• Malaysian terror suspects to be deported

    Malaysia will extradite nine foreigners detained last month over alleged links with international terrorist groups, officials said Thursday.

    Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told state media the nine -- whom rights activists say are from Jordan, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen -- were on the "most-wanted lists" of their home countries and anti-terrorist organisations.

    In comments confirmed by his office Thursday he said arrangements for the deportations were being made but did not give a date for their departure.

    Malaysia announced last month it had detained the nine foreigners and one Malaysian for "acts of terrorism" and said they were members of a militant organisation tracked down in cooperation with foreign intelligence groups.

    However, it has refused to confirm their identities or say which terrorist networks they are allegedly associated with.

    Reports have variously said they were followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect, or associated with the Nigerian student accused of trying to detonate explosives on a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day.

    The 10 have been held under Malaysia's Internal Security Act (ISA) which allows for detention without trial and has been used against suspected terrorists as well as government opponents.

    Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, chairman of the Abolish ISA Movement, condemned the deportations and said the government should clarify what the suspects were accused of.

    "At the moment we have lots of theories going on about them," he told AFP. "That's something which the government needs to confirm. They are being very secretive about even the names and nationalities at the moment."

    "They must show the links, the reasons why they have been detained and the evidence behind it," he added.

    "If they're going to be extradited to their own countries, are they going to be safe? These questions are unanswered and we can't leave them to the mercy of the government."

    The Abolish ISA Movement has said 50 people were detained on January 21 as they attended a religious lecture on the fringes of the Malaysia capital Kuala Lumpur.

    They said the majority were released the following day but that 12 remained in detention, including the 10 specified by the government as well as two others who they said remain undentified.

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  • Pakistani court rejects Americans' bail request

    A Pakistani court dismissed on Wednesday a request for the release on bail of five Americans accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting terrorist attacks.

    The students, in their 20s and from the U.S. state of Virginia, were detained in December in the central Pakistani town of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of the capital.

    They have not been formally charged but could face lengthy prison terms if found guilty.

    The case of the Americans, who were arrested days after arriving in Pakistan, has raised alarm over the danger posed by militants using the Internet to evade tighter international security measures and plan attacks.

    A defense lawyer for the five men, Hassan Katchela, told Reuters by telephone that an anti-terrorist judge in Sargodha turned down the plea for their release on bail.

    "We were not expecting the dismissal, as despite our repeated demands for evidence and charges, the prosecutors failed to provide anything substantial against them," he said. "Now we will approach a higher court."

    A panel of defense lawyers for the men said the charges brought against their clients were "vague" and requested an anti-terrorist court on Tuesday to order their release on bail.

    Police have said emails showed they contacted Pakistani militants who had planned to use them for attacks in Pakistan, a front-line state in the U.S.-led war against militancy.

    The men -- two of them of Pakistani origin, one of Egyptian, one of Yemeni and one of Eritrean origin -- told the court earlier they only wanted to provide fellow Muslims in Afghanistan with medical and financial help.

    They have accused the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistani police of torturing them and trying to frame them. Pakistani authorities have denied the accusations of mistreatment.

    Pakistan is fighting al Qaeda-linked militants and under pressure from Washington to help stabilize neighboring Afghanistan by cracking down harder on militants' cross-border attacks on U.S.-led troops.

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  • New Zealand hockey team delays India trip after terror threat

    New Zealand said Wednesday its men's hockey team will delay travelling to the Hockey World Cup in India following a reported threat against foreign sports people travelling to the country.

    "While Hockey New Zealand still plans for the Black Sticks men?s team to attend the Hockey World Cup in Delhi, it has decided to keep the team in Perth until further notice," Hockey New Zealand chief executive Hilary Poole said.

    The decision follows a report on the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online news website which said it had received a warning from Al-Qaeda linked militant Ilyas Kashmiri following a deadly bombing in India at the weekend.

    The Kashmir-based extremist reportedly warned international competitors against going to this month's Hockey World Cup, next month's Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket, and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

    The report could not be verified.

    Poole said the decision had been made to delay the team's departure scheduled for Monday from Perth, where it is due to play two warm-up Test matches against Australia this week.

    "This decision has been made in light of recent threats made against the Hockey World Cup the Black Sticks Men are scheduled to compete in next week," Poole said.

    The safety of the players, coaches and team management was paramount, and further assessments would be made before sending the team to Delhi for the World Cup, which starts on February 28.

    "We have been monitoring this situation all along. But the events over the past 24 hours have lead us to reassess the situation," Poole said.

    The New Zealand Olympic Committee, which is responsible for the New Zealand team going to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, said it was aware of the reported threat.

