ABC Last Update: Wednesday, June 11, 2003. 8:36am (AEST) The man named on a Four Corners television program as an Al Qaeda representative in Australia has denied he is a member of the organisation. The ABC program has cited a CIA document alleging Bilal Khazal was not only an Al Qaeda operative but was planning attacks on US interests in Venezuela and the Philippines, but Mr Khazal has denied the claims. Mr Khazal worked as a baggage handler for Qantas until March 2000. He has told Channel Nine he is not a member of Al Qaeda and says he did not train in Afghanistan because he has never been there. "Never, you can see my passport, go ask the ASIO, they know," he said. He says the CIA got his name wrong in the document referred to on ABC TV and seems to have the wrong man. "They said Bilal Abdullah Khazal. You read Abdullah? You read the middle name? It's not my middle name," he said. He says allegations are being made against him without any evidence. "What they are talking about me, it is all not proof, without any proof." Mr Khazal declined to be interviewed by ABC radio, but says he may release a statement addressing the claims made about his activities.

Stricter checks The Federal Government has promised stricter background checks of airport employees, after it was reported Mr Khazal was allegedly associated with Al Qaeda. Mr Khazal now runs an Internet site for the Islamic Youth Movement in Sydney's south-west and despite investigations by Australian authorities has never been charged with any offence. Federal Transport Minister John Anderson says airport employees will be more strictly vetted. "People who hold airport security cards will now face the toughest and most stringent background checks of any country in the western world, including checks for political involvement and attitude," he said. A senior member of the Islamic community believes Mr Khazal is being targeted because of his religion. "Being branded as a terrorist just because of your religious identity is just not right and not fair and I think we should be very cautious about looking at these media isues without having substantial information to back you up," said the president of the forum of Australia's Islamic Relations, Kuranda Seyit. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Federal Government still has concerns about the former baggage handler. There have been no charges laid against the man, but Mr Downer says his passport has been revoked. He says the case highlights the need for vigilance. "There are sympathisers of Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah in Australia, there is no doubt about that and we have to vigilant in making sure we monitor national security as best we can."  

The Age Tuesday 10 June 2003, 8:30 PM

The federal government has promised that tough background checks of airline employees would uncover any security threats after allegations a man linked to al-Qaeda had worked for Qantas.

Reports compiled by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) linked former Qantas baggage handler Bilal Khazal to al-Qaeda and said he worked at Sydney's international airport in the lead-up to the Olympics in 2000.

He was discovered during a security review at Sydney airport and has since had his passport confiscated as authorities investigate him.

Mr Khazal now runs an internet site for the Islamic Youth Movement in Sydney.

He was allegedly planning terrorist attacks on US interests in Venezuela and the Philippines, ABC television said on Monday.

Transport Minister John Anderson said new security arrangements would stop people with suspected terrorist links being employed.

"People who hold ASIC cards, airport security cards, will now all face the toughest and most stringent background checks of any country in the western world including checks for political involvement and attitude," he said.

Terrorism expert Clive Williams said people working at airports should undergo vigorous security checks before being cleared to go near aircraft.

"I think it is a problem that many of the people who work on the air site at airports haven't been sufficiently cleared and it has traditionally been an area where there's a high turnover of staff," he said.

NSW secretary of the Transport Workers Union Tony Sheldon said the allegations surrounding Mr Khazal alarmed him and he questioned whether there were other people with terrorist links working at Australian airports.

Virgin Blue chief executive Brett Godfrey said security was part and parcel of his airline's business.

"I think the security in Australia is in fact now probably getting close to second to none. I don't think security is an issue today," he said.

And REX airline chief executive Michael Jones said nobody could work inside major airports unless they had a security check.

"I don't think there is a security risk because it has been picked up," he said.

A senior member of the Lebanese community also said Mr Khazal was not a threat.

The Age Tuesday 10 June 2003, 8:30 PM

A former Qantas baggage handler named in an American intelligence report as an al-Qaeda operative in Australia with plans to launch bomb attacks has denied any link to terrorism.

But Sydney man Bilal Khazal said he, "like any Muslim", believed the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, was a good man.

