Operation Phantom Fury--Day 142 - Now Operation River Blitz--Day 37

Romanian journalist Ovidiu Ohanesian from 'Romania Libera' newspaper is seen in this undated file photograph. Ohanesian, Prima TV reporter Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci, were kidnapped in Iraq on March 28, 2005 Romania's President Traian Basescu said. REUTERS/Romania Libera/Handout

An undated picture from Romanian television station Prima TV, shows one of their cameramen Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, one of the three Romanian journalists who were allegedly kidnapped Monday March 28, 2005 in Baghdad Iraq. The others are Bucharest daily Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37 and reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, also of Prima TV. They went missing the Iraqi capital shortly after an interview with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the newspaper's director Petre Mihai Bacanu told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/PrimaTV)

Romanian reporter Marie Jeanne Ion from Prima TV is seen in this undated file photograph. Marie Jeanne Ion, Prima TV's cameraman Sorin Miscoci and reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian from 'Romania Libera' newspaper were kidnapped in Iraq on March 28, 2005, Romania's President Traian Basescu said. REUTERS/Handout

Romanians Kidnapped in Iraq Sent Desperate Messages

By Radu Marinas BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Baghdad managed to send desperate messages to relatives and colleagues before disappearing on Monday, the latest foreigners to be abducted in Iraq.

"We're kidnapped. This is not a joke," one of the three, Prima TV reporters Marie Jeanne Ion, managed to message her mother from her mobile phone, Magdalena Ion told Realitatea TV.

Her cameraman Sorin Miscoci and journalist Ovidiu Ohanesian of the Romania Libera daily newspaper, all on a short reporting trip to Iraq, were also missing, authorities said.

Staunch U.S. supporter Romania set up a crisis center to handle the situation while President Traian Basescu said both local and foreign secret services had been alerted.

The kidnappings happened while Basescu was on a whistlestop visit to Afghanistan and Iraq, where Romania has some 800 troops in the U.S.-led military coalition occupying the country.

Like other east European countries grateful to Washington for its support in shedding communism, Romania is a faithful U.S. ally that has unwaveringly supported the war in Iraq, providing logistical support and troops.

It joined NATO in 2004 and is eager to host permanent U.S. military bases on its Black Sea coast.

"I would like to believe that only economic reasons triggered their situation. I don't want to believe that their kidnapping was politically motivated," said Simona Marinescu, an adviser to the Romanian embassy in Baghdad.

More than 150 foreigners have been seized in Iraq over the past year. Most have been freed after negotiations or payment of ransom, but about a third have been killed. Many more Iraqis have been abducted, often for ransom.

The news editor of Prima TV, Dan Dumitru, said Ion managed a quick call to her newsroom before disappearing and that he had heard her desperately pleading with her kidnappers.

"I heard Arabic, English and Romanian words shouted," he said. "I heard her imploring the attackers not to kidnap them because they come from a poor country which won't be able to pay the ransom."

Her mother appealed to authorities not to rush into rescue operations before hearing out the abductors. "Please don't send special troops to look for them," Magdalena Ion said. "We must wait and see what the kidnappers want."

Journalists at Romania Libera had a difficult time believing their colleague Ohanesian was kidnapped since there was no official confirmation or demand from the kidnappers.

"We cannot say we are absolutely positive he was kidnapped. We have tried to contact our colleague and we will continue to try," said fellow journalist Cornel Popa.

Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, chief of the investigation probing the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, ;leaves a meeting with Secretary General Kofi Annan at the United Nations, Tuesday March 29, 2005. A report to be released Tuesday will fault Annan for failing to take aggressive action to deal with possible conflict of interest in the awarding of a U.N. oil-for-food contract to Cotecna Inspection S.A., which employed his son, Kojo, in Africa, the officials said. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Annan receives new report on misconduct probe of Iraq Oil-for-Food programme

29 March 2005 – The independent committee probing alleged misconduct and mismanagement in the United Nations Oil-for-Food programme for Iraq today presented to Secretary-General Kofi Annan a second interim report dealing with the employment of his son by a Swiss company awarded a contract in the multibillion dollar relief effort.

Former United States Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, head of Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), brought the document, which will be made public at noon, to Mr. Annan in the Secretary-General’s 38th floor office at UN Headquarters in New York.

Mr. Annan is to hold a news conference on the report’s findings this afternoon.

Last week, the Secretary-General’s Chief of Staff, Mark Malloch Brown, said Mr. Annan expected to be fully exonerated by the report concerning past employment of his son, Kojo, with the Swiss company Cotecna, which was awarded a contract to monitor the now defunct Oil-for-Food programme that allowed then sanctions-bound Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian supplies.

Mr. Malloch Brown told a news briefing that Mr. Annan had consistently maintained that he himself was not guilty of any wrongdoing, that Kojo’s work for Cotecna had nothing to do with its contract, and that Kojo had confirmed that he misled his father about the extent of his relationship with the company.

Annan Criticized in Oil-For-Food Report

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Investigators probing the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq will criticize U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his son, and the Swiss company that employed him but will not accuse the U.N. chief of corruption, officials said.

The report to be released Tuesday will fault Annan for failing to take aggressive action to deal with possible conflict of interest in the awarding of a U.N. oil-for-food contract to Cotecna Inspection S.A., which employed his son, Kojo, in Africa, the officials said.

It will also be highly critical of Kojo Annan for concealing information about his dealings with Cotecna and for deceiving his father, and it will blame the Swiss firm for failing to make information public about the secretary-general's son, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

The report will be the second issued by the team of investigators led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. It comes a week after Annan called for the biggest overhaul of the United Nations in its 60-year history. It also coincides with allegations of sex abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and of sexual harassment and mismanagement by senior U.N. staff.

Volcker's committee of inquiry will also censure Annan for failing to detect shortcomings in the U.N. bureaucracy that allowed problems in the $64 billion humanitarian aid program to continue until it was wrapped up after the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the officials said.

While the new report will fault the secretary-general's overall management of the oil-for-food program, it will support statements by his chief of staff and spokesman as recently as Monday that "the secretary-general expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing."

As one official said, "He's not going to be implicated in corruption in any form whatsoever."

For the secretary-general, this will almost certainly be the most important finding. But it may not appease his critics, including several U.S. lawmakers who have called for his resignation.