    "We are seeking government advice on the nature and validity of the threat and will take action as appropriate," an NZOC spokeswoman said.

    A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said the government was closely monitoring the situation.

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  • Iraq has top terror risk, Thai danger up: ranking

    Iraq is the country most at risk from terrorist attacks for the second straight year, according to a ranking by global analysts Maplecroft, while Thailand has joined the nine countries most in danger for the first time.

    Terrorism has shot back up the global agenda since al Qaeda claimed a Dec 25. bid to down a U.S. airliner and insurgent violence remains a pressing concern as both Iraq and Afghanistan face milestones in 2010 in their search for stability.

    The risk consultancy's Terrorism Risk Index shows that although security in Iraq has improved, the scale, human impact and frequency of attacks still makes it the riskiest country for political violence with nearly 4,500 civilians killed in 2009.

    Violence in Thailand's restive Muslim south, such as October 6 2009 bomb attacks in Sungai Kolok that killed two and wounded 42, largely account for the country's rating of 9th, a rise from 11 the year earlier, the index of 196 countries shows.

    The index based on 2009 data ranks Afghanistan second, with Pakistan and Somalia third and fourth respectively. They are rated at extreme risk along with Lebanon 5, India 6, Algeria 7, Colombia 8 and Thailand 9, a Maplecroft statement said.

    The UK-based risk advisory group's index tracks the risks of an attack, the intensity of violence as measured by casualties per incident, a country's history of extremist violence and threats made against it by groups such as al Qaeda.

    "Media coverage can often skew public perceptions of terrorism risk in a country by publicizing mass casualty attacks," said Maplecroft political risk analyst Eva Molyneux.

    POTENTIAL TO DISRUPT BUSINESS OPERATIONS

    "However, smaller terrorist incidents often go unreported, despite having potential to disrupt business operations and supply chains."

    While overall violence in Iraq has fallen over the last two years, attacks and fighting remain common as Iraq gears up for a March 7 parliamentary election and U.S. troops prepare to stop combat operations ahead of a withdrawal by the end of 2011.

    Washington aims to cut troop levels to 50,000 by its August 31 2010 target for an end to combat operations, and to withdraw all its forces, now about 115,000-strong, by the end of 2011.

    More than 3,900 people have been killed in six years of unrest in Thailand's rebellious deep south blamed on separatist insurgents in the region bordering Malaysia.

    The deployment of tens of thousands of police and troops backed by tough security laws has failed to end the violence, for which no credible group has claimed responsibility so far.

    In Afghanistan, Western countries hope a major offensive this year backed by 30,000 extra troops will help push the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table.

    The Philippines, ranked at 10, Palestinian Territories at 11, Turkey 14, Russia 15, Israel 17, Nigeria 24 and Spain 34 rate as high risk, whilst Britain at 41, China 43, USA 46 and France 56 are rated medium risk. Countries rated low risk include Germany 81, Canada 116 and Australia 120.

    Major movers in the index, versus a year earlier, were:

    Greece: Rose to 57 from 63, due to an increase in minor incidents of left wing extremism. Common targets are police tax offices and other state govt symbol, Maplecroft said.

    Yemen: Rose to 22 from 29 due to an increase in abductions and an increase in the threat from al Qaeda.

    Iran: Rose to 19 from 25, due to insurgencies in Baluchistan and Khuzestan and rising anti-government sentiment.

    China: Rises to 43 from 54 due to increase in the intensity of security incidents in 2008-09 compared to 2006-07.

    Egypt: Rises to 54 from 66, due to a spate of minor security incidents in late 2008 and early 2009.

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  • Americans tried in Pakistan seek release on bail

    Pakistani lawyers for five young Americans accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting terrorist attacks sought their release on bail on Tuesday, saying the prosecution lacked evidence.

    The students, in their 20s and from the U.S. state of Virginia, were detained in December in the central Pakistani town of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of the capital.

    They have not been formally charged, but could face lengthy prison terms if found guilty.

    The case of the Americans has underscored global security dangers posed by the Internet as militants use cyberspace to evade tighter international security measures and plot holy war.

    A defence lawyer for the five, who appeared in an anti-terrorism court in Sargodha, requested bail, saying allegations against them were "vague".

    "No substantial evidence is available to show their guilt," the lawyer, Mohammad Shahid Kamal Khan, told reporters.

    "It's a violation of their legal and fundamental rights to keep them in confinement," he said, adding he expected the court to decide on the bail request on Wednesday.

    The five told the court earlier they only wanted to provide fellow Muslims in Afghanistan with medical and financial help.

    They have accused the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistani police of torturing them and trying to frame them.