Speaking to Channel Nine's A Current Affair (ACA) program, Mr Khazal denied he had ever been to Afghanistan or was linked to al-Qaeda.

When asked about bin Laden, Mr Khazal said: "I know him, not like what you see him" but said he had never met the terrorist leader.

"What do I think about him (bin Laden)? Like any Muslim. Like any Muslim ... (I) think he's good man," Mr Khazal said.    advertisement       advertisement

Mr Khazal's employment as a Qantas baggage handler was discovered during a security review at Sydney airport.

He has since had his passport confiscated as authorities investigate him.

When asked why he left his job at Qantas, Mr Khazal told ACA: "I left my job. I left because I got damage on my back."

Mr Khazal now runs an internet site for the Islamic Youth Movement in Sydney.

A secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report from the United States, dated mid-June 2002, stated that "the al-Qaeda leadership has allegedly delegated responsibility to Bilal Abdallah Khazal".

"Khazal is reportedly planning an explosives attack against some US embassies and the current target is in Venezuela," the report said.

"Khazal also has plans to attack with explosives US interest in the Philippines."

Born in Northern Lebanon, the CIA reported Mr Khazal moved to Australia in 1989 and lived on the outskirts of Lakemba, in Sydney's southwest, with his wife and two children.

He had worked with Islamic fundamentalist groups, the CIA said.

Mr Khazal said authorities had the wrong person because the CIA report stated Mr Khazal's middle name as "Abdallah", which was incorrect.

News24.com 10/06/2003 12:32  - (SA)  

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• Oil prices trading lower
• Iraq's oil exports in June

Doha - Opec nations have injected a fresh dose of suspense to a tense oil market ahead of meeting on Wednesday, hinting that an output cut to accommodate Iraq's upcoming production was on the cards.

"We will discuss all the options," said Opec president Abdullah al-Attiyah, whose country, Qatar, is due to host the extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Attiyah, who is also Qatar's energy minister, said the market could face a production surplus of about 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) if the same level of production is kept for the third quarter.

But he added that "this does not mean" that the organisation will lower its current official output ceiling of 25.4 million bpd.

His statement nevertheless cast doubts on earlier ones from Opec officials that the cartel was to roll over the ceiling because prices were close to the upper limit of the US$22-$28 band sought by the cartel.

Venezuela's Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez seemed on Monday to advocate a rollover, telling a press conference in Madrid that the market was "sufficiently supplied".

Ramirez added that another Opec meeting would "probably" take place over the summer, after Iraq's exports resume, ahead of the next regularly scheduled session of the cartel in September.

The Venezuelan minister had conferred on Friday in Madrid with counterparts from Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-Opec Mexico, which produced a statement that the current oil market was balanced, "with supplies adequate to meet present and future world demand for oil".

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Oil Minister Obeid bin Saif al-Nasseri pointed out on Monday that the removal of the surplus could be achieved by tightening the discipline of the cartel's members in respecting their production quotas, rather than lowering the quotas.

"It would be more useful to remedy the current (surplus in) production before deciding to lower the official ceiling" he told the official WAM news agency in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.

"It would be difficult to give a precise figure of the surplus, but output exceeds the Opec ceiling by some 1.5 million bpd," Nasseri said.

Algeria's energy minister Chakib Khelil also hinted that a cut could be needed despite the current strong prices.

"I see the inventories are already high, there is a surplus of production, and we don't know what Iraq is going to do - when it is going to come in" to production, he told reporters.

"There is a big uncertainty and that is why the prices are high. They are not high because of the fundamentals of the market."

Iraq's exports to resume

In Baghdad, the US-appointed acting oil ministry chief Thamir Ghadhban said on Monday oil exports will resume in the third week of June, but he did not expect production to return to pre-war levels for at least a year.

He has previously put pre-war production at three million bpd, although most Western analysts estimate it at closer to 2.5 million.

Khelil said non-Opec oil exporting nations should also tighten their taps should the cartel decide to do so.

"They (non-Opec) are going to be present" at the meeting "and they are going to have to decide whether to join to stabilise the prices", he said.

Venezuelan vice-minister for oil Luis Vierma said in Madrid that non-Opec Norway and Russia had expressed "in off-the-record conversations their solidarity" with whatever is decided by Opec.

