NATION/WORLD
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, November 29, 2001 - 5A
Top al-Qaida agent captured
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Anti-Taliban forces in
Afghanistan have apparently captured their
biggest known trophy to date, a top al-Qaida
operative who is the son of a sheik convicted
in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Cen-
ter, U.S. intelligence officials said yesterday.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman ran a key terrorist
training camp in Afghanistan, U.S. terrorism
officials said. He is being held at an undis-
closed location as the Pentagon and Afghan
opposition leaders weigh what to do with a
growing number of prisoners belonging to
Osama bin Laden's terror network.
Rahman has been an important and popu-
lar figure in al-Qaida, sources said. He has
been widely used in recruiting for the net-
work, the sources said, because he was
believed to be carrying on the work of his
father, Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called
"blind sheik" who is being held in one of the
highest-security federal prisons in the United
States. The father remains an enormously
influential figure in the jihad, or holy war,
movement even as he languishes behind bars.
There were unconfirmed reports that the
younger Rahman and up to a dozen other
captured al-Qaida operatives were being
flown to the Pacific region to be held at a
U.S. military facility, perhaps on Guam or
Wake Island. This has fueled speculation that
such facilities could be the site for military
trials for captured terrorists.
A Bush administration official with exten-
sive knowledge of terrorist organizations
said: "This is a significant catch. He is a
known terrorist, a member of the top al-
Qaida hierarchy."
The younger Rahman "shows up in (pro-
motional) pictures, and they have been show-
casing him, promoting the ties between
al-Qaida and the 'blind sheik,"' said Daniel
Benjamin, a former staff member with the
National Security Council and now a terror-
ism expert at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
"He is the new model of the jihad and is
important symbolically," Benjamin said. "His
connection confers legitimacy on bin Laden
and al-Qaida."
Administration officials said the younger
Rahman spent many years in Afghanistan, in
the al-Qaida training camps, where he played
a leadership role among bin Laden's inner
circle.
Rahman spent several years "trying to
cook up ideas on how to get his father
released from prison, including kidnapping,
but nothing came of it. The blind sheik is not
going anywhere," Benjamin said.
Rahman could become an early test of the
Bush administration's plan to try terrorists in
a military tribunal rather than U.S. civilian
courts, a proposal that has triggered substan-
tial controversy.
Justice defends military tribunals
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The Bush administra-
tion was considering the use of military tri-
bunals to prosecute suspected foreign
terrorists prior to the passage of a tough new
anti-terrorist law last month, but did not tell
Congress of the plan because it did not
require legislative action, a top Justice
Department official testified yesterday.
Speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee
hearing called to examine sweeping new
anti-terror policies that some lawmakers
have criticized, Assistant Attorney General
Michael Chertoff said that military trials fall
within the president's power "as commander-
in-chief."
But Democratic senators at the hearing,
led by Chairman Patrick Leahy of Ver-
mont, were sharply critical of the Nov. 13
order that empowered Bush to order mili-
tary trials for non-U.S. citizens - and of
the failure to consult Congress before issu-
ing the directive and others that are part of
the broad new anti-terror campaign.
Republican senators, with the exception of
Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, were high-
ly supportive of the crackdown.
Despite the cooperation between the
White House and Congress that led to swift
passage of the new anti-terror law, Leahy
said, the administration has since disregarded
"the checks and balances that make up our
Constitutional framework."
Instead, he said, the executive branch "has
chosen to cut out judicial review" in a new
order that allows Attorney General John
Ashcroft to initiate monitoring of attorney-
client communications of suspected terror-
ists, "and to cut out Congress in determining
the appropriate tribunal and procedures to try
terrorists."
Chertoff, who heads the Justice
Department's criminal division, said he
was confident that all the steps taken thus
far have been "within carefully estab-
lished constitutional limits." Emphasiz-
ing the carnage of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, he said the suspected master-
mind, Osama bin Laden, and members of
his al-Qaida terrorist network have since
announced "they will kill more of us.
"So for those of us who question whether
we are at war," Chertoff said, "my answer is,,
Mr. Bin Laden has declared war on us....
Are we being aggressive and hard-nosed?
You bet. But let me emphasize that every
step that we have taken satisfies the Constitu-
tion and federal law as it existed both before
and after September 11lth."
Leahy, however, said he was especially
dismayed by Bush's order for military tri-
bunals, voicing fears that it could become a
model for use by foreign governments
against Americans overseas. The order
allows the Pentagon to set rules and proce-
dures less rigorous than those that govern
U.S. criminal prosecutions, permits convic-
tions and death sentences on a two-thirds
vote and ostensibly prohibits judicial review
of verdicts.
Chertoff said such tribunals had a solid
history dating back to the American Revolu-
tion.
