France says recent bin Laden location found
International troops discovered refuge on Afghan-Pakistani border
Posted: March 22, 2004
5:00 p.m. Eastern
? 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
French troops and other international forces on Afghanistan's border with Pakistan believe they have found a location where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden recently had taken refuge.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in an interview to be published tomorrow in Express, the French magazine, she could not provide more details because of security reasons.
A ministry spokesman said, according to Reuters, Alliot-Marie was referring to a location where bin Laden was believed to have been "at a certain time," but it was unclear where he is now.
"Our men are well established and know the terrain well," Alliot-Marie told Express magazine, according to Reuters. "Thanks to certain information, they were recently able to make an effective contribution to locating him."
The defense minister was asked whether the man located definitely was bin Laden
"Everything leads us to think so," she replied.
Alliot-Marie said, however, bin Laden's capture would not improve security much, because terror networks had become increasingly autonomous, Reuters reported.
The ministry spokesman clarified: "What she wanted to say was that, with the information they provided, French forces contributed to locating him at a certain time. It is a terrible hunt for a rat on the loose."
Last week, senior Pakistani officials claimed thousands of local troops had surrounded bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in an operation near the Afghan border.
A report today, however, said the top al-Qaida terrorists might have escaped the siege through several secret tunnels, including one as long as a mile.

----------------------------------------------------
Withheld evidence to sink case against Nichols?
Massive FBI intel failure, wider conspiracy in 1995 terror expected to emerge

Posted: March 20, 2004
7:05 p.m. Eastern
By J.D. Cash
? 2004 McCurtain Daily Gazette

In a phone call from a federal prison yesterday, convicted bank bandit and former Aryan Republican Army leader Peter Kevin Langan Jr. made a startling revelation to the McCurtain Daily Gazette - that former associate Richard Lee Guthrie Jr. robbed a Hot Springs, Ark., gun dealer in November 1994, not accused Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols.
That revelation from Langan is expected to be one of a number coming to light as the Nichols trial opens Monday in McAlester.
Defense evidence is expected to provide both a much wider conspiracy in the bloody 1995 bombing as well as exposing a massive intelligence failure by the FBI.
Documents, a videotape and a large number of photographs obtained and/or reviewed by the Gazette provide a compelling case that the FBI has for many years maintained extensive information linking a white supremacist group of bank robbers to the bombing conspiracy in Oklahoma.
In 1997, shortly before the federal trials of Timothy McVeigh and Nichols began in Denver, the Gazette broke two important stories: One was related to an affidavit McVeigh's sister gave the FBI, where she swore her brother was involved with a group of bank robbers. The other spelled out warnings the Tulsa office of the ATF received from one of their informants before the April 19, 1995 blast - warnings that men at a paramilitary camp called Elohim City, near Muldrow, were planning to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City or Tulsa.
It is undisputed that only weeks before the bombing, the ATF's raid at Elohim City was stopped by then-Special Agent in Charge of the Oklahoma City FBI office, Bob Ricks, who sought help from U.S. Attorney Steve Lewis in squelching the planned arrests. While the FBI has never denied the agency had information from Jennifer McVeigh about her brother's involvement with a gang a bank bandits, the agency continues to vehemently deny it had prior warning of a plan to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building.
Newly discovered evidence
From court filings and statements recently made by lawyers for Nichols during pretrial motions, the defense team has indicated it will use newly discovered evidence to shift the jury's focus away from their client toward a group of neo-Nazi bank bandits called the Aryan Republican Army (ARA) and very possibly others once linked to McVeigh.
Among this wide-ranging new evidence are photographs of a number of items seized from some bank bandits suggesting that the ARA robbed Roger Moore, a Hot Springs, Ark., gun dealer. It was a crime the FBI has long said was performed by Nichols to help raise money for the bombing in Oklahoma.
Further, Langan said the pistol-grip shotgun used in the Moore robbery, a Winchester Model 1300 Defender, was seized after Guthrie's arrest along with a substantial amount of other gear used in the Moore robbery.
