MIDDLE EAST
Palestinian
Interior Minister Agrees with Security Chiefs not to Deploy "Support
Force" Near Security Buildings
Security sources confirmed that the meeting held yesterday between the
Interior Minister Said Siyam and a number of security chiefs, has
ended with an agreement not to deploy the newly-formed "support force"
near the gatherings of regular security forces or their buildings, in
order to prevent the friction that has been happening for the past two
days. The sources, which spoke on condition of anonymity, explained
that the meeting was a positive one and included Minister Siyam, the
chief of national security in Gaza Strip and the director-general of
the Interior Ministry Rashid Abu Shbak, where several issues related
to the security situation were discussed, including the integration of
resistance activists from different factions into the regular security
services, after receiving proper training and financial endorsement
from the Finance Ministry. These sources further noted that the
presidency establishment is still against the formation of the support
force, asserting that the presidency is not against integrating
resistance activists in the security services that were formed under
the Basic Law, but rather against integrating them in newly-formed
forces based on factional considerations, according to the source.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has confirmed that the Palestinian
government will not take any steps backwards regarding the support
force, stressing that this force will remain to support the role of
police, and will perform its duties in the framework of the police.
"If need be we will increase the number of this force," PM Haniya
said, adding that internal security is a priority for the government,
and explaining that the members of this force will wear police
uniforms, as 2,000 uniforms have been prepared for them. Haniya
reiterated the legality of this force, saying that it was formed by
the law and according to the authorities given to the government, and
in agreement with President Mahmoud Abbas, but noted that some
officers in security services and police have unfortunately refused to
respond to the clear instructions of the Interior Minister.
On his part, the Secretary General of the Presidency, Al Tayyeb Abdel
Rahim, expressed astonishment over the "stressful" attitude of Prime
Minister Haniya during the Friday sermon he gave in Gaza, which was
related to the legitimacy of the support force that was formed by the
Interior Ministry and his desire to increase its members. "This
position by the Prime Minister contradicts legitimacy, and we wanted
him to refrain from these nervous and illegal position while heading
a government the presidency have asserted is a government that
represents the entire Palestinian people, and have made all its
efforts to help it and refuse any attempts to isolate it or thwart its
efforts," Abdel Rahim said. He mentioned that President Abbas has
informed the Prime Minister and Interior Minister he does not object
to integrating all the members of the armed resistance groups into the
regular security services, after training them properly to be law
officers, and after receiving the approval of the Finance Minister to
include them on the payroll of security services - as members and not
as an independent or alternative security apparatus.
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BIN LADEN DENIES
MOUSSAOUI TOOK PART IN 9/11 ATTACKS
TEXT OF BIN LADEN AUDIO TAPE:
(As translated by IntelCenter, a private US Intelligence contractor)
"In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. All praise is due
to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace upon the Prophets and
Messengers. As for what follows:
From Usama bin Muhammad bin Ladin to the American people: peace be upon
he who has followed the Guidance.
This is a brief message whose topic is my testimony on behalf of the
Muslim prisoners you are holding, and in it I will talk about the truth
concerning them, which is something which the Bush administration hates
and is hostile to. I begin by talking about the honorable brother Zacarias
Moussaoui. The truth is that he has no connection whatsoever with the
events of September 11th, and I am certain of what I say, because I was
responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers - Allah have mercy upon them -
with those raids, and I did not assign brother Zacarias to be with them on
that mission. And his confession that he was assigned to participate in
those raids is a false confession which no intelligent person doubts is a
result of the pressure put upon him for the past four and a half years.
And were this pressure lifted from him for him to return to his normal
state, he would state the fact I mentioned. And among the things that
confirm this fact is that the participants in September 11th were two
groups: pilots and support teams for each pilot in order to control the
aircraft. And since Zacarias Moussaoui was learning how to fly, it follows
that he wasn't component #20 from the teams which helped to control the
airplanes, as your government previously claimed, and your government
knows this fact with certainty. And if Moussaoui was studying aviation to
become a pilot of one of the planes, then let him tell us the names of
those assigned to help him control the plane. But he won't be able to tell
us their names, for a simple reason: that in fact they don't exist. This
is from one perspective, and from another perspective, the brother
Moussaoui was arrested two weeks before the events, and had he known
anything - however little - about the September 11th group, we would have
told the brother Commander Mohamed Atta and his brothers - Allah have
mercy upon them - to leave America immediately before their affair was
exposed. And with this it becomes clear to even the novice investigator -
not to mention the seasoned one - that there is no connection between him
and the events of September 11th.
And then I call to memory my brothers the prisoners in Guantanamo - may
Allah free them all - and I state the fact, about which I also am certain,
that all the prisoners of Guantanamo, who were captured in 2001 and the
first half of 2002 and who number in the hundreds, have no connection
whatsoever to the events of September 11th, and even stranger is that many
of them have no connection with al-Qaida in the first place, and even more
amazing is that some of them oppose al- Qaida's methodology of calling for
war with America. And this is in addition to the arrest of those who were
working in the relief agencies, like Abu Abdul Aziz al-Mutrafi, or those
working in the media, like Sami al-Hajj and Taysir Alouni, who was
imprisoned at the instigation of the American administration. So the
conclusion is that all the prisoners to date have no connection with the
events of September 11th and knew nothing about them, with the exception
of two of the brothers, may Allah free them all. Bush and his
administration are aware of this fact, but they avoid mentioning it, for
reasons not hidden to the discerning.
CONTINUES ON P12
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