Afghanistan News April 24, 2005

April 24, 2005

UN fires Afghan monitor
World body kneels to American pressure to eliminate post of independent human rights expert who has criticized U.S. military's violations
BY JAMES RUPERT NEW YORK NEWSDAY April 23, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Under U.S. pressure, the United Nations this week eliminated the job of its top investigator on human rights in Afghanistan after the official criticized violations by U.S. forces in the country.

American diplomats at a meeting in Geneva of the UN Commission on Human Rights pressed the group to end the mandate of Cherif Bassiouni as the United Nations' "independent expert on human rights in Afghanistan." Bassiouni has repeatedly criticized the U.S. military for detaining prisoners without trial and for barring almost all human rights monitors from its prisons in the country.

Washington moved to scrap Bassiouni's post partly because the human rights situation in Afghanistan is no longer troubling enough to require it, said a U.S. official who asked not to be named.

Bassiouni's ouster came amid other acrimony as the commission's annual meeting closed Friday. UN human rights high commissioner Louise Arbour derided as "not credible" the commission's final report, which named only Belarus, Cuba, Myanmar and North Korea as grievous violators of human rights.

Bassiouni, a Chicago-based law professor, repeated the criticisms in a 24-page report presented at the meeting. He noted reports that "estimate that over 1,000 individuals have been detained."

The U.S. official accused Bassiouni of grandstanding "to bolster his resume," and said his departure would give a greater role to the Afghan government's rights commission.

But the Afghan commission has cited U.S. forces as the frequent obstacle to its work. Afghan officials say they have trouble even getting appointments with U.S. officers to discuss human rights cases. Also, U.S. forces bar the Afghan commission from visiting their prisons. They admit only the International Committee of the Red Cross, which doesn't publish its findings.

Human rights advocates say the U.S. policies seem to come primarily from the military rather than the State Department. The Pentagon has withheld the results of its own investigation into human rights violations at its bases in Afghanistan, despite an initial promise to reveal them.

In countries with human rights problems as deep as Afghanistan's, "the commission normally passes a resolution to condemn the abuses and names a 'special rapporteur' to keep investigating them," said Brad Adams, Asia director of the monitoring group Human Rights Watch. "But in Afghanistan, the U.S. has not wanted these mechanisms to come into play."

Last year, Washington pressed the UN body to downgrade the post of rapporteur on Afghanistan to the lesser status of "independent expert." Now, the United Nations' monitoring of human rights in Afghanistan will fall to Arbour, whose global responsibilities "won't leave her time to focus on Afghanistan and make the visits to Kabul," Adams said.

U.N. Monitor of Afghan Rights Accuses U.S. on Detentions
By CARLOTTA GALL The New York Times April 23, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan, April 22 - A United Nations human rights monitor has accused American military forces and contractors in Afghanistan of acting above the law "by engaging in arbitrary arrests and detentions and committing abusive practices, including torture." In a report released Thursday, the Afghan police and security forces were also criticized for similar actions.

Cherif Bassiouni, an Egyptian who was appointed as an independent human rights monitor for Afghanistan by Secretary General Kofi Annan in April 2004, called for American troops to set an example for Afghan forces by showing accountability for actions toward prisoners. In particular, he raised concern about the cases of eight prisoners who died while in American custody in Afghanistan, and said the cases should be immediately investigated.

Only two American soldiers, Pfc. Willie V. Brand and Sgt. James P. Boland, are known to have faced military tribunals in the deaths of Afghan prisoners, in a case in which two Afghans were abused until they died in December 2002 at Bagram Air Base. Neither case has been publicly decided. A contract interrogator for the C.I.A., David A. Passaro, is to go to trial in May in the beating of an Afghan prisoner in June 2003.

Mr. Bassiouni's report covered all aspects of human rights violations in Afghanistan, detailing concerns about inequities against women, abduction and trafficking of children, illegal seizure of property, lack of due process and social and economic abuses against minorities, displaced people, the poor and the disabled. There has been some progress, he said, specifically in the democratic process and reconstruction.

But he found "pressing human issues" stemming from the actions of factional warlords, Afghan police and security forces, and American-led alliance forces and private security contractors. He said he had communicated his concerns to American and Afghan government officials.