According to officials from the Opec secretariat, five non-Opec exporters will attend the meeting as observers: Russia, Mexico, Angola, Oman and Syria.

Ten of the 11-strong cartel will attend the meeting - Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, UAE, Nigeria, Kuwait, Libya, Indonesia, Algeria and Qatar. The seat of Iraq, where Opec was born 43 years go, will be vacant.

The US-British coalition ruling post-war Iraq has said it would be up to a future "representative" Iraqi government to decide whether the country remains inside the organisation.

"We will have to work hard to keep Iraq with us," said Attiyah, pointing out that the withdrawal of this nation would deprive Opec of control over 112 billion barrels of proven reserves, the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia.

Vanguard By Victor Ahiuma-Young Tuesday, June 10, 2003

FOR some time now government officials have been giving indications that the government...

 FOR some time now government officials have been giving indications that the government has concluded arrangements to put on sale the four Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refineries and its subsidiaries, despite the fact that a Technical committee set up by the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to look into the grievances of organised labour in the wake of a two- day nation wide warning strike by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and its Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) is yet to conclude its assignment.

The workers are not taking these government officials statements lightly and have continued to warn that they would not accept any unilateral government action on the refineries or NNPC subsidiaries.

In this chat with Energy This Week, Acting General Secretary of PENGASSAN, Comrade Bayo Olowoshile gives insight on what workers in the sector consider as the dangers in the government ill-advised planned privatisation of the refineries or NNPC subsidiaries.

Excerpts.

WHAT is the association’s stand on the issue of privatising the refineries now that government appears to have concluded all arrangements to privatise them despite a technical committee set up to look into workers grievances?

Our position is that any position that government is going to take is going to be such that cuts across all the interest groups and stakeholders , essentially the interest of the nation at large. That is exactly what we are doing in the committee. We as a trade union working along with other interest groups in the committee have been making useful contribution to the committee. We have been working well with all members of the committee believing that we will be able to come out with a very enduring and satisfying position that will enable the nation move the NNPC and the down stream sector forward. We believe that whatever we achieve in the committee will serve the general interest of every body. That is what we want to hold on to. But recent publications and statements by government aides is really giving us concern and it has been very disturbing and unfortunate.

When government has been spending tax payers money and taking the time of people in the committee who are working on something that will benefit the entire nation and we have another people working on parallel line, at cross purpose to a committee which the vice president of this country set up to take care of all interests, it is a very wrong approach. It sends a very bad signal to every body. What it means is that government is not yet democratic, it is not carrying Nigerians along. We want the government to stop its officials or aides from making inflammatory statements and heating up the polity as well as making people believe that government can take unilateral decision without considering every interest group. We are not going to take it and we maintain that any thing short of the out-come of the committee’s report will be unacceptable to the workers.

Have you now been convinced that only privatisation can solve the problems of NNPC refineries and ensure steady fuel supply?

