. officials that proceeds from a recent telethon for Palestinians were funneled only to humanitarian aid groups, not Islamic extremists, a Bush administration official said recently.

But Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., and others say Saudi Arabia's government and its people haven't done enough to stop anti-American and anti-Semitic statements from government officials and clerics and schools, nor to stop money - whether official or private - from going to extremist groups.

Saudis, in turn, say the United States does not do enough to pressure Israel to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians.

The Khobar Towers matter highlights the tensions. The United States a year ago indicted 13 Saudis and a Lebanese for the 1996 bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, but Saudi officials have said they will not recognize those indictments, leading U.S. officials to criticize them for not cooperating.

Saudi Arabia's deputy interior minister, Prince Ahmed, said earlier this month that the country has sentenced some of the people it arrested for the bombing, but wouldn't say what the sentences were. U.S. officials say they've received no further details.

EDITOR'S NOTE - Sally Buzbee covers foreign affairs and the military for The Associated Press in Washington.

Church Head Won't Repudiate Comments

By ALLEN G. BREED
.c The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) - The new head of the Southern Baptist Convention has rejected calls to repudiate what a Muslim group is calling ``bigoted'' and ``hate-filled'' statements made by one of its pastors.

The Rev. Jack Graham, elected the convention's president on Tuesday, said the Rev. Jerry Vines' comments about Islam were ``accurate.''

Vines, a former convention president, told conventioners at a pastors' conference Monday that many of this country's problems can be blamed on religious pluralism.

Pluralists ``would have us to believe that Islam is just as good as Christianity, but I'm here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that Islam is not just as good as Christianity,'' Vines, pastor of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., told several thousand delegates at the gathering in St. Louis.

``Islam was founded by Muhammad, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives - and his last one was a 9-year-old girl. And I will tell you Allah is not Jehovah either. Jehovah's not going to turn you into a terrorist that'll try to bomb people and take the lives of thousands and thousands of people.''

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the comments were outrageous.

``It's really unfortunate that a top leader in a mainstream Christian church ... would use such hate-filled and bigoted language in describing the faith of one-fifth of the world's population,'' Hooper said Tuesday. ``This is the level of bigotry that requires a clear statement from the top leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention.''

Graham, of Plano, Texas, said Vines' statement ``is an accurate statement'' and that he would not condemn his colleague.

``I will not respond to Dr. Vines' statement, other than to say that anyone who follows any path who wants to go to heaven should look carefully at who they're following and what they believe,'' he told reporters.

William Merrell, a spokesman for the SBC executive committee, said the comments were made outside the actual meeting, and that it was not the SBC's place to comment.

Ingrid Mattson, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America and a professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, called the comments ``medieval.'' She said statements like this from such high-placed religious leaders can lead to violence against Muslims.

``It makes me wonder what's the hateful religion right now that we should be worried about,'' she said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Allen G. Breed is the AP's Southeast regional writer, based in Raleigh, N.C.

06/12/02 02:35 EDT

19 Drink Cologne, Die in Saudi Arabia

Subject: I need some Cologne on the rocks?
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 04:29:46 -0400
.c The Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Nineteen people have died and 17 hospitalized after drinking cologne containing methanol, news reports said Sunday.

Drinking alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia and punishable by lashings, fines and prison terms. Some people drink cologne as an alcohol substitute.

Police said 19 people died after drinking the cologne, according to the newspaper Okaz. Methanol is a poisonous substance often used in antifreeze.

The paper did not provide the nationalities of those who drank the cologne, but last week it said four people - a Saudi, two Nigerians and a Malian - died after drinking it. The four are believed to be among the 19 fatalities.

Eleven of the victims died in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, while the rest died in the southern city of Jizan. It was not immediately clear when they died.

Police and hospital staff declined to comment on the reports.

U.S. Arrests Alleged Bomb Terrorist

By TED BRIDIS
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. government has arrested an American citizen accused of conspiring with al-Qaida terrorists to build and detonate a radioactive ``dirty'' bomb in this country, possibly in the nation's capital.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said that Abdullah Al Mujahir, a former Chicago street gang member who also goes by the name of Jose Padilla, was in the custody of the U.S. military and was being treated as an enemy combatant. This suggests plans for the first military tribunal of an alleged terrorist since the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon were struck Sept. 11 by hijacked commercial airliners.

The attorney general, who was in Moscow on other business, made the announcement through a television hookup. Ashcroft said that Mujahir, who converted to Islam, was arrested May 8 as he flew from Pakistan into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The 31-year-old is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., who moved to Chicago at age 4.

``We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb,'' he said, adding that the government's suspicions about Mujahir's plans came from ``multiple, independent, corroborating sources.''

Asked at a news conference here whether authorities had identified any co-conspirators in the United States, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said, ``We're not going to comment on that.''

FBI Director Robert Mueller said, ``Our principal interest is in preventing future terrorist attacks. This instance is an example of prevention.''

A senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity said Mujahir was trained by al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan to wire explosives and to research radioactive dispersal devices. He was not believed to have had a bomb at the time of his apprehension.

``We don't believe it went beyond the planning stages,'' the official said.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, appearing at a news conference with Thompson and Mueller, said officials could not say with certainty that the nation's capital was the likely target, although he said that Mujahir ``did indicate knowledge of the Washington, D.C. area.''

A ``dirty bomb'' would not result in a nuclear explosion, but experts say such a device could release relatively small amounts of radiation over several city blocks. Its most devastating effect would be in the panic it likely would cause. For that reason, it has been called an ideal terrorist weapon.

Mujahir was taken Monday morning to a high-security U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Rivers Johnson, who said Mujahir was transferred from Justice Department custody in New York City.

Military officials have not decided whether to charge Mujahir or what charges to file, the military spokesman said.

Mujahir had a lawyer in New York but his access to a lawyer probably will be severely restricted now that he is in military custody, Johnson said. He said the alleged al-Qaida operative was being held separately from other prisoners at the brig.

Ashcroft said Mujahir had served prison time in the United States in the early 1990s, then traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan during 2001 and met with al-Qaida officials. Ashcroft said Mujahir ``trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices.''

Ashcroft said al-Qaida apparently believed that Mujahir would be permitted to travel freely within the United States because of his U.S. citizenship and because he carried a U.S. passport.

The probable target of Mujahir's plans to detonate the bomb was Washington, according to a U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another government official who asked not to be named publicly said the intelligence that led to Mujahir's arrest came from captured al-Qaida leader Abu Zubaydah during recent interrogations.

This official said Mujahir is a former Chicago street gang member who converted to Islam after serving time in the United States, and met with an al-Qaida leader in 2001, before returning to the United States.

Said Ashcroft: ``We have acted with legal authority both under the laws of war and clear Supreme Court precedent, which establishes that the military may detain a United States citizen who has joined the enemy and has entered our country to carry out hostile acts.''

Mujahir discussed several terrorist plans with Abu Zubaydah, the bin Laden lieutenant now in U.S. custody, according to a U.S. official.

Mujahir first met with Abu Zubaydah in Afghanistan in 2001, and traveled to Pakistan at Abu Zubaydah's request, the official said, adding that he was one of a group that traveled with Abu Zubaydah to several locations in Pakistan.