Despite statements made recently by retired FBI special agent Danny Defenbaugh, that the OKBOMB Task Force (which he headed) did not receive details of the ARA's involvement in the bombing, the Gazette has found documents specifically directed to the task force about the gang and its links to McVeigh.
At his trial set to begin Monday, Nichols faces 161 first-degree murder charges as a result of the incredible loss of life in the 1995 truck-bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
The state trial for Nichols was moved to McAlester after the judge in the case ruled excessive pretrial publicity made it unlikely the defendant could be fairly tried in Oklahoma County.
Nichols was found innocent of first- and second-degree murder in Denver federal court in 1997. The defendant, however, did receive a life sentence for conspiracy and manslaughter in the deaths of eight federal agents who died in the blast.
McVeigh, Nichols' co-conspirator, was executed in 2001.
Shifting the blame
Certain to face a barrage of objections from state prosecutors, the tactic of shifting the blame to others for the gruesome crime will be closely scrutinized by District Court Judge Steven Taylor.
Recently, Taylor turned down some 40 pretrial motions by the state asking the court to bar evidence of a wider conspiracy.
Specifically, the state of Oklahoma does not want the defense to show the jury any evidence that might link the April 19, 1995 bombing to persons who lived at, or frequented, a place Elohim City.
Materials obtained by the Gazette reveal that state and federal investigators believed Elohim City was once a stronghold for neo-Nazi skinheads from around the U.S. to train in subversive tactics, including bomb-building and converting weapons to full-automatic.
Central to the illegal activities at Elohim City at the time of the bombing was the presence of a number of young men calling themselves the Aryan Republican Army.
Evidence can be admitted
Regarding the introduction of evidence of a wider conspiracy, Taylor ruled that Nichols would be allowed to put on such evidence in his case, "As long as it stays within case law and rules of evidence."
Taylor has also commented recently that should he find that the state has withheld any evidence that might prove important to Nichols, he would dismiss the case "with prejudice" - effectively barring any future prosecution of Nichols in this state.
With evidence linking the bombing in Oklahoma City to the ARA gang, members of the Nichols defense team will be able to offer the jury an alternative theory to the one prosecutors for the state of Oklahoma present.
The FBI came across evidence of a nexus between the bombing in Oklahoma and the ARA years ago, and most of the evidence has been copied and held in case files related to the ARA's crime spree known as BOMBROB.
While some of this evidence was copied and forwarded to agents involved in the OKBOMB investigation, in many cases, this paper has confirmed, important evidence of the ARA's involvement in the Oklahoma bombing was withheld from defense attorneys in the federal trials of Nichols and McVeigh.
Recently a former leader of the gang, Peter Langan, began cooperating with the Nichols defense about this evidence and its relevance to the bombing case. Of particular interest to the Nichols defense would be any evidence that the ARA perpetrated the robbery of an Arkansas gun dealer in Nov. 1994.
When Nichols was tried in Denver, federal prosecutors told jurors that the defendant robbed Hot Springs gun collector Roger Moore in order to raise funds for the bombing. Paperwork from Langan's federal trial indeed shows that the government collected considerable evidence that should have linked the gang to the bombing in Oklahoma and caused investigators to focus on members of the ARA.
As an example, documents obtained by the McCurtain Daily Gazette indicate that just prior to the arrest of Langan and his partner Richard Lee Guthrie, Jr., the OKBOMB task force in Oklahoma City was notified and put on alert that the FBI was gathering intelligence on Guthrie's military records.
Those records show that Guthrie received considerable training in explosives while in the US Navy.
Days later, on Jan. 15, 1996, the FBI apprehended Guthrie after a brief car chase in Cincinnati, Ohio.
A leader of a gang of bank bandits sworn to overthrow the U.S. government, Guthrie received extensive training with explosives during his five-year stint with the Navy.
This extraordinary training included five months in the prestigious SEAL program before the subject entered the Navy's explosives and ordinance (EOD) program at Indian Head, Md. The FBI also notified the OKBOMB task force that Guthrie had studied explosives for a brief period at the Redstone Arsenal EOD school in Alabama.
