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Kuwait
arrests Al-Qaeda leader with links to attack on the USS Cole
destroyer
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LONDON,
November 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Three North African
Muslims have been arrested and charged over an alleged plot to release
cyanide gas in London’s Underground rail system, British police
sources said Saturday, November 16.
They
are accused of having links to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network,
blamed by the U.S. for the September 11 attacks in the United States,
Britain’s Sky News reported.
“Three
men were charged with offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 this
week,” a Home Office spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Sunday, November 17, without confirming widespread reports that the
detained men had planned to release cyanide gas into the subway rail
system.
Rabah
Chekat-Bais, 21, Rabah Kadris in his mid 30s, and Karim Kadouri, 33,
were charged with “possession of articles for the preparation,
instigation and commission of terrorism acts,” a police source said.
Chekat-Bais
appeared before Bow Street Magistrates Court, in central London, on
Monday, November 11, and Kadris and Kadouri, appeared in court on
Tuesday, November 12.
The
three men, all unemployed, were remanded in custody to appear before
magistrates again on Monday, November 18.
The
Sunday Times, which broke the story, said that six North African
men had been arrested on November 9 by Scotland Yard’s
anti-terrorist branch in connection with the plot.
Michael
Rufford, the assistant editor of the paper, told Britain’s Sky News:
“there were six arrests originally, three people were released, only
three were charged.”
“MI5,
the security service, believed the gang was planning to bring
ingredients for a gas bomb into Britain.
“Their
most likely target was a crowded tube train where the chemicals would
be mixed to release toxic fumes, probably cyanide,” The Sunday
Times said in its front-page article.
“They
(MI5) raided more than half a dozen addresses in north London, some
used as drop-ins by Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian immigrants, and
took away items after searches,” the paper said.
Prime
Minister Tony Blair was told of the plot at a Downing Street summit
attended by Home Secretary David Blunkett and security chiefs,
according to the paper.
Blair
“insisted police shut down the suspected terror cell and rejected a
plan to delay any arrests until MI5 had established more about the
gang and its Al-Qaeda links,” the paper said.
“MI5
believed the gang was acting on instructions from an al-Qaeda
commander in Europe,” Downing Street sources told the paper.
The
alleged plot is believed to have been the trigger which prompted
Blair’s terror alert to the nation last week, and a Home Office
warning, later withdrawn, of the possible use by terrorists of poison
gas, the paper said.
Government
sources insisted that the case was not behind Blair’s announcement,
in a key foreign affairs speech last week, that the security services
are warning on an almost daily basis of terrorist threats to a wide
range of targets in Britain.
Nor,
the sources added, was the case connected to Blunkett’s warning
earlier this month that Al-Qaeda might be ready to use “a so-called
dirty bomb, or some kind of poison gas,” possibly targeting trains
and boats to strike at the heart of Britain’s cities.
Under
Britain’s tough new anti-terrorism laws, introduced in the wake of
the September 11 atrocities, foreigners considered a threat to
national security can be detained indefinitely.
Meanwhile,
a senior Kuwaiti security source announced Saturday that Kuwaiti
authorities have arrested the top Al-Qaeda leader for the Gulf,
foiling a plot by the group to blow up a hotel in Yemen used by
Americans.
The
Kuwaiti Al-Watan said in its Sunday issue, that state
security had arrested a Kuwaiti leader of the Al-Qaeda and two
accomplices involved in collecting funds to support attacks in Yemen.
Investigations
by Kuwaiti authorities revealed members of the same cell in Yemen were
involved in the attack on the USS Cole as well as the attack on a
French tanker in Yemen last month, the daily said.
The
arrest aborted a planned attack on a large hotel in Yemen which
accommodates Americans, it added. “Long interrogations of this
individual have established he had a link with the explosion aboard
the USS Cole,” said Al-Watan.
The
U.S. destroyer was rammed by an explosives-laden boat in October 2000,
blowing a hole in its hull and killing 17 U.S. sailors.
“He
also had a direct link with the attack against the French supertanker
Limburg,” it said, referring to the bombing attack on October 6
attack off Al-Mukalla in the Indian Ocean which claimed the life of a
Bulgarian crewman.
The
Kuwaiti suspect identified the man who carried out the Limburg attack
as a 26-year-old Yemeni named Shihab Al-Yamani, Al-Watan said.
A
retired officer from the Kuwaiti army was also involved in collecting
funds and supervising operations in Yemen, it said, adding that
127,000 dollars had been collected for the planned operation on the
hotel.
Al-Watan
said the arrest was “the fruit of a close collaboration between the
Kuwaiti, Saudi, American and French services,” and added that a team
of U.S. agents were currently in the country.
Sunday’s
issue of Al-Anba said investigations revealed that a
booby-trapped black Suburban truck was to be used in the terror
operation against the hotel.
The
hotel attack, it added, was to be supervised by a Yemen-based Al-Qaeda
leader identified as Abu Asim Al-Makki.
The
paper said the suspect named the man who was supposed to carry out
that hotel attack with a car bomb as another Yemeni, Osama Al-Yamani,
25.
Al-Qabas
daily said the arrested Kuwaiti had admitted having been contacted
four months ago by Abu Assem, alias Al-Ahdal, who informed him of
intentions to launch two attacks, one on the sea and one on land, and
demanded 127,000 dollars in financing.
Abu
Assem is one of the two main Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen who had been
sought by the Feberal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and national
security services in connection with the attack on the USS Cole.
The
other, Ali Qaed Sunian Al-Harthi, was assassinated in early November
with five others by a missile launched from a remote-controlled CIA
Predator aircraft as they rode in a vehicle 160 kilometers (100 miles)
east of Sanaa.
