Sri Lanka jets hit LTTE targets

COLOMBO, Mar 1: Shortly after Britain banned the LTTE and included it in the list of 21 foreign terrorist organisations, Sri Lankan Air Force today carried out a series of air strikes over the accommodation points of the rebels close to the Elephant Pass in Northern Jaffna peninsula, officials said.

"We targeted billets or accommodation points of the LTTE at Iyakachchi about 10 km north of Elephant Pass," military spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said. There were no details of casualties.

He declined to say if further raids or fresh ground offensives were in the offing.

A Government spokesman welcomed Britain’s decision and said follow-up action was expected, in an apparent reference to the possibility of the LTTE’s fund-raising activities in the United Kingdom being curbed.

Meanwhile, the Tamil tiger rebels reacted fiercely to the British decision, saying the move would affect the Norwegian-backed peace plan for Sri Lanka.

"It is a sad day for the Anglo-Tamil relations," rebel chief negotiator Anton Balasingham said in a statement from London. (PTI)

Bin Laden follower says colleagues did bombing

NEW YORK, Mar 1: A member of Osama Bin Laden’s militant organization told authorities he believed colleagues in his Kenyan cell were responsible for the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, an FBI agent has testified.

However, Mohamed Sadeek Odeh, who is on trial with three others charged in a conspiracy with the Saudi dissident to attack Americans, yesterday denied participating in the attack and said it was a "blunder" because so many civilians were killed, the agent said.

FBI agent John Anticev, who interviewed Odeh after the attacks, said Odeh had agreed to talk to authorities after being left behind by his colleagues. Odeh was detained the day of the bombings traveling with a fake passport on a flight to Pakistan.

Although prosecutors have previously said that Odeh gave them information about Bin Laden’s group, Anticev’s testimony marked the first time details of the statements have been revealed. Odeh’s lawyers had unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Government from introducing the statements as evidence.

Odeh, who admits he was a member of Bin Laden’s organization, is charged in the overall conspiracy but is not accused of directly carrying out the embassy attacks. He faces life in prison if convicted.

During yesterday’s testimony, Anticev said Odeh had described his colleagues’ movements in the days leading up to the attacks. He said that odeh was staying in a Nairobi hotel with members of the cell before the attacks but denied knowing about the planned bombings in advance. He said Odeh opposed any attack in Nairobi because he liked the Kenyan people.

"He thought it (bombing) was a blunder," Anticev said adding that Odeh disapproved of the fact so many Kenyans were killed.

Anticev said that Odeh felt his colleagues made a mistake by putting the bomb in the back of a pickup truck.

"He said the truck should have backed into the building closely."

Instead the truck came in "nose first" and the force of the explosion ricocheted off the cab of the truck, causing many deaths in the vicinity.

"Did he say he didn’t know in advance about the attack?" asked Assistant US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

"Yes, that’s fair to say," Anticev said.

Fitzgerald asked if Odeh expressed remorse that Americans were killed, and Anticev said no. However Anthony Ricco, one of Odeh’s lawyers, asked the agent under cross examination if the defendant ever specifically said he cared about Kenyan civilians being killed but not Americans.

"No, he never...Broke it down," Anticev said.

The four men on trial in a Manhattan Federal Court are among 22 — including Bin Laden himself — charged in an alleged conspiracy dating to 1989 that included the Aug. 7, 1998 bombings of the two US embassies in East Africa. The attacks killed 224 people including 12 Americans.

Bin Laden, believed living in Afghanistan under the protection of the ruling Taliban, is among a group of defendants who are fugitives.

The attacks were allegedly carried out by members of Al Qaeda (the base), which prosecutors said is an "international terrorist group" run by Bin Laden "dedicated to opposing non-Islamic Governments with force and violence."

Anticev said that Odeh told him that in March of 1998 he attended a meeting of his Al Qaeda cell at which time the leader of the cell Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah known as Saleh said "there was word from Bin Laden" that all Al Qaeda members had to leave Kenya. He said the members were told they should get their affairs in order and should start getting travel documents.

The warnings to leave continued and on Aug. 1, Saleh told Odeh that he had to depart by Aug. 6. Odeh said he did not have a passport and Saleh said he would arrange for him to receive a fake document by that evening.

"He (Odeh) saw it coming, but he had never seen anything so urgent before," Anticev said.

Odeh was told to check into the hilltop hotel in Nairobi, where he arrived on Aug. 4 to find other Al Qaeda members. Anticev said Odeh explained that certain members stayed away from the hotel overnight through Aug. 6.

Fitzgerald asked if Odeh had told authorities who he believed carried out the Nairobi attack.

"Saleh and company," Anticev said. (REUTERS)

For Seattle, what else can go wrong?

SEATTLE, Mar 1: Desperate to keep Californians and east coasters out of their northwest paradise, Seattleites, the local proverb goes, invented a myth about how much it rains here.

That kind of thing hardly seems necessary these days. There are plenty of real things to keep people away.

A powerful 6.8 earthquake yesterday sent local residents scrambling out of downtown skyscrapers just hours after a riot in the historic pioneer square neighborhood that hospitalized dozens of revelers at a Raucous late night Mardi Gras celebration.