After his arrest, Guthrie reluctantly agreed to cooperate with the FBI in the capture of fellow gang member Langan.
With Guthrie's help, an FBI SWAT team surrounded Langan's parked van at dawn on Jan. 18, 1996. Without warning, the FBI opened fire on Langan. Incredibly, after 47 rounds pieced the subject's van, the fugitive was able to emerge only slightly wounded.
Gang had bomb factory
Inside Langan's van and his rent house in Columbus, Oh., FBI agents located a portable bomb factory.
During an intense search FBI evidence technicians and investigators located functional improvised explosive devices plus blasting caps, nitro-methane, an exotic military blasting device that is used to set off timed charges, mercury switches, hand grenades, pipe bombs in various stages of completion, gunpowder, a library on how to build complex explosive devices and the tools to complete them.
Along with sophisticated radio equipment with top-secret FBI codes already installed, agents also located several pre-addressed envelopes containing videotapes the gang made in late January of 1995.
Video links to OKC plot
Contained in the two-hour video made to aid the recruitment of other like-minded radicals, gang members wore masks and boasted about robbing banks to finance acts of terror.
Of particular interest is a portion of the video where one of the gang members brags that his men possessed the components and training to build "weapons of mass destruction."
At another point in the video, Langan asked three other masked figures if they were ready to join another ARA cell to commit "the courthouse massacre."
On still another part of the tape, members warn the government, "If we are pushed, we will take action against post offices and federal buildings."
Phone records link
Along with the evidence of the gang's far-flung and bloody plans, agents discovered a number of telephone cards the members were using to communicate.
While the records provide clear links between the gang and other far-right groups, the records also show that members of the gang made calls from Elohim City immediately prior to the bombing - placing them in close proximity to the crime. Additional research into the records provides clues to the gang's whereabouts after the bombing, as well.
With these records, FBI agents could compare phone calls made by a calling card used by McVeigh and Nichols, including one from a motel room registered to McVeigh in Kingman, Ariz., on April 5, 1995.
Placed just seconds after that same phone was used to call a Ryder truck rental, McVeigh next called the Elohim City compound.
Days after the phone call to Elohim City, a Ryder truck was rented in central Kansas and subsequently used to deliver a powerful ammonia-nitrate and fuel bomb to the Murrah federal building.
Arkansas robbery linked
Along with phone records and the gang's videotape describing their plans, federal agents also found a pair of Israeli combat boots, black knit masks, camouflage clothing, a pistol-grip shot-gun, bulletproof vests and other clues that combined to match precisely what the victim of a home invasion and robbery in Arkansas said the perpetrator was wearing when he was confronted.
Prosecutors have indicated they will put on proof that Nichols robbed a Hot Springs, Ark., gun dealer on Nov. 5, 1994. Prosecutors are expected to tell jurors that the purpose of the robbery was so Nichols and McVeigh would have the funds necessary to purchase ingredients for a fertilizer and fuel bomb.
Indeed, when the Nichols home was raided by the FBI after the bombing, they found a large number of firearms and other property that Roger Moore had earlier re-ported stolen.
Known by an alias, Bob Miller, Moore testified in Denver that Nichols did not fit the description of the man who approached him that morning.
Key evidence
Moore's testimony on the subject of the robbery indicated that his assailant was wearing a pair of Israeli combat boots, was wearing camo pants and shirt, likely had on a bulletproof vest under his shirt, a black ski mask and was holding a pistol grip shotgun. The assailant was further described as standing 5' 10, weighing 165 and having some facial hair.
At his arrest, the FBI noted that Guthrie weighed 165 pounds, stood 5 ft, 9 in. and had a moustache.
Langan is expected to testify that Guthrie and at least one other member of the ARA robbed Moore's home.
Additional evidence recovered by the FBI shows that Guthrie had an Arkansas driver license made with a Hot Springs, Ark., address with his own photograph on it. The name on the license was Moore's alias: Robert Miller.
The FBI also recovered another fake ID in the raid, one with the photo of Langan, also with a Hot Springs post office box and an alias.