During two visits to Afghanistan over the last year, he said, he received reports of "serious violations by coalition forces" from Afghans who said they had been victimized and from human rights and nongovernmental organizations. About 18,000 foreign troops are in Afghanistan, including 17,000 Americans, though only American troops run military detention centers there.

The reported violations included arrest and detentions of nationals and foreigners without legal authority or judicial review, and a list of abusive acts on detainees from forced nudity, hooding and sensory deprivation, to "sexual abuse, beatings, torture and use of force resulting in death."

Detention conditions were reported as below human rights standards set by the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations, he said, although he was not allowed access to the facilities. He called for human rights organizations and the United Nations to be allowed access to detention facilities run by the United States.

AP Exclusive: Afghan man freed from Guantanamo says he was photographed naked, but never tortured
Sunday April 24, 8:15 AM AP
An Afghan man freed from the U.S. terror detention facility at Guantanamo Bay said he was stripped naked and photographed on the day he arrived, but never tortured during three years at the jail.

Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, 42, told The Associated Press his interrogators had one main question for him, asked over and over again: "Do you know Osama?"

It was Dost's first interview since he and 16 other Afghan men were set free in neighboring Afghanistan on Tuesday. The next day he traveled by road to this frontier city in northwestern Pakistan, where he and his family have lived for the past 30 years.

Dost said that he and his brother were arrested at their home on November 17, 2001, by Pakistani intelligence agents and eventually taken to the U.S. military facility at Bagram, north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. After about 11 weeks there, he was flown to Guantanamo.

"First I was questioned by Pakistani security men. Then American men and women also started to interrogate me. They had only one question: Do you know Osama?" Dost said Saturday.

"I told them that you have made Osama so popular that even children and mad people know him very well," he said. ADVERTISEMENT

The same line of questioning continued at Guantanamo Bay, with American interrogators also asking him whether he had anything to do with Taliban leaders.

"I told them I had nothing to do with Osama or the Taliban," Dost insisted from the home he shares with his wife and eight children. Relatives stopped by to send their congratulations, and his children scurried around him.

Dost said before his arrest he had worked for three Afghan magazines _ "Ahsan" (Justice), "Zeray" (Good News) and "Dawat" (Invitation) _ which were all sympathetic to the Taliban. He said he had once been a member of Afghan rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e Islami party, but had severed ties to the group.

"I committed no crime against the Americans or anyone else," Dost said.

Dost's brother, Badrul Zaman Badr, who was freed from Guantanamo in December 2004, sat at his side as he recounted his experiences at the prison.

Dost said on the day he arrived his American jailers forced him to take off his clothes, then photographed him. After that he was taken to a doctor and then given an orange prison jump suit.

"I was never tortured," Dost said. "But I was kept in solitary confinement and that was worse than torture."

None of the other Afghans freed Tuesday have been interviewed. But one claimed during impromptu comments at a news conference held in Kabul to mark their release that he had been abused.

"There was a lot of bad treatment against us, but this is not the time to tell you," Abdul Rahman said before being whisked away by Afghan security agents. "Everybody in the world knows what kind of jail it is. I can't talk about it now."

Dost said he had heard stories of sexual humiliation, including an American female guard who allegedly threw menstrual blood at an inmate, and male and female guards having sex in front of an Arab detainee.

Other former inmates have told stories with similar details.

But Dost and his brother said nothing like that happened to them.

After 14 months of daily interrogation, Dost says he was moved to a cage alongside other inmates who were no longer wanted for questioning.

Finally he was taken to a courtroom at the prison where three people "who looked like judges" briefly heard his case. A few weeks later he was freed without an apology.

The releases lowered the number of detainees classified as "enemy combatants" at the U.S. Navy base on the tip of Cuba to about 520 from about 40 countries.

Dost said he was considering filing a lawsuit to seek compensation for his years behind bars, and that he was thinking of writing a book.

"My business suffered because of my arrest, and my family suffered as well to have two members taken there. My mother is so depressed that she still thinks one day the Americans will come and arrest us again."

Afghanistan Announces Tender for Two New Mobile Phone Licenses, Seeking to Expand on Success
April 23, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan will offer two new mobile telephone licenses, authorities announced Saturday, seeking to expand one the country's few economic success stories since the fall of the Taliban.