Mujahir and another unidentified associate researched dirty bombs in Lahore, Pakistan, the official said.

``The radiological device plan articulated by (Mujahir) Padilla and his associate was in the planning stages, and no specific time was set to occur,'' the official said.

At Abu Zubaydah's behest, he also traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, to meet with several senior al-Qaida operatives, to discuss the plan, the official said. Mujahir also was interested in plans to bomb hotel rooms and gas stations in the United States, the official said.

It was unclear whether any of these meetings took place after Sept. 11.

President Bush, based on recommendations from Ashcroft and White House counsel Al Gonzales, designated the suspect as a combatant in papers signed late Sunday. That designation allowed the Department of Defense to take custody of Mujahir from the Department of Justice.

``Based on the facts in this case and the importance of protecting sources who helped us get him, the determination was made that DOD is best for his detention,'' an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. This official said the administration does not know how close the suspect was to obtaining a so-called ``dirty bomb.''

U.S. Hostage Martin Burnham Dies in Philippines Raid
Wife Wounded But Rescued; Filipina Hostage Also Killed

By Yoko Kobayashi
Reuters

MANILA (June 7) - An American missionary held hostage for more than a year by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines was killed and his wife wounded on Friday in a gunbattle between the kidnappers and troops, officials said.

A Filipina nurse held hostage by the same Abu Sayyaf rebels -- which has links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network -- was also killed in the firefight, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a statement.

''I am deeply saddened over the death of Martin Burnham and one of our very own, Ediborah Yap, who were slain in an encounter between our troops and the Abu Sayyaf after more than a year in captivity,'' Arroyo said.

''The terrorists shall not be allowed to get away with this. We shall not stop until the Abu Sayyaf is finished.''

Burnham's wife, Gracia, was recovering in hospital with a bullet wound to the leg, Philippines military spokesman Brigadier-General Eduardo Purificacion told a local radio station.

An official told Reuters the fighting took place in the Zamboanga del Norte area on Mindanao island.

Further details of the gunbattle were not immediately available, but some military officials said four rebels had been killed in the fighting and Philippine troops had also taken casualties.

Asked if the gunbattle had erupted after a rescue attempt that went wrong, Purificacion said only: ''It was part of our deliberate operations.''

The Burnhams, from Wichita, Kansas, and married for more than 18 years, were among three Americans abducted by the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in May last year from a tourist resort off Palawan island in the country's southwest.

The rebels beheaded the other American, Californian tourist Guillermo Sobero, in June last year and the Burnhams were taken to a rebel jungle stronghold on Basilan island, 560 miles south of the capital, Manila.

NO U.S. TROOPS INVOLVED

Philippines military chief Roy Cimatu told reporters that U.S. troops currently training their Philippine counterparts in jungle warfare on Basilan had not been involved in the gunbattle in which Burnham and Yap were killed.

More than 1,000 U.S. troops are in the Philippines to help Manila crush the Abu Sayyaf, which Washington has linked to bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Arroyo sent her condolences to the families of the Burnhams and Yap, adding that the army had done all it could to try to keep them alive.

''This has been a long and painful trial for them, for our government, for our country,'' she said.

''Our soldiers tried their best to hold their fire for their safety. We had hoped and prayed for their safe return.''

The Abu Sayyaf claim to be fighting for an independent Muslim state in the south of predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, but their chief occupation seems to be kidnappings for ransom.

In April 2000 Abu Sayyaf rebels abducted 21 mostly foreign hostages from the nearby Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan and took them by motorboats to Jolo island, near Basilan.

The operation earned the guerrillas international notoriety as well as an estimated $20 million in ransom.

Islamic Jihad Small but Deadly

By CELEAN JACOBSON
.c The Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) - Small but deadly, the Palestinian extremist group Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for the fiery bus bombing that killed 17 Israelis on Wednesday, has been behind some of the most lethal attacks against Israel since 1986.

Islamic Jihad members have set off bombs, attacked soldiers and thrown hand grenades at praying Jews. Dozens of Israelis have died in the attacks.

Islamic Jihad is the smaller of two violent Islamic movements in the West Bank and Gaza. The other, Hamas, runs charitable and educational programs as well as organizing attacks against Israel, while Islamic Jihad concentrates on attacks.

Experts see similarities between Islamic Jihad and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, which was behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.

The Islamic Jihad is ``closer ideologically to al-Qaida in that they see terrorism as the only way to start the fire that will ignite the struggle of the whole Muslim world against Israel,'' said Israeli counterterrorism expert Reuven Paz.

Islamic Jihad has vowed to continue attacks against Israel. After Wednesday's attack, Palestinian security officials said they were under orders to arrest Islamic Jihad members.

Based mainly in the Gaza Strip, with a stronghold in the West Bank town of Jenin, the group operates through small, well-trained, well-equipped units.

One of Islamic Jihad's top leaders was killed in fighting in the Jenin refugee camp following the Israeli military incursion there in March. The Israeli operation came in response to deadly suicide attacks on Israelis - some of them claimed by Islamic Jihad.

Islamic Jihad was founded in Egypt in the late 1970s by Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip and is tightly controlled by Iran, Paz said. The group receives training and funding from Iran and Syria and from Hezbollah, its ally in Lebanon, he said.

Paz said Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shalah, who is based in Damascus, Syria, spent many years as a political scientist in the United States.

He left the United States in 1995 after being suspected of money laundering and fund raising for Islamic Jihad, which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.

Abdullah Shami, the group's leader in the Gaza Strip, is a Muslim cleric who is popular with residents of the area's impoverished cities and refugee camps.

Like other extremist Palestinian groups, Islamic Jihad refuses to recognize Israel. Nafez Azzam, one of the group's founders, said it would accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

``But in the long term, the land of Palestine (including Israel) is ours, and we will keep looking for that day when we get our land back,'' he said.

In Islamic Jihad's first operation, in 1986, a grenade was thrown at a group of Jews praying at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in the Old City of Jerusalem. One person was killed and 69 injured.

Islamic Jihad also claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing in 1995 that killed 22 Israeli soldiers at the Beit Lid junction in Israel.

U.S. ID Plan Angers Arabs, Muslims

By MARIAM FAM
.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Arabs and Muslims reacted angrily Wednesday to a Justice Department plan to fingerprint and photograph visitors to America, saying they are being unfairly targeted because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

``If they want to do this they should apply it to all visa holders. Muslims and Middle Easterners don't have to be terrorists. This is an insult,'' Egyptian physician Hany Fares said.

Fares has applied for a U.S. visa to visit his fiancee, who is studying in Washington.

The plan, proposed Wednesday, would expand the reach of an existing law to better track tourists, business travelers, students and temporary workers considered possible security threats.

Officials familiar with the proposal said it was mainly aimed at visitors from Middle Eastern and Islamic countries, although at a news conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft did not specify any particular country.

He said a list would be developed and the only countries certain to be on the list are those already on the State Department's list of terrorist nations, including North Korea, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria and Cuba.

``No country is totally exempt,'' he said.

