Dr. Kay Had Maps with Coordinates of WMD Hiding Places in Syria

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report and Analysis
February 2, 2004, 3:33 PM (GMT+02:00)
No mirage...
Setting up an inquiry commission is the political leader's favorite dodge for burying an embarrassing problem until the pursuit dies down. President George W. Bush will this week bow to election-year pressures from Democrats and his own Republicans alike and sign an executive order to investigate US intelligence failings regarding Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction on the eve of war. Both his senior war partners, the Australian and British prime ministers, face the same public clamor ever since WMD hunter Dr. David Kay resigned, declaring there were probably no stockpiles in Iraq and "we were all wrong."
At the same time, the CIA and other intelligence bodies accused of flawed performance do not look particularly dismayed by the prospect of facing these probes. They point to the cause of the political flap, Dr Kay, as contradicting himself more than once in the numerous interviews he has given since he quit as head of the Iraq Survey Group.
In the last 24 hours, DEBKAfile went back to its most reliable intelligence sources in the US and the Middle East, some of whom were actively involved in the subject before and during the Iraq war. They all stuck to their guns. As they have consistently informed DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly , Saddam Hussein's unconventional weapons programs were present on the eve of the American-led invasion and quantities of forbidden materials were spirited out to Syria. Whatever Dr. Kay may choose to say now, at least one of these sources knows at first hand that the former ISG director received dates, types of vehicles and destinations covering the transfers of Iraqi WMD to Syria.
Indeed the US administration and its intelligence agencies, as well as Dr Kay, were all provided with Syrian maps marked with the coordinates of the secret weapons storage sites. The largest one is located at Qaratshuk at the heart of a desolate and unfrequented region edged with marshes, south of the Syrian town of Al Qamishli near the place where the Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish frontiers converge; smaller quantities are hidden in the vast plain between Al Qamishli and Az Zawr, and a third is under the ground of the Lebanese Beqaa Valley on the Syrian border.
These transfers were first revealed by DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly in February 2003 a month before the war. We also discovered that a Syrian engineering corps unit was detailed to dig their hiding places in northern Syria and the Lebanese Beqaa.
A senior intelligence source confirmed this again to DEBKAfile, stressing: "Dr. Kay knows exactly what was contained in the tanker trucks crossing from Iraq into Syria in January 2003. His job gave him access to satellite photos of the convoys; the instruments used by spy planes would have identified dangerous substances and tracked them to their underground nests. There exists a precise record of the movement of chemical and biological substances from Iraq to Syria."
Armed with this knowledge, Kay was able to say firmly to The Telegraph's Con Coughlin on January 25: "We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons. But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD program. Precisely what went to Syria and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved.
Yet in later interviews, the last being on February 1 with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's Late Edition - and for reasons known only to himself - Kay turned vague, claiming there was no way of knowing what those convoys contained because of the lack of Syrian cooperation.
What caused his change of tune?
Since he began talking to the media, interested politicians have been rephrasing his assertions on the probable absence of stockpiles, by dropping the "probable" and transmuting "no stockpiles", to "no WMD." These adjustments have produced a telling argument against Bush's justification for war and a slogan that has deeply eroded public confidence in US credibility in America and other countries. Tony Blair and John Howard will no doubt set up outside inquiry commissions like Bush. In Israel too, opposition factions have seized the opportunity of arguing that if Israel's pre-war intelligence on Iraq's arsenal was flawed, so too was its evaluation of Yasser Arafat's role as the engine of Palestinian suicidal terror. The fact that intelligence was not flawed - UN inspectors dismantled missiles and Iraq fired missiles at Kuwait - is easily shouted down in the current climate.
By the same token, no connection is drawn between the Iraqi WMD issue and the grounding this week of transatlantic flights from Europe to America by credible intelligence of an al Qaeda plot. The Washington Post spelled the threat out as entailing the possible spread of anthrax or smallpox germs in the cabin or planting of poison chemicals in the cargo.
It was also suggested that suicidal pilots might crash an airliner on an American city and drop payloads of toxic chemicals and bacteria.
Two questions present themselves here. One: if minute quantities of weaponized biological and chemical substances dropped by Osama bin Laden's killers from the air are menacing enough to trigger a major alert, why would Saddam need stockpiles to pose an imminent threat to world security and his immediate neighbors? Would not a couple of test tubes serve his purpose? Two: Where did al Qaeda get hold of the WMD presumed to be in its possession and who trained its operatives in their use?
Once again, DEBKAfile's senior intelligence sources recall earlier revelations. The ex-Jordanian terror master Mussab al Zarqawi is key director of al Qaeda's chemical, biological and radioactive warfare program. In late 2000, we reported him operating WMD laboratories under the supervision of Iraqi intelligence in the northern Iraqi town of Bayara. Since then, the same Zarqawi has masterminded some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Iraq, such as the blasts at the Jordanian embassy and the murder of Italian troops in Nassariya.
Zarqawi is and was the embodiment of the link between Saddam and al Qaeda going back four years, long before the American invasion of Iraq - which indicatges the source of Osama bin Laden's unconventional weapons purchases.
In another interview, the former ISG director expanded on his statement that Iraq was falling apart "from depravity and corruption." The Saddam regime, he said, had lost control. Saddam ran projects privately and unsupervised, while his scientists were free to fake programs.
A senior DEBKAfile source commented on this assertion:
"That's one way of describing the situation - and not only on war's eve but during all of Saddam Hussein's years of ruling Iraq. We are looking at institutionalized corruption of a type unfamiliar in the West; it was built up in a very special way in Iraq." The country was not falling apart, but it was being looted systematically. Just imagine, he said, Saddam and the two sons the Americans killed in July 2003 had their own secret printing press for running off Iraqi dinars and other currencies including dollars for their own personal use. The central bank went on issuing currency in the normal way, unaware that it was being undermined from within by the ruler's private press. "Saddam's corruption was structured, a hierarchical pyramid with the ruler, his sons and inner circle at the top and the petty thieves at the bottom making off with worthless paper."
Some of our sources challenged two more of Dr. Kay's assertions to Wolf Blitzer: a) After 1998 when the UN left, there was no human intelligence on the ground, and b) "There were no regular sources of information, not enough dots to connect." If this is true, how does he explain another statement in the same interview that the US entered the war on the basis of "a broad consensus among intelligence services - not just the CIA, but also Britain, France and Russia?"
On what did this consensus rest if there were no informants on the ground?
And furthermore, how were the American and British invading armies able to advance at such speed from Kuwait to Baghdad with no obstructions and without blowing up a single bridge, road or other utility, including oil fields, ports and military air fields? Every obstruction had clearly been removed from their path by intelligence agents on the ground , who reached understandings with local Iraqi commanders before the war began.
In the face of this evidence, the question must be asked: Why does Bush take David Kay's assaults and demands with such stoicism instead of going after Damascus - as defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has proposed from time to time?
One theory is that he does not trust any of the evidence. Saddam was famous among UN inspectors for his deception techniques; he may have practiced a double deception. Hard and fast facts are likewise hard to come by in Damascus. Above all, Bush may simply be determined to adhere to his plan of action come what may, whatever crises happen to cross his path, in the confidence that his path will lead to a November victory at the polls.
Three inquiry commissions will most likely be set up to examine the American, British and Australian intelligence assessments of Saddam's weapons of destruction in the run-up to the Iraq war. In the meantime, the actual weapons will continue to molder undisturbed in the ground of Syria and Lebanon


