O Canada and terrorist immigration

Paris' AL WATAN AL ARABI 4/30/99: "His name is Ghazi Ibrahim Abu-Mayzar, a 23-year-old Palestinian from the city of Hebron, who infiltrated in the United States three years ago. He tried three times to across the Canadian border into the United States. In the first time, he was arrested by the US Immigration Authorities near the Canadian border in Washington State.

Six days later, he was arrested again near the US-Canadian border 65 kilometers from where he was first arrested, and was returned to the Canadian authorities.

Six months later, Abu-Mayzar was arrested for the third time by a US immigration officer in Washington State while trying to cross into the United States in a bus near the border in Washington State. This time, he carried no papers, and the Canadian security authorities refused to take him, although he had applied for political asylum in Canada.

Abu-Mayzar was taken to New York, where he was tried by an immigration-specialized court and was released on bail after a lawyer applied for political asylum for him in the United States.

The application said that he was wanted by Israel and that if he returned to that country, he would be put in prison for long years on charges of belonging to the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas. The Americans could not either confirm or refute his testimony, and he was released pending a ruling by the federal judge.

Lafi Khalil, also a 20-year-old Palestinian from the township of 'Ajjul, left the West Bank for Amman in early 1996, according to his relatives. From there, he obtained an entry visa to Mexico and infiltrated in the city of Los Angeles located near the Mexican border.

He stayed in Los Angeles for some time without being intercepted by anybody and then flew to New York. In that big city, which swarms with scores of thousands of illegal immigrants, Khalil met with Abu-Mayzar and established a good relationship with him--a relationship, which led both of them to prison, though for different reasons.

Less than one year after his release on bail pending a decision on his application for political asylum, Abu-Mayzar and his companion Khalil were arrested at an Brooklyn neighborhood apartment in New York while trying to prepare an explosive charge to blast the New York subway during the rush hour and kill at least scores of people.

The target was New York's Atlantic Avenue Station, which is used by approximately 40,000 travelers from and to New York each day. After a brief shoot-out with the police and FBI officers, Abu-Mayzar and his companion Khalil were wounded, surrendered to the police, and were taken to hospital.

Last month, a New York court sentenced Abu-Mayzar to life imprisonment and acquitted his colleague Khalil for lack of evidence of links with the bombing attempt against the New York subway. But the US security authorities are holding Khalil in prison on charges of violating residence terms in the United States and are trying to deport him...

The story of Abu-Mayzar, according to the US security and immigration officials, is not the only one. Every week, extremist groups try to cross the Canadian border into the United States, and they often succeed.

The officials said that "Canada has become a shelter for 50 of the most radical groups in the world," including the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, Lebanon's Hizballah, and the Egyptian Jihad Group.

They also said that activists from other radical organizations, such as the Irish Republican Army, the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers, and many secessionist Sikh groups reside in Canada illegally, and sometimes legally, and extend support to their organizations in their mother homelands in various ways.

The members of these organizations, they said, collect money and other in-kind donations for their organizations, and sometimes purchase weapons from the open Canadian and US markets for these organizations.

A report, submitted to the US Congress last week by a senior official in the US Immigration and Naturalization Department, warns of the "danger of terrorism in Canada," quoting the Canadian Intelligence chief as admitting in a report he submitted to the Canadian Senate last year that his intelligence organs are "aware that approximately 50 terrorist groups have built their infrastructure in Canada and are capable of carrying out military operations against various targets in Canada and possibly in neighboring countries."

A report by Canadian intelligence organs also said that the Canadian authorities last year discovered a network for the followers of a Lebanese terrorist group "whose members steal luxurious cars, dismantle them, as it happens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and export them as spare parts to a number of countries, including Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and some African countries.

The report, which did not reveal the names of the terrorist groups, said that in three months, the network was able to make more than $3 million in profits and that the members of the network confessed that 10 percent of the profits were transferred to the terrorist groups with which the prisoners are affiliated.

The report also said that many such operations easily take place in Canada because of the vastness of the Canadian territory, the lack of enough resources for the Canadian security organs to chase these people, and the Canadian Judiciary's leniency toward such crimes.

The report submitted to the US Congress by the US Immigration and Naturalization Department official quoted a Canadian intelligence report as saying that the Canadian Government admitted that "it has become a haven for the majority of the terrorist organizations in the world."

He also said that the information the US officials have obtained "confirms this fact, which has become a source of deep concern for us. Our 6,000 kilometer long border with Canada, the longest of all borders in the world, cannot be controlled by any security measure to prevent the infiltration of the members of these groups in our cities and residential areas.