Investors can collect details of the tender from May 15 and have until July 16 to submit their bids, the Ministry of Communications said. The licenses will be awarded Aug. 22 and the winners can begin operating Jan. 10, 2006.

An estimated 800,000 wealthier Afghans, diplomats and foreign aid workers have subscribed for mobile phone services as the holders of the first two licenses, issued in 2003, have raced to expand services across the war-ravaged country.

"It is expected that these new licenses will generate large amount of revenues for the government in license fees, attract more than US$200 million (euro153 million) in new foreign direct investment and create thousands of skilled, well-paying jobs," the ministry said in a statement.

The two existing operators are Roshan, majority owned by the Aga Khan Development Network, and Afghan Wirless Communication Co., a joint venture between the Afghan government and Fort Lee, New Jersey-based Telephone Systems International Inc.

The ministry said the two companies currently offer services in 32 urban areas and that more than US$250 million (euro191 million) has been invested in modern telecoms infrastructure in a country which lacks a comprehensive landline network.

Afghanistan hits back at Pakistan over militants in border area
KABUL (AFP) - Militants are using bases in Pakistan to stage attacks in Afghanistan, an Afghan general said, intensifying a row between the two countries over operations in a border area where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

"All terrorists come from that side of the border. They fight in Afghanistan and when they face problems, they go back, get reinforced and equipped and come back for fighting," Afghan army General Shir Mohammad Karimi told reporters on Saturday.

"This issue is as clear as sun for all the world to see that fighting is in Afghanistan and armed terrorists and weapons come from other places here and are being used against Afghans," Karimi said.

His comments came days after Pakistan protested to the US military over what it said was a recent spike in Al-Qaeda-linked militants sneaking across the rugged frontier from south and southeastern Afghanistan.

Pakistani Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain, whose 70,000 troops have fought pitched battles with rebels in Pakistan's restive tribal regions, said Wednesday he had voiced his concerns to the US and Afghan forces.

Hussain also hit out at the chief of US forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Barno, after the American was quoted as saying that a new Pakistani-US operation was imminent in the tribal area of North Waziristan.

But Karimi said: "In theory (Pakistani forces) show 100 percent commitment that they are fighting terrorism, but in actions it is clear that they do not have the control to abolish these hideouts totally."

"Possibly it is their policy that they don't want to do it or possibly they are afraid that their tribal people may rise up against them," he added.

Pakistan is a frontline ally of the United States in its so-called war on terrorism. It has captured or killed hundreds of militants who have moved back and forth across the porous border after the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.

US officials believe Al-Qaeda mastermind bin Laden may be sheltering somewhere along the mountainous, 2,400-kilometre frontier.

However the border has been a major source of friction between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States.

Islamabad has strongly rejected suggestions that US troops should be allowed to cross into its territory. Pakistani and Afghan border forces clashed in January after mortar rounds from the Afghan side killed a Pakistani soldier.

Southeastern Afghanistan remains a Taliban hotbed, with a landmine thought to have been planted by the militants injuring four Afghan soldiers in Zabul province on Friday, according to Afghan officials.

Dozens of Taliban militants have been killed in the past month as the ousted Islamic regime launches a new springtime offensive.

Another Senior Taliban Official Gives Up
April 23, 2005
KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A senior member of the ousted Taliban movement surrendered on Saturday, the latest in a series of defections to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government by Taliban commanders.

Mofti Habibur Rahman, chief of the criminal department at Taliban's interior ministry, also said other high-level and low-ranking Taliban officials inside and outside Afghanistan would take advantage of a government amnesty offer.

"The reason is that we now have an elected and legitimate government," Rahman told reporters after surrendering to local authorities in Khost, the southeastern province near the border with Pakistan which is a hotbed of Taliban activity.

When asked if Jalaluddin Haqani, the top Taliban commander for the southeastern region would also give himself up, Rahman said: "I cannot say this because of security reasons."

He said other Taliban officials who were prepared to join the government were living in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

His defection comes days after local officials in the southern province of Helmand said two senior Taliban members had surrendered under Karzai's amnesty offer.

Another Taliban commander in Helmand also surrendered this month.

The Taliban have been waging an insurgency since being overthrown by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.