As bricks fell due to the 45-second temblor, crowds of people punched furiously at their cellular phones, hoping to connect with loved ones.

But most people found only busy signals, as structural damage and call volume overwhelmed local phone systems.

The stress was evident in the faces and voices of people like Katie Yahns, who wiped away tears while standing in line for a pay phone outside the antique shop where she works.

"You couldn’t really think about it because it was going too fast. It was hard to run, because you could barely keep your footing," said Yahns, who hid under a table then ran into the cobblestone street amid falling windows and bricks.

While debris rained down on much of western Washington during the quake, the more typical liquid precipitation has been strangely absent. Seattle has enjoyed a sun-splashed monsoon season for the second straight year, and temperatures topped 50 f yesterday.

But in Seattle, even too much sunshine can be a bad thing. Reservoirs, rivers and snowpack are too low to power hydroelectric dams without further imperiling endangered salmon runs. With critical power shortages throughout the region, the timing could not be worse for a looming emergency drought declaration.

And while dry conditions help minimize the annual mudslide threat, the quake triggered plenty of landslides yesterday, opening big gashes in roads, cracking bridge supports and showering cars with boulder-sized chunks of building material. Over 100 Washington residents hurt in the quake followed dozens of Mardi Gras riot victims to the emergency room, and police chief Gil Kerlikowske had to postpone a much-needed nap.

"He was planning on taking a few hours off, but now that’s not going to happen," said the chief’s legal advisor, Leo Poort, who reported plaster cracks and flying computers inside the 53-year-old public safety building.

The Mardi Gras riot, Seattle’s third in 15 months and a mere shadow of the 1999 anti-World Trade Organization street demonstrations, came two days after Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O began the latest round in its legal battle with the federal Government.

While many Pundits expect Microsoft Chairman and local hero Bill Gates to emerge victorious from the antitrust court case, workers at the software king, who have seen the value of their stock and options plunge in recent months, remain nervous.

"Everyone says we’re going to come out fine, but inside people are pretty distracted," said one software engineer.

Microsoft workers still have their jobs at least, which is more than many of the area’s dotcom workers can say. Hundreds of layoffs and even bigger stock declines at many technology companies have taken their toll in a city with some of the highest rents and home prices in the nation.

Despite the size of the quake, damage was relatively contained, which local officials attributed to a massive seismic retrofit program that began 20 years ago.

"I think we have weathered it. It looks so far as if everything is working," Seattle Mayor Paul Schell told reporters.

But among Seattle residents, the city’s worst quake in 52 years caused widespread panic, especially in the early moments when office dwellers were jolted side to side and then popped skyward, or worse.

"Oh my god my husband he works in the Columbia tower," one woman screamed, referring to the landmark 76-story building —the tallest on the US west coast.

At the entry to the US attorney’s office, where a quake canceled a press conference on last week’s big cocaine bust, officials alternately told visitors to sit down, stand up and then power down the 51 flights of stairs as quickly as possible. (REUTERS)

‘Decision to ban LTTE will hamper peace initiative’

COLOMBO, Mar 1: Britain’s decision to ban the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will impose severe restraints on the current peace initiatives undertaken by the Norwegian Government to resolve the conflict in Sri Lanka, Mr Anton Balasingham, Chief Negotiator and Political Advisor to the Tamil militant outfit said today.

Commenting on the inclusion of the LTTE in the list of proscribed organisations announced by the Home Secretary Jack Straw in the British Parliament last evening, Mr Balasingham stated "it is regrettable that our liberation movement, the authentic representative organisation of the Sri Lankan Tamils which has been fighting for the political rights of our people for the last 25 years, is included in the list of proscribed organisations in Britain. It is a sad day for the Anglo-Tamil relations. The Tamil people, who have been collectively campaigning as a single voice against the proposed ban will be seriously disappointed by the British decision."

"The proscription will adversely affect the Tamil interests and severely undermine the current peace initiatives. Furthermore, the British decision will encourage the repressive Sri Lankan regime to be more uncompromising, intransigent and adopt a military path of state violence, terrorism and war," he said.

Mr Balasingham’s statement had appeared on a Tamil website immediately after the decision by Britain.

Mr Balasingham said the decision to include the Tamil tigers in the proscribed list was taken primarily on the logical criterion of the legislation which provides a wider definition of terrorism to include all forms of legitimate armed political struggles for freedom and dignity.

"The British decision makers have paid scant regard to the lengthy and complex history of the Tamil political struggle, the ugly history of the genocidal mode of state repression and the glorious history of armed resistance against repression and gross violations of human rights. The British ban of the LTTE is a triumph for Buddhist racism and fascism and a severe blow to peace and justice," the LTTE’s Chief Negotiator observed.

Mr Balasingham declared that irrespective of the British ban, the Tamil Tigers would continue with the peace process and cooperate with the Norwegian facilitatory efforts.

"The peace initiatives depend precariously on the leniency or the harshness in which this draconian legislation will be implemented by the law enforcing agencies in Britain," Mr Balasingham said. (UNI)

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