    Pakistani authorities have denied the accusations of mistreatment, which the five repeated on Tuesday, saying authorities were trying to force then back to the United States on "phoney charges".

    "We have been threatened to be tortured again if we continued to speak out the truth," one of the five wrote on a piece of tissue paper dropped from a police van as they arrived at court.

    Khalid Farooq, the father of one of the accused, said they were innocent. "There is no question about that," he said.

    Two of the five are of Pakistani origin, one of Egyptian, one of Yemeni and one of Eritrean origin. They were arrested days after arriving in Pakistan.

    Police have said emails showed they contacted Pakistani militants who had planned to use them for attacks in Pakistan, a front-line state in the U.S.-led war against militancy.

    Pakistan is struggling against al Qaeda-linked militants and is under pressure from Washington to help stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan, where a Taliban insurgency is raging.

    The United States says Pakistan must crack down harder on militants who cross into Afghanistan and attack U.S.-led troops.

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  • Spain can accept five Guantanamo detainees: minister

    Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Monday his country was ready to take in five detainees from the US prison camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo, Cuba.

    "The Spanish government has volunteered to take in five Guantanamo detainees," Moratinos told a press conference in Madrid.

    The foreign minister had announced last month that Spain was finalising procedures for taking in two Guantanamo detainees, a Palestinian and a Yemeni national. He did not indicate the nationalities of the other three.

    "We are encouraging other European countries to do their utmost" on taking in former Guantanamo detainees, he added.

    "If we all agree (in the European Union) that Guantanamo was a horror, an unacceptable and morally reprehensible anachronism, then let us make the effort to close it down," he added.

    Moratinos was speaking after a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton held under the Spanish presidency of the EU.

    The El Pais daily said Monday that if Spain were to accept five Guantanamo detainees it would be one of the "more generous" countries given that most European nations have only agreed to take between one and three.

    US President Barack Obama announced last year that he wanted to close the war-on-terror jail set up by his predecessor George W. Bush at a US base in Cuba in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

    However, Obama's self-imposed January 22 deadline passed unmet.

    Washington has asked third countries to help by taking in detainees cleared of any charges who cannot be sent back to their homelands, often because of fears they could be persecuted there.

    Moratinos recalled Monday that all 27 EU member states had previously said they would help President Obama, a commitment "which explicitly included the possibility of accepting Guantanamo detainees on European soil."

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  • Joe Biden and Dick Cheney spar over anti-terrorism policies

    Former Vice President Dick Cheney says his successor, Joe Biden, is "dead wrong" about terrorist threats facing the United States. Biden says Cheney is "misinformed."

    And the feud goes on.

    Highly partisan public skirmishes between President Barack Obama's White House and Cheney have become standard fare. And the back-and-forth on the Sunday morning talk shows did not disappoint.

    Biden struck first, declaring that Cheney's attacks on Obama's commitment to fighting al-Qaida ignored the facts.

    "We've eliminated 12 of their top 20 people. We have taken out 100 of their associates," said Biden. "They are in fact not able to do anything remotely like they were in the past. They are on the run. I don't know where Dick Cheney has been. Look, it's one thing, again, to criticize. It's another thing to sort of rewrite history. What is he talking about?"

    Cheney insisted Biden was "dead wrong" to assert that a fresh Sept. 11-style strike was unlikely, calling a nuclear or biological attack by al-Qaida "the biggest strategic threat the United States faces today."

    Cheney then again took on Obama's decision to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    In doing so, the former vice president acknowledged he had been at odds with the majority of Bush administration officials on the decision to release prisoners from the military lockup to their home countries when cases against them were determined to be legally untenable.

    "I didn't think that releasing anybody was the right thing to do, unless you had evidence that, you know, there was a mistake of some kind," Cheney said.

    Cheney also acknowledged that the Bush administration was divided on whether terror suspects should be charged and tried in federal civilian courts or taken before military tribunals.

    "We never clearly or totally resolved those issues. These are tough questions, no doubt about it," he said.

    On Afghanistan and Obama's decision to increase U.S. forces in the 8-year-old war, Cheney gave Obama high marks. But he derided Biden for giving the Obama administration credit for winding down the war in Iraq without acknowledging the work of former President George W. Bush.

    Biden, however, had said: "We built on the positive things that the Bush administration had initiated. And we have jettisoned those things that were negative."

    The back and forth began with Biden on NBC's "Meet the Press," moved to ABC's "This Week" with Cheney and ended with Biden appearing live on CBS' "Face the Nation."

    There Biden got in the last word. Declaring that Obama was acting on the precedents set in the Bush White House, Biden said of Cheney, "His fight seems to be with the last administration."

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