Malawi Deports Five Suspected Al Qaeda Members

Here's some follow up on this:

Some interesting details from that article:

The five suspected al-Qaeda members - two Turks, a Kenyan, a Saudi and a Sudanese - were arrested last weekend in a joint American CIA and Malawi National Intelligence Bureau operation.
Despite an injunction blocking the deportation, Malawi authorities handed the suspects over to the Americans, who spirited them away on a chartered Air Malawi flight on Monday night to an American army camp in Botswana.
American officials have not yet commented on the al-Qaeda suspects.
Intelligence sources say the five Muslims - who were running charitable organisations in Malawi - have been on the CIA watch list on suspicion that they were using their charitable organisations to funnel money to fund al-Qaeda terrorist operations in Africa and beyond.
The current whereabouts of the five is not known.

*Update?*

'There is no US military camp in Botswana'

June 30 2003 at 11:48AM

Gaborone - Botswana on Monday continued denying reports that five suspected members of the al-Qaeda terror network arrested in Malawi were brought to Botswana en route to internment and interrogation in the United States.

Botswana president Festus Mogae learnt of the issue while en route from the US to Botswana on Saturday and ordered an immediate inquiry, a statement from his office said.

"There was no basis for the reports," the statement said. "We are gravely concerned about the persistence of the reports, which we look upon as being false and potentially injurious to the interests of Botswana."

The reports alleged that the five were arrested after a joint CIA and Malawi intelligence operation, and flown on a chartered Air Malawi aircraft to a US military camp in Botswana.

"No US military camp exists within Botswana," the statement said. "Checks with our civil aviation and security authorities show no evidence of an Air Malawi plane, or any other plane, carrying such suspects as ever having landed in Botswana last week. Neither are we presently aware of any such flight having passed through our air space." - Sapa

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