The oil-for-food program was the largest U.N. humanitarian aid operation, running from 1996-2003. Saddam Hussein's government was allowed to sell limited amounts — and eventually unlimited amounts — of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exemption from U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

In a bid to curry favor and end sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit. U.S. congressional investigators say Saddam's regime may have illegally made more than $21 billion by cheating the program and other sanctions-busting schemes.

Senior U.N. officials insist the secretary-general has no intention of stepping down, and U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard dismissed reports describing the secretary-general as weak and depressed.

Kofi Annan, his son, and Cotecna all deny any link between Kojo Annan's employment and the awarding of the U.N. contract to the company.

The officials said Volcker still has questions about Kojo Annan and will state in the report that his investigation of the secretary-general's son is continuing. So is his investigation of Benon Sevan, who headed the oil-for-food program.

Volcker has promised a final report in mid-summer.

In his first report in February, Volcker accused Sevan of a "grave conflict of interest," saying his conduct in soliciting oil deals from Iraq was "ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations." He also questioned where Sevan got $160,000 in cash, calling it "unexplained wealth" despite Sevan's claim it came from his aunt. Sevan's attorney has said he did nothing wrong.

Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna in West Africa from 1995 to December 1997 and then as a consultant until the end of 1998 — just when it won the oil-for-food contract. He remained on the Cotecna payroll until 2004 on a contract to prevent him from working for a competitor in Nigeria or Ghana, but that was only disclosed in November.

At the time, the secretary-general said he was "very disappointed and surprised" that his son continued to receive money.

Cotecna initially said Kojo Annan was only employed until 1998. It released details of his payments only last week, after a report in the Financial Times and the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 said he received over $300,000, double the amount previously reported.

Cotecna spokesman Seth Goldschlager told The Associated Press last week that Kojo Annan got more than $365,000 from the company — about $200,000 as a full-time employee and consultant from 1995-1998 and more than $165,000 from 1999 until February 2004 under the so-called "non-compete" contract.

He also disclosed that Volcker sought payment records from five companies linked to the firm for the years 1996 to 2004. The Swiss accounting firm BDO Visura is currently conducting an audit, expected to be completed at the end of April.

Goldschlager also confirmed reports in the two papers of three meetings between Kofi Annan and Cotecna executives and disclosed a fourth contact. Two were in social settings, one in Annan's U.N. office, and one after the Cotecna contract was signed.

As for Sevan, the United Nations on Monday reversed its decision to pay his legal fees related to the investigation. The plan to pay Sevan's fees had stirred controversy because of the seriousness of the allegations against him and because U.N. officials said the reimbursements would be paid with money from Iraqi oil sales used to finance the oil-for-food program itself.

Associated Press writer Desmond Butler contributed to this report.

3 Romanian Journalists Kidnapped in Iraq

An undated picture from Romanian television station Prima TV, shows one of their cameramen Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, one of the three Romanian journalists who were allegedly kidnapped Monday March 28, 2005 in Baghdad Iraq. The others are Bucharest daily Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37 and reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, also of Prima TV. They went missing the Iraqi capital shortly after an interview with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the newspaper's director Petre Mihai Bacanu told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/PrimaTV)

Tue, Mar 29, 2005 (15 minutes ago)

By ALEXANDRU ALEXE, Associated Press Writer

BUCHAREST, Romania - Three Romanian journalists had finished interviewing Iraq's interim prime minister hours earlier when one of them sent an ominous text message back to her newsroom: "Help, this is not a joke, we've been kidnapped."

The three were abducted Monday night near their Baghdad hotel, officials said Tuesday — the latest journalists to be taken hostage in Iraq.

They were identified as reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, from Bucharest-based television station Prima TV, and Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37.

Petre Mihai Bacanu, managing editor of Romania Libera newspaper, said the three disappeared late Monday, shortly after interviewing interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Bacanu said no group had claimed responsibility and no ransom demand had been made.

The three were abducted about 8:30 p.m. from a street next to the hotel, which is not in the city's heavily fortified Green Zone, a hotel employee who works at the reception desk told The Associated Press by telephone.

A group from the Romanian Embassy told the hotel staff that their driver reported the three had been kidnapped, the employee said. The hotel, where other foreign journalists also stay, is in Baghdad's upscale Jadriya neighborhood and is surrounded by a concrete barrier, he said.

A Prima TV statement said Ion called the newsroom, speaking a mixture of Romanian, Arabic and English, and was heard apparently talking to her abductors.

"Don't kill us, we are from a poor country and we have no money," the statement quoted her as saying.

She later sent a text message to the station, saying, "Help, this is not a joke, we've been kidnapped."

Dumitru said Ion had called during an editorial meeting, and he put the phone on speaker.

"Marie-Jeanne was begging in English and in Arabic 'to be left alone,'" he said. "Their translator said that they were from Romania, a poor country and don't have money to pay a ransom."

"All I know they have been taken by force and we can't reach them any more," Dumitru told private television station Realitatea TV.

President Traian Basescu made a surprise visit Sunday to Iraq, where Romania has 800 troops, but they were not traveling with him.

Dan Dumitru, news director at Prima TV, said the two broadcast journalists were in Iraq for five days to interview Allawi and interim President Ghazi al-Yawer.

Bacanu said Ohanesian "had just had an interview with the prime minister and he told me he wanted to do some features, but I told him not to do that and to come back."

Basescu, who was in Iraq and Afghanistan for two days visiting troops, said on his return to Bucharest that his government was doing all it could to find the journalists. He said Romania had sought the help of U.S.-led coalition authorities in Iraq.

Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said he had set up a crisis center to coordinate attempts to free the three.

No Romanian forces have been lost in Iraq, and their presence there has not so far been a sensitive issue at home.

But a Romanian political commentator said the kidnappings could undermine public support for Romania's role there.

"It will be a shock for the public. It is the first time something like this has happened. If Romanian authorities do not manage to free the journalists it will harm the support that Basescu enjoys," said Stelian Tanase by telephone.