PA secrets

Amman's AL MAJD 5/3/99: "From Gaza, where the Central Council concluded its meetings on Thursday, to Damascus where most of the leaderships of the Palestinian opposition factions are present, a highly confidential and extremely important file has been flown, a file that depicts the situation behind the scenes.

It contains the Council's corridor secrets and the facts behind the US and European contacts and pressures, which upon reading them prove that the Palestinian decision depends on a hundred and one sides.

A copy of this extremely confidential and private file, which was sent by one of the attendees of the Council sessions to its leadership, landed on the desks of al-Majd...

The process of drafting the closing statement of the Central Council meetings went through a turbulent storm, sharp differences, and a variety of pressures, despite the fact that the Council meetings themselves had a calm atmosphere about them.

On Wednesday 28 April, the Committee reached a draft of the statement containing the main points that reflect accurately the general prevalent trend in the atmosphere of the Council as expressed by the majority of its members.

These points are:

To confirm the end of the transitional period;

To keep the Central Council sessions in session;

To form committees for formulating the necessary measures for manifesting sovereignty, such as the national dialogue committee and the temporary constitution draft committee;

To reconvene the Council with all its agencies in a meeting during the first half of June in order to take the final decision.

Based on this, the statement was expected to be delivered together with the above-mentioned elements before the Central Council in order to be approved during the Council's final session on 28 April. However, after Yasir 'Arafat saw the statement, he asked that it be withdrawn from the discussions for fear that it might leak to the press...

After the Central Council session was suspended until Thursday, 'Arafat called for a meeting of the draft committee under the participation of Sa'ib 'Urayqat and Nabil Sha'th, where frank discussions took place, and issues were presented in their true light. During this meeting, 'Arafat stated that he cannot accept for sure the end of the transitional stage, because this means terminating the self-rule institutions.

He said: Thus, you force me to present an alternative to these institutions--meaning, elections for the Council's leading agencies and the National Council. And this is not possible because I am not ready for these steps yet.

Some members of the draft committee, such as Qays 'Abd-al-Karim, alias Abu Layla, and al-Tayyib 'Abd-al-Rahim told 'Arafat: You are the chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and the head of the Palestinian Authority. You can, in accordance with your privileges, solve the problem by issuing a decree that extends the Legislative Council's term until the state constitution and its agencies are set.

At this point, Sa'ib 'Urayqat intervened, speaking in a frank and clear way. He said that the declaration of the end of the transitional stage does not mean only the end of the institutions stemming from Oslo; it also contradicts the necessities for consultation with the United States and the European Union, particularly with the countries that have asked us to postpone the state proclamation for a period of six months, namely Egypt, or nine months, namely the European Union, or even one year, the United States.

In other words, these are the countries that have supported the declaration of the state--of course this does not apply to the United States--with whom we are holding consultations on how to overcome the settlement policy. Therefore, there is no alternative to consultation with these countries for us to guarantee their recognition of the state declaration...

The discussion went on for a long time in the draft committee. Al-Tayyib 'Abd-al-Rahim got into a sharp argument with Sa'ib 'Urayqat and defended the draft that strongly supports the Central Council's statement. As a result and in an attempt to reach a solution, 'Arafat proposed the following:

That the text relating to the end of the transitional stage be moved to the preamble of the statement and not to be mentioned in the resolutions; That the Central Council convene in June, not during the first half of the month. In practice, this means that the Central Council's convention will be moved to the second half of this month.

During the period that separates the Central Council from its future session, the concerned committees will finalize their work on arrangements for manifesting the sovereignty, holding national dialogue, and preparing the constitution.

They will then present them to the Central Council during the second half of June; and Thus, as a result only one resolution will be noted in the statement issued by the Central Council stipulating that its sessions shall remain open."

Shin Bet politics

MA'ARIV 4/28/99--Op-ed by Uri Dan: "Whoever wants to understand the use made of political information coming their way by Shin Bet and other intelligence officers should make do with one report published in Ma'ariv this week (25 April), which noted that "a senior Shin Bet officer told Ma'ariv that the Shin Bet can provide the government with solid evidence that the Palestinian Authority is closely linked with Orient House."

Nevertheless, the senior officer noted, "the Shin Bet does not propose to close the offices now so as not to trigger another confrontation with the Palestinians." The officer went on to say that "Palestinian activity in East Jerusalem recently reached unprecedented proportions, and every time one office is closed down another one opens in a private home."