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At Syrian Weapons Mart, T-72 Tanks for Sale, One Owner, Good Condition

From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 141 Jan. 16
January 23, 2004, 7:51 PM (GMT+02:00)
There were no giveaways, balloons or barbecues, but business was booming this month at a bizarre Syrian bazaar - a used tank lot at al-Qamishli, located at the point where the borders of Syria, Iraq and Turkey meet. On sale: Russian T-72 tanks.
No, not in mint condition, hardly top-of-the-line merchandise, the tank on sale was a Soviet product purchased by the Syrian army in the 1980s, well enough maintained and offered at a rock bottom price of $3,000 apiece.
This arms market has sprung up, as DEBKA-Net-Weekly's exclusive intelligence and counter-terrorism sources have discovered, in back of the large train station at al-Qamishli, a forward point whence freight trains laden with oil and other products picked up at Syria's Mediterranean ports once set off for Saddam Hussein's Iraq. One dark night in January, our sources sighted a tank transporter, its lights extinguished, pulling into the railway station, loading up a number of tanks and heading toward the Iraqi border. The buyer's identity is unknown, and US military intelligence is working on the problem on the premise that an Iraqi guerrilla or Baath party group has little use for medium-sized tanks. The most likely proposition examined by intelligence officials is that the buyers are US-allied Kurds who are engaged in establishing an autonomous border police force in northern Iraq.
Iraqi guerrilla forces may not be in the market for tanks but, in the second week of January, their agents purchased US-made 106 mm recoilless cannons in another Syrian city, Dayr az Zawr on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River. The cannon, mounted on jeeps, sell for about $900 to $1,000 apiece.
How did these American tools of war end up in Syria?
The long arms of Middle Eastern arms merchants stretch from the Middle East to Pakistan in the north, the Persian Gulf in the east and Jordan in the west, a country whose border is only a hop and a skip from Dayr az Zawr. The arsenals of all the countries in the region are packed with masses of recoilless guns made in the USA. Any emergency store might overlook 200 to 300 missing weapons filched for the Syrian black market.
According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly's sources, the purchases on behalf of the Iraqi insurgents are made by agents of Iraqi mafia groups and "imported" into Iraq by several multi-forked routes.
Some of the guns and ammunition are floated down the Euphrates River aboard rafts under cover of dark. At dawn, the rafts are hidden in the tall reeds growing on the banks. Smugglers jump in the water and tow them with heavy ropes to hideouts out of sight of reconnaissance aircraft, drones and satellites. A second route for the recoilless guns is overland from Dayr Az Zawr south to the al-Qaim region, where they are disassembled and piled on pickup trucks for their next destination, the Iraqi cities of Anal and Al Hadithah.
The route splits again here, heading east toward Tikrit and Samarra or south to Ramadi, Falluja, Habaniyah and Baghdad.
According to our sources, the weapons emanating from al-Qamishli, mainly tanks, are smuggled along two routes into Iraq - directly into Mosul and via the Iraqi towns of Sinjar and Tall Afar.
The transactions for the sale of tanks and recoilless guns in northern and eastern Syria are carried out with no questions asked. All that matters is that the $100 bills for payment are not counterfeit. According to our sources, a whole region of Syria - running from al-Qamishli in the north southward to Dayr az Zawr - is one big arms bazaar. All of the dozen or so villages and towns in the region are in on the traffic, each specializing in a particular type of weaponry, from explosives to AK-47 rifles. Larger items like 60 mm machineguns or rocket-propelled grenade launchers, can be purchased at gas stations in the area. The concept of convenience store acquires a whole new meaning in this corner of the world.
According to our sources, prices are now climbing at a dizzying rate. As recently as November, a Kalashnikov A-47 assault rifle sold on the Syrian arms market for a mere $10. The same weapon - ammo not included - is now selling for $100. A crate of Russian grenades that cost from $17 to $22 is now going for $52 to $58, depending on year of manufacture.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence sources attribute the rise to heavy demand - not only on the part of anti-American Iraqi guerrilla forces but also their sworn rivals, the Kurds as well as the pro-American militias. The militia forces are in the process of being organized in the Mosul area by former Iraqi defense minister Hashem Sultan and in the al-Anbar region by the US 82nd Airborne Division.
Officers in charge of creating the new militias say the illicit traffic in fighters and black market weapons into Iraq cannot be choked off without the cooperation of local tribal leaders. Every tribal chief controls a swathe of territory and has his price for directing his men to report on cross-border movements. Some of the tribal leaders demand arms, some cash - either a steep one-lump sum or monthly payment. Payoffs may be in the six-figure dollar range, depending on the size of the region and its topography, most extortionate for tribes controlling sections of the Euphrates. Other chiefs want guns - lots of them. Some require as many as 500 Kalashnikov assault rifles, apparently to shift them at a profit. New cars and machineguns are also on their wish lists.
That's where the Syrian black market comes in. It is close at hand, available, reliable and well-stocked. Anyone may place orders with local smugglers and delivery in Iraq is made within two to three days.
No one knows how much Syrian president Bashar Assad is pocketing out of this thriving trade. After all, the weapons bazaars are located in his country and much of the wares on sale come from the Syrian armed forces' own stocks. He and his family are almost certainly clearing a cut of the profits.
Washington is now waiting to see when and where Iraqi guerrilla forces start firing their US-made recoilless guns against American troops. Intelligence officials expect them to be used for long-range attacks on US military convoys.
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Talabani Accuses Turkish Intelligence of Massacre