3 Romanian Journalists Kidnapped in Iraq

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An Iraqi officer looks at the damage following a car bomb in Kirkuk. Iraq's parliament, meeting for only the second time since landmark elections two months ago, failed to pick a new speaker as Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish politicians bickered over cabinet posts.(AFP/Marwan Ibrahim)

Bombing targets Kurds in Kirkuk as Iraq parliament reconvenes

BAGHDAD, March 29 (AFP) - 10h59 - At least 18 people were wounded Tuesday by a car bomb targeting a Kurdish official in the divided northern oil city of Kirkuk as Iraq’s new parliament was set to elect a speaker amid tight security.

At least four of Baghdad’s main bridges were closed to traffic, while Iraqi police and soldiers fanned out on the streets and US helicopters patrolled the skies for the session, only the second since historic January 30 elections.

The Kirkuk bomb went off in the path of a convoy carrying the city’s water chief, Abdulqader Zanganah, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in the second assassination attempt against a KDP official in three days.

Several buildings in the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Rahimawa were also damaged by the blast, said the area’s police chief, Colonel Adel Zeinalbeddin.

He said preliminary inquiries suggested that a bomb-rigged vehicle parked on a sidestreet had been detonated by remote control.

Five of the wounded were in serious condition, hospital officials said. Zanganah’s condition was not immediately clear.

KDP leader Massoud Barzani has been one of the most outspoken champions of Kurdish demands for Kirkuk to be incorporated in their autonomous region in northern Iraq, despite the opposition of the city’s Turkmen minority and Arabs settled in the city under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The Kurdish alliance emerged as the second largest bloc from January’s elections after the main Shiite list and its support is vital for the two-thirds majority required to approve a new government.

The Kurds have made the Kirkuk issue a central demand in coalition talks, which are still dragging on more than eight weeks after the election.

MPs were to meet Tuesday for a largely formalistic session to elect a speaker and two deputies after their inaugural session on March 16.

"I hope the assembly will continue its meetings because we have a lot of work ahead of us and millions of Iraqis have pinned their hopes on this body," said Sami al-Askari, a member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).

Both Shiites and Kurds have agreed to award the speakership to one of around 20 Sunni Arabs who won seats in the 275-member national assembly in a bid to reach out to the embittered community that largely boycotted the election.

The Shiites were backing UIA member Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba, a tribal leader from the powerful Shammar tribal confederation, which straddles the sectarian divide.

A Shiite negotiator said the Kurds wanted Hajem al-Hassani, the outgoing industry minister, who won a seat in parliament as part of the list of outgoing President Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab.

Hassani is a native of Kirkuk and a devout Muslim who studied and worked in the United States before returning to Iraq after Saddam’s fall in April 2003.

The Sunnis were meeting among themselves and expected to give a name Tuesday morning, said Shiite negotiator Jawad Maliky.

For their part, the Kurds were far from thrilled with Jarba.

"He is a member of the UIA. It would be better to choose an independent Sunni politician if we want a national unity government," outgoing foreign minister and senior Kurdish official Hoshyar Zebari told AFP.

The Kurds also wish to temper Islamist influence in the Shiite bloc by including members of outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s secular alliance.

Allawi has said clerics must stay out of politics if he is to join a new governing coalition, an aide of the secular politician told AFP on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Romanian foreign ministry announced that three journalists working for the private television station Prima TV were feared missing in Iraq.

"Contacted by the management of Prima TV about the possible disappearance in Iraq of three of its journalists, the ministry and the main intelligence services have formed a crisis cell," a statement said.

The apparent disappearance of the journalists, including a woman, follows a surprise visit to Romania’s 800 soldiers in Iraq by President Traian Basescu on Sunday.

Prima TV’s news director Dan Dumitru said the station’s management had received a telephone call around 1700 GMT Monday during which they "heard voices speaking Arabic as well as journalist Marie-Jeanne Ion calling out in English: ’Don’t kill us, we are journalists, we don’t have any money’."

Iraqi security personnel survey a damaged civilian vehicle at the scene of a car bomb explosion in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk March 29, 2005. A car bomb exploded on a street in Kirkuk killing one guard and wounding over a dozen of civilians, police and hospital sources said. REUTERS/Salah al-Deen Rasheed

Islamic Army in Iraq claims mortar fire near parliament

3/29/2005:

DUBAI - The Islamic Army in Iraq, one of the main armed groups in the country, claimed responsibility Tuesday for the firing of mortar rounds near the convention center in Baghdad where the new Iraqi parliament was meeting.

A unit fired "four mortar rounds against the seat of the Iraqi National Assembly in the Green Zone where a meeting was underway in the afternoon," the IAI said in a statement posted on the Internet.

The authenticity of the statement could not be confirmed.

Two mortar rounds struck near the convention center where MPs were gathering for the session at around 1:15 pm (1015 GMT).

The center is located inside the heavily fortified city center compound known as the Green Zone, which also contains the US embassy and the offices of the interim government.

The Islamic Army in Iraq has repeatedly taken credit for attacks and for the abduction -- and sometimes killing -- of foreign hostages.

Pedestrians cross the Tigris in Baghdad after roads near Green Zone were closed to vehicles. Two mortar rounds struck Baghdad near the convention centre where the new Iraqi parliament was gathering for its second session, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.(AFP/Sabah Arar)

Mortar rounds hit Baghdad near Iraq parliament meeting

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two mortar rounds struck Baghdad near the convention centre where the new Iraqi parliament was gathering for its second session, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.

It was not immediately clear whether the rounds had caused any casualties or damage inside the heavily fortified city centre compound known as the Green Zone, which contains the convention centre as well as the US embassy and the offices of the interim government.

Baghdad is regularly shaken by explosions. At least two mortar rounds hit the Green Zone on March 16 shortly before MPs held their first session.

Former French hostage in Indonesia Jean-Jacques Le Garrec, front, right, reads a text calling for the release of French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi guide Hussein Hanoun, who were kidnapped in Iraq 78 days ago, during a ceremony in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris Thursday, March 24, 2005. Standing behind from left: are former hostages Roger Auques and George Hansen (kidnapped in Lebanon), Roland Madura (held in Indonesia), Eric Giet (held in Iraq) and Jean-Paul Kauffmann (held in Lebanon), all of them reporters. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

France Has 'Reassuring' News on Iraq Hostage - PM

PARIS (Reuters) - The French government has "reassuring" news about a French reporter kidnapped in Iraq in January, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told parliament on Tuesday. He gave no details.