Ashcroft said the regulation would help prevent terrorism by permitting the government to more efficiently identify people who pose a threat. Officials said it would apply to people who stay more than a month and is based on an alien registration law put in place during World War II.

The United States has already instituted some visa changes since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which were carried out by 19 Muslim men from the Middle East.

In November, the State Department said the United States would slow down the process of issuing visas to young men from Arab and Muslim nations so it can search their backgrounds for any evidence of terrorist activities.

Foreigners seeking to live in the United States are already photographed and fingerprinted and must provide detailed background information to the government. The same is required of visitors from Libya, Iraq, Sudan and Iran.

Some say the new measures will only increase anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.

``America already has a very bad reputation in the Arab world. This will enhance the opinion that it is against the Arabs,'' said Shamlan al-Issa, a Kuwaiti political scientist.

Hafez Abu Saada, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, agreed, saying such procedures won't prevent terror operations against America and will fuel Arab hatred toward U.S. policies.

``If the law comes out in that way then this would be racism against Arabs and Muslims - scary racism,'' he said.

Hesham Youssef, spokesman for the Arab League chief, said that ``if Arabs are treated in one way and the rest of the world is treated in another way ... because they are Arab, then it's not acceptable.''

Others said America has the right to protect itself as it sees fit.

``I think it is fair. They have the right to protect their country against whoever they think would be harmful,'' said Ahmed Farghaly, a 25-year-old Egyptian accountant.

Report: al-Qaida Threatens Attacks

.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The spokesman for the al-Qaida terror group has threatened more attacks on Americans and Jews in a message published by the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat Sunday.

``We confirm our continuation in working to attack Americans and Jews, and targeting them, both people and buildings,'' Al-Hayat quoted Sulaiman Abu Gaith as saying in an article that the newspaper said was published on the Web site www.alneda.com. The site could not be accessed on Sunday.

``What will come to the Americans, God willing, won't be less than what has come. America should be ready and on high alert and fasten the seat belts, as with the will of God, we will come to them from where they didn't expect,'' Abu Gaith was quoted as saying. The newspaper did not give Abu Gaith's whereabouts.

Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House Office of Homeland Security, said Sunday in Washington that he was not familiar with the report and could not comment on its credibility.

Speaking generally of such threats, however, he said: ``We have said for some time that al-Qaida is still interested in attacking the United States. We have been working since Sept. 11 to try to prevent and disrupt their organization from attacking the United States and also to strengthen our critical infrastructure and response capabilities against future attacks.''

People purporting to speak for al-Qaida have also made threats against Jews and Westerners since Sept. 11.

Last month, FBI Director Robert Mueller warned of a possibility of a new terrorist attack against the United States.

``There will be another terrorist attack. We will not be able to stop it,'' Mueller told a meeting of the National Association of District Attorneys on May 20. ``It's something we all live with.''

Abu Gaith said the United States was targeted because of ``what it does in regions of the Islamic world,'' and of being ``in the partnership with Jews, the head of corruption and decay ... the reason behind all the injustice and oppression that befell on Muslims.''

He said all that Israel was doing in Palestinian territories for more than 50 years was with ``American blessings.''

He said U.S. policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia as well as in Sudan, the Philippines, Kashmir and Indonesia were against Muslims.

``After all of this, doesn't the prey have the right, while it is being slaughtered, to kick back?'' he was quoted as saying.

Abu-Ghaith was stripped of his Kuwaiti citizenship in October after the former teacher and mosque preacher appeared in television broadcasts on behalf of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, threatening more attacks against Westerners.

Since the United States and its allies toppled Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, who harbored bin Laden and al-Qaida, bin Laden and other al-Qaida key figures remain at large.

Report: Saudis Give Bombing Sentence

c The Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia has sentenced some of the people it arrested for the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 U.S. servicemen and injured hundreds, the deputy interior minister was quoted as saying Saturday.

Prince Ahmed, however, did not say how many people were sentenced or what the sentences were. The verdicts ``must be announced at the right time,'' the brother of King Fahd said in an interview with newspaper al-Jazirah.

Last June, the United States indicted 14 people - 13 Saudis and a Lebanese - for the 1996 bombing by members of the dissident Saudi Hezbollah group on the complex in Dhahran, near Khobar. Some of the indicted, who are charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, are in Saudi jails.

The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom said that since it wasn't consulted, it would not recognize the indictments. U.S. officials have criticized Saudi Arabia for not cooperating.

In the interview, Ahmed said the suspects in the bombing, except for two or three still at large, had been sentenced under Islamic law.

``The sentences will go to a higher court, then to the supreme justice council and then to the king for approval,'' Prince Ahmed was quoted as saying. Under Islamic sharia law, all sentences must go through several stages of ratification before they are carried out.

The kingdom, which follows a strict interpretation of Islamic law, imposes the death penalty for murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

Efforts to reach officials for comment Saturday were unsuccessful.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef said last June that two Saudis and a Lebanese suspected in the bombing were still at large.

He identified one of them as Ibrahim al-Mughasil, and demanded that the United States cooperate closely with Saudi Arabia in bringing the suspects to justice.

The United States has had military forces in Saudi Arabia since the buildup to the 1990 Gulf War.

Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, has called for expulsion of U.S. troops from the kingdom, home to Islam's two holiest sites. Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 suicide hijackers were Saudis.

"Not without my daughter (Again)" Woman Takes Refuge in Swiss Embassy

By SARAH EL DEEB
.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - A Swiss woman has taken refuge with her three children inside the Swiss Embassy in Cairo, the latest step in a custody battle with her Egyptian ex-husband, police and embassy officials said Tuesday.

The woman entered the embassy Friday with her children after leaving her former husband's house in Cairo. An Egyptian court last year granted Mohammed Fawzi Malash custody of two of the three children, who hold dual Swiss-Egyptian nationality.

Egyptian police identified the woman as Elisabeth Hodel, who is believed to come from Lucerne in central Switzerland.

Police said they arrested Hodel in March as she tried to leave Egypt through the Red Sea resort of Hurghada with the children, whose hair had been dyed blonde to disguise them. She was charged with kidnapping and trying to flee the country.

No trial date has been set. The two boys and a girl - aged 15, 13 and 11 - returned to Egypt in 2000 with Malash. He and Hodel had divorced two years earlier.

In 2001, an Egyptian court granted Malash custody of the boys and gave Hodel custody of the girl.

A Swiss Embassy statement said Hodel and her three children had taken refuge inside the embassy after their father ``lured them to Egypt.'' It did not elaborate.

Malash could not be reached Tuesday, but he told the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that he wanted to raise his children in a Muslim society.

``I explained to her before that my children have to live under Islamic teachings and traditions. They are at a critical age and I am not ready for them to lose their identity,'' he was quoted as saying.

Hodel was reportedly awarded custody in Switzerland, the Egyptian police official said. The Swiss Embassy refused to comment.

Saudi Man Beheaded for Raping a Man

.c The Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A man was beheaded Saturday for raping another man, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Hamad bin Saleh bin Abdul Aziz Al Fadl was convicted of getting drunk, kidnapping a man and raping him, the statement said. He was beheaded in the northeastern province of Al Qatif.

The beheading raised to 21 the number of people executed this year in the kingdom.