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

February 2, 2004, 12:21 AM (GMT+02:00)
Two huge bombs were detonated Sunday, February 1, at the very moment that Iraq's Kurds joined their leaders for a mass celebration at the headquarters of their two parties in the north Iraqi town of Arbil. The crowds had gathered to mark the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice and the passing of their archenemy Saddam Hussein.
The carnage was unimaginable, the worst terrorist assault ever seen in post-war Iraq. The death toll rose fast towards 70 with more than 200 injured. Hospitals recalled staff from their holidays and US helicopters rushed in medical assistance. The extent of the bloodshed and damage indicated strongly that vehicles packed with explosives outside the buildings must have backed up the suicide killers within.
According to DEBKAfile's sources in Kurdistan and Washington, PUK leader Talal Jalabani talking later to senior US officials - believed to include visiting US Pentagon second-in-command Paul Wolfowitz - bluntly accused Turkish intelligence of orchestrating the massacre with the aim of wiping out the entire Iraqi Kurdish leadership at a single stroke.
Kurdish PM Baram Salah repeated the allegation during a visit to White House that day.
Kurdish sources declared the Qaeda-linked Ansar al Islam lacked the resources and capabilities for mounting an operation of such magnitude and precision. It was clearly the work of a professional intelligence agency, who knew the two Kurdish heads Masoud Barzani, leader of the KDP and Jalal Talabani, head of the PUK, were to greet their followers at their respective headquarters in Arbil, along with the entire Iraqi Kurdish political and military leadership.
Talabani smelled a rat at the last minute and went into hiding. Barzani is in deep shock.
Among the dead are Sami Abdul Rahman, Dep. PM of the Kurdish region and his two sons, and Medhi Khoshnau, Dep. Governor of Arbil Province.
Turkish prime minister Tayyep Erdogan and foreign minister Abdullah Gul have just ended four days of talks in Washington at which they voiced concern over the generous measure of autonomy Iraq's Kurds had been promised as America's primary allies in the new Iraq. DEBKAfile's sources report that they were not satisfied with the replies they received from President George W. Bush. Neither were they happy when secretary of state Colin Powell told them that the Kurdistan problem would be resolved in negotiations between the future sovereign government in Baghdad and Kurdish leaders.
The American responses were seen by Turkish leaders as leading inevitably to near-Kurdish independence, creating a model in Iraq that threatened to inflame Turkey's own Kurdish minority.
Copyright 2000-2004 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.