"Following the appeal we launched for the kidnappers to contact our country's official services, the French official services today have reassuring news," Raffarin said in comments to the lower house of parliament.

"We now have contacts which seem to have stabilized, allowing us to have some hope," Raffarin said.

But he added: "Caution remains our rule."

Journalist Florence Aubenas was taken hostage with her Iraqi driver Hussein Hanun al-Saadi in Baghdad on Jan. 5. Little is known about her fate since then.

Raffarin launched a direct appeal to her kidnappers after the reporter was shown alive in video footage released by Iraqi insurgents on March 1. Looking distraught and fragile, Aubenas made a desperate appeal for help.

France had hoped its opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq would help it secure her release, as it did in the case of two French journalists freed in December after four months held hostage by Iraqi militants.

But concern is growing in France that its firm line on Syria after last month's killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri may hinder its efforts. Syria has denied any involvement in Hariri's killing.

Moderate Muslims celebrate public rebuke of bin Laden

March 29, 2005:

From combined dispatches

CAIRO -- The condemnation of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda by the Islamic Commission of Spain on the first anniversary of the train bombings in Madrid that took 200 lives is making waves throughout the Muslim world.

The Spanish commission's fatwa, or condemnation, follows other signs of the kind of public theological debate rarely seen in the Muslim world, openly challenging the dominance of Saudi Arabia's wealthy Wahhabi fanatics.

One Islamic scholar even calls it a sign of "a counter-jihad."

In a recent interview with the Qatari daily newspaper Al-Raya, for example, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, the former dean of Shariah and law at the University of Qatar, urged his fellow Muslims to purge their heritage of fanaticism and adopt "new civilized humane thought."

Such humane thought, he said, "must be translated [into deeds] in educational ways, via the media, tolerant religious discourse, nondiscriminatory policy and just legislation."

"We must purge the school curricula of all sectarian implications and elements according to which others deviate from the righteous path and the truth is in our hands alone. We must enrich the curricula with the values of tolerance and acceptance of the other who is different [in school of faith, ethnic group, religion, nationality or sex].

"The political regime must refrain from sectarian or ethnic preference; it must respect the rights and liberties of the minorities and must guarantee them through legislative action, practical policy and equal opportunity in the areas of education, media and civil positions."

Other Muslims quickly attacked the Spanish fatwa.

A group calling itself al Qaeda in Iraq -- the name Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi gave his organization after he aligned himself with bin Laden -- mocked it in the familiar religious rhetoric. "Allah has promised us victory," it said in a posting on its Internet Web site. "... Terrorizing enemies of God is our faith and religion, which is taught to us by our Koran."

Nevertheless, the reaction to the Spanish fatwa astonished its authors, who were swamped with e-mail messages of congratulations.

"I couldn't even read them all -- there's at least a thousand, maybe more," said Mansur Escudero, secretary-general of the Islamic Commission of Spain. "The tone was nearly all the same: 'It's about time someone did it. Bravo!' "

Says Khaled Abou El Fadl, an authority on Islamic law at the University of California at Los Angeles: "The long and painful silence of moderate theologians and experts in Islam jurisprudence -- who had been bought off or intimidated into silence -- is finally starting to break apart. We are seeing signs of a counter-jihad."

The response to the Spanish fatwa was dominated by Muslims outside the Middle East, suggesting most moderates live outside traditional Muslim areas.

"I'm glad that someone of authority in Islam is taking a stand and demanding their religion back from the terrorists who have hijacked it," a respondent from the United States wrote.

"This shows the Muslim world is tired of the harm that radicals and terrorists are doing to Islam," said Mr. Escudero, whose declaration carried the support of Muslim leaders in Morocco, Algeria and Libya. "We hope this will inspire others to speak out."

The subject of suicide attacks sharply divides the Islamic world. Many Islamic scholars denounce it, citing the Koran: "Do not kill yourself." There are deep divisions over what the Koran justifies in a perceived defense of Islam. "There needs to be an awakening that radicals are manipulating the Koran for their own narrow motives," said Omid Safi, professor of philosophy and religion at Colgate University.

In December 2003 -- a year after the Bali bombings that killed 202 persons -- Indonesia's highest Islamic authority, the Ulema Council, declared terrorism and suicide bombings illegal under Muslim law, but said "holy war" is justified if Islam is under attack.

Some scholars caution that moderates exchanging fatwas and denunciations with radicals does little to make lasting reforms.

"Islam needs a new approach -- to get away from the Islam of the Middle East being the only point of reference," said Abdullahi An-Na'im, a specialist in Islamic law at Emory University in Atlanta.

Laura Bush to Visit Afghanistan This Week

Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:01 AM ET:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Laura Bush will make a quick visit to Afghanistan this week to greet U.S. troops and offer support for Afghan women, the White House said on Tuesday.

President Bush's wife was departing on Tuesday morning on a trip that will include a stop at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul to speak to U.S. troops and a tour of a teacher training institute.

An Iraqi army soldier speaks with a handcuffed detainee following his arrest in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba, March 29, 2005. Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops detained 25 people and seized a large weapon cache as they launched a joint operation in Baquba on Tuesday, military sources said. REUTERS/Faris al-Mahdawi

Insurgent attacks on police Latest violence kills 16 in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Mar 28 (AFP): At least 16 Iraqis, including three members of a Shi'ite political party, were killed in the country's latest incidents of violence as politicians fought over the oil ministry and the role of Islam in the next government. A suicide car bomber blew himself up late Sunday in the path of a US military convoy in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, said police, but it was not immediately known if there were any US casualties.

Three members of the Badr Organistion, a Shi'ite political grouping, were killed on the road near Baqouba, 60 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of the capital, where insurgent attacks have been frequent. Gunmen in another car pulled alongside their vehicle and shot them, police and defense ministry sources said. Iraq military forces and police were also targets of the seemingly relentless insurgent attacks Sunday. Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and three more were wounded in separate attacks in and around Baquba. In the first instance, a lieutenant colonel from the former Iraqi army was shot dead by unknown gunmen in his friend's shop, according to police. Nearby, one soldier was killed and another was injured in an attack in Dhuluiyah, 70 kilometres (55 miles) north of Baghdad, said police captain Omar Jumaha.