The government is seeking to coax rank-and-file Taliban to give up their fight but the amnesty offer does not include 150 of the movement's senior leaders, accused of militant violence or of having links with al Qaeda.

Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his die-hard supporters have shunned the talks and vowed to keep on fighting Karzai's government and foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Guerrilla activity has picked up after a winter lull but activity is down on the past years, fueling speculation the Taliban may be struggling to find recruits and resources.

US military confirms infiltration of militants to Afghanistan
KABUL, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan Saturday confirmed insurgents' infiltration from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

"The forces that coalition is engaging in Khost province along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan from what forces we are saying that individuals are coming, some of them not all of them but back and forth across the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan," Cindy Moore told newsmen at a press briefing here.

Her remarks came just four days after a bloody engagement between the US troops and suspected Taliban fighters in the bordering province of Khost in which according to US military sources 14 enemies were killed and several others captured.

The restive province of Khost has been considered as a main holdout of the Taliban's remnants in southeast Afghanistan.

"We are seeing some of them as I said not all of these anti-coalition militias coming back and forth and some of these attacksare coordinated," the spokesperson noted.

To stem out the alleged cross border terrorism along the 2,600 porous Pakistan-Afghanistan, the 9th round of tripartite talks between the US and its two frontline allies in war on terror was concluded last week in Islamabad with recommendation to tighten security along the border between the two neighbors.

Afghan officials have several times in the past accused Pakistan of supporting Taliban militants, but Islamabad rejected the claim as baseless.

Taliban's chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose regime was ousted by US-led invasion in late 2001, has vowed to continue Jihad or holy war until the US-led foreign troops leave Afghanistan.

Afghan province bans motorbikes to beat Taliban
Saturday April 23, 4:14 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan authorities have banned motorcycle riding and the sale of petrol in a restive southern province to help in the fight against Taliban insurgents, a security official said on Saturday.
Taliban guerrillas frequently use motorcycles for raids in Zabul province, scene of a wave of attacks on Afghan government and U.S.-led international forces in the past two weeks.

So authorities have banned motorcycles from the roads, and petrol sales as well, until all motorcycle owners can be issued with special cards.

"Once the special cards are introduced, then anyone riding a motorcycle without one will be arrested, because then it will only be Taliban who won't have registered," said Shereen Shah, a senior army officer in the province.

The ban on petrol sales was imposed to reinforce the motorbike ban, he said.

It was expected to take two weeks for all motorbikes in the province to be registered and only then would the bans be lifted, Shah said.

Taliban attacks have picked up recently after a winter lull but activity is down on past years, fuelling speculation the insurgents may be struggling to find recruits and resources.

Afghan security forces seize heroin shipment
April 23, 2005 Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)
HERAT, Afghanistan – The Transitional Afghan Border Security Forces along with a small contingent of Coalition forces seized 479 kilograms of heroin along the northwestern border April 17.

The bust also netted seven Afghans suspected of smuggling operations. The suspects are being held by Afghan forces.

The border crossing is known as a hot spot for smuggling operations in the western region. It’s estimated the Afghan government loses $300 million a year in taxable good through its borders.

The Transitional Afghan Border Security Forces was assembled in Kabul two weeks ago and is made up of 229 border police volunteers from throughout the country. Its mission is to conduct operations at the Islam Qalah border checkpoint and 13 adjoining border points in order to secure the border, control illicit trade and interdict narco-trafficking. The primary goal is to set the conditions for corruption-free immigration, customs revenue control and collections.

“This is counter-narcotics at its best. The entire operation was planned, led and executed by the Afghans,” said U.S. Army Maj. Anthony W. Oliver, liaison officer for the mission. “All we supplied was coaching, mentoring and some logistics.”

The street value of the seized heroin is estimated at $2 million.

Afghan woman stoned to death for adultery
Sunday April 24, 2:12 PM
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An Afghan woman has been stoned to death for adultery, police said on Sunday, the first such incident in Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster from power.
Amina, a 29 year-old married woman, was publicly stoned to death on the basis of a district court's decision on Thursday in Argo district to the west of Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan, they said.

"She has been stoned to death," provincial police chief, General Shah Jahan Noori, confirmed to Reuters, adding a team has been sent to the area to investigate the incident further.