Last year, at least 81 people were beheaded in Saudi Arabia, which follows a strict interpretation of Islam and imposes the death penalty for murder, rape, drug trafficking and armed robbery.

Executions are performed in public with a sword.

Calif. Student Probed for 9-11 Role

By SETH HETTENA
.c The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A former college student authorities say helped some of the Sept. 11 hijackers is believed to have had a much larger role than previously disclosed, including helping arrange flight lessons, according to court documents and a law enforcement source.

Investigators now believe Mohdar Abdoulah helped three of the hijackers who passed through San Diego in 2000 achieve their goals, according to the court documents.

Abdoulah, 24, is charged with filing an asylum application in May 2000 in which he falsely claimed he was from Somalia and was a member of a minority group that faced persecution there. The former student at San Diego State University is jailed on $500,000 bail.

Abdoulah told the three hijackers how to get Social Security cards and California driver's licenses, prosecutors say. He also called a flight school in Florida to arrange for flight lessons and "regularly dined, worked and prayed with the hijackers,'' prosecutors asserted in court documents.

Authorities believe Abdoulah remained illegally in the United States "in order to help the ... hijackers and/or any future hijackers in the furtherance of terrorist activities against people in the United States,'' FBI agent Daniel Gonzalez said in a seven-page statement filed last week.

Randall Hamud, an attorney who has represented Abdoulah, called Gonzalez's statement a ``notorious lie.''

"If that's true why wasn't he charged,'' Hamud said. "They're simply trying to disparage my client in the public arena in order to contaminate the jury pool.''

The law enforcement source said investigators do not believe Abdoulah's assistance rises to the level of Zaccarias Moussaoui, the only person charged as a conspirator in the attacks.

Investigators say Abdoulah was a close friend of Khalid Almihdhar, Nawaf Alhazmi and Hani Hanjour, three of the men who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

FBI agents who questioned Abdoulah less than two weeks after the attacks did not believe his ``denial of knowledge of the attacks or the plans of his friends Alhazmi, Almihdhar and Hanjour,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat wrote in an 18-page court filing.

Abdoulah's attorney in the asylum proceeding, Kerry Steigerwalt, said his client had only ``incidental'' contact with the hijackers and had no prior knowledge of the attacks.

Gonzalez said in his court filing that Abdoulah told FBI agents they needed more knowledge of Islam and the Muslim culture, including the concept of jihad, to understand the events of Sept. 11.

He said Abdoulah also agreed to take a polygraph exam on Sept. 21, but didn't show up for it. Agents told him he would be asked if had any involvement in or knowledge of terrorist attacks.

At his arrest, Abdoulah spoke without prompting of ``the hatred in his heart for the United States government, and that the United States brought 'this' (Sept. 11) on themselves,'' prosecutors wrote.

05/14/02 23:48 EDT

Stench fills Jesus' birthplace after siege

By Paul Casciato and Michael Georgy

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - The overwhelming stench of urine was the first thing to hit visitors who entered the shrine in Bethlehem revered as the birthplace of Jesus.

The standoff between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army at the Church of the Nativity, which came to an end on Friday after nearly 40 days and nights of high drama, had left one of Christianity's holiest places in a shocking mess.

Garbage bags, lemon peels, gas canisters, petrol cans and electric hotplates were scattered throughout the church off Manger Square. A Reuters correspondent saw altars, the sacred focus of Christian worship, covered with food scraps.

"It's not a church any more, it's a place filled with beds and trash," said Sandy Shahin, a local teen-ager who rushed into the church minutes after the end of the siege Friday.

"The smell is too bad. The floor is too bad. I'm filled with fear," Shahin, a Roman Catholic, said between sobs.

It seemed almost a small miracle that the Grotto of the Nativity, where a silver star installed by the Catholics in 1717 is set in white marble over the exact spot where Christians believe Jesus was born, was immaculate.

A Reuters correspondent saw dusty mattresses, flak jackets and helmets, left behind by the Palestinian militants holed up in the church and scattered across the floor.

Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations share the fourth-century shrine, where areas of worship appeared to have escaped major damage in the standoff that included exchanges of gunfire between Israeli troops and the gunmen.

But the second floor of the Franciscan order's parish building in the complex looked like a war zone. Walls were pockmarked by bullet holes and scarred by smoke stains.

"I couldn't imagine something like this," said Manal Deik, a local banker, standing next to a bullet-riddled church wall which was also marked with graffiti scrawled in Arabic.

"We will repair it because the damage is not outside, it's inside and we can do something about that," said the 25-year-old Catholic.

Greek Orthodox priest Father Kariton, standing in the basilica near a pile of discarded gasmasks, added: "The most important things are okay, but the museum is a little damaged."

BICKERING

Soon after the militants left, priests from the often bickering denominations argued over whether to allow Israeli army bomb disposal experts in to make sure no explosives were left behind. The clergymen decided in favor of a sweep.

"We have found 40 explosive devices and five rifles hidden there and the IDF is dismantling them now," an army spokeswoman said.

Earlier, 13 men on Israel's most-wanted list left the church and were quickly flown on a British aircraft to Cyprus, the first stop in an exile abroad which will take them to third countries under a European Union-brokered deal.

Twenty-six others considered less serious offenders by Israel were expelled from the West Bank and taken to Gaza.

Some 200 people -- Palestinian militants, police, civilians, priests and nuns took refuge in the sanctuary to evade Israeli troops and tanks that swept into Bethlehem on April 2 in a West Bank offensive triggered by suicide bombings.

CROWD CHEERS

Outside the church Friday, crowds of Palestinians cheered after Israeli armored personnel carriers pulled out of Manger Square. Church bells rang and cries of "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Greater" rang out from the loudspeakers of mosques.

Some of the 85 civilians, who returned to normal life in Bethlehem after undergoing an Israeli security check in a nearby army compound, were overjoyed at the prospect of simply taking a shower and eating a full meal for the first time in weeks.

After hugging and kissing emotional relatives who greeted them at Beit Jala Hospital near Bethlehem, the men said they asked themselves difficult questions during the standoff -- such as when Israeli snipers would fire next or food would run out.

"The Israelis had this tower with a remote control electronic device that fired on us whenever we were exposed. When we went outside we had to run away from it," said Naji Abu Obeid, a 19-year-old Palestinian policeman.

"We each had a safe spot in the church where we would hide such as behind columns," added Obeid, who said he used his AK-47 assault rifle to defend himself and others.

Israel, which engaged in lengthy negotiations with the Vatican and other interested parties over the church, strenuously denied firing into the shrine and said it did all it could to avoid damaging the Church of the Nativity.

Two Palestinian men were killed by gunfire in the church compound last month and another was later wounded.

NO STRANGER TO CONFLICT

A lemon tree stood in the Franciscan compound, its branches bare after those who had been holed up inside the shrine ate its leaves.

The church is no stranger to conflict. Samaritans destroyed much of the original church during a revolt in 529. Christian Crusader and Muslim armies fought over it for many years.

