KUWAIT CITY, 4 July 2004 — The US government has warned Kuwait that it suspects nine Kuwaiti nationals of having links with Al-Qaeda, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported yesterday.
Quoting security sources, Al-Siyassa said the warning was conveyed during a recent, unpublicized visit to the emirate by Frances Townsend, US deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism.
Townsend met Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and top security officials and handed over an “official document containing the names and photos of the nine suspects who are wanted by US authorities,” the daily claimed.
The nine, according to Washington, are involved with Al-Qaeda, or are coordinating to send young people to fight American troops in Iraq, the paper said.
Some of the nine individuals are suspected of helping to send $150,000 to Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen who are suspected of planning the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors.
Five of the Kuwaitis on the list were recently in custody and on trial, but were set free after they were found innocent of involvement in the killing of a US Marine, and the wounding of another on the Kuwaiti island of Failakah.
“We cannot understand the reasons why the Kuwaiti government released this group which is linked to Al-Qaeda,” a source quoted Townsend as saying during a meeting with high-ranking Kuwaiti security officials.
Kuwaiti courts have recently convicted a total of five Kuwaitis and one Egyptian in separate cases of trying to kill American soldiers in Kuwait. Many other suspects have also been released.
The document also reportedly expressed the US government’s concern about how Kuwait was dealing with “fanatical organizations,” saying that it, along with Qatar, was facing the threat of terrorist attacks.
It said that one of the individuals on the list was allegedly running an operation from his prison cell at Kuwait’s Central Jail, that involved sending anti-American fighters to Iraq via Syria.
The paper published the initials of eight of the men on the list and provided a brief synopsis of their militant activity in Afghanistan, Bosnia, or in Iraq and Syria.
Charges Against Saddam
A group of Kuwaiti lawyers formed a committee to “represent the Kuwaiti people” in the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, its representatives told a news conference yesterday.
“We plan to highlight Saddam’s atrocities against Kuwaiti civilians, burning oil wells and his violations of international conventions ... and we will call for his death,” said lawyer Khaled Al-Awadhi, a group founder.
“We will soon launch a campaign to obtain power of attorney from up to 500,000 Kuwaitis and Arabs who suffered during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait,” lawyer Adel Al-Abdulhadi also said.
Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in August 1990 before being evicted by a US-led coalition seven months later.
The lawyers said they would coordinate with the Kuwaiti government, which has named a representative for the Iraqi tribunal that will try Saddam and prepared some 200 major indictments against the ex-president and his top aides.
In his first court appearance on Thursday, Saddam was unrepentant as he defended his invasion of Kuwait and insulted its people.