Adultery is forbidden in the Muslim country and under Islamic sharia law the penalty can range from flogging to stoning to death.

Several women and men were given such punishments in Badakhshan, a remote northeastern province, during the government of the Mujahideen (holy warriors) in the 1990s.

The practice became common during the rule of hardline Taliban who controlled most of Afghanistan till late 2001 when they were ousted from power by U.S.-led forces.

A witness, Mujibur Rahman, told Reuters that Amina was dragged out of her parent's house by local officials and her husband who stoned her to death while the man was flogged, whipped 100 times and then freed.

Amina's stoning was the first one in Afghanistan since President Hamid Karzai was installed to power after the U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban's government, Noori said.

Turkish FM: Turkey's NATO Role in Afghanistan is Important
Source: Hurriyet, 22 April 2005
Holding a press conference , Thursday, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul answered questions by journalists on the subject of Turkey's role in NATO that was discussed at a dinner hosted Wednesday evening as part of the informal NATO meetings being held in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

" NATO's position on political matters was discussed. We also discussed development of democracy in the Middle East and Afghanistan. NATO is fulfilling significant duty in Afghanistan and Turkey is commanding the NATO force there. Therefore, Turkey has a big role. Also, the future of the Balkans was discussed."

Gul added that he had taken the opportunity to express Turkey's view over these matters and that he also had the opportunity to hold bilateral talks with Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, French FM Michel Barnier, British Minister of State (Baroness Elizabeth Symons) and Luxembourg's FM (Jean Asseborn).

The Turkish FM also met with Spanish, Hungarian, Portuguese and Polish foreign ministers, and with EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana.

Moussaoui pleads guilty to September 11 charges
Saturday April 23, 4:49 PM AFP
French Al-Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui on Friday pleaded guilty to six charges related to the September 11, 2001, attacks, bringing to an abrupt end the only US prosecution so far in the plot.

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales later said prosecutors would seek the death penalty against the avowed Al-Qaeda member.

"The fact that Moussaoui participated in this terrorist conspiracy is no longer in doubt," Gonzales said. "Moussaoui and his co-conspirators were responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents on September 11."

Moussaoui, 36, told the court he was involved in a plot to destroy the White House but was not to be part of the September 11 attack.

"I came to the United States of America to be part of a conspiracy to use an airplane as a weapon of mass destruction," he said.

"I was trained on a 747 (simulator) to strike the White House. This conspiracy was a different conspiracy from 9/11."

He admitted that Osama bin Laden told him to "remember your dream" and fly an airplane into the White House.

Bin Laden's order was described in a five-page "statement of facts" that Moussaoui signed at the hearing in which he pleaded guilty.

By signing the document, he agreed that if the case were to go on trial, the government would prove the facts "beyond a reasonable doubt."

"Moussaoui knew of al Qaeda's plan to fly airplanes into prominent buildings in the United States and he agreed to travel to the United States to participate in the plan," the document said.

"Bin Laden personally selected Moussaoui to participate in the operation to fly planes into American buildings and approved Moussaoui attacking the White House. Bin Laden told Moussaoui: 'Sahrawi, remember your dream," according to the document.

Moussaoui also uses the name Abu Khalid al Sahrawi.

The statement of facts says Moussaoui pledged allegiance to bin Laden, trained at an Al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and managed an Al-Qaeda guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Moussaoui, 36, communicated directly with Bin Laden, it says.

Moussaoui read the statement of facts for several minutes before signing it.

Above his signature, he wrote "20th hijacker."

Dressed in a green prison jumpsuit but not shackled or handcuffed, he said he chose to plead guilty because he felt it was the best way to continue to defend himself.

Moussaoui is accused of conspiracy to commit terrorism, commit aircraft piracy, destroy aircraft, use weapons of mass destruction, murder and to destroy property.

The Frenchman was detained before the September 11 attacks, in which almost 3,000 people died, and may have been the best chance for US authorities to stop the plot.

Before asking his plea for each charge, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema asked if any pressure had been applied to plead guilty. "Absolutely not," Moussaoui replied.

"I don't expect any leniency from the Americans," he said, but added "I will not apply for death and in fact I will fight every inch against the death penalty."