The problem is that this credible and accurate press report conforms with the nature of the briefings given to the inner cabinet, the cabinet, and later -- sometimes simultaneously and sometimes before -- leaked to the press on behalf of "security sources," anonymously, of course.

On one hand, anybody reading such a report gets the impression that under Netanyahu's tenure Palestinian activity in Jerusalem reached "unprecedented proportions." In other words, the government is to blame. In the same breath, on the other hand, the Shin Bet warns that the government's decision to close the offices might lead to a confrontation.

Moreover, it "does not propose to close the offices now." Namely, the government is acting, as it were, contrary to the Shin Bet's recommendations, and if there is a confrontation everybody ought to know that that the Shin Bet is not responsible.

The Shin Bet pleads innocent on all counts: It reports the illegal activity in Orient House, warns that the closure of the offices might lead to a violent confrontation, and announces that it opposes their closure.

So what does the Shin Bet propose? Why didn't it act through its own channels to prevent the subversive activities of the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, an issue under its purview?

After all, in any normal country a security service -- what is commonly known as the security branches -- is not allowed to have it both ways: both to feed everybody the poisoned cake of "unprecedented activity" and to keep it -- that is, do nothing. Just like in other security areas, politicization has infiltrated the shin Bet, too.

One gets the impression that there are people in the Shin Bet who want to hurt the Netanyahu government on the eve of the elections: to publicize the vast Palestinian activity in Orient House, and at the same time, tie the government's hands from doing anything against it...

Jordan and Iran and sovereignty over Jerusalem

Amman-Petra JORDAN NEWS AGENCY 5/4/99: "His Majesty's political advisor Adnan Abu Odeh said that the Arab and Islamic right in Jerusalem is an eternal one and that Israel's attempts to Judaize the city is a violation of the international law.

In a speech he delivered during the first meeting of the inter-cultural dialogue conference currently being held in Tehran, Abu Odeh said that Jordan does not view the Arab and Islamic right in Jerusalem as only having an access to the holy sites in the city but also to have sovereignty over them.

"Any negotiations over Jerusalem should take into consideration the recognition of the Palestinian right in the city and the right of the followers of the three monotheistic religions to have a free access to the holy shrines," he said noting that the U.N Security Council resolution 242 applies to Jerusalem as is the case with all the Arab lands occupied in 1967.

Abu Odeh said that globalization has a negative impact especially on values, noting that confronting this problem needs an extensive efforts, coordination and cooperation.

"We are trying to make a change in the international strategies to enhance inter-cultural dialogue, for it is the only way to achieve peace in the world and ease the suffering of peoples," he pointed out.

The meeting began in Tehran on Monday in the presence of Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi. The Iranian minister delivered a speech in which he stressed that the idea of dialogue among cultures is welcomed by all countries and international bodies."

Iraqi scientist pretended to build bomb?

YEDIOT AHARONOT 4/30/99: "It is not every day that an Israeli reporter has the chance to meet face to face with a man who, with his intelligence and his ten fingers can cause a nuclear disaster to befall the state of Israel. His name is Dr. Haydir 'Abd-al-'Abas Hamzah, so far the most senior Iraqi nuclear scientist to flee his country.

He is the man who drew up the plan for Saddam Husayn to build an atomic bomb and earned the title of "bomb maker." He is the one whom Saddam in 1994 put in charge with building the Iraqi nuclear organization; he is the one who conducted and finalized negotiations for the purchase of the nuclear reactor from France, which was destroyed by the [Israeli] Air Force in June 1981, and he is the one who, after the explosion of the reactor, was required to intensify efforts to achieve the same goal.

Despite this, Saddam does not have one bomb available. According to Hamzah's testimony, there was an unspoken agreement among Iraqi scientists not to enable Saddam to get a bomb. The method was simple: Tell Saddam "yes," purchase what was necessary, build the entire infrastructure, but keep stalling its development for as long as possible. Report to the ruler that they are progressing, while knowingly deceiving him at a risk to their lives. "All of us, including our families, were in danger."

It is difficult to believe that it would have been possible to intentionally delay for years the development of the Iraqi nuclear bomb in a regime such as Saddam's, which Hamzah describes as one, big prison.

It is difficult not to get the impression that Hamzah is trying to conceal his part in the failed attempt to build the bomb. "I am not Oppenheimer," Hamzah uttered in the course of the interview, referring to the man who designed the first American atom bomb...

But, even if we accept Hamzah's story at face value, he acknowledges that this process could not go on forever. According to him, in 1991, at the end of a decade of the reactor operation, Iraq would have possessed a nuclear bomb that could have threatened Israel.