The FBI also seized a videotape from the gang that's wrapped in mystery.
Inside a file cabinet belonging to the gang, the FBI found a videotape which agents noted contained surveillance of "several locations." On the cover was scribbled the word, "Contract."
Langan claims the tape has foot-age of Moore's farm. He says Guthrie made the surveillance film in preparation for the robbery.
The defense for Nichols is expected to subpoena a copy of the video for review.
J.D. Cash is a veteran reporter for the McCurtain Daily Gazette.

-----------------------------------------------------
Prosecutor: Nichols Hated U.S. Government
Mar 22, 12:57 PM (ET)
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - Terry Nichols hated the U.S. government and worked hand-in-hand with Timothy McVeigh in the deadly, "monstrous" bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.
"These two were partners, and their business was terrorism," Assistant Oklahoma County District Attorney Lou Keel said in opening statements in Nichols' state trial. Proceedings got under way after two jurors and an alternate were excused by the judge, who blamed prosecutors for the problem.
Keel said Nichols purchased the fertilizer, which was used with fuel oil to create the bomb, and stole the blasting caps used to detonate the device from a Kansas quarry.
"This huge, monstrous bomb was detonated right in front of that building," Keel said. He said those not killed in the initial blast died because of glass projectiles that were sent "flying like bullets" by the force of the blast.
Drill marks on a padlock at the quarry matched a drill bit found in Nichols' basement, Keel said.
"He had more to do with gathering the various components of the bomb than did Timothy McVeigh," Keel said.
And he offered a motive.
"Terry Lynn Nichols had long been mad at the federal government," Keel said.
He said the evidence will show that Nichols told his ex-wife, Lana Padilla, that he was angry at the government's actions at Waco, Texas, in the deadly end to the standoff with the Branch Davidians, exactly two years before the Oklahoma City bombing.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001, for the bombing.
Before opening arguments began Monday, two jury members and an alternate juror were excused because they are distant cousins of an attorney with the prosecutor's office, George Burnett. Judge Steven Taylor criticized prosecutors for "inexcusable conduct" in not revealing the links sooner.
Except for consulting on jury selection, Burnett, who was born in McAlester and has many relatives in the area, is not a Nichols trial attorney. But he is an assistant district attorney with the Oklahoma County district attorney's office, which is prosecuting the case.
It was not clear how prosecutors learned of the problem, or why they didn't let the judge know of it earlier.
Burnett did not immediately return telephone calls Monday to ask about the judge's comments. Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane was out of state and unavailable for comment, his office staff said.
The trial had been moved to McAlester, about 130 miles from Oklahoma City, because of pretrial publicity.
The trial will go on with 12 jurors and three alternates, instead of the six alternates that the judge had planned to use. Prosecutors learned of the problem on March 9, but didn't notify the judge about it until March 12, one day after the jury was seated.
"Unfortunately, the court's plan to have six alternate jurors has been cut in half due to the inexcusable conduct by the state," Taylor said.
Taylor said that if there are further problems with the jury and he runs out of alternates, he will dismiss the case.
The trial for Nichols, who is already serving a life sentence on federal changes, is expected to take four to six months. Prosecutors have lined up more than 400 witnesses.
Nichols, 48, was already convicted and sentenced to life for the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers in the April 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The 161 state charges are for the other 160 victims and one victim's fetus.
He could be sentenced to death if convicted. Defense attorneys claim Nichols was set up by unknown coconspirators, suggesting a 1994 robbery in Arkansas that prosecutors blame on Nichols was actually committed by white supremacist bank robbers who may have helped McVeigh.
Some of those directly affected by the bombing differ on whether the trial is necessary.
"The last nine years, I've just put my life on hold. Almost everything I do, it has something to do with the bombing," said Jannie Coverdale, who lost two grandsons in the blast. "If Terry Nichols does not get the death penalty, we might as well abolish the death penalty in this country."
Others oppose the trial because of its cost and the fact that Nichols is already serving life in prison. The case already has cost the state about $3.4 million, not including prosecution expenses and security costs.