The church was rebuilt during the reign of the Roman Emperor Justinian in about 530 AD. Crusaders redecorated it and over the centuries it has been renovated and expanded with the addition of other chapels and monasteries around it. 05/10/02 16:01 ET

Rights Activist's Retrial Begins

BY NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The retrial of a U.S.-Egyptian academic convicted of harming Egypt's image began Saturday, with the rights' activist saying he expects an opportunity to clear his name.

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, 63, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo, was sentenced last year to seven years' imprisonment. The Appeal Court freed him in February, after he had spent eight months in jail, and granted a retrial to him and his staff at his think tank, the Ibn Khaldoun Center.

The decision came after rights groups such as Amnesty International and major Western newspapers had criticized his trial as unfair and politically inspired.

Ibrahim and his colleagues were detained in 2000 as they were organizing a campaign to monitor Egypt's parliamentary elections that year. Ibrahim had previously published a study that said the 1995 elections were rigged.

``I expect this trial to be more fair, more responsive to the defense demands and a chance to clear my name and the names of my colleagues,'' Ibrahim told The Associated Press as he waited inside the State Security Court on Saturday.

Appearing before a new panel of three judges, Ibrahim pleaded innocent as the prosecutor indicted him with the same charges: tarnishing Egypt's image, accepting foreign money without government approval, and embezzling funds from the European Union.

His 27 associates at Ibn Khaldoun are also being tried again, although only six of them were in court Saturday. They too pleaded innocent to all charges. In the initial trial, they received sentences ranging from one to five years.

His lawyers asked the court Saturday to summon a list of witnesses. The judges granted the request, but did not reply to an application for Ibrahim to be allowed to leave Egypt for urgent medical treatment.

Ibrahim, who used a walking stick Saturday, is said to be suffering from a neurological disorder that prevents sufficient oxygen from reaching the deeper recesses of the brain.

He filed an urgent petition, backed by medical documents, to the prosecutor general in February asking for leave to travel for treatment. But no reply came.

After the court adjourned to Monday April 29, Ibrahim said he was still upbeat.

``Activists believe in change and in the possibility of change, therefore, they are always optimistic,'' he said.

Saudi Prince Wants More Openness

By DONNA ABU-NASR
.c The Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - He's a democrat in an autocratic state, a prince who does not believe in the royal family's monopoly on power.

In a country where few dare criticize the king and the Islamic establishment, Prince Talal calls for a constitutional monarchy, an elected parliament and a sharp reduction in the clergy's powers.

And in a land that forces women to cover up from head to toe, bans them from driving and segregates them from men, Talal's is the only influential male openly urging the removal of the restrictions, saying they were imposed by men who regard women as sexual objects.

``It's all about sex,'' he said in an interview last week with The Associated Press.

Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz is a brother of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd. While he holds no office in the government, he is the one reformist royal who is also a confidant of Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto ruler since King Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995.

Talal's opinion counts among moderates within the ruling family, and for its conservative members he's posing questions they cannot ignore because they are coming from a brother.

Talal, who is in his 70s, has been pushing for a more open political system for decades. In 1962, he had to flee to Egypt because of his liberal ideas, which he insists do not contradict Islam or jeopardize the kingdom's Islamic credentials.

There were reports at the time that he was planning an Egyptian-backed revolt against then King Faisal. He became known as the ``Red Prince'' for his close ties to then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was pro-Soviet.

Talal, a son of Saudi Arabia's founder, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, was allowed to return in 1964 after reconciling with King Faisal.

He now heads a charity, the Arab Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organizations.

He is the father of billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, whose gift of $10 million to a fund set up to help the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks was rejected by then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi.

Giuliani was furious after Alwaleed said the United States should ``re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause.''

While viewed as liberal by Saudis, Talal sides with the Arab mainstream on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rejecting Washington's classification of Palestinian suicide-bombers as terrorists. ``They're strugglers and fighters for their country,'' he said.

But he also said that any attempt by Saudi Arabia to improve its image - which many Saudis say has suffered since Sept. 11 from what they contend is an Israeli-backed U.S. media campaign - should include meetings with Jewish groups in the United States since ``they are players on the ground.''

On the home front, Talal said Saudis should shed their fear of speaking their minds and carry out a ``peaceful, nonviolent struggle'' for reform.

``We want to implement democracy gradually and on the basis of consensus between the ruler and the masses,'' he said.

He said a first step would be giving more power to the Shura Council, an advisory body appointed by the king. He said it should be more like a parliament, with oversight over the budget and Cabinet ministers' performance, and its members should have immunity so they could express themselves freely. Eventually, the council should be elected, he said.

``Since the establishment of the kingdom (in 1932), there hasn't been movement toward an open society,'' Talal said. ``We demand such openness, one that's in step with the 21st century.''

Talal also said the powerful religious establishment should stay in place, but ``should not act like a state within a state.'' It's a view many Saudis voice privately but dare not express openly for fear of retribution from the government or the clergy.

The Al Saud family's claim to the throne is legitimized by the religious establishment, which in return has been given a free hand in regulating social matters.

The most visible manifestation of the clergy's power is the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, an independent agency that acts like a government ministry. Members of the commission have the power to arrest people for a variety of offenses, such as women accompanied by men who are not their guardians or coffee shop managers who allow customers to remain in their shops during prayer time.

``The establishment should be a support for the state. If the government wants its religious opinion it can turn to it,'' Talal said.

On the issue of women, Talal said there is no religious reason why women in Saudi Arabia cannot drive or work side-by-side with men.

``It's all about sex,'' he said. ``Every time they (fundamentalists) see a woman, they see her (as a sex object). The strange thing is you're applying this to your mother, your sister, your wife.''

``These restrictions will lead to an explosion,'' he said. ``They cannot continue.''

On another touchy topic, Talal said he's worried there could be a power struggle among the next generation of the Al Saud dynasty because there is no clear succession for King Abdul-Aziz's grandsons. The sons of Al Saud, who include Fahd and Abdullah, rose to power by age and competence, but most are now in their 60s and 70s.

``There are no differences now, but we worry about differences after the sons of Abdul-Aziz (pass away),'' he said.

Sept. 11 Hijacker Final Video Found

By SARAH EL DEEB
.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - In a farewell message broadcast Monday on the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, a man identified as one of the Sept. 11 hijackers said ``It is time we kill the Americans in their heartland.''

It was the first broadcast of a farewell video attributed to a Sept. 11 hijacker. Another clip from a videotape the station said it recently received shows Osama bin Laden kneeling side by side with a top deputy who proclaimed the terror attacks a ``great victory.''

It wasn't clear when the tape was made but the appearance of an apparent hijacker in one segment indicated parts were filmed before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Al-Jazeera's editor in chief, Ibrahim Hilal, identified the hijacker as Ahmed Ibrahim A. Alhaznawi - one of four hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. Hilal said the hourlong video, complete with narration and graphics, was delivered by hand to the station's Qatar offices a week ago.

``I can't tell you about when the material was made exactly, but it seems very recent,'' Hilal said, noting the narrator at one point refers to the March 27-28 Arab League summit as coming up shortly.

A U.S. official, speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, said the man in the tape is believed to be Alhaznawi.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the bin Laden material appeared to be outdated in the videotape he watched. Rumsfeld was not certain that the tape was shown was the same taped aired on Al-Jazeera on Monday.

