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U.S. intelligence monitoring 30 nations for aid to Al Qaida

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, March 5, 2002

WASHINGTON Ñ The U.S. Defense Department has recruited the intelligence agencies to track assistance to Al Qaida from Middle Eastern and Persian Gulf states.

U.S. diplomats and intelligence agents have been monitoring some 30 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, defense officials said. The objective is to monitor Al Qaida insurgents who escaped from Afghanistan and have regrouped in other countries, the officials said.

Some of the countries where Al Qaida operatives are said to be regrouping include Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The officials said the Palestinian Authority is also being monitored, Middle East Newsline reported.

Defense officials said some of these countries may be harboring Al Qaida sleeper agents who could be activated later this year in attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic installations in the region.

Last week, U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. John W. Rosa Jr., deputy director for operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, termed Yemen as a refuge for Al Qaida agents who fled Afghanistan. Rosa said Yemen has already arrested Al Qaida fugitives.

Other countries such as Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates are also said to contain the seeds of Al Qaida strongholds. But the officials said Washington has a brisk security and defense relationship with these countries.

"What I worry about the most, to be perfectly honest," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "is the connection or relationship or nexus between states that are terrorist states and have weapons of mass destruction and terrorist organizations like Al Qaida and the risk that we face in the period ahead that terrorist organizations that are willing to kill thousands of innocent people could have access to weapons of mass destruction and develop a capability to kill not thousands but tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands."

Officials acknowledged that U.S. military personnel have entered such areas as northern Iraq to determine whether Al Qaida has regrouped near the Turkish border. They also said U.S. warships have increased reconnaissance and inspections of ships in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

"We do not have forces in Iraq if you're thinking of large numbers," Rumsfeld said. "From time to time Americans do go into Iraq to visit with the Kurds, to look at the situation. People from various agencies and departments of the government go in there."

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