"We think it's a waste of money, a waste of time. This is a black mark on our justice system," said Jim Denny, whose two children were injured in the explosion.
Bud Welch, a death penalty opponent whose daughter, 23-year-old Julie Marie Welch, was killed, said the trial "has nothing to do with the healing process."
"Family members are being victimized again," he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The 3rd terrorist: Mideast tie to OKC bombing
Investigative reporter has 'dead-bang' evidence of Islamic plot
Posted: February 12, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
? 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were not the lone conspirators in the Oklahoma City bombing but were part of a greater scheme involving Islamic terrorists and at least one provable link to Iraq, according to a new release by WND Books.
Backed by stunning evidence, author Jayna Davis explains in detail the complete, and so far untold, story behind the failed investigation in The Third Terrorist: The Middle Eastern Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing."
The investigative reporter who first broke the story of the Middle East connection, Davis shows why the FBI closed the door, what further evidence exists to prove the Iraqi connection, why it has been ignored and what makes it more relevant now than ever.
Told with a gripping narrative style and vetted by men such as former CIA director James Woolsey, Davis's piercing account is the first book to set the record straight about what really happened in the bombing that killed nearly 170 people in a few short seconds April 19, 1995.
Last April, Davis' reporting on the Oklahoma City bombing was vindicated when the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit filed against her after finding "defendants did not recklessly disregard the truth" in reporting on an Iraqi soldier's alleged involvement in the bombing.
"After eight years of oppressive litigation, the courts have vindicated my work ethic as a dedicated journalist," Davis told WorldNetDaily at the time. "The lawsuit was obviously designed to silence a legitimate investigation into Middle Eastern complicity in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing."
In an interview with WND in October 2001, attorney David Schippers, who prosecuted the House of Representatives' impeachment case against Bill Clinton, said his examination of the evidence Davis presented him was conclusive.
"I am thoroughly convinced that there was a dead-bang Middle Eastern connection in the Oklahoma City bombing," he said.
Read WorldNetDaily's extensive coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing case.
Jayna Davis's blockbuster -- "The Third Terrorist: The Middle Eastern Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing" -- is available now from the source, WorldNetDaily.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Five Kerry homes valued at nearly $33M
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's Ketchum, Idaho vacation home on the Wood River is seen in this March 17, 2004 photo. Kerry is vacationing at his Ketchum home through Wednesday, March 24. He plans to return to the campaign trail Thursday with a Democratic fund-raiser in Washington.(AP Photo/Troy Maben)
WASHINGTON -- From a sailing mecca to a ski resort, presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, enjoy the trappings of their wealth in at least five homes and vacation getaways valued at nearly $33 million.
Some are private escapes for the family, while others serve as prime spots to host fund-raisers and exclusive gatherings for wealthy donors. All reflect the couple's status - he is a four-term Massachusetts senator, she is heiress to the $500 million family ketchup fortune - with breathtaking vistas, elegant furnishings and enclosures that protect the property from prying eyes.
Each home has a place in the family's life, with its own history and mission, from the preppy island of Nantucket and Boston's Beacon Hill to the Pittsburgh countryside, from the Idaho mountains to the nation's capital.
Kerry is on a weeklong break from the campaign at the home in the wooded mountains of Ketchum, Idaho. Located near the banks of the Big Wood River, the nearly $5 million house is a reassembled barn, originally built in England in 1485, and brought to Idaho by Heinz Kerry's late husband, H. John Heinz III. The Pennsylvania Republican senator died in a plane crash in 1991.
The classic yet comfortably furnished farmhouse, profiled in Architectural Digest magazine in 1993, was inspired by Heinz Kerry's memories of an inn in Swaziland where she vacationed with her parents. Its central point is an enormous, 57-by-24-foot great room with a 25-foot ceiling framed with original oak beams.
The Heinz family has had the house since 1966, and traditionally spends time there in August and during the Christmas holidays - often throwing a New Year's Eve party capped with fireworks.
This is also where Heinz Kerry, while on one of her frequent hikes, wrestled with the prospect of Kerry's presidential bid - a political move she had opposed for her first husband and Kerry.