``I was advised that what I was watching very likely was using a patchwork of clips from previous periods along with some dialogue of more recent periods,'' Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing, qualifying his remarks as ``very preliminary.''

Al-Jazeera, which has aired previous bin Laden statements, said it would broadcast the entire tape - which apparently includes old comments from bin Laden - on Thursday.

The London-based Arab newspaper Al Hayat published excerpts Monday from what it said was a statement from Mullah Mohammed Omar, the fugitive leader of the Taliban militia that provided safe haven to al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

According to Al Hayat, Omar expressed solidarity with the Palestinians in their confrontation with Israel and linked their plight to the U.S.-led war on terror, which some militant Muslims describe as a war on Islam.

Cleric Clarifies Bombing Support

BY NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Egypt's top Islamic cleric tried to clarify a comment in which he expressed support for Palestinian suicide bombings against Israel, saying Sunday that they should not target women and children.

In a sermon at Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque on Friday, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi told worshippers: ``One who blows himself up among those (Israeli) aggressors is a martyr, martyr, martyr, and whoever says otherwise is a ... liar.''

The remark by the grand sheik of Al-Azhar, the highest religious authority in the mainstream Sunni sect of Islam, was interpreted as conferring blanket approval of suicide attacks regardless of the victims.

But in comments to reporters who questioned him Sunday about the statement, Tantawi said that by ``aggressors'' he meant Israeli troops.

He said no Muslim should intend to blow himself up ``in the midst of children or women, but among aggressors, among soldiers who sabotage, kill, and attack,'' he said. In the past, Tantawi has said several times that women and children should not be targeted.

Islam teaches that suicide is wrong, and whether suicide bombings conform with the faith is a point of contention among clerics.

Tantawi said Sunday that that killing children and women ``is not manly, even if the Jews do so'' and that Islam does not sanction it.

However, he said that a would-be suicide bomber may find it impossible not to harm civilians when attacking guards of a Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories. Even if a bomber were to harm civilians in such an attack, ``he is a martyr,'' Tantawi said, using the word that means the deceased will go to heaven.

Five Palestinian suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Israel and the Palestinian areas since Israel began its military offensive on the West Bank on March 29.

Those attacks killed 25 people, including women and children, and there have been many other suicide bombings during nearly 19 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

Last year, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheik Abdulaziz al-Sheik, declared that ``any act of self-killing or suicide is strictly forbidden in Islam'' and consequently ``the one who blows himself up in the midst of the enemies is also performing an act contrary to Islamic teachings.''

Some clerics in other countries rejected the Saudi mufti's view.

04/14/02 21:28 EDT

Muslims' Visas to U.S. Slowed

By GEORGE GEDDA
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Prolonged security checks since Sept. 11 have caused a slowdown of almost 14 percent in the number of overseas Muslims granted permission to live in the United States through a special green card program, officials say.

Under the program, citizens of countries with low rates of migration to the United States can try their luck in obtaining permanent U.S. residence visas through a lottery conducted annually by the State Department

Visa approvals were granted to 16,308 lottery winners worldwide from Oct. 1, 2000 to Feb. 28, 2001, according to official figures.

But for the identical period a year later, which occurred after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the number approved was just 14,074 - a decline of 2,234 or about 14 percent.

Almost all of that was the result of lower numbers from Muslim countries, said a State Department official, who asked not to be identified.

But it's unclear whether the more extensive background checks will, in the end, result in an increase in rejection rates for would-be immigrants from Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries.

James Zogby, who heads the Arab-American Institute, said there is no doubt that the Sept. 11 fallout has ``negatively affected hundreds of good people from Arab and Muslim countries who wanted to come and in most situations would immediately have qualified to come to U.S.''

Everyone, he added, ``will understand the need for increased vigilance as long as the process is transparent and fair.''

Zogby said he has not made inquiries about the fairness of the visa lottery program. But, he said, the State Department has been secretive about the reason for visa approval delays in cases involving Muslims outside the program.

One goal of the visa lottery is to ensure greater diversity in migrant flows to the United States. The lottery can yield permanent residence visas for up to 55,000 foreigners each year.

All of the dozens of predominantly Muslim countries are eligible to participate except for Pakistan, which already has large numbers of people who migrate to America.

Winning the lottery is no assurance of obtaining a U.S. visa. Candidates for visas must first clear security checks, among other barriers, and in the post-Sept. 11 environment, winners in Islamic countries are getting closer scrutiny than before.

The Sept. 11 attacks are believed to have been carried out by 19 Arabs backed by the al-Qaida terrorist group. Fifteen of the 19 were from Saudi Arabia. All are believed to have had visas allowing them to remain in the United States temporarily.

Applicants for the lottery program, known officially as the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, must have either a high school education or its equivalent, or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience.

While the need for increased vigilance concerning migrants and other visitors is generally accepted, the visa lottery, now 12 years old, has its critics.

``We think it is totally wrong,'' says Jack Martin of the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR). ``We have major population pressures at present and should not be encouraging further immigration.''

Carmel Fisk, a former trial attorney for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, disagrees.

``The visa lottery is not a bad thing. It's good to have people from countries which otherwise would not get much representation,'' she says.

All African countries, both Muslim and non-Muslim, are eligible to participate in the program. But countries which already send many migrants are ineligible, including India, the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Jamaica and Mexico.

High admission countries are defined as those which have sent more than 50,000 migrants during the last five years in the immediate relative, family and employment preference categories.

04/10/02 09:15 EDT

Egypt cleric backs suicide attacks on settlements

CAIRO, April 1 (Reuters) - A top Egyptian Muslim cleric said in remarks published on Monday that suicide attacks on Jewish settlements were acts of martyrdom and called for action to end Israel's "brutal attack" on Palestinians.

"The suicide attacks carried out by fighters in the Israeli settlements are acts of martyrdom. They are one of the highest forms of martyrdom," Ahmed al-Tayyeb was reported as saying by the semi-official daily al-Ahram.

Tayyeb is Egypt's official Mufti, responsible for issuing religious opinions, or fatwas, on issues concerning Muslims.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began a drive last week to crack the will of Palestinians led by Yasser Arafat, sending tanks into the West Bank towns of Ramallah and Bethlehem.

"Every (government) official should do his utmost to stop this brutal attack, resist this ferocious enemy and push it far from the Palestinian cities," Tayyeb was quoted as saying.

Egypt's other senior theologian, Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, the grand sheikh of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque and university, last month also sanctioned suicide attacks on Jewish settlements, but said they should not deliberately attack "the weak."

Egyptian demonstrators continued their protests against Israel on Monday for a fourth day since Israeli forces raided Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters.

Riot police fired water cannons and tear gas at protesters who tried to demonstrate outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

Witnesses said about 4,000 people, mainly students, marched outside the Cairo University campus, while a group of at least one hundred made a dash for the nearby Israeli embassy.

They said the group was repelled by tear gas and water cannons fired by police in helmets and protective armour who were lined up outside the embassy, which is on the upper floors of a Cairo tower block.

Protesters burnt the U.S. flag.

Organisers and witnesses said anti-Israeli demonstrations had been held at universities across Egypt on Monday.