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IRAQ: 'CHAOS' IS PROGRESS

By AMIR TAHERI
February 2, 2004 -- AT a radio phone-in program the other day, some listeners took me to task for Iraq's "slide into chaos."
"You campaigned for the liberation of Iraq, and now look what has happened." This was followed by a "what has happened" list of events that included Shi'ites demonstrating, Kurds asking for autonomy, Sunnis sulking and various political parties and groups tearing each other apart in the Iraqi media over the shape of the future constitution.
The view that Iraq is plunging into chaos, and even civil war, is echoed by many who did all they could to prolong the Ba'athist rule in Baghdad. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, for one, is going around lamenting what he labels as "uncertainties" that face Iraq.
The truth is that, far from sliding into chaos or heading towards civil war, Iraq is beginning to become a normal society. And all normal societies, as de Villepin might acknowledge, face uncertainties, just as do all normal human beings.
One should welcome the gradual emergence of a normal political life in Iraq after nearly half a century of brutal despotism, including 35 years of exceptionally murderous Ba'athist rule.
The central aim of the war in Iraq, as far as I am concerned, was to create conditions in which Shi'ites can demonstrate without being machine-gunned in the streets of Baghdad and Basra, while the Kurds are able to call for autonomy without being gassed by the thousands.
It is good that Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani can issue fatwas, as he never could have under Saddam. It is even better that those who disagree with the grand ayatollah can say so without being murdered by zealots.
Why shouldn't the Sunnis sulk if they feel that they may not get a fair deal in the new Iraq? What is wrong with Kurds telling the world that they are a distinct people with their own languages, culture and even religious faiths, and must be allowed to develop within the parameters of their identity?
If anything, the Iraqi political fight is taking place with an unusual degree of courtesy, which is not the case even in some mature democracies. (Consider what Howard Dean has to say about George W. Bush.)
The new Iraq, as it is emerging, will be full of uncertainties. But that is precisely why the liberation war was justified. Under Saddam, the Iraqis faced only the certainty of concentration camps and mass graves.
The Iraqis are now free to debate all aspects of their individual and national life. Like other normal societies, Iraq is home to different, often conflicting, views on many issues. The fact that these views are now expressed without fear is a positive achievement of the liberation.
Democracy includes the freedom to demonstrate, especially against those in charge, and to "tear each other apart" in the media and town-hall debates. It includes the difficulty of reaching consensus on major issues. It is only in a despotic regime that complex issues can be settled with a nod from the tyrant.
Those who follow Iraqi politics would know that Iraq today is the only Arab country where all shades of opinion are now free to express themselves and to compete for influence and power in a free market of ideas. (Even the Ba'athists, whose party was formally banned after the liberation, are beginning to group in a number of local clubs.)
Here are some of the key issues of political debate in Iraq today:
* The Arab Sunnis want Iraq described as "part of the Arab nation," based on the principle of Arabitude (uruba). This is opposed by the Kurds, who say the constitution must describe Iraq as a "bi-national: Arab and Kurdish" state. The Shi'ites, some 60 percent of the population, reject both the Arab and the "bi-national" formulae. Instead, they wish to emphasize the concept of Iraqitude (Uruka). Various minorities, including Christians, share that view.
* The Kurds want Iraq to become a federal state so that they can enjoy autonomy in their provinces. This is opposed by Arab Sunnis and Shi'ites, who argue that a federation is made up of pre-existing states that come together. Iraq, however, was created as a unitary state in 1921 and could not develop federal structures out of nothing. Also, a centralized state is needed to control the oil revenue and organize the use of water resources.
* Some parties, both Sunni and Shi'ite, want Islam acknowledged as the religion of the state in the new constitution. Other parties, including some on the left, oppose this; they want a secular system.
* Some parties want Iraq to withdraw from OPEC, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and, instead, seek some form of association with the European Union. Others insist that the new constitution should preserve Iraq's traditional foreign relations.
* Several parties and personalities want a clause for peace and cooperation with all nations to be included in the constitution. They see this as a step towards an eventual recognition of Israel. Others, however, insist that Iraq should not recognize Israel until there is a solution to the Palestinian problem.
* There are deep divisions on economic philosophy. The Kurds, and some Arab Sunnis, seek a welfare state in which the public sector provides the basic services free of charge. Many Shi'ites want a free-enterprise market economy to prepare Iraq for joining the World Trade Organization.
* There are divisions on the electoral system. The Kurds and Sunni Arabs want proportional representations, with measures that could prevent Shi'ites from using simple majority rules to impose their will. The Shi'ites want a first past-the-post system that could give them up to 70 percent of the seats in any future parliament.
Most of these debates have haunted Iraq since it was carved out of the Ottoman Empire and formed into a nation-state some seven decades ago. Successive Iraqi despots tried to keep a lid on these issues either by denying their existence or by stifling debate.
This is what most Arab regimes, which share many of Iraq's problems, have done for decades - and still do. If Iraq is to become a model for all Arabs, it should take a different path right from the start.
The U.S.-led Coalition could revert to that despotic tradition by imposing an artificial consensus. The fact that the Coalition has chosen not to do so is to its credit.
Real consensus is bound to be harder to achieve, and Iraq is certain to experience a lively political debate, including mass demonstrations and a war of leaflets, until a compromise is reached on how to form a provisional government and how to handle the task of writing a new constitution.
Most Iraqi political figures, acting out of habit, constantly turn to the Coalition authorities with the demand that their own view be adopted and imposed by fiat. The Coalition should resist the temptation to dictate terms. It should also refrain from making any partial alliances. Today, the entire Iraqi nation, in all its many different components, could be regarded, at least potentially, as a friend of the United States and its allies.
The Coalition should accept that the road ahead will be bumpy. But that is not necessarily bad news. For democracy is nothing but a journey on constantly bumpy roads.
E-mail: amirtaheri@benadorassociates.com
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Iraqi Forces Ready to Take Over Security of Baghdad
By Vijay Joshi Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 2, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops are ready to hand over security patrols in Baghdad to Iraqi forces, a U.S. commander said Monday, adding that his soldiers had made significant inroads against insurgent networks in the capital.
American soldiers will gradually move to the edge of the city as more Iraqi Civil Defense Forces and police graduate from U.S.-supervised training, said Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division, which is in charge of Baghdad.
"It is a necessary and correct step," he said.
Dempsey's announcement comes two weeks after a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at a gate of the U.S.-led coalition's headquarters, killing at least 31 people and wounding more than 120. Still, Dempsey said the number of insurgent attacks have gone down with the arrest of 118 people during the last three weeks.
"The insurgency in Baghdad is much less organized than it was a month ago and much more fearful than it was a month ago," he said.
The 1st Armored Division had 60 operating bases in Baghdad last year, but now operates only 26. It plans to have only eight bases in the city by May 1 as it hands over responsibility to the 1st Cavalry Division.
The division changes are part of a scheduled rotation in which nearly 130,000 American forces who have been in Iraq will leave and be replaced by about 110,000 fresh troops by this summer.
"When we are talking about moving out of the city, we are talking about kilometers, not hundreds of kilometers," Dempsey said.
U.S. troops now can move to locations in Baghdad in about five minutes. In the future, their response time will increase to about 15 minutes, he said.
Instructions from Washington, he said, were to hand over control of Baghdad to local forces whenever he felt they were ready to cope with the challenges. That stage has been reached, he said.
"Clearly we think we have made a very significant dent in the former regime's apparatus and network," Dempsey said.
Baghdad now has almost 8,000 Iraqi policemen, and the number will go up to 10,000 by May and to 19,000 by February 2005. In addition, the Iraqi Civil Defense Force, which now has 4,000 troops, will have 6,000 in the next few months. It also has 5,700 guards at important facilities and ministries.
AP-ES-02-02-04 1325EST
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Saddam's First Wife Moves to Little Baghdad, Sanaa
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
January 19, 2004, 2:16 PM (GMT+02:00)
From palatial Baghdad to typical Yemeni home.
A new colony is quietly establishing itself in the Yemen capital of Sanaa as, one by one, Saddam Hussein's close family and senior loyalists settle into a new life as political exiles.
"Little Baghdad" was discovered by DEBKAfile's exclusive Persian Gulf sources, who note that almost every incoming flight from Damascus, Amman or Beirut - or even Baghdad - drops one or two members of the old regime at the Saudi airports of Jeddah and Riyadh, where they change over to Saudi or Yemeni planes bound for Sanaa. Sometimes, an entire clan of 15 to 20 members deposits three generations in Sanaa. Up until mid-December last year, Saddam's fleeing supporters entered the southern Arabian republic in a trickle and were lodged in the few luxury hotels the Yemeni capital boasts. But in January, as their numbers jumped to hundreds, the Yemeni authorities began housing them all together in the Wadi Asrah suburb on the eastern edge of the town.
Like Damascus, Aleppo, Palmyra, Beirut and Dubai, the Yemeni capital can now boast its own "Little Baghdad," inhabited by some 600 Iraq expatriate officials.
Leading lights of the new Baath community, according to DEBKAfile sources, are Saddam's first wife Sajida Kheirallah Telfah, mother of the late Uday and Qusay and three daughters and her two brothers. Their late father was Saddam's uncle and mentor. Their closest neighbors are the two sisters of Ali Hassan al Madjid, otherwise known as "Chemical Ali," for poisoning thousands of Kurds to death in Halabja. Ali Majid, the deposed ruler's closest adviser, has vanished since the American invasion of Iraq. Contrary to various reports, he escaped unharmed from the US-British bombardment of his palace near Basra in the first part of the Iraq war. In August, rumors of his capture circulated but were never confirmed. It is generally believed that he is the only key functionary of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction programs to make good his escape. His whereabouts are a mystery to this day.
Other denizens of the Yemeni Saddamstan are 40 former Iraqi ambassadors and 120 senior Baath administration officials. Some former regime VIPs would have been allowed to stay in Baghdad unscathed, but preferred not to live under American occupation. One is the widow of the 90-year old widow of Ahmed Hassan Al Bakr, who was president of Iraq in the 1960s.
Yemeni president Abdallah Salah is happy to make the refugees of the Saddam regime at home for three reasons:
1. He was always on friendly terms with the Saddam regime's heads. Chemical Ali and vice president Izzat Ibrahim al Douri were frequent visitors to the presidential palace in Sanaa. In December 2002, weeks before the war, Salah, always on the lookout for profitable deals, put together a plan for a North Korean freighter carrying illegal Scud missiles for Iraq to secretly unload its cargo in a Yemeni port and have it transported overland to Iraq. The plan did not come off. A Spanish vessel acting on information relayed by US spy satellites intercepted the North Korean ship in the Indian Ocean before it reached Yemeni shores. It was boarded by US special forces and the missiles impounded.
2. Salah believes that providing ex-Saddam regime insiders with sanctuary adds to his credibility in his secret dealings with al Qaeda and lends him an image boost in the Arab world. At the same time, he claims to the Americans that this posture helps him maintain contacts with Osama bin Laden's people for the purpose of gathering intelligence.
3. Salah's overriding and constant motivation is the profit factor. Iraq's evicted regime leaders arrive in Sanaa with bags of money, some smuggled out of Iraq, some salted away in secret Arab, Persian Gulf and European bank accounts. DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report that in the last two months, the Iraq expatriates of Sanaa's Little Baghdad have deposited an estimated $350 m in Yemeni banks. There is most certainly more to come. The Yemeni president has high expectations that the vast sums of Iraqi cash reposing in Syrian banks will follow the affluent Iraqi refugees and end up in Yemeni banks.
The Washington Times reveals a Syrian army intelligence letter confirming earlier DEBKAfile reports of at least $3 bn worth of Iraqi funds held in Syria. The letter says $1.3 bn in cash is held in an official "presidency" account in the Syrian Central Bank, together with gold bullion and platinum, as well as $700m in Lebanon's Medina Bank.
Wary of upsetting the Americans, our sources report that Salah has set up a special advisory committee in his presidency office with the task of regulating and keeping tabs on the flow of Iraqi ex-officials to his capital. Candidates must file applications with the committee, with particulars of their companions and the sums of money they are bringing with them. These applications are relayed to the US authorities. If approved, the Iraqis are given the status of political exiles.
The Americans prefer to have all Saddam Hussein's stalwart concentrated in one place in Sanaa where they can be kept under surveillance, rather than letting them wander loose around the Middle East.