"While taking a long walk in Ketchum, she finally realized she couldn't hold him back, that he had too much to offer the country," said Heinz Kerry's spokeswoman Christine Anderson. "She said they're not getting any younger and this was a contribution she knew he could make."
While Ketchum provides a respite from politics, the tony Beacon Hill brownstone in Boston has been a more frequent campaign way-station for Kerry and his wife. It is the only residence that is theirs as a couple. And, assessed at nearly $7 million, it is the residence that Kerry mortgaged last year to finance more than $6 million in loans to his campaign.
Their other homes, ranging in value from more than $3 million to nearly $9.2 million, belong to Heinz Kerry, and predate her 1995 marriage to the Massachusetts senator. Several are still listed under the name of her late husband.
Formerly part of a convent, the five-story, 12-room Boston town house - with six fireplaces, a rooftop deck and an elevator - is Kerry's main residence. It is where he is registered to vote, where his cars and motorcycle are registered and is located blocks from the State House where he began his political career as lieutenant governor.
Visitors say the town house, with its modern two-story kitchen built for entertaining, is filled with books, decorated with family photos and Dutch still-life paintings and boasts a striking portrait of "Moby Dick" author Herman Melville that hangs in the small library just inside the entrance.
While that is their newest home, Heinz Kerry has had a Massachusetts presence for years.
Just beyond the historic Brant Point Lighthouse in Nantucket's harbor is Heinz Kerry's $9.1 million waterfront estate. Rimmed by tall hedges, with a wide deck and a lawn that reaches to the beach, the three-story, five-bedroom manse was the site of the couple's Memorial Day weekend wedding in 1995.
Since then, the house has been used for campaign retreats and Democratic receptions for the party's big money donors.
Visitors say that while the homes are adorned with pricey art and antiques, they are generally friendly and comfortable and not ostentatious. "Their homes have always been places for friends and family to come together," Anderson said. "And their homes reflect that."
While Kerry calls Boston home, Heinz Kerry's base is Pittsburgh, which is her longtime residence and the headquarters of the Heinz Family Philanthropies, which she chairs.
Located on a $3.7 million, 90-acre family farm in Fox Chapel, the home is a nine-room white colonial fronted with six columns, and at the end of a steep drive, hidden from the road by a curtain of woods. The property includes a deep-red, nine-room carriage house.
This is where Heinz Kerry raised her three sons, where she is registered to vote, and where - on one day in the early 1980s - the late "Mister (Fred) Rogers" filmed an episode of his "Old Friends, New Friends" show. Rogers was the godfather to Heinz Kerry's youngest son, Christopher.
Their fifth home, in Georgetown, is perhaps the most utilitarian, and is necessary to accommodate the time they spend in Washington when the Senate is in session. Also belonging to Heinz Kerry, the 23-room, $4.7 million town house, with its wide stairway and landscaped courtyard, is filled with antiques, fine art, including paintings by Dutch masters, and family photos.
------------------------------------------------------------
In Germany, Mosque-Building Boom Regarded With Fear
By JEFFREY FLEISHMAN Los Angeles Times
Published: Mar 21, 2004
BERLIN - The chink and scrape of stonecutters echo through the gray-domed mosque that rises like a glimmer of misplaced architecture in a city where the Muslim call to prayer is a widening whisper.
Dusted in marble, workmen scurry in the muted glow of stained glass. Some paint Quranic verses on the walls; others make last-minute alterations to golden-tipped minarets pricking a drizzly skyline. Anxious Berliners sometimes peek into the courtyard, where Ali Gulcek, a husky, nimble man, assures them his religion is not a threat.
``I need to enlighten the Germans so their prejudice of Islam will go away,'' said Gulcek, a German citizen born to Turkish parents whose Muslim organization is building the mosque. ``Our mosque will be completed in May. We've wanted a legitimate mosque for so long. For years, we've been meeting in back yards and basements. We don't want to hide anymore.''