The Egyptian authorities usually limit demonstrations to university campuses, but in recent days several protests have spilled out onto the streets.

Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel in 1979, but its relations with the Jewish state have been under strain since Palestinians began an uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.

07:38 04-01-02

Top Egypt sheikh says suicide bombers "martyrs"

CAIRO, March 21 (Reuters) - A top Egyptian cleric has said Palestinian suicide bombers are martyrs even if attacks on targets like Jewish settlements inadvertently kill women and children, Egypt's official news agency reported on Thursday.

The Middle East News Agency quoted Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, grand sheikh of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque and university, as saying the bombers were defending their people's dignity but should not intentionally target "the weak."

"Whoever blows himself up among aggressors who wreck houses and kill men, women and innocents and who violate the dignity of our brothers in Palestine...is a martyr because he blows himself up in the midst of an enemy who is raping his land, violating his dignity and killing people," Tantawi said.

In the latest suicide bombing, a Palestinian killed seven people on Wednesday when he blew himself up on a bus in northern Israel. The bombings have been part of a cycle of tit-for-tat violence in 18 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, which the Palestinian Authority condemned.

"Suppose he (a bomber) is in a settlement, a Jewish settlement, and it is proven that there are aggressors there, and he blows himself up in this settlement and kills men, women and children. He is also a martyr," Tantawi said.

"What does he do?... He is not able to differentiate between them," he added.

But Tantawi said suicide bombers should not intentionally blow themselves up "among the weak" because this was incompatible with manhood and against Islamic law.

At least 1,084 Palestinians and 353 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000 after peace talks deadlocked.

05:55 03-21-02

Arab Nations Address Radical Islam

By HAMZA HENDAWI
.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - In a Middle East trip that has touched on the campaign to overcome militant Islam, Vice President Dick Cheney has been meeting with Arab leaders who already have battled extremist revolts and still confront less radical forces.

For the most part, the region's recent struggles for the hearts of Muslims have seen widespread violence in only a few nations, Egypt and Algeria being the most notable.

Many of the Arab leaders with whom Cheney has met found a solution to their Islamic problem in a mix of repression when needed and accommodation when possible.

Accommodating fundamentalist Islam is a necessity in a region where the faith is so important to so many. The religion has been the cornerstone of life in the Middle East for centuries. A revival of the faith as a basis for government - or political Islam - took shape early in the last century, beginning in part as a response to Western colonialism.

``The use of religion for political means is very old,'' said Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on Islamic groups at Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

Over the decades, extremists have taken up arms against secular governments, burned movie theaters and video rental shops in an assault on what they see as Western immorality, and declared that the lives and property of non-Muslims were for the taking.

In Egypt, the most populous Arab nation and a key U.S. ally, the late leader Gamal Abdul-Nasser jailed as many as 20,000 Muslim militants in the 1950s and '60s. But he also started a radio station to air recitations from the Quran, Islam's holy book, and financed missions abroad by representatives of Cairo's renowned Al-Azhar university to spread the faith.

President Hosni Mubarak's government crushed an armed insurgency by Muslim militants in the 1990s with heavy-handed methods by security forces. And authorities also sought to undercut whatever support Islamic militancy enjoyed by projecting their own image of piety and allowing nonviolent Muslim groups some leeway.

In Jordan, Kuwait and Yemen, Muslim fundamentalists have been brought into the political mainstream by governments partly to appease them and partly to project a democratic image.

``The voice of Islamists has been allowed to be heard from different platforms, parliament, political parties and the media,'' said Hani Hourani, a Jordanian political scientist. ``Now the general trend is moderation.''

A gentler version of radical Islam has proven widely appealing, reaching segments of the middle and upper-middle classes that had traditionally been drawn by Western values and lifestyle. The poor and working classes had provided the backbone support of religious conservatism.

Many middle class Muslim women have developed an ``Islamic chic'' dress code - hair covered with a scarf, flowing blouses over pants or dresses that cover the arms and hide any curves. Islamic fashion shows are not uncommon.

In oil-rich Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam and its 7th century prophet, public activity stops and people head to the nearest mosque when the call to prayer is heard five times daily.

But despite the country's austere version of Islam, a legacy of an 18th century fundamentalist movement, authorities turn a blind eye to women flouting the strict Islamic dress code and tolerate the private viewing of satellite TV channels that beam uncensored Western movies and the often steamy video clips of MTV.

In Sudan, an Islamic government seized power in 1989, but the stringent implementation of Islamic law that first characterized the regime has been relaxed.

Around the region, preachers in business suits who speak a mix of classical Arabic and the vernacular are much in demand. Modern day innovations like the Internet are being used to educate Muslims about their faith.

Moderate Islam doesn't resonate with all, however. Many people cling to an extremism fed by the notion that the United States is Islam's archenemy because it is seen as biased toward Israel and as wanting to control the Arab world's major resource - oil.

AP-NY-03-17-02 1320EST

Lone attacker kills five in Pakistan church

By Simon Denyer

ISLAMABAD, March 17 (Reuters) - An American woman and her daughter were among five people killed when an attacker tossed grenades inside a Protestant church during a Sunday service in the diplomatic quarter of the Pakistani capital.

There was no claim of responsibility but suspicion fell on hardline Islamic groups opposed to President Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"I saw a fellow throwing some grenades," said an elderly German woman wearing a white scarf flecked with blood who gave her name as Jutta. "I got down. Praise God I was spared but others were seriously injured. It was havoc."

The 60 to 70 people at the Protestant International Church, a popular place of worship for foreigners in Islamabad, had sung some hymns and were listening to the sermon.

The spiritual calm was shattered by a blast at the back of the hall and one man rushed up the aisle brandishing grenades and shouting, witnesses said.

Worshippers dived for cover as five or six explosions ripped through the church, filling it with smoke and splattering the walls and ceiling with blood.

A government statement said a lone attacker was responsible for killing the five churchgoers -- two Americans, one Pakistani, one Afghan and an unidentified person -- and wounding 42.

Police had earlier said there were two attackers but were not yet sure whether the attacker or attackers had escaped or were among the dead.

The death toll could rise as the government said six or seven people were gravely wounded.

WOUNDED FROM MANY NATIONS

Security was tightened in Islamabad and in other parts of Pakistan, including the port city of Karachi where kidnapped U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl was murdered last month.

Police sealed off the roads around the diplomatic enclave after the attack. An army truck, mounted with a machinegun, moved into place between the church and the nearby U.S. embassy.

Musharraf -- who has banned seven militant groups and ordered the detention of hundreds of activists since September 11 -- called the attack a "ghastly act of terrorism," according to the state news agency.

Pakistan's Health Minister Abdul Malik Kasi said the dead Americans were a woman and her daughter aged about 17, adding the husband was being treated for leg wounds. U.S. officials declined to identify them.

A doctor at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences said the fifth body was in pieces.

"Apparently it is of a foreigner and male," he said.

Islamabad police chief Nasir Durrani said the wounded included 12 Pakistanis, 10 Americans, five Iranians, two Sri Lankans, one Iraqi, one Ethiopian and a German.

The government statement later said citizens of Britain, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Afghanistan had also been hurt.

