www.sfgate.com Larry Habegger, James O'Reilly, Special to The Chronicle   Sunday, February 16, 2003

Middle East/worldwide: In the context of a possible war with Iraq, the State Department has renewed its "Worldwide Caution" public announcement reminding travelers of security risks to Americans throughout the world. It

also issued travel warnings for several countries in the Middle East and authorized the departure of dependents and nonemergency personnel at U.S. embassies and consulates in Israel, Jordan,

Lebanon and Syria. The U.S. Interests Section at the Polish Embassy in Baghdad has been temporarily closed, and no consular services are available to Americans in Iraq.

India: Rajasthan state might be moving toward the Hindu-Muslim violence that has plagued nearby Gujarat the past couple of years. The state government intends to ban the traditional Hindu religious icon, the trident, supposedly to protect Muslims. Hindu organizations have vowed to fight it. Increasing Hindu-Muslim tensions have been increasing and could ignite at any time, especially if the ban goes into effect.

Laos: A bus and other vehicles traveling on Route 13 north of Vang Vieng on the way to Luang Prabang, in an area populated by the Hmong ethnic group, were attacked by about 25 men armed with automatic weapons and grenades Feb. 6. At least 12 people were killed, including two passing cyclists believed to be Swiss citizens, and 26 were wounded. The attackers were reported to have been speaking the Hmong language. A Hmong insurgency had been active in the area through the mid-1990s, and the highway north of Vang Vieng had been the site of occasional attacks in the late 1990s, but the road has been heavily traveled and considered safe for the past two years.

Venezuela: After many months of unrest and more than two months of strikes trying to force President Hugo Chavez to resign, the strike has been lifted except in the oil industry, and peace talks mediated by the Organization of American States continue.

For updates, contact the State Department via phone (202- 647-5225), fax (202-647-3000) or Internet (travel.state.gov). Habegger and O'Reilly are the editors of the San Francisco-based book series Travelers' Tales

www.sky.com

The identity of a Venezuelan man who smuggled a live grenade onto a flight to Gatwick airport has been revealed.

He is Rahaman Alan Hazil Mohammad, 40, Venezuelan authorities said, but British officials denied reports he was carrying a Koran in his suitcase or that he came from Bangladesh, which some analysts claim has become a hotbed of Islamic militancy.

Anti-terrorist police said he had visited a number of "sensitive countries" before his arrest and are continuing to quiz him at at the high-security Paddington Green police station in west London.

Security scares

He was arrested on Thursday after he flew economy class on a British Airways jet he had boarded in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.

It was just one of a number of security scares which prompted the dramatic deployment of troops and armoured vehicles at key London airports.

Police arrested eight suspects in separate incidents, including two men at Leeds/Bradford airport, four men in Langley, Berkshire and two men in the Hounslow area.

Scotland Yard has refused to confirm the grenade suspect's name, but said they were liaising with South American authorities and would fly out to Venezuela if necessary.

The US Department of State says Islamic extremist groups have long operated on Venezuela's Margarita Island, which is home to a large Middle Eastern population, many of whom work in the oil industry.

news.bbc.co.uk Monday, 17 February, 2003, 13:28 GMT

Mr Hazil Mohammed was arrested at Gatwick airport

A man arrested at Gatwick Airport allegedly carrying a live grenade in his baggage has been charged with terrorism offences.

He has been named as 37-year-old Rahaman Alan Hazil Mohammed, from Venezuela.

Customs officials stopped him after he flew in to the UK from Caracas on a British Airways jet last Thursday.

Sussex Police then arrested him and he has since been questioned by detectives in London.

Mr Hazil Mohammed will appear before Bow Street magistrates on Monday 17 February.

He faces three charges:-

• possession of an article for the purpose of committing a terrorist act, contrary to section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000

• possession of an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or damage property, contrary to the same act

• carrying a dangerous article on a British registered aircraft, contrary to section 4 of the Aviation Security Act 1982.

Gatwick's north terminal was evacuated and closed for several hours last Thursday after Mr Hazil Mohammed was stopped.

www.itv.com 18.41PM GMT, 16 Feb 2003   Sir John Stevens said there was a "generalised threat" that people operating within London would use whatever means they could find to bring mayhem to the capital

Al-Qaeda terrorists have a "substantial presence" in the UK, and the risk of attacks remains high, says the most senior police officer in England and Wales.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens dismissed suggestions that a hoax was to blame for the terror alert which has seen tanks at Heathrow and heightened security at other airports around the country over the past week.

He said the Government's emergency planning committee, codenamed Cobra, was meeting daily to assess the level of threat and did not believe the danger of terror attacks was over.

He confirmed there were concerns at the highest levels that ground-to-air missile-launchers had been smuggled into the UK and could be used in attempts to shoot down aeroplanes taking off or landing at British airports.

And he said there was a "generalised threat" that people operating within London would use whatever means they could find to bring mayhem to the capital.

While most security work to thwart the terrorists had to go on in secrecy, Sir John said some successes had been achieved, with a total of 72 arrests over several months for terrorist offences.

Asked how many al-Qaeda cells were operating in the UK, he said: "It is very difficult to know, but we do know that there is a substantial presence and we are taking action in relation to those.

"The threat is still high and we have still got an operation at Heathrow. What we do every day is analyse the threat and meet that threat with whatever resources necessary."