Another soldier was killed and two more were wounded in violence in Balad, about 70 kilometres (55 miles) north of Baghdad, said Assad Sudad, a police captain there. Meanwhile, Iraqi politicians fought over the oil ministry and the role of Islam in the next government. Iraq's parliament, due to meet Tuesday, seemed far from a deal on a coalition government, as the country's ethnic and religious factions bickered nearly two months after Iraq's historic January 30 election.

Meanwhile, insurgents targeted Iraqi security forces Monday in the capital, gunning down a neighbourhood police chief and hitting a patrol with a roadside bomb in attacks that left three people dead and at least five injured. Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying police Col. Abdul Karim Fahad Abbass as he headed to work in the sprawling southeastern Doura quarter, killing the neighbourhood station chief and his driver, Capt. Falah al-Muhimadawi said.

Two handcuffed detainees wait after their arrest in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba, March 29, 2005. Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops detained 25 people and seized a large weapon cache as they launched a joint operation in Baquba on Tuesday, military sources said. REUTERS/Faris al-Mahdawi

Iraqi soldiers guard a group of handcuffed detainees following their arrest in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, March 29, 2005. Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops detained 25 people and seized a large weapon cache as they launched a joint operation in Baquba on Tuesday, military sources said. REUTERS/Faris al-Mahdawi

An Iraqi soldier watches civilians walking across al-Jumhuriya bridge after several roads were blocked in Baghdad, March 29, 2005. Several Baghdad streets were closed and traffic restricted to try to thwart insurgent attacks as Iraq's new parliament prepares to meet on Tuesday for the second time since it was elected two months ago in historic polls, but it faced deadlock with politicians unable to agree on a new government. REUTERS/Ali Jasim

PA SMUGGLES SA-7s FROM EGYPT

Last Updated: 03/28/2005 10:29:49 Middle East:

JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Israel's military has determined that the Palestinian Authority has smuggled surface-to-air missiles from Egypt.

Israeli officials said Soviet-origin SA-7 missiles were smuggled from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip over the last few days. They said the missiles were ordered by PA officials and their delivery to the Gaza Strip was facilitated by elements within the PA and Egyptian security forces.

On Sunday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the SA-7 Strella was transferred from Egypt to the Gaza Strip through any one of 18 tunnels that connect the divided city of Rafah. Mofaz said PA intelligence helped relay the missiles, but did not elaborate.

"Last week, several Strellas were smuggled in by Palestinian military intelligence," Mofaz told the Cabinet. "If the Palestinians don't get seize the Strellas, we will."

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An Iraqi Army soldier stands near a burning oil pipeline following a blast near the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, March 28, 2005. Photo by Sabah Hamid/Reuters

Pipeline sabotage is terrorist’s weapon of choice

Until recently, the pipeline industry has been preoccupied primarily with environmental, safety and maintenance issues. Beyond occasional cases of vandalism, the human factor was hardly perceived as a threat to the world’s vast web of oil and gas pipelines, which, all told, carry roughly half of the world’s oil and most of its natural gas.

This has changed since September 11. With the threat of terrorism looming, pipeline operators in the industrialized world have taken action to prevent terrorism from harming energy infrastructure with steps that include:

Increasing system redundancy, 
Deploying state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, 
Deploying aerial and ground patrols, and 
Fortifying pipeline systems against cyber-security breaches.

All these have made the pipeline system in places like North America and Europe relatively secure. But since most U.S. oil and a growing portion of its natural gas come from abroad our energy system cannot be protected unless similar security measures are applied at the generating points of oil and gas in the Middle East, the Former Soviet Union, Africa and Latin America.

Unfortunately, the security situation in those parts of the world where terrorists are known to operate leaves much to be desired. In fact, terrorists no longer need to come to the U.S. in order to wreak havoc in our energy system. They can achieve the same degree of damage by going after energy targets in their home base where they enjoy support on the ground.

In mid-December 2004, Arab satellite channels aired an audiotape message by Osama bin Laden in which he called on his cohorts to take their holy war to the oil industry and to disrupt supplies to the U.S from the Persian Gulf.

Two days later a follow-up statement by the Saudi branch of al Qaeda was published, calling on “all mujahideen ... in the Arabian Peninsula” to target “the oil resources that do not serve the nation of Islam.” These statements reflect the reality of the post-September 11 world in which terrorist groups have identified the world’s energy system, “the provision line and the feeding to the artery of the life of the crusader nation,” in the words of al Qaeda, as the Achilles heel of the West. Throughout the world the jihadist message is gradually being heeded and it is becoming increasingly apparent that a new chapter in the war on terror is looming on the horizon and that its primary targets are oil and gas pipelines.

Weapon Of Choice

Pipelines are very easily sabotaged. A simple explosive device can put a critical section of pipeline out of operation for weeks. This is why pipeline sabotage has become the weapon of choice of the insurgents in Iraq.

Since President Bush declared the end of major hostilities in April 2003, there have been close to 200 pipeline attacks. According to the Iraq Pipeline Watch at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, most of the attacks took place in northern Iraq, primarily on the pipeline running from Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan.

In addition, there have been dozens of attacks on oil and gas pipelines leading to the refineries around Baghdad, primarily near the Bayji refinery complex 125 miles north of Baghdad. In March 2004, terrorists began striking at oil installations in the south near Basra as well, where more than two-thirds of Iraq’s oil is produced. The attacks have exacted a heavy price from the new Iraqi government— it is estimated that pipeline sabotage costs the country more than $10 billion in oil revenues — and have undermined the prospects of Iraqi construction.

Such attacks also have a corrosive influence on the morale of the Iraqi people and their attitude toward the presence of U.S. forces in their country. Iraqis are growing increasingly vexed by the coalition’s slow progress in the reconstruction effort and its inability to guarantee a reliable supply of electricity, which is primarily derived from oil. Worse, the sabotage campaign has created an inhospitable investment climate in Iraq and scared away oil companies that were supposed to develop its oil and gas industry.

Emulating the success of the saboteurs in Iraq, terrorists in many oil-producing countries have set their sights on pipelines and other oil installations. In December 2004, Sudanese rebels attacked an oil field, killing 15 people. “This was our first military operation and we chose the oil fields because this is the wealth of Sudan, which this government is not sharing with all of its people,” said Ali Abd al-Rahim al Shindy, leader of the group that carried out the attack.