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Egypt Slides down Regional Scale, Tries Its Luck in Ramallah
From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 142 Updated by DEBKAfile
January 28, 2004, 6:40 PM (GMT+02:00)
Two senior Egyptian cabinet members, foreign minister Ahmed Maher and minister of intelligence Gen. Omar Suleiman, arrived in Ramallah Tuesday, January 27. They called on Yasser Arafat and Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia, who are not used these days to receiving visitors of such high rank. Their errand was to urge Arafat to instruct Qureia to do as job and seek a meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, for a real effort to restart dialogue and obtain benefits for his people. Abu Ala duly relayed this request via visiting US officials John Wolf and David Satterfield who arrived in Ramallah the next day.
DEBKAfile's Palestinian sources report that Arafat instructed the PM to make an appointment with Sharon a week ago, but Qureia believes Arafat is laying a trap for him as he did for his predecessor and will publicly accuse him of making undue concessions to the Israeli prime minister.
This episode speaks volumes about Egypt's current standing in inter-Arab affairs. Not so long ago, a telephone call from the Egyptian president's office to Arafat would have sufficed to get action. These days, two senior ministers have to travel from Cairo to put in a personal appearance to get anywhere with a leader whose own international standing is in tatters.
The Egyptians are still smarting from a series of brush-offs from former friend and ally, Muammer Qaddaffi, as DEBKAA-Net-Weekly 142 revealed on January 23.
Like fellow Egyptian Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei, director of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mubarak first heard of Muammar Qaddafi's decision to give up his nuclear option over the television news. So two days after Qaddafi dropped his WMD bombshell, Mubarak got on the phone and called him and took him to task.
Qaddafi mumbled something indistinct and the two rulers agreed to talk again in a couple of days.
However, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 's sources have learned that whenever Mubarak's office tried to call the Libyan ruler, he was put off by some excuse. But there was an even graver knock to come, which sent a top-level Egyptian delegation running to Tripoli on Wednesday, January 21, with a personal message from Mubarak to Qaddafi. It was carried by no less than prime minister Safwat al-Sherif, Maher and personal presidential adviser Osama el-Baz.
About a week after the foreshortened Mubarak-Qaddafi conversation, Libyan border posts began turning away Egyptian arrivals, starting with petty harassment and when Egypt complained slamming the door in earnest. According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly' 's sources, Tripoli also suddenly stopped money transfers from Libya to Egyptian banks, creating a whole set of new headaches for Mubarak and his government.
About a million Egyptians have jobs in Libya. Now, they have no way of sending money home each month or paying regular visits to their families every couple of weeks lest their return to work is blocked. Without the remittances, their families could starve.
Ripples of disgruntlement are spreading through Egyptian towns where the Mubarak government's powerlessness to cope with national problems is sensed. Our sources in North Africa quote senior Libyan officials as reporting Qaddafi's explanation of his conduct to his inner circle. Mubarak, he says, will have to get used to the new balance of power in Africa and understand that the Arabs no longer have the clout they had for more than a century.
"The Egyptians may be upset by my dealings with America, but I know exactly how they talked about me and that made me pretty angry too," Qaddafi said this week to his close circle.
"I'm not the least interested in what's going on in the Arab countries and their governments - and that goes for the Arab League as well," he added. "I'm finished with the Arabs - I am now turning to Africa."
Our sources interpret Qaddafi's comments and his border closure as aimed at cutting Mubarak down to size and teaching him to change his tone with Libya.
Qaddafi's attitude is not the only thing bothering Mubarak. Aged 75 and in poor health, the Egyptian ruler sees his last term as president occasioning the collapse of his country as a regional power.
Since the 1950s, Egypt's prestige has rested on four pillars:
1. Influence in West Africa through Qaddafi.
2. Control over the Sudanese regime in Khartoum which provided Egypt with a clear run to the western coast of Red Sea, the main shipping artery to and from the Suez Canal and the Saudi coast.
3. Complete domination over the White and Blue Nile rivers.
4. Possession of the Sinai Peninsula, the key to power over the Palestinians. Yasser Arafat, like Qaddafi in Libya, served Egypt as an obedient tool.
All of these old truisms have been swept away. The pillars upholding Egypt's regional standing have crumbled in the face of the Bush initiatives with regard to Libya and Sudan and Yasser Arafat's 40-month violent confrontation against Israel.
Sudan's President Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir paid a courtesy visit to Mubarak last week. Our sources report that he pointedly refrained from consulting with the Egyptian president on his accord with rebel leader John Garang or the new US alliance with Sudan. He simply presented them as an accomplished fact.
Mubarak, while taking deep offense, nonetheless held on to his temper. The last thing he needs is a feud with another of his neighbors after his falling-out with Qaddafi. He therefore smiled to his guest through clenched teeth.