Well, we believe that the committee has gone beyond believing that privatisation is the only way out of revamping and resuscitating the refineries. The problem of the refineries was not because the refineries were not privatised. This is the practice all the world over. The best and most performing refineries in the world are the ones that are public or state owned. We can take the Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and a host of other countries in the Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) that are doing quite well as examples. We believe that the problem in NNPC is more of government inflicted than the society inflicted. This was because of the kind of leadership we had in the past. That is what we are trying to correct now. Thank God we are now in a democracy that gives people the opportunity to sit together and look at issues to find out the best way forward. We know that NNPC had suffered government negative interference. They had suffered from lack of funding and they had also suffered undue government manipulations. All these have been the bane of the corporation. The issue of privatisation is obviously not the way forward. If you don’t look at the core values that guide a business and believe that selling is the best way, then some thing is definitely wrong. We know that even the so-called private companies, without the enabling environment, without security of the lives and property, no body can do a good business. There are other factors that we need to consider. There are the social factors that must be attended to before we can really have a way forward in Nigeria. Privatisation is not the solution. Government is saying that it does not want to go into business because government has no business being in business. Government is saying it wants a private sector driven business, especially in the commanding heights in the economy because of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Not just because it has convinced itself that privatisation can drive this nation forward. There are other issues that government needs to attend to. The main issue is about how we can really reform the system, how we can make the system work effectively and efficiently so as to make Nigerians have some confidence in Nigeria and in the system. That is the first thing. The moment we are able to do that then, there will be a lot of attraction for new investments. Until we are able to do that, whatever that is happening, whether privatisation or any other name the government chooses to call it, will still drag this nation backward. So, we don’t believe that privatisation is the solution. What has been happening in other areas that have been privatised? Has there been any progress in those sectors? We should look at other factors that are associated with societal ills and other stagnating forces which have made the environment not to be attractive or conducive for new investments. To even invest in Nigeria, Nigerians don’t believe in Nigeria. They would rather believe in capital flight, and investing their money elsewhere . So when Nigerians themselves do not believe in the system, how do you expect outsiders to come and invest in an environment where you as a Nigerian do not even believe in. We need to look at this basic problems first and see how best to solve them. We also need to look at the social problems. Nigerians do not have jobs. Thousands of people are graduating from schools no work to do. There is the problem in the Niger Delta where the people are angry over continued government neglect despite being the source of the major stay of the nation’s economy. No social and infrastructural facilities in their region and they see the system as hopeless. Government needs to give this people hope and selling NNPC refineries definitely is not that. The government has to look at how best to make Nigerians have confidence in the system so that we can have an enduring and hopeful society where everybody will be proud of.

Some have argued for commercialisation and autonomy of NNPC as well as the participation of private refineries to compete with public refineries instead of privatisation. What do you think?

We seriously believe that commercialisation of the NNPC should have been the best and more ideal solution to our problem. You cannot bring a foreigner to make your country the way you want it to be. The moment we think or believe that the problem can only be solved through bringing foreign investors to come and re-shape Nigeria for us, we are still existing in the falsehood of neo-colonialism and imperialism. At the end of the day, the direction of government, the national focus and identity will be lost. Take the case of the GSM operators, up till today, government has not been able to ensure that they bring down their tariff in spite of low quality of services. The Nigerian GSM is the costliest in the world over. Go and find out. Nigerians pay through their nose to service their GSM phone. We believe Nigerian government should be careful in accepting and implementing the World Bank and IMF neo-economist blue-print. It is like they are bringing more problems into the country. Workers in the sector believe that government should first see how best Nigerians can manage the system to satisfy all stake holders. The commercialisation and autonomy of the NNPC should have been the most ideal option. There has to be a built-in system or mechanism that will monitor the activities of NNPC to conform in line with the aim and objectives set for them. When there is a failure, government can always know who and what is responsible. The question people should ask is, what happens where our legislators and executives make mistakes as they have been doing, are we advocating that foreigners should be imported to take over from our legislators and executives? We believe that is only by giving the best amongst us the opportunity to perform and learn through the system over time that the system can change for the better. USA, Britain, France and other countries did not start today. They achieve what they have achieved today because of the environment and doing it over time. Today, we are taking them as our benchmark. It does not work like that. Give NNPC autonomy and allow it to operate, set target for them, find a better way of measuring their performance and make corrections where necessary. NNPC should also be allowed to seek strategic partners for technical, financial and managerial support to move the corporation forward. The solution, like I said, is not through privatisation. The problems of Nigeria is with Nigerians and not from outside. Therefore, the solution also is in Nigeria and not from out.

The issue of corruption is obviously seen as the bane of NNPC. The president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole at your last delegates conference in Abuja charged workers in the industry to expose and help to fight corruption in the system. Has the association taken up the challenge?

PENGASSAN is one association that have so much respect for disciplined workforce. We believe that ethnical values in every system is the only way that can see the system through and progress. We have always had opportunity to organise necessary training for attitudinal and behavioral reforms. We have lined up more programmes that will bring both the NNPC management and the rank and file of staff to have basic orientation and necessary change to approach duties. We believe that with time, we will be able to make a gradual shift from negative perception people have towards public assets, utilities and corporation. We believe that by the time we are through with this, in about two or three times, we should be able to have a new and progressive thinking in the system. That will definitely move the system forward.