A dozen relatives of September 11 victims attended the hearing. Some who spoke to reporters afterwards praised the US justice system and said they wanted Moussaoui to be sentenced to death.

"I'm just happy that we didn't have to go through a long trial," said Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles Burlingame, 51, was the captain of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.

"I view him (Moussaoui) and all of his confederates ... as lost souls, utterly lost souls," she said.

Abraham Scott, whose wife, Janice Scott, died in the Pentagon, said he wanted Moussaoui to be executed. "I'm a Christian, I'm willing to forgive. But in this case I can't."

Brinkema allowed Moussaoui to admit guilt despite last-minute moves by his lawyers suggesting he was not mentally competent to enter the plea.

Brinkema said she had found him "completely competent" to make the pleas after meeting with him Wednesday. "Mr Moussaoui is an extremely intelligent man, he better understands the legal system than some lawyers that I have seen in this court," she said.

The judge will set a date for a penalty phase at which a jury will decide if Moussaoui should get the death penalty.

Moussaoui's statement that he was not part of the September 11 plot was consistent with earlier claims that although he was an Al-Qaeda member, he was meant to participate in other plots.

The official US commission which looked into the September 11 attacks said captured Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told interrogators that Moussaoui was to be used in a loosely planned "second wave" of attacks.

Nineteen men hijacked four jets and crashed them into the twin World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington and a field in Pennsylvania.

As part of his defense strategy, Moussaoui and his lawyers sought access to three top Al-Qaeda operatives in US custody: Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shaiba and Moustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi -- all accused Al-Qaeda organizers and financiers. Mohammed is considered the number-three in Al-Qaeda.

The move repeatedly delayed Moussaoui's trial as both sides wrangled over access to the detainees, which the US Justice Department claimed would threaten US security and classified information.

Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government, ending the debate.

In 2002, Moussaoui tried to plead guilty but reneged after the judge gave him a week to think about his offer.

Later that year, he fired his lawyers and decided to represent himself. But his rambling, handwritten proceedings, which often included invectives against his lawyers and the judge, led Brinkema to revoke his right serve as his own lawyer in 2003.

Spain tries alleged September 11 plotters
Saturday April 23, 3:54 AM AFP
Twenty-four Al-Qaeda suspects went on trial behind an extraordinary security shield in Spain, three of them facing sentences of more than 60,000 years for allegedly helping to plot the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

More than 100 armed police with dogs were deployed at the specially-built courtroom in a park on the outskirts of Madrid, where the defendants appeared inside a bulletproof glass cubicle, as a helicopter circled overhead.

Europe's largest trial of suspected Al-Qaeda members opened under the protection of a jamming system to prevent the use of a remote-controlled bomb.

Judge Angela Murillo Bordallo read out the charges to the defendants, who include the suspected leader of the Al-Qaeda network in Spain, Syrian Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, known as "Abu Dahdah."

Prosecutors plan to demand that Yarkas and two others suspected of links to the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, each be sentenced to more than 60,000 years in prison -- 25 years for each life lost.

Yarkas, 41, was linked to September 11 after his telephone number was found at the home in Hamburg, Germany, of an Al-Qaeda member involved in the attacks.

A stocky man with thinning hair, Yarkas sat in the back row of the defendants' chamber, smiling and greeting his co-accused. He was not due to face questioning until Tuesday.

The Syrian, who describes himself as a businessman, is accused of having run a recruitment network for young Islamic militants in Spain, who were allegedly sent for training in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and Indonesia.

Authorities also believe he was key in establishing the Islamic extremist networks later blamed for the March 11, 2004 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people and injured almost 2,000.

The two others accused of direct involvement in the September 11 attacks are the Moroccan Driss Chebli, 36, and Syrian-born Ghassub Al Abrash Ghaylun, 39.

Chebli allegedly organised a meeting in July 2001 on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, during which the details of the September 11 attacks were finalised.

Ghaylun filmed the World Trade Center towers during a visit to the United States and allegedly gave the tapes to an Al-Qaeda operative.

During Friday's opening hearing, prosecutors questioned a first suspect, Jose Luis Galan, a Spanish convert to Islam who has insisted he is a "non-violent" Muslim and denies all links to Al-Qaeda.