Leahy, however, pointed to Spain's reluc-
tance to extradite suspects to the United
States if they are to be tried by military com-
missions. In bypassing the civilian courts, he
said, "it sends a terrible message to the world
that, when confronted with a serious chal-
lenge, we lack confidence in the very institu-
tions we are fighting for."
Like Leahy, Specter derided Chertoff's
claims that Congress was "a full partner"
in the fight when "nobody let us know"
the military order was being prepared.
Leahy noted that he had asked Ashcroft
after a Sept. 25 hearing whether the Presi-
dent was considering "using the military
tribunal system."
AP PHOTO
The site of the World Trade Center attack, still smouldering after nearly three months, has become
a top attraction for those visiting New York City.
Ground.ero becomes
mtajor tourstattraction
Los Angeles Times
NEW YORK - From world leaders pulling
up in stretch limousines to cheerleaders in
town from Ohio, Ground Zero at the former
World Trade Center is drawing thousands of
people a day who feel a need to view the
wreckage firsthand and somehow pay homage.
The very event that drove tourists away
from New York City now appears to be draw-
ing them back. While attendance at Broadway
shows and museums is still down, hotel occu-
pancy numbers are nearly where they were a
year ago. Concierges, cab drivers and even
somewhat reluctant city officials say the site of
the attacks is exerting a powerful pull.
"It's a hot spot," said Keith Yazmir,
spokesman for the New York Convention and
Visitor's Bureau. "It's certainly not something
we're out there marketing as a visitor destina-
tion. At the same time, we understand there is
something in people that makes them want to
serve witness to what happened, and to the
people who were lost."
Only the site itself remains blocked off by a
perimeter of chain link fencing and plywood
walls - still an almost incomprehensible
scene of destruction stretching five blocks
wide and four blocks long.
All nearby streets have reopened, and entire
adjacent buildings are shrouded in red and black
netting to keep debris from falling onto the
growing number of pedestrians below. People
arrive daily from around the world to peer
through gaps in the walls or aim video cameras
down side streets at bits of twisted wreckage,
Recognizing the growing crush of visitors,
city officials are now discussing where to erect a
possible viewing platform that would not inter-
fere with construction and recovery workers.
Spain and U,S. set
aside differences
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WASHINGTON (AP) - President
Bush and Spain's prime-minister set
aside their differences yesterday about
U.S. military tribunals for terrorist tri-
als, focusing instead on joint efforts to
battle Osama bin Laden and his al-
Qaida network.
On a day of wartime diplomacy,
Bush also said the military conflict in
Afghanistan has hurt international
efforts to feed starving Afghan civil-
ians. "We have difficulties reaching the
needy," the president said during a
White House meeting with U.N. Sec-
retary-General Kofi Annan.
He met separately with Annan and
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria
Aznar as Afghan factions gathered in
Germany for negotiations aimed at
crafting a new multiethnic
Afghanistan government to replace the
Taliban.
"So far, they are off to a good start,"
Annan told Bush in the Roosevelt
Room, across the hall from the Oval
Office. "I hope they will be able to set-
tle the establishment of the govern-
ment before they leave Bonn."
But even as Annan spoke, the north-
em alliance rejected a proposal for an
international force to keep security in
post-Taliban Afghanistan. The issue of
Ga. couple
char ged
with faking
WTC death
security is key to U.S.-led efforts to
replace the Taliban with a stable,
diverse government.
In a Rose Garden appearance, Bush
praised Aznar's government for the
arrest of eight people suspected of
helping to prepare for the Sept. I1 sui-
cide attacks. In addition, six Algerian
suspects were arrested in Spain on
Sept. 26 suspected of membership in
the bin Laden-financed Salafist Group
for Call and Combat.
Aznar said Spain "will support all
the United States' efforts" to fight ter-
rorism.
But he did not say what the Madrid
government would do if the Bush
administration asked to try the sus-
pects _ either in American civilian
courts or before military tribunals
recently authorized by Bush. Both
Democratic and Republican lawmak-
ers have questioned how the tribunals,
designed for non-citizens accused of
terrorism, would affect civil liberties.
Thus far, Aznar's government has
expressed opposition to extradition
partly because it opposes Bush's tri-
bunals.
"If and when the United States
requests that extradition, we will study
the issue," Aznar told reporters.
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* Newsday
NEW YORK - Six days after the
World Trade Center attacks, a Georgia
man named Charles Gavett filed a missing
person's report for his wife with New
York police.
Gavett said his wife was in the towers for
a job interview with an investment firm but
had disappeared. He then made a $200,000
insurance claim. He received a letter of
condolence signed by Mayor Rudolph Giu-
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