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FBI asks Arab, Muslim, and Western Nations to Hand Over "Terrorists"
DAMASCUS, Sept 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked nine Arab and Islamic nations to hand over hundreds of suspected "terrorists," a Syrian paper reported Saturday, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Almoharrer weekly, a Syrian owned, but Paris and Beirut run, publication, cited European diplomats in France as saying that the FBI has asked Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen to turn over the suspects or "face the consequences," AFP reported
It said the list given to Damascus included 100 people belonging to Palestinian "extremist groups," while the one sent to Lebanon featured 40 people "linked to terrorism since the 1970s."
Forty people were on the list sent to Iran, all of whom have been sought since that country's Islamic revolution in 1979, it said.
Among them was Lebanese national Imad Mughniyeh, suspected of the 1984 kidnapping of William Buckley, the CIA's station chief in Beirut.
The other was named as an Egyptian, Ayman Al Zawahiri, allegedly a senior member of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
The Saudi-born bin Laden is considered by the U.S. as the prime suspect in the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that left nearly 7,000 people presumed dead.
Almoharrer said the FBI also asked the Philippines to hand over three Omani nationals arrested while they were taking pictures of the U.S. embassy in Manila, despite the fact that they were found to be innocent of any suspicious activity and were released when their cameras were found to contain only tourist type pictures.
The weekly also said the FBI had asked Russia and seven other Western nations to investigate an unspecified number of people believed to have links to bin Laden.
The Western countries named by the weekly were Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
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