Asked about a trip he made to Indonesia in July 2001, when he is suspected of having visited an Islamic militant contact, Galan insisted it was for purely personal reasons.

"I had lost my job and wanted to study the possibility of settling in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world," he said.

He dismissed prosecutors' questions about weapons found at his home, saying: "I have a licence for each one. I have always enjoyed shooting for sport."

Concerning a photograph showing him dressed as a mujahedin, weapon in hand, he explained: "In our family, we've always played at dressing up."

Galan admitted having been in close contact with Yarkas through his local mosque, but said he had no knowledge of the militant recruitment operation the Syrian is accused of running.

Squashed on benches, the defendants sat behind four sides of bulletproof glass and spoke via microphone.

Some had suits, their beards trimmed short, wearing sunglasses. Most were in street clothes.

On the back row, a large, baldheaded man greeted his fellows by hand, smiled, and exchanged a few words: the Syrian Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, known as Abu Dahdah, accused of building the Al-Qaeda "franchise" in Europe, seemed relaxed and serene.

Some 120 journalists from about a dozen countries were covering the trial, which is expected to last two months, according to court officials.

The 24 people in court Friday are among a group of 41 people, including Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, indicted by Spanish anti-terrorist judge Baltasar Garzon. Under Spanish law defendants cannot be tried in absentia.

Tayssir Alluni, a Spanish resident and journalist of the Qatari Arabic language television channel Al-Jazeera, was also among the defendants in court.

Alluni, who obtained an interview with bin Laden after the September 11 attacks, is accused of being an Al-Qaeda member and of having had "close links for many years" with Yarkas.

Alluni denies the allegations and has questioned the impartiality of the Spanish judiciary, saying he was "very pessimistic about the trial."

The only one of the accused allowed bail, he was not so at ease. He was also the only one allowed to follow the case outside of the glass box, because of heart problems.

The Al-Jazeera reporter with salt-and-pepper hair and beard appeared in court in an elegant beige suit and yellow shirt. He had a fixed stare and a furrowed brow.

The Arab Commission for Human Rights (ACHR) has sent 12 observers, drawn from seven Arab and non-Arab countries, to report on the trial for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, with a special focus on Alluni's case.

"There are a lot of weak points in the Alluni dossier," said ACHR spokesman Haytham Manna.

Afghan families consider first cousins ideal match
Tradition pairs close relatives in spite of the risk to future offspring
By N.C. AIZENMAN Washington Post April 23, 2005, 6:50PM
Ahmad Ayubi and his wife, Mazari, who are cousins, carry their daughters to a Muslim shrine to pray for a cure for the brain disorder that killed two of their eight children. Anecdotal evidence suggests a deeply ingrained national practice of first cousins marrying, which leads to a greater risk of conceiving children with birth defects and diseases such as the brain disorder affecting the Ayubi children.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - By local standards, they were an ideal match: first cousins, raised in the same house since birth and, within a year of their marriage, the proud parents of a plump baby boy.

But not long after their son's first birthday, Ahmad and Mazari Ayubi noticed that little Masi's head was starting to wobble. By the time he was 2, the boy was paralyzed and mentally retarded, and Mazari began to suspect what the doctors would later confirm:

"It's because (Ahmad) and I are related that this happened," she said sadly, cradling the youngest of three more children born with the same disorder. "Perhaps it is better for cousins not to marry."

Such doubts are the first hairline cracks in what remains a bedrock tradition in Afghanistan.

"There is a saying in our country that a marriage between cousins is the most righteous because the engagement was made in heaven," said M. Marouf Sameh, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Kabul's Rabia Balkhi Women's Hospital.

He estimated at least 10 percent of his patients are married to a first cousin. Doctors at other hospitals and clinics reported even higher rates of cousin marriage among their patients — almost always matches arranged by families.

Some parents want to keep their property within the family or lower the "bride price" that men must traditionally pay their in-laws.

Others say they're simply trying to find their child a good mate. Choosing a stranger is something of a gamble. Far better, goes the thinking, to pick a nephew or niece whose character you've been able to observe over years.

Masooda Jalal, the minister of women's affairs, said she was seeking funds to start a nationwide awareness campaign. "I'm sure if they know about the possible miserable results, future generations will be convinced to avoid this practice," she said.

