Washington Post
Khamis November 22, 2001

50 Negara Menahan 360 Suspek Untuk Memuaskan CIA

(50 Countries Detain 360 Suspects at CIA's Behest)

Oleh: Bob Woodward.

Kerana desakan CIA agensi perisikan asing dan pasukan polis di 50 buah negara telah menangkap dan menahan sekitar 360 orang yang disyaki (suspek) yang didakwa mempunya hubungan dengan Osama Laden dan Al-Qaeda atau kumpulan ganas lain, demikian mengikut sumber yang dipercayai.

Penangkapan bertaraf global secara bersar-besaran itu, menggambarkan sebahagiannya, betapa wujudnya satu program menahan yang lebih luas persis tindakan FBI di Amerika Syarikat yang telahpun menangkap sekitar 1,100 manusia, termasuk segelintir kecil yang disyaki mempunyai maklumat mengenai pengganas dan sebilangan besar yang merupakan warga Timur Tengah yang dikatakan mempunyai masalah berkaitan imigresen.

Peningkatan jumlah orang asing yang ditahan, adalah sebahagian peperangan berahsia membasmi keganasan yang kerap cuba dielakkan oleh Bush akan pendedahannya, menunjukkan tahap kesanggupan negara lain berkerjasama secara senyap-senyap menyudikan AS segala usaha dan daya untuk menumpaskan al Qaeda.

Jumlah penangkapan di seberang laut telah meningkat secara menyerlah berbanding apa yang pernah diketahui - Pada Oktober 21, Bush mengatakan lebaih 200 'pengganas yang disyaki' telah disauk di luar negara. Tetapi, satu pencarian menyeluruhi akhbar berbahasa Inggeris di seluruh dunia menunjukkan hanya 75 nama yang ada kaitan dengan penangkapan semacam itu sejak September 11.

Dalam satu kes CIA, laporan risikan menyebut lokasi umum seorang yang disyaki pengganas yang berkemungkinan mempunyai maklumat mengenai serangan yang terdahulu. Sebenarnya tidak ramai pengganas yang tergolong dalam kategori ini - dan inilah kumpulan utama yang disasarkan kerana ahlinya berkemungkinan terbabit dengan serangan yang baru.

Tetapi ada sebuah negara yang menolak memberikan maklumat itu yang diperlukan oleh pihak CIA. Disebabkan kesuntukan masa, satu pasukan khas berahsia CIA telah menceroboh masuk pejabat di seberang laut itu dan mencuri maklumatnya. Dalam masa 12 