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Assad Buries Hatchet with Arafat, Woos Washington via Ankara
DEBKAfile Special Report
January 14, 2004, 1:38 PM (GMT+02:00)
Syrian leaders taken aback by Israel`s uncertainty
The Syrian leadership, in an urgent session on Sunday, January 11, resolved on two fresh initiatives after failing to make head or tail of Israel's wordy and inconsistent responses to Bashar Assad's feelers for the resumption of the peace talks that broke down four years ago. The first such feeler was broached in a New York Times interview last month. Since then, different Israeli government and military officials have been tacking and weaving between outright rejection and wary affirmatives. The Damascus meeting decided to seize the diplomatic high ground provided by Israel's apparently negative response and move forward in two seemingly opposite directions: in the first instance, a charm campaign to throw off Washington's heavy pressure and its implied threat of military action against Syrian targets both on its soil and in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley; in the second, to bury the twenty-one-year old hatchet between the Assad regime and Yasser Arafat.
This week Damascus moved forward on both these fronts:
A. A special presidential envoy is expected in Ankara with a personal message from Assad to President George W. Bush for delivery by Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan who is due in Washington in the coming days. The Turkish prime minister thus becomes senior mediator between Washington and Damascus, a role that was sought by and eluded Greek leaders when Bush visited Athens earlier this month. Assad hopes an offer to Bush to sponsor the resumption of the Syrian-Israel dialogue will lift the weight of Washington's hand on his collar with regard to his backing for the anti-American campaign in Iraq and for anti-Israel terrorists in Damascus and Lebanon.
The letter to Bush still lacks the final touch of a Syrian concession on at least one bone of contention, whether on the Iraqi, Lebanese or Israeli tracks.
B. The breach between the house of Assad and Arafat dates to the days of Bashar's father Hafez. In 1983, Arafat and his PLO leadership were sent packing from Beirut and spent ten years in Tunisian exile. Palestinians were strictly confined to refugee camps in the south. Continuing the feud, Assad junior has consistently refused to welcome the Palestinian leader in Damascus.
In an exclusive report, DEBKAfile's Palestinian and Beirut sources disclose that the Syrians have now embarked on two reconciliatory steps:
1. For the first time in 21 years, Arafat's mainstream Fatah has been permitted by Lebanon's overlord in Damascus to open up a base in the Lebanese capital.
2. Arafat's close confidant and emissary Hani al-Hassan, a member of Fatah's central committee, has been received in Beirut to open a dialogue with pro-Syrian elements and Syrian military intelligence officers in Lebanon. DEBKAfile's Palestinian sources say al-Hassan has just returned to Ramallah to make his report to Arafat. He will return to Beirut early next week to continue the interchange.
Syria's initial exchanges with Arafat's representative have already had an unsettling effect in Lebanon and the Palestinian rejectionist organizations which enjoy Syrian patronage. The Lebanese people have not forgiven the pivotal role played by Arafat's legions in its 15-year long civil war. The return of a Palestinian official presence in Beirut revives the bad blood. The fact that al-Hassan was allowed to set foot in Beirut marks the Lebanese government's impotence in the face of the will of Damascus. As for the PLO hard-liners, they fear the Assad-Arafat rapprochement will cost them the favored status they enjoy in Damascus which derives from traditional Syrian backing for the anti-Arafat rejectionist movement. After decades of deferring to the Assad regime, they now fear its betrayal.
What is Assad really up to?
In Jerusalem, Israel's military intelligence chief, major-general Aharon Zeevi, addressed the Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee on Tuesday, January 13, on another rift building up between Damascus, on one side, and the Hizballah and Iran, on the other. Zeevi held this fracture up as evidence that Assad's avowed wish to start talks with Israel is on the level.
Not everyone in the Israeli military and security establishment agrees with him.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and defense minister Shaul Mofaz are particularly skeptical - to the point that a crisis of confidence is developing between Mofaz and his intelligence chief.
Last week, officials close to Mofaz leaked reports to the Israeli media alleging that Syrian planes that delivered humanitarian aid to earthquake-struck Iran carried Iranian arms shipments for the Hizballah on their return flight. The information was accurate, but it neglected to mention - unlike a special report by DEBKAfile's military sources - that the entire "airlift" consisted of only two Syrian transports.
These discrepancies do not resolve the real question of whether Assad has truly decided to sever his terrorist alliance with Iran and Hizballah and cozy up to the Palestinians instead. The Americans are not convinced that this is so.
Washington has been in touch with Assad for the past several weeks, using visiting US congressmen and senators as intermediaries. After studying their reports, the White House has come to believe that Assad's talk of peace moves and apparent cooling towards Iran and Hizballah are stratagems to throw off US demands that he withdraw from anti-American activities in Iraq and the Iraqi-Syrian frontier. For the Bush administration, severance of the collaboration between Syria and the Sunni triangle in Iraq matters, whereas whether Assad and Arafat bury the hatchet or not is of little interest.
Indeed, the creation of a new Damascus-Ramallah axis may well be seen in Washington as an act of defiance rather than a pacific gesture. Assad may well be in the process of cutting down his involvement in one terrorist track - the Hizballah and radical Palestinian groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, even possibly shutting down their Damascus headquarters - in order to rebuild them on an alternative track - with Arafat. Syria would thus bow to pressure from Washington and Jerusalem in order to challenge them in another sector, demonstrating that he can do without Iran's political and financial support because he has added the Palestinian mainstream faction to his Palestinian stable.
Assad may therefore be in the process of remaking himself as leading champion of the Palestinian cause. This would make him a key player in any practical attempt to forge an Israel-Palestinian peace.
The Syrian president is thus shoring up his Lebanese-Palestinian stake. The response from Jerusalem remains hesitant and uncertain leaving it to Washington to lead the way.