The Ayubis' experience suggests otherwise.

Two sons, including Masi, have already died, and two daughters grow more disabled by the day. Yet Ahmad's younger brother insists on arranging the engagement of his 10-year-old daughter to one of Ahmad's healthy sons, now 13.

To Mazari's dismay, Ahmad is considering the offer. "First I will try to find my son an unrelated wife who is responsible and obedient," he said. "But if I can't find one, I will have no other option."

9/11 Mother Sees Afghan School She Funded
Sun Apr 24,12:30 AM ET By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Sally Goodrich, whose son died in the Sept. 11 attacks, kept a grip on her grief as she surveyed the foundations of the Afghan school being built with money she raised in the United States.

But the 59-year-old, who lost her son in the second plane to hit the World Trade Center, has been overwhelmed more than once as she surveyed the striking landscape of mountains and plains where al-Qaida honed its plot.

"How could it possibly have come from a place of such reverence and tranquility?" she told The Associated Press in the Afghan capital this week, the thought bringing fresh tears and a determined smile.

Goodrich, a native of Bennington, Vt., and an administrator for schools in nearby North Adams, Mass., has helped raise about $180,000 for the new girl's school in Surkh Abat, about 30 miles south of Kabul, in Logar province.

On Wednesday, she visited the site in a fertile valley edged by jagged mountains. Teachers and pupils gave her jewelry and a penholder made of colored beads. Later, they sang songs of welcome.

"All I had to do was maintain my composure, which was the most I could do," Goodrich said in an interview in a government guesthouse in Kabul, wearing a black headscarf even indoors out of respect for the country's deep-rooted Islamic customs.

By Saturday, turbaned masons were raising the earthquake-proof stone walls of what is to become a 16-classroom school for girls aged 6 to 13, about 200 of whom were in classes nearby, crammed into a long room and an open-ended tent at the mayor's house.

The new school is not intended as a monument to Peter Goodrich, who was 33 when he died more than 3 1/2 years ago, and the idea of building it grew from a more modest aid effort. But Sally Goodrich said her voyage to Afghanistan was one that her lost child, who had spent time reading the Quran in his own time and was fascinated by other cultures, would have approved of, and it had brought them closer together.

"Peter would be all about trying to understand why the event happened," Goodrich said, adding that she had read about Afghanistan intensively before her trip and has been promoting learning about Afghanistan in schools back home.

"Had he the opportunity that day to listen to the hijackers, to sit down and talk to them, that would have been his inclination."

U.S. Marine Maj. Rush Filson, a childhood friend of Peter Goodrich, sowed the seed of the project last summer when he wrote to Sally Goodrich and her husband, Don, about the state of schools near where he was stationed in Afghanistan.

The Goodriches helped raise funds for supplies for another school in Logar that also was being run out of a private home. The U.S. military delivered them for free. But the organizers soon decided that Afghan children needed more than just pens and books.

Local churches, schools and family friends helped raise the funds for the school, paying some into a memorial foundation. Some of the money also came from compensation paid to families of the victims of the 2001 attacks.

The site for the new school was identified with the help of an Afghan deputy interior minister who once worked as an assistant to David Edwards, a professor at Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass., who also is involved in the project.

Haji Malik, the 60-year-old foreman of the construction site, said the people from seven nearby villages were delighted about the new school and the generosity of the "kind foreign lady."

"I condemn what happened on Sept. 11," Malik said as about 20 men heaved chunks of stone onto the foundations and smothered them in cement. "We are all part of humanity, we are all brothers, even if we have different religions."

One laborer, Ghulam Dastagir, said his three small daughters jumped up and down for joy when they heard about the school, which will serve elementary and middle grades.

Bibi Hawa, a 10-year-old girl minding four cows nearby, said she also would like to come to the school, "but my father won't let me," suggesting conservative Muslim traditions would deprive some local children of a chance for education.

Sally Goodrich said her visit was heartwarming and that the 10 female teachers had made clear their sympathy for her loss.

"You see it in they eyes, that they understand suffering," she said.

That support will be valuable again when Goodrich returns with her husband to see the first classes in the completed building, a trip slated for the fourth anniversary of the event that brought her halfway around the world.

"No matter what, we will spend Sept. 11 in Logar," she said.