This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog! 
Posted on 08/21/2004 7:17:47 AM PDT by knighthawk
GENEVA, Aug 21 (AFP) - Two Yemeni nationals arrested this year in Switzerland are linked to key Al-Qaeda figures with ties to the October 2000 bombing of a US aircraft carrier off Yemen and to a suicide strike in Riyadh last year, the Swiss public prosecutor was quoted as saying on Saturday.
The pair, who were detained in Geneva and Bern in January, have been linked to "several core members of the (Osama) bin Laden movement," said a report on an inquiry by public prosecutor Claude Nicati, obtained by Le Temps newspaper.
A spokesperson at the federal prosecutor's office declined to comment on the article.
Switzerland has accused 10 people, largely from Yemen and Somalia, of being involved in criminal gangs, forging documents and travelling illegally, the daily said. Five of the suspects, arrested in raids late last year and in May 2004, remain in custody, the paper said.
The paper named the two main suspects as Abdelhamid, 56, who had been living in Bern and Abou Bakr, 36, who resided in Thonex, near Geneva.
The two are believed to have had contact with known Al-Qaeda operative Abdallah al-Kini, also known as Owaiss, who is thought to have taken part in the October 2000 attack on the US destroyer Cole, which killed 17 American sailors, and the deadly strikes on residential compounds in the Saudi capital.
"The Swiss network has transmitted money to people close to Al-Qaeda living in the Gulf states," Le Temps said in a front page article.
One member of the gang also received training on explosives in Afghanistan, the daily reported.
The public prosecutor's report, dated July 30, calls for the opening of a preliminary investigation into the 10 people.
Ping
Bump
fyi
Do they mean the USS Cole...which is not an aircraft carrier in any way.....??
Are you accusing the media of laziness?
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