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Veteran US Diplomat Djerejian to Explore Syrian, Israeli Intentions
DEBKAfile Special Report
January 16, 2004, 5:19 PM (GMT+02:00)
Djerejian will carry US initiative to Damascus and Jerusalem
At its wits' end to pierce the thicket of rhetoric emanating from Damascus and Jerusalem, the White House has plucked the veteran Middle East hand, Edward P. Djerejian, from academia for a fresh initiative to try and decode the conflicting signals broadcast by the Assad regime on whether or not and under what conditions they are prepared to resume peace talks.
It has been a month since Assad gave his seemingly groundbreaking interview to the New York Times and two weeks since he visited Ankara and hinted to Turkish leaders that if it were up to him, he would resume peace talks with Israel immediately
Wednesday, January 14, Damascus rejected Israeli president Moshe Katsav's public invitation to Assad to put his money where his mouth is and come to Jerusalem. It was Katsav's intention to bring some clarity to the verbal jousting. However, Syrian prime minister Naji Otri said there could be no peace with Israel as long as Ariel Sharon headed the "Zionist regime". Other Syrian officials, including Bouthaina Shaaban, Syrian minister of expatriates and one of Assad's close associates, said Katsav's offer was "not serious".
There was no hint in any of Syria's official statements of the infighting going on inside the Syrian administration.
Last Saturday, January 10, US senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) spent five hours in Damascus, where he met Assad. Later, he gave two conflicting reports of their conversation. In the first, which caused a sensation in the Israeli media, Nelson quoted Assad as accepting Sharon's condition to start any renewed peace negotiations from scratch - not necessarily from the point they were broken off four years ago when Ehud Barak was prime minister.
But on Thursday, January 15, members of the Nelson party to Damascus leaked a quite different report. The senator was described as harboring strong doubts about whether Assad was really in control of his regime or strong enough to pursue a peace course in the face of resistance from the old guard left over from his late father Hafez.
Reports reaching DEBKAfile's Middle Eastern sources confirm that these veterans have moved into action to plug the shower of leaks from Damascus that indicate the president's willingness to restart talks. They are led by such powerful figures as vice president Abdel-Halim Khaddam, foreign minister Farouk a-Shara, army chief Hassan Turkmani and defense minister Mustapha Tlass - whose daughter Nahed met Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom's senior adviser Ron Prossor, in Paris last month.
These hard-liners are stating firmly that Assad never meant to meet Ariel Sharon's condition that negotiations start from scratch. On the contrary, they must be picked up from the point at which they collapsed and after Israel effectively agreed to relinquish almost all of the Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace. On a side note, the old-timers suggested that this and other misunderstandings were rooted in the manner in which the Syrian foreign ministry and Shaaban mispresented the government's position to the world.
The old Hafez loyalists have long regarded Shaaban as a dangerous new broom in the on-going rivalry for influence.
The Bush administration is left stumped by the inconsistencies in Damascus and the uncertain responses of Jerusalem. According to DEBKAfile's sources in Washington, the White House has decided on a two-week cooling period at the end of which Djerejian, former ambassador to Israel and Syria and current head of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, will pay lightning trips to both capitals. Baker himself, the president's envoy on Iraqi debt relief and a former secretary of state, may also be involved at some point.
Djerejian will seek clear answers from the Syrian and Israeli leaders on just where they stand on restarting peace talks, conditions, format and agendas, and whether or not a face-to-face meeting is desired.
Djerejian's Damascus leg will be the more important of the two. Before the question of Syrian-Israeli talks is broached, the US envoy will confront the Syrian president with probing questions on the issues of Syrian involvement in the anti-American guerrilla war in Iraq, the storage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in Syria, the Syrian military presence in Lebanon and Assad's support for Hizballah terrorists.

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Syria dismisses Israel's invitation for Assad
Katsav slams Syria's rejection of invitation to visit Jerusalem after Syrian officials call it as 'not serious'.
DAMASCUS & JERUSALEM - Israeli President Moshe Katsav criticised Syria's rejection of his invitation Monday for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to visit Jerusalem for peace talks.
"This rejection shows that president Assad is not made of the same stuff as Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat," Katsav told reporters.
Sadat made a groundbreaking visit to Israel in 1977 that paved the way for the signing of the Jewish state's first peace treaty with an Arab country two years later.
The Egyptian president was assassinated in 1981 by an Islamic militant.
Syrian officials dismissed Katsav's invitation for Assad to visit Jerusalem for peace talks as "not serious" and evading the issue.
"I invite President Assad to come to Jerusalem to seriously negotiate with Israeli leaders on the conditions of a peace accord," Katsav had said on Israeli public radio earlier.
"Mr Assad will be welcome, but there should be no preconditions," he added.
But Syria's Expatriates Minister Bussaina Shaaban told CNN that Israel must state its willingness to resume negotiations from where they broke off four years ago.
"This is not a serious response" to Assad's call last month for a revival of contacts with Israel, the minister said, accusing the Israeli president of seeking a "photo opportunity".
And a senior official, quoted by the state news agency SANA, charged that the Israeli leader was trying to "sidestep" the land-for-peace basis of the Middle East peace process.
"It is not a matter of visits or initiatives. Israel's recent remarks are a bid to sidestep the peace process," said the unnamed official.
"Making peace in line with the land-for-peace references of the 1991 Madrid conference and international resolutions is the only way to guarantee security and stability in the Middle East," he said.
"Partial solutions and manoeuvres cannot lead to peace in the region," the official said.
In the previous talks with Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad, then Israeli premier Ehud Barak agreed to an almost total withdrawal from the Golan, save for a narrow strip of land bordering the east bank of the Sea of Galilee.
But Damascus rejected the proposal, wanting the return of all of the strategic plateau which Israel seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981.
Current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that if talks are renewed they should start again from scratch.
"If they are serious they should say they are prepared to start negotiations from where they broke off," countered Shaaban, a former foreign ministry official, reiterating Syria's position.
Assad last month called for a revival of the peace talks which broke down in acrimony in January 2000.

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US yanks diplomatic status from 16 Saudis
Washington says 16 would be Saudi diplomats are teaching Islam rather than working full-time in Saudi embassy.
WASHINGTON - The United States has revoked diplomatic accreditation from 16 would be Saudi diplomats and asked them to leave the country, a State Department official said Wednesday.
"There are 16 Saudis who we've asked to leave because we looked at the accreditation list and we found that they were not working at the embassy," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"Rather they were teaching Islam outside the embassy and therefore not entitled to diplomatic status...I think they are leaving soon," the official added.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters the action "was related solely to the fact that these individuals did not appear to be engaged full-time in the conduct of diplomatic duties within the Saudi Embassy."
The State Department's "action was not based on any other information regarding these individuals' activities," he said.
He said the department had recently obtained information that, "subsequent to their accreditation at the Saudi embassy, the persons in question were not engaged in the conduct of administrative or other duties within the embassy, and were therefore not entitled to diplomatic status.
"We have asked the Saudi mission to arrange for the immediate departure of these individuals," said Boucher.

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Somali Orphanages Financed by Saudi Charity Forced to Close for Lack of Funds
By Mohamed Olad Hassan Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 2, 2004
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Eleven orphanages in Somalia that were financed by a Saudi charity also suspected of bankrolling al-Qaida activities closed Monday after the relief agency cut off funding, one of the charity's Somali officials said.
Abuu Ali Sheikh Amuud said he was told by the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation on Jan. 15 that it could no longer provide funding for the orphanages, which cared for about 6,000 children.
Amuud condemned the closures as "inhuman and discriminatory against orphans."
On Monday, many children were turned away from an orphanage where they expected to receive food, medicine, clothing and small gifts usually distributed on the Muslim feast day of Eid al-Adha.
The charity's seven offices in Somalia, a lawless nation without a central government since 1991, closed six months ago. More than 500 Somalis who worked in the orphanages will lose their jobs, Amuud said.
In March 2002, the United States and Saudi Arabia moved to block the funds of the Somali and Bosnian branches of al-Haramain, saying they were "diverting charitable funds to terrorism."
On Jan. 22, the two countries said they were seeking international support to cut off funding to the group's other branches in Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania and neighboring Kenya.
At its height, Saudi-based Al-Haramain raised $40 million-$50 million a year in charitable contributions worldwide, a Saudi official has said.
Al-Haramain has denied any link to terrorist activities and said it was only involved in charity work for the poor.
AP-ES-02-02-04 1332EST