Chechen guerrillas fighting to sever themselves from Russia are going after the country’s gigantic pipeline web of roughly 31,000 miles. Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter and 40% of its revenues are derived from oil. There is no better way for the Chechens to hurt the Russian economy than hindering Russia’s capability to export crude. In 2004, pipelines were blown up in Volograd, Dagestan, Stavropol as well as in and around Moscow.

In India, a separatist rebel group called United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which fights for independence for oil-rich Assam state, has taken responsibility for a number of pipeline attacks. Assam is the source of some 15% of India’s onshore crude oil production and, as the country’s oil demand grows, the implications of disruption of the flow of oil from there will become increasingly noticeable.

In southeast Turkey, Kurdish guerrillas belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have staged a campaign of bomb attacks on an oil pipeline.

In Colombia, terrorist groups, primarily the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN,) have attacked the 480-mile Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline so many times that it became known as “the flute.”

The campaign against the world’s vulnerable pipelines is likely to continue to spread to new territories. Terrorists have already indicated interest in the nearly completed 1,000-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, slated to transport 1 million barrels of oil a day from the Caspian Sea to Western markets through the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The pipeline is expected to be operational by the end of 2005 but even before construction ends, terrorist elements may already be planning attacks on it. According to Azerbaijan’s National Security Minister, Namiq Abbasov, the country’s special services had obtained information that regional insurgents and members of al Qaeda are planning acts of sabotage against the pipeline.

Another problematic area in the pipeline’s path is Georgia, where separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia provinces often clash with the Georgian government. In addition, there is increasing threat by Islamist groups operating in the Caucasus such as the Islamic Party of Eastern Turkestan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Chechen separatists and Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami. The latter group seeks to seize power and supplant existing governments with a sharia-based caliphate for the purpose of jihad against the West.

China, the world’s fastest growing energy consumer, is also vulnerable to terrorist strikes against oil. To satisfy its growing energy needs, China has decided to run pipelines connecting the northwest district of Xinjiang with neighboring Kazakhstan. This means China’s oil will be at the mercy of increasingly hostile Muslim Uighur minorities trying to break away from the central regime in Beijing.

But in no oil and gas domain could pipeline sabotage do more damage than in Saudi Arabia, home to one-fourth of the world’s oil. Over 10,000 miles of pipeline crisscross Saudi Arabia, mostly above ground. Were concerted pipeline attacks to spread to Saudi Arabia, repeatedly interrupting the Saudi oil supply, the implications for the global economy could be profound.

Not all pipeline sabotage is politically driven. Thieves often pilfer fuel from pipelines for personal use or to sell on the black market. Such activity sometimes ends tragically. In 1998, more than 1,000 villagers in Nigeria died when a ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded as they scavenged fuel.

Fear Premium

Whether perpetuated for political or criminal reasons, assaults on oil infrastructure have added a “fear premium” of roughly $10 per barrel of oil.

The cause and effect are not lost on terrorists whose goal, feasibility aside, is to bankrupt the U.S. “The killing of 10 American soldiers is nothing compared to the impact of the rise in oil prices on America and the disruption that it causes in the international economy,” exhorted one jihadist website. For the U.S., which imports more than 10 million barrels a day, the spike in oil prices due to oil terror cost close to $40 billion in 2004.

Governments, oil companies and pipeline operators are seeking to put in place mechanisms to reduce the impact of the scourge. The most effective way to address the scourge of sabotage is to confront terrorists wherever they are. This is already being done by most countries as part of the global war on terror. By pursuing jihadists and separatist groups, denying them freedom of operation and destroying their infrastructure, governments can reduce the number of attacks.

The most obvious way to increase pipeline security is the use of patrols and the creation of buffer zones along the pipeline routes into which unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering. In Iraq, close to 14,000 security guards have been deployed along the pipelines and in critical installations. But ground patrols are only effective to a certain degree, especially in areas of inclement weather and forbidding terrain.

Another way to reduce pipeline sabotage is by paying tribes and powerful warlords to protect the pipes on their territory. This method was tried in Iraq with limited success. Rival tribes would often blow up a pipeline and then claim to be more deserving of the protection money.

Sensing Systems

Technology could also play an important role in the effort to secure pipelines. Sophisticated surveillance systems to enhance infrastructure security can be deployed in critical locations. New technologies for seismic sensing of underground vibrations can provide early warning when saboteurs approach the protected area. Such systems may be expensive, but by making possible the remote monitoring of much of the pipeline network, governments can eliminate the need for large numbers of troops and instead rely on smaller numbers of rapid-response teams.

Such systems can also be complemented by air surveillance. As a result of progress in high-resolution remote sensing and image processing technology, it is now possible to deploy small and medium-size unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned helicopters for pipeline inspection purposes. These UAVs can stay in the air up to 30 hours at medium-to-low altitudes, and can send images to a central control station where they can be reviewed by security teams. Some defense contractors are developing UAVs mounted with automatic weapons to be used against saboteurs.

Unfortunately, many of the countries where such technologies would be most effective are too poor to afford them. Under such circumstances governments and pipeline operators that cannot prevent attacks altogether should invest in mechanisms to minimize the damage attacks can cause. The cheapest and most effective way to protect an existing pipeline is to prevent easy access by surrounding it by walls and fences. New pipelines should be buried. While this may substantially increase construction cost, in areas where saboteurs are known to operate the investment will quickly pay for itself. This is the reason the BTC has been completely covered from the outset.

New technologies can fortify pipes with external carbon fiber wrap that can mitigate the affects of explosive devices. Equally important is to shorten the lead time between the attack and the repair. The quicker it takes to repair the damage, the lower the cost of the disruption. Pipeline saboteurs often target pipelines at critical junctions or hit custom-made parts that take longer to replace. To reduce the lead time, pipeline operators should be equipped with sufficient inventories of spare parts.

It is important to realize that none of the approaches discussed here is likely to put an end to the problem. As long as oil and gas continue to be essential to the functioning of the world’s economy, pipeline sabotage is likely to remain one of the industry’s risks. No matter what remedy is applied, it will add a surcharge to the price of a barrel, which is already unusually high.

Gal Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS). This article was originally published in Pipeline & Gas Journal.