Gulcek's mosque reflects the surge in Islamic construction sweeping Germany. The number of traditional mosques with their distinctive minarets nearly doubled in Germany from 77 in 2002 to 141 in 2003, according to Islam Archive, a Muslim research group in the city of Soest. An additional 154 mosques and cultural centers are planned, many of them in the countryside where vistas are dotted with symbols of crescent moons and crosses.
Like the cultural battles over allowing Muslim women to wear head scarves in European schools, mosques are another indication that immigration is transforming social, religious and aesthetic landscapes. Staccato Turkish and throaty Arabic syllables whirl amid European vernaculars, and where once there was a German bakery, there is now a Moroccan kebab stand. In some bookshops, the Quran is as prominent as the Bible, and Muslim worry beads sometimes rattle alongside rosaries.
Signs Of Change
Mosques are landmarks of faith. But in Europe they also are symbols of change that can instigate fear, especially as congregations at Christian churches steadily decline on a continent with the fastest-aging population in the world. A mosque often means a neighborhood is no longer what it was. Skin hues are darker, customs different, and society's failure at integration is laid bare.
For many Europeans since Sept. 11, mosques are perceived - unlike churches or synagogues - as caldrons of radicalism instead of places of worship. That sentiment is likely to endure if Islamic militants were involved in the train bombings in Madrid that killed more than 200 people and wounded 1,400 others.
``Building a mosque won't create integration,'' said Werner Mueller, a pharmacist in a Berlin neighborhood where proposals for two mosques are encountering opposition from government agencies. ``These new mosques will make Islam more visible, and jobless and angry Muslim men will go to them. They can become places infiltrated by political Islam.''
Such sensitivity is rooted in Al Quds mosque in Hamburg - a warren of rooms above a gym with smudged windows where Mohamed Atta and other Sept. 11 hijackers prayed before moving to the United States. Thousands of nondescript mosques, some tucked in alleys, others half-hidden in old factories, are scattered across the continent. There are nearly 2,400 in Germany, according to the Islam Archive.
The Berlin government is seeking more control over blueprints for larger mosques. The city's planning office wants veto power on all building projects that may impinge upon a borough's character. The veto proposal is expected to take effect this year and could complicate plans for four mosques in the city boroughs of Kreuzberg and Neukoelln. The government says it is not singling out mosques, but trying to bring uniformity to the skyline.
Building Relations
``Berlin has a large Turkish population,'' said Petra Reetz, a spokeswoman for the planning office. ``That always has to be a consideration. But we are still a central European town and we'd like to keep the face of a central European town, not a Turkish town.''
Such sentiments have made Mehmet Bayram a patient architect. The projects he treasures most, including mosques and Islamic cultural centers, are yet to be built, tangled in negotiations with government agencies. Bayram splices architecture, folding Islamic nuances into European designs to make Muslim edifices more palatable to the German eye. What could be considered minarets on the facade of one of his proposed cultural centers, for example, are instead spiraling stairwells.
Gulcek's mosque is being built south of the city center by the Turkish Islamic Union, one of several Muslim organizations in Germany overseeing construction plans for such projects. At 3 million, Turks are the the nation's largest minority.
Gulcek moved to Berlin with his parents 24 years ago from the Turkish city of Kayseri.
``It's taken 13 years to build,'' said Gulcek, a smiling, yet exasperated, diplomat of sorts between cultures. ``The biggest problem was raising money from Berlin Muslims. Then we found out our minarets were too high and we had to raise more money for a $100,000 fine from the borough. Why? It came down to a misunderstanding. We didn't know about German law, and the borough didn't tell us.
``It was difficult to explain our idea of the mosque to the Germans. We should have explained it better. If you communicate, there are fewer problems, but there always seems to be a lace curtain between Germans and Muslims. Europeans have a prejudice and a fear of change.''

-------------------------------------------------------------
Arafat orders his security on alert after Yassin hit
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, March 22, 2004
RAMALLAH - Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat believes Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin was a message to the Fatah chief that he could be next.
Arafat ordered his security forces to be on alert in wake of the killing of Yassin, Palestinian sources said. They said Arafat appeared concerned that Yassin's death was part of a new Israeli policy that ended the immunity enjoyed by the PA chairman.