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Saudis Promise Measures to Avoid Future Stoning Ritual Deaths
By Rawya Rageh Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 2, 2004
MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia's top religious cleric promised measures Monday to prevent more tragedy at the annual Muslim pilgrimage, a day after 251 people were trampled to death during the "stoning the devil" ritual.
Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheik's comments came a few hours after the Saudi government said it would form an agency to redevelop Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest cities.
But some pilgrims questioned the resolve of the Saudis to end the string of tragedies that have marred the hajj, or pilgrimage, in recent years.
"We are tired of this broken record that keeps blaming the pilgrims. The government keeps saying that more people were performing the hajj this year than in previous years, as if Muslims are just now realizing the importance of the hajj. We don't want excuses or a scapegoat. We want a solution," said Ibrahim Abdul Radi, an Egyptian pilgrim.
Ezzedin Hemeida, a Sudanese construction technician attending the hajj with seven relatives, said they were "quite anxious" before they went to perform the stoning ritual.
Saudi "authorities need to find a way to handle this crowd, it's becoming intolerable," he said, adding that men, women and the elderly should have separate time slots.
The senior cleric's statement did not elaborate on what measures would be taken, but it is likely that al-Sheik will issue an Islamic fatwa, or edict, related directly to performing the stoning.
"The Board of Senior Theologians is pained by the incident and continues to search for any means that could prevent such incidents. It will meet on Thursday in Mecca to issue a decisive statement to solve this problem, God willing," al-Sheik said in a statement, reported by the official Saudi Press Agency.
In 1998, following a stampede during the ritual in which 180 people were killed, religious authorities issued an edict permitting the stoning to begin at dawn instead of after midday. The idea was to give worshippers more time and enable authorities to control them.
The stoning - often the most emotionally charged ritual at the pilgrimage - is performed three days in a row before sunset. Pilgrims also were trampled to death on their way to the stoning ritual in 1994, 1998, 2001 and 2003.
Seven more pilgrims died of their injuries Monday, the Saudi Health Ministry said.
The Saudi government's announcement that it would form an agency to redevelop Mecca and Medina came in response to Sunday's stampede.
Saudi King Fahd said the agency would develop the holy sites "according to the current and future circumstances," the official Saudi Press Agency reported Monday. Plans would be "comprehensive" and serve for "no less than 20 years."
Sunday's tragedy was the worst disaster at the hajj since 1997, when 340 pilgrims died in a fire at the tent city of Mina, near Mecca.
To control the crowds, the Saudis had set quotas for pilgrims from each country. About 2 million Muslims are participating in this year's pilgrimage.
The crowd got out of control Sunday as pilgrims moved along a wide ramp leading to the stoning - where they throw pebbles at three stone pillars, symbolizing their contempt for the devil.
Bishr Abdullah, a Nigerian pilgrim who dislocated his shoulder in Sunday's melee, said he was very close to the pillar when pushing began from two directions.
"When the pressure intensified, I could not breath and I fell. People stepped on me, but luckily someone I don't know pulled me out," he said from his bed at King Faisal Hospital in Mecca.
Many Muslims who have performed the ritual have harrowing tales to tell about being swept away by the crowds, and being afraid to trip or fall for fear of being crushed to death.
"All precautions were taken to prevent such an incident, but this is God's will," Saudi Hajj Minister Iyad Madani said Sunday. "Caution isn't stronger than fate."
About 10,000 security officers were on duty at the time in that area, said Brig. Mansour al-Turki of the Saudi General Security Forces.
No major incidents were reported Monday, as pilgrims continued the ritual.
AP-ES-02-02-04 1353EST

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Father of Pakistan Nuclear Program Confesses to Transfers to Iran, Libya and North Korea

By Matthew Pennington Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 2, 2004
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - The admission by Pakistan's nuclear founder that he spread weapons technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea raised questions Monday about whether military figures knew of the transfers.
Officials said for the first time that two former army chiefs have been questioned in the scandal but weren't implicated.
The revelations Monday came as Pakistan completed its investigation that began in late November after Iran provided relevant information to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the officials said.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was expected to announce the results of the nuclear probe in an address to the nation after a period of national holidays ends Thursday.
The seven key suspects include scientists and security officials from the country's top nuclear facility.
Chief among them is Abdul Qadeer Khan, long seen as a hero in Pakistan for creating the Islamic world's first nuclear bomb. Officials said he confessed in a written statement to spreading nuclear "drawings and machinery" to Iran, Libya and North Korea for about a decade starting in the late 1980s.
Khan was fired Saturday as a scientific adviser to the prime minister. Perhaps to forestall a public backlash over his dismissal, two top military officials briefed Pakistani journalists about his confession, submitted to investigators late last week.
According to journalists invited to the briefing, Khan told investigators he had provided the secrets to other Muslim countries - Iran and Libya - so they could become nuclear powers. The transfer to North Korea "was to divert attention of the international community from Pakistan."
Officials said Khan acted for personal gain but that he denied it.
In recent days, newspapers have reported Khan had a vast array of real estate holdings, and even used a C-130 military transport plane - which landed in Libya with Khan's top aide on board - to ship furniture to a hotel he owned in Timbuktu, Mali.
Pakistani authorities have conceded there was a security lapse but deny there had been any official knowledge of Khan's actions. But there are growing doubts over how top military officers overseeing the nuclear program couldn't have known about the spread of technology to at least three countries.
A government official said "questions have been put" to two former army chiefs to check information provided by Khan and other suspects - the first time that such top figures have been quizzed in the proliferation probe.
Gen. Jehangir Karamat and Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, a nationalist and strong advocate of a strategic alliance with Iran during his tenure, denied they had authorized nuclear transfers, the official said.
Beg has said Pakistani scientists may have spread nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya, but that it was "no crime" and the probe was a mistake and a sign the government was caving to Western pressure.
Military officials told journalists that authorities didn't closely scrutinize what was going out of the nuclear lab because Khan was a trusted figure.
The revelations that the top nuclear scientist in Pakistan - now a key ally in the U.S. war on terror - sold sensitive technology to two nations among President Bush's "axis of evil" alarmed the international community.
But analysts said Musharraf's apparent willingness to come clean about the shady past of Pakistan's covert nuclear program would count in his favor. He has won foreign plaudits for his opposition to Islamic extremism and eagerness for peace with India, Pakistan's nuclear rival.
AP-ES-02-02-04 1304EST


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