Palestinian Authority Smuggles Soviet Missiles From Egypt To Gaza Strip:

Source: Worldtribune.com

JERUSALEM - Israel's military has learned that the Palestinian Authority has smuggled surface-to-air missiles from Egypt.

Israeli officials said Soviet-origin SA-7 missiles were smuggled from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip over the last few days. They said the missiles were ordered by PA officials and their delivery to the Gaza Strip was facilitated by elements within the PA and Egyptian security forces.

On Sunday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the SA-7 Strella was transferred from Egypt to the Gaza Strip through any one of 18 tunnels that connect the divided city of Rafah, Middle East Newsline reported. Mofaz said PA intelligence helped relay the missiles, but did not elaborate.

"Last week, several Strellas were smuggled in by Palestinian military intelligence," Mofaz told the Cabinet. "If the Palestinians don't seize the Strellas, we will."

[On Monday, Israeli authorities announced the capture of an Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad cell that sought to manufacture rockets in the West Bank city of Jenin. In February, Israeli troops captured a Hamas cell that tested Kassam-class short-range missiles in the northern West Bank.]

The Israeli military has often asserted that PA security agencies were facilitating the smuggling of weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. But Mofaz's assertion was the first that accused the PA of direct involvement in the smuggling of anti-aircraft missiles. PA military intelligence has been headed by Mussa Arafat, the nephew of the late PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and an interlocutor of Israel's military.

Officials said Israeli authorities were not certain how many SA-7s were brought into the Gaza Strip. They said the PA or elements within the authority have been ordering the missiles from Egyptian smugglers.

In February, the Israeli military disclosed that at least five SA-7 missiles were smuggled into the Gaza Strip from the neighboring Sinai Peninsula. The military said the missiles were transferred to insurgency groups under the protection of the PA.

In his briefing to the Cabinet, Mofaz also reported increased violations of the ceasefire declared by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in February. The violations were said to have included mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip.

"Recently there has been a sharp increase in the number of mortar attacks in the Gaza Strip," a Cabinet statement said. "Thus, the PA must act with greater vigor against the terrorist organizations. The defense minister has passed sharp messages to this effect to senior PA officials on more than one occasion, including in recent days."

Israel has approved a plan for the introduction of 750 Egyptian police commandos along the eight-kilometer Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip. In his Cabinet briefing, Mofaz said the smuggling of the missiles would not torpedo the plan for an increased Egyptian security presence.

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Police look for oversized U.S. flag stolen from trooper's yard

March 29, 2005

CUMBERLAND, R.I. -- Police are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of an oversized American flag stolen from the front yard of a soldier who recently returned from Iraq.

Maj. Christian Neary, of the Rhode Island Army National Guard, said when he awoke early Easter Sunday, he found that his flag was gone. It had been hanging from an oak tree in his yard.

"It just broke my heart," said Amy Neary, Christian's wife. "He put his life on the line for that flag."

Maj. Neary said he doesn't suspect the flag was taken as any kind of anti-war protest. "It was probably just some knucklehead kids."

Lt. Stephen Duda said the Cumberland Crime Stoppers are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the flag's recovery.

The 12-by-17 flag accompanied Neary on part of his tour in Iraq. He said it was given to him years ago by a friend, and every Fourth of July he raises it on an oak tree in his front yard. It's so big that people on their way to Cumberland's Fourth of July parade would stop their cars and take a picture in front of it, he said.

"It is the kind of flag you hang in the civic center," Neary said.

When Neary went to Iraq with the 103rd Field Artillery's 1st Battalion, he brought the flag with him, displaying it in an occupied Iraqi army barracks in Taji, 18 miles north of Baghdad. He sent it home after eight months.

His wife raised it in the yard last week, along with yellow ribbons and signs, in anticipation of Neary's homecoming last Wednesday.

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Information from: The Providence Journal, http://www.projo.com/

'Where is Saddam?' ask lawyers

Saddam: lawyers have no access.

12:35pm 29th March 2005:

The lawyers who are to defend deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein at his forthcoming trial claimed today they have been denied access to him and do not even know where he is. Now this "scandal" is to be raised in Parliament next week by veteran Labour MP Tam Dalyell, Father of the House of Commons.

'Scandal'

M Matthew Fautin, a lawyer from Rheims, speaking on behalf of his colleague Emmanuel Ludot, said: "We have no access to Saddam nor the other Iraqi leaders who are in captivity and awaiting trial. We do not even know where they are, or even which country they are in. Nor do we know when or where the trial might be.

"We have been trying so far without success to put pressure on relevant officials so that we can see our clients and be briefed by them."

Mr Dalyell, MP for Linlithgow, said: "This is hardly a good example of Western justice. It is scandalous that their lawyers cannot talk to them."

EDMUND P. GIAMBASTIANI, JR. Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and Commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command

Though he is charged with helping to lead the Defense Department’s transformation efforts into the 21st century, the commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command believes the word “transformation” can be a misleading term.

i-Newswire, 2005-03-29 - “It indicates a beginning and an end,” Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr. said. “This is a constant process, and that’s why the word ‘transforming’ is actually a better word.”

Giambastiani, who also serves as NATO’s supreme allied commander for transformation, said that in the past 24 months alone the Defense Department has seen continuing change in the way it does business. And that change has been “significant,” he said during a recent interview at his command’s headquarters in Norfolk, Va., for the Pentagon Channel’s documentary “Facing the Future.”

“Inside the Defense Department we are now trying to transform ourselves, institutionalize the process and the product of change … to make us faster, to make us capable, to make us more operationally available, to make us more expeditionary, to make us adaptable and flexible,” he said.

All of this encompasses the mission he is charged with at Joint Forces Command, often called DoD’s “transformation laboratory.”

There, a staff of military people, civilians and defense contractors devise ways to enhance commanders’ capabilities by developing battlefield concepts, training joint forces, and making recommendations on how the services can better integrate their warfighting capabilities.

And, according to the admiral, integrating the joint warfighting capabilities of the military has defined DoD transformation efforts.

“The process and product of change we’re trying to bring here is to make our forces more integrated, more coherently integrated, so they can operate across a broad range of mission sets: peacekeeping, peacemaking, contingency operations, peace support, major combat operations, small-scale contingencies -- you name it,” he said.