Meanwhile, Arafat may be moving to fill the void in Hamas leadership left by the assassination.
PA radio and television reported the assassination of Yassin and the threats of Hamas retaliation, Middle East Newsline reported. But PA television refrained from showing footage of Yassin and other casualties after the attack. Gulf-owned satellite channels, such as Al Arabiya and A-Jazeera, broadcast such footage.
Palestinian sources said Arafat might seek to fill the vacuum left by Yassin by offering to increase cooperation with Hamas. With the exception of Yassin, most senior Hamas commanders have dismissed Arafat as a force in Palestinian society.
The sources said Arafat has ordered his commanders to prepare for large-scale Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. They said Arafat was placed in a special "security room" to avoid being a target of Israeli snipers.
"We believe the president is a target," an Arafat aide said.
The sources said PA commanders were told to allow Hamas and other insurgency groups to organize protests and activities to prevent any Israeli invasion. Arafat and Yassin had known each other since the 1960s and over the last decade engaged in regular consultations. The sources said Arafat found Yassin to be the most cooperative among Hamas leaders.
Earlier, the Palestinian High Court unfroze the accounts of nine Hamas-aligned charities said to have funded insurgency groups. In August 2003, the PA froze 39 accounts - including those of Al Jamiya Al Islamiya, A-Salah, Islamic Young Women's Association, Social Care Committee, Islamic Charity for Zakat and Al Aqsa Charity Association - under pressure from the United States. Sunday's decision by the court requires approval by Arafat, who in the past has ignored the High Court.
----------------------------------------------------------


Bahrain rioters hit streets, torch cars of Arab playboy boozers
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, March 22, 2004
ABU DHABI - Shi'ite attacks against foreigners are now targeting playboys from neighboring Arab states who come to Bahrain for the more readily available alcohol.
Western diplomatic sources said last week's street violence appears to have shifted its focus from Westerners to Gulf Arab nationals who use Bahrain as the watering hole of the region. The kingdom is the only Gulf state that approves the public sale and consumption of alcohol, banned by Islam.
Most of the patrons in the La Terrasse restaurant, one of the targets of last week's rampage, were Gulf Arabs, particularly Saudi nationals. Two cars owned by Saudi nationals were torched.
The diplomatic sources said the Shi'ite vigilante campaign appears to be supported by members of Bahrain's parliament, dominated by fundamentalists. Many parliamentarians have called for a ban on alcohol and the expulsion of the U.S. military presence in the kingdom.
Bahraini police and security forces have been unable to quell Shi'ite attacks against foreigners, including those from other Gulf Cooperation Council states, Middle East Newsline reported.
The diplomatic sources said police have often seemed unwilling to respond to complaints of attacks by Shi'ites against Westerners or other GCC nationals said to have been in violation of Islamic law.
Last Wednesday, Arab and Western expatriates came under attack by Shi'ite militants in the capital Manama. Shi'ites torched cars and attacked patrons in a restaurant in what was termed a campaign against the sale of alcohol in the kingdom.
Scores of Shi'ites, armed with knives and batons, attacked customers, looted and vandalized restaurants and torched cars. At least three people were injured and several of the attackers were arrested.
The rampage began with attacks on suspected Asian alcohol dealers in Manama. Shi'ite rioters, who sought to break bottles of alcohol, clashed with Bahraini security forces throughout the night as the violence spread toward the affluent suburbs.
"I doubt that I will continue to operate in Bahrain after what happened," J.J. Bakhtiar, the co-owner of La Terrasse restaurant said. "Customers are afraid, and I had to spend all day today convincing the customers who had reserved places at the restaurant that it was safe for them to come here and enjoy a meal."
This was the second Shi'ite attack in as many weeks in what was termed an Islamic campaign against alcohol. In early March, hundreds of Shi'ite youngsters rampaged through the Asian section of Manama, beating expatriate laborers and destroying property. Bahrain has a Shi'ite majority that regards itself as close to neighboring Iran, but is ruled by a Sunni royal family.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------