Sir John was speaking as it was reported that a man arrested at Gatwick airport on Thursday with a live grenade in his baggage was known to authorities in his native Venezuela and had visited "sensitive countries" within the past few months.

Venezuelan authorities named the man as Rahaman Alan Hazil Mohammad, who has Venezuelan citizenship.

He has been charged with three offences - including possessing an article for the purpose of committing a terrorist act - following his arrest and questioning at Paddington Green high-security police station in west London.

The US Department of State has said Islamic extremist groups are active on Venezuela's Margarita Island, which is home to a large ex-patriate population from the Middle East, many of whom work in the oil industry.

Sir John Stevens said Cobra did not believe that the alert was the result of an al-Qaeda hoax.

He added: "We think the level of the threat was absolute and that is why we took the steps we did. If these steps are needed again, we will take these steps for the safety of the public."

The Metropolitan Police backed Government efforts to make Britain's borders less "porous" to terrorists, he said.

www.dailytimes.com.pk By Joseph Wilson As the senior American diplomat in Baghdad during Desert Shield, I advocated a muscular US response to Saddam’s brutal annexation of Kuwait in flagrant violation of the United Nations charter. Only the credible threat of force could hope to reverse his invasion. Our in your face strategy secured the release of the 150 American “human shields” hostages but ultimately it took war to drive Iraq from Kuwait. I was disconsolate at the failure of diplomacy, but Desert Storm was necessitated by Saddam’s intransigence, the UN sanctioned it and it was conducted with a broad international military coalition. The goal was explicit and focused; war was the last resort. The upcoming military operation also has one objective, though different from the several offered by the Bush Administration. This war is not about weapons of mass destruction. The intrusive inspections are disrupting Saddam’s programs, as even the Administration has acknowledged. Nor is it about terrorism. Virtually all agree war will spawn more terrorism, not less. It is not even about liberation of an oppressed people. Killing innocent Iraqi civilians in a full frontal assault is hardly the only or best way to liberate a people. The underlying objective of this war is the imposition of a Pax Americana on the region and installation of vassal regimes that will control restive populations. Without the firing of a single cruise missile, the Administration has already established a massive footprint in the Gulf and Southwest Asia from which to project power. US generals, admirals and diplomats have crisscrossed the region like modern day proconsuls, cajoling fragile governments to permit American access and operations from their territories. Bases have been established as stepping-stones to Afghanistan and Iraq, but also as tripwires in countries that fear their neighbors. Northern Kuwait has been ceded to American forces and a significant military presence established in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The over the horizon posture of a decade ago has given way to boots on the ground and forward command headquarters. Nations in the region, having contracted with the United States for their security umbrella, will now listen when Washington tells them to tailor policies and curb anti Western dissent. Hegemony in the Arab nations of the Gulf has been achieved. Meanwhile, Saddam might well squirm, but even without an invasion, he’s finished. He is surrounded, foreigners are swarming through his palaces, and as Colin Powell so compellingly showed at the UN, we are watching and we are listening. International will to disarm Iraq will not wane as it did in the 1990s, for the simple reason that George W Bush keeps challenging the organization to remain relevant by keeping pressure on Saddam. Nations that worry that, as John le Carré puts it, “America has entered one of its periods of historical madness” will not want to jettison the one institution that, absent a competing military power, might constrain US ambition. Then what’s the point of this new American imperialism? The neo conservatives with a stranglehold on the foreign policy of the Republican Party, a party that traditionally eschewed foreign military adventures, want to go beyond expanding US global influence to force revolutionary change on the region. American pre-eminence in the Gulf is necessary but not sufficient for the hawks. Nothing short of conquest, occupation and imposition of handpicked leaders on a vanquished population will suffice. Iraq is the linchpin for this broader assault on the region. The new imperialists will not rest until governments that ape our worldview are implanted throughout the region, a breathtakingly ambitious undertaking, smacking of hubris in the extreme. Arabs who complain about American supported antidemocratic regimes today will find us in even more direct control tomorrow. The leader of the future in the Arab world will look a lot more like Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf than Thomas Jefferson. There is a huge risk of overreach in this tack. The projection of influence and power through the use of force will breed resistance in the Arab world that will sorely test our political will and stamina. Passion for independence is as great in the Arab world as it is elsewhere. The hawks compare this mission to Japan and Germany after World War II. It could easily look like Lebanon, Somalia and Northern Ireland instead. Our global leadership will be undermined as fear gives way to resentment and strategies to weaken our stranglehold. American businessmen already complain about hostility when overseas, and Arabs speak openly of boycotting American products. Foreign capital is fleeing American stocks and bonds; the United States is no longer a friendly destination for international investors. For a borrow and spend Administration, as this one is, the effects on our economic growth will be felt for a long time to come. Essential trust has been seriously damaged and will be difficult to repair. Even in the unlikely event that war does not come to pass, the would be imperialists have achieved much of what they sought, some of it good. It is encouraging that the international community is looking hard at terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. But the upcoming battle for Baghdad and the lengthy occupation of Iraq will utterly undermine any steps forward. And with the costs to our military, our treasury and our international standing, we will be forced to learn whether our republican roots and traditions can accommodate the Administration’s imperial ambitions. It may be a bitter lesson. —The Nation