“We found that the sum of all of the individual components within the Defense Department … when you integrate all of these in a coherent way, the sum is far greater than what each of the individual parts would add up to. That’s what we call integration.”

That equation seems to have added up, as Giambastiani emphasized integration efforts among services has been successful during joint operations in Iraq.

The admiral used the November 2004 battle to take back control of Fallujah as an example. He pointed out that the fighting there consisted of Marine expeditionary forces, two Army brigade combat teams, and five battalions of Iraq army and security forces, as well as Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps aviation units.

“This was a very close-packed area, an urban area, and they were conducting joint operations down to the absolute lowest level,” he noted. “If you’re a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine, and you are conducting an operation, and let’s say you need a target taken out, you don’t much care who takes out that target as long as the mission gets accomplished. That is the definition, in my view, of jointness.”

That definition has an important meaning within DoD, particularly from an operational standpoint, where in the past two years the Pentagon created more joint task force headquarters than it did in the previous 10 years combined.

“And we are creating more of these JTF headquarters each and every year,” he added. The admiral pointed out that military training also has undergone important change.

“Before in the Defense Department, war games were essentially just done by services, and they would sprinkle in joint entities,” Giambastiani explained. Now, he said, fundamentally the services are cooperating and co-hosting war games with Joint Forces Command. “I am co-hosting with the chief of a service, a joint war game which the Army and the Joint Forces Command come together to play,” he said. “Primarily, the majority of people in it are actually joint.

“We do it with the Navy, we do it with the Marine Corps, we’ve done it with the Air Force, we’re doing it with agencies such as a National Reconnaissance Office, we’ve done it with other combatant commanders,” he said. “It’s pretty darn significant.”

More jointness and integration is only part of the transformation process within DoD -- a beginning and not an end to the constant process of change for the 21st century, the admiral said.

“I see us moving in the future to this coherently integrated force that is mutually interdependent, that allows us to collaborate in a way that we just haven’t been able to describe the power of to date,” Giambastiani said. “To allow us to achieve what we call ‘outcomes on the battlefield,’ or outcomes in the case of contingency operations, or post-major combat, allow us to achieve outcomes which create success for the United States and our coalition and allied partners.”

Still, he added, there is “a lot of work to do yet, a long way to go.”

“But the process, in my view of transformation, has accelerated here over the last couple of years, and it’s been significant,” he said.

By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA
American Forces Press Service

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Ex-school official tied to terror

He's arrested and charged with conspiracy to support militants

March 29, 2005

BY DAVID ASHENFELTER and CHASTITY PRATT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

A former Detroit schools official has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

A criminal complaint unsealed Monday in Miami said Kifah Wael Jayyousi, 43, formerly of Detroit, conspired with Kassem Daher of Broward County, Fla., in the mid- and late 1990s to raise money and recruit Muslim extremists to fight in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Somalia. The complaint was issued in December.

Authorities said Jayyousi, a former assistant superintendent, was arrested around 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Detroit Metro Airport after stepping off a flight from Amsterdam. U.S. Customs agents detained him after conducting a routine computer check that showed Jayyousi was wanted on a federal terrorism warrant out of Miami. It's unclear whether he was traveling alone. Authorities said he had flown to Amsterdam from Qatar.

Jayyousi made a brief appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, where the U.S. Attorney's Office requested that he be sent to Miami to answer to the charges.

U.S. Magistrate Steven Whelan ordered him held until a detention hearing Wednesday, when his lawyer, Jon Posner, could be present. Posner is in the hospital, according to his law firm.

Jayyousi and Daher are charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources for terrorism and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people or damage property in a foreign country. The first charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The second carries a maximum penalty of 35 years to life in prison.

Daher, a former resident of Leduc, Canada, is a fugitive living in Lebanon.

A court affidavit signed by FBI agent John Kavanaugh Jr. said an investigation that began in late 1993 found that Jayyousi, Daher and two other men -- Mohamed Zaky and Adham Amin Hassoun -- were involved in a North American network to raise money and recruit fighters to wage violent jihad around the globe.

Money initially was raised through charitable organizations known as Save Bosnia Now and American Worldwide Relief, the affidavit said. They were founded by Zaky of San Diego, who was killed in Afghanistan while fighting Russians in May 1995.

Hassoun, a Palestinian national who was born in Lebanon, came to the United States in 1989 and has been in U.S. custody since June 2002, is awaiting trial in Miami on similar terrorism charges. He lived in Broward County, Fla.

The affidavit said Jayyousi is a Jordanian national and naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in San Diego, Los Angeles, Detroit and Baltimore. It said he moved to Egypt in 2003.

After Zaky's death, Jayyousi allegedly took over American Worldwide Relief. He also founded the American Islamic Group. Although that group touted itself as a nonprofit, religious service to protect the rights of Muslims and provide economic aid to needy people, it actually promoted terrorism, the affidavit said.

The affidavit said Jayyousi used the group's monthly newsletter, Islam Report, to raise money and recruit fighters for jihad and to disseminate the accomplishments of terrorists worldwide. The affidavit said the newsletter described murders, executions and massacres committed by terrorists.

The affidavit said all four men were followers of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric who was sentenced to prison in 1995 for plotting to blow up New York landmarks.

From 1994 through late 1995, Jayyousi allegedly called Rahman in prison to update him about terrorist developments. Much of the information contained in the complaint came from court-authorized electronic surveillance.

Jayyousi worked as a senior engineer at the University of California-Irvine before he was hired in 1997 as assistant superintendent for physical facilities and capital improvement at Detroit Public Schools.

In Detroit, he was responsible for overseeing the early stages of spending of the $1.5-billion school bond. During his tenure, the bond program was mired in two controversies: skepticism about the costs associated with a construction program led by then-Wayne County prosecutor candidate Mike Duggan and the firing of a minority company that managed the bond program, which led to a lawsuit against the district.

Jayyousi also is listed as an adjunct engineering professor at Wayne State University on the college's Web site.

Jayyousi left Detroit Public Schools in 1999 and was hired to run the Washington, D.C., public schools facilities department.

Lance Cpl. Richard J. Sejkora, of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Lance Cpl. Shane B. Shade, of Missouri, both with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Marine Support Service Group 15, provide security for fellow Marines as they unload equipment, supplies and mail in Iraq on Sunday. (Agence France-Presse / Getty Images)