Wendy Chamberlin, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, visited the Federal Government Services Hospital to view the bodies of the dead Americans and console the wounded.

"It's a tragedy," she said as she emerged, grim-faced. Asked about a motive, she said simply: "Terrorism."

She was due to hold a news conference at 1400 GMT.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement he was "deeply shocked" and was keeping in close contact with the country's diplomats in Islamabad.

HIT THE DECK

Nick Parham, a Briton who works for the Tearfund aid agency, told Reuters he saw the attacker at close range shortly after the first blast.

"One chap came down the aisle a couple of feet away from me. He had a belt on with a whole load of what looked like British army smoke grenades or home-made grenades," Parham said.

"He had one in his hand. At that point I hit the deck. There were five or six more explosions."

Parham was taken to hospital with six other people in an army truck. A young woman with severe wounds died shortly after arriving at hospital, he said.

Armed guards are ubiquitous outside diplomatic missions, aid agencies, hotels and many residences in the capital but there were reports that only one security man was keeping watch over the church's three doors.

Law minister Khalid Ranjha said the attack was "certainly a message" and may have been carried out "to spoil our relations with our foreign friends."

A senior police official in Karachi told Reuters officers and paramilitary rangers had moved into position around churches and areas with religious minorities.

Sunday's attack follows the killing of 15 worshippers and a police guard at St Dominic's church in the city of Bahawalpur in October, the worst assault on Pakistan's small Christian minority since independence from Britain in 1947.

Largely Muslim Pakistan has suffered a surge in violence between Sunni and Shi'ite militants but attacks on Christians and other minorities are relatively rare.

Christians, Hindus and other religions make up about three percent of Pakistan's 140 million people.

08:47 03-17-02

Pro-Islamic Rally in Egypt

By SALAH NASRAWI
.c The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Saying Islam is under attack around the world, protesting students streamed out of Egypt's largest university on Tuesday and marched on the Israeli Embassy, where they were pushed back by hundreds of baton-wielding riot police.

University students enraged by continuing Palestinian-Israeli violence have protested at several campuses across Egypt in recent weeks. Security has been tight in a country where the government has little tolerance for free expression, and the protests are usually confined to campuses.

About 1,000 students at Cairo University, Egypt's largest, managed to break away from an on-campus protest Tuesday that had drawn 3,000 people. The breakaway group was stopped about 50 yards from the heavily guarded Israeli Embassy near the Nile.

After the marchers were forced back onto campus, the protest continued inside as police stood guard at the main gate, keeping students in and reporters out. Pro-Islam chants could be heard from inside the campus.

``Nobody can defend Islam except the youth,'' said leaflets strewn at the scene by the organizers of the protest, a student group linked to the banned Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

The leaflets described the deaths of Palestinians in Israel and the Palestinian territories, of Muslims in recent religious violence in India, and of Afghans in the U.S.-led war on terrorism. The leaflets also accused the United States of planning attacks on Syria, Iraq and Iran and said Washington had dispatched ``the emissary of destruction Anthony Zinni'' to force the Palestinians to surrender to Israel.

The goal of Zinni, the U.S. Mideast envoy, is to persuade Israel and the Palestinians to accept an American plan for a cease-fire, U.S. officials in Washington said Monday. He was to reach Israel on Thursday.

In three other towns in the Nile Delta, thousands of students held similar protests Tuesday, burning American and Israeli flags and calling for help for the Palestinians.

A Muslim Brotherhood leader said the protests were prompted by the Arab governments' ``inability to take active measures'' against Israel and ``American bias.''

AP-NY-03-12-02 0925EST

Wolfowitz: Moderate Muslims Key

By MATT KELLEY
c The Associated Press

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - Supporting moderate Muslims who abhor terrorism and extremism is a key to winning the war on terrorism, the Pentagon's No. 2 official said Saturday.

The Arab-Israeli turmoil hurts the U.S. cause, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said.

``To win that war against terrorism, we have to reach out to the hundreds of millions of Muslims who believe in tolerance and moderation,'' Wolfowitz told a group of news executives at the headquarters of the Gannett Co., Inc. ``They are on the front lines of this struggle against terrorism. ... By helping them to stand up against terrorists, we help ourselves.''

The anti-terrorism campaign is not just a military fight but also ``a battle for hearts and minds as well,'' Wolfowitz said. Helping moderate Muslims around the world press for political reforms in their countries is key to easing future terrorist threats, he said.

America's support for Israel and the conflict between that country and the Palestinians is ``the single most damaging thing against us as we fight this battle,'' Wolfowitz said. But he added that issue alone is not what drives al-Qaida terrorists and their sympathizers. Very few of the 300 Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners being held at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are Palestinians, Wolfowitz said.

``So it would be a mistake to think that all of our problems in the Muslim world would end if, miraculously, the Arab-Israeli conflict ended tomorrow,'' he said.

Wolfowitz said the war in Afghanistan is ``very far from over,'' and that the United States probably would take military action elsewhere in the war on terrorism.

America's NATO ally, Turkey, ``can be an example for the Muslim world'' of a country that reconciles Islam with liberal democracy, Wolfowitz said. He also praised Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for his support of the war in Afghanistan.

AP-NY-03-09-02 1701EST

Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are regrouping

By KATHY GANNON
.c The Associated Press

GARDEZ, Afghanistan (AP) - Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are regrouping in the mountains of eastern Paktia province and just over the border in Pakistan, urging the faithful to wage holy war against U.S. forces, Afghan officials say.

Some Afghan and Western sources estimate the number of al-Qaida fighters alone remaining in this country at 4,000 to 5,000. Many of them are believed to be here in Paktia and other provinces along the Pakistan border.

They are receiving support from a variety of groups, including Kashmiri separatists, Islamic militants in Pakistan and some former officials of Pakistan's intelligence service, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

``We have Chechens, Arabs, Pakistanis in the mountains,'' Ziarat Gul Mangal, deputy intelligence chief of Paktia province, told The Associated Press as he gestured toward the sun-drenched mountains to the east.

Mangal said at least one pocket of fighters, including Chechens, Arabs and Afghans, were recently discovered in the mountains near Gardez.

``They had just started to reorganize there,'' Mangal said without giving any numbers. But he added: ``We found weapons, a lot of weapons.''

U.S. officials in Afghanistan consistently refuse to discuss details of American operations against al-Qaida and Taliban remnants three months after the hardline militia's nationwide rule collapsed.

However, U.S. Special Forces and other covert troops are known to operating in Paktia province, a rugged area south of the capital Kabul.

Even before the Taliban collapsed under the relentless U.S. air bombardment and attacks by the U.S.-backed northern alliance, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had threatened to withdraw to the mountains, regroup and launch a guerrilla war.

``What can you do to us? We are not a national army to stop us,'' Omar said during the bombing campaign. ``We are guerrillas. We will go to the mountains. We will fight you from there.''

Afghan sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Omar is on the move between Maruf in southeastern Afghanistan to Ghazni southwest of Kabul and in the Sharan region of Paktika province, which borders Paktia to the south.

As they regroup, Taliban and al-Qaida remnants are trying to encourage Afghans here to join in a new jihad, or ``hol