Now, after his defection to the West, Hamzah wants to warn about what is happening in Iraq today, when the bomb production is in the hands of a new generation of scientists, all of whom are Saddam's spiritual children. The bomb is closer than ever, he warns.

Hamzah's defection has filled in missing intelligence information for the United States regarding the progress of the Iraqi nuclear program. He has freely delivered himself over to CIA investigators and has extensively answered all of their questions.

Now, he is a desired guest in government and academic forums. Dr. Avner Kohen, an Israeli researcher living in Washington, DC, is the one who brought us together. Hamzah, 60, was born in Diwaniyeh, a small town along one of the Euphrates channels, to a Shi'ite family that also has some Kurdish blood.

Upon completion of his studies in Iraq, he, like many of his colleagues, traveled abroad to get his degrees in physics. He did graduate work at Florida State University and at MIT in Boston. In 1970, he was hired by the Iraqi government to work on the nuclear program.

In the 24 years that have passed since then and until his defection in 1994, he has held a series of top-level positions in the nuclear establishment. At the height of his career, he was in charge of production of the bomb..."

Defense Minister Arens warns Syria

MA'ARIV 5/2/99: "Defense Minister Moshe Arens last week relayed a threatening message to Syrian President Hafiz al-Asad: If Syria does not take action to curb the Hizballah operations in south Lebanon, Israel will be forced to react sharply.

The defense minister relayed the message in a series of meetings in Washington with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen, and Clinton's National Security Council Sandy Berger. Arens did not specify against whom Israel would take firm action if calm is not restored in south Lebanon.

Appearing before the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York last Friday, the defense minister said that Israel's enemy in the north is not the Lebanese Government or Hizballah, but Syria.

According to him, nothing happens in Lebanon without the Syrian Government's consent or guidance. Arens added that Israel will not sit down to negotiations with Syria on the Golan Heights' future before achieving an arrangement on south Lebanon giving Israel guarantees that calm will prevail and that the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] can be pulled out of Lebanon.

He said: "In my view, it would be a most serious mistake to discuss the Golan with the Syrians in return for their promise to maintain calm on the Lebanese border. Al-Asad is waging a remote-controlled war against Israel. He is trying to extort political achievements from us, exploiting our sensitivity to the lives of our soldiers, and he is not paying any price for it.

That's no way to make peace, that's a way to exacerbate the situation all the way to another comprehensive war in the region." Confidential CIA intelligence reports, which reached Israel, indicate a growing cooperation between Syria, Iran, and Russia.

According to the report, this growing cooperation consists of deals for the supply of Russian state-of-the-art weapons, message exchanges, mutual visits by military delegations, and the strengthening of security ties. Iranian president Muhammad Khatami will soon visit Damascus, and al-Asad is to visit Moscow.

Concurrently with the cooperation, there is growing Iranian involvement in Syrian defense affairs. A senior Israeli source told Ma'ariv that despite Russia's heavy debts, it is trying to regain its influential status in the region, such as involvement in the United Nations, in Arab states, and in international conflicts.

The source said that Israeli elements are very concerned at the Russian-Syrian-Iranian triangle, with Russia continuing to turn a blind eye to the supply of powerful technological expertise to Iran and Iraq, including nuclear capabilities."

Arens follows through on warning

THE JERUSALEM POST 5/6/99: "The IAF raid Tuesday night on Hizbullah's stronghold in Baalbek in the northern part of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley - an area controlled by Syrian troops - sent a message to both Syria and Lebanon, Defense Minister Moshe Arens declared yesterday.

Arens maintained that the government is not showing restraint in the face of Hizbullah attacks this week, which claimed the lives of an IDF soldier and a senior South Lebanese Army officer. Four other IDF soldiers and two from the SLA were wounded in the separate incidents.

"I think that when the IAF reaches Baalbek, everybody in Lebanon and Syria knows where that is. They know that we can reach far and that we can reach even further," said Arens..

.Also yesterday, SLA troops discovered and safely neutralized two sets of explosive devices on the road leading from the coastal highway to the IDF's Rotem outpost.

This is the same area where a bomb exploded on Monday morning, killing St.-Sgt. Molo Negato, 23, of Ness Ziona and wounding another Givati Brigade soldier, St.-Sgt. Assad Hamuda, a tracker. Meanwhile, Lebanese newspapers reported that two SLA soldiers from Bint J'bail village, in the western sector of the zone, recently defected to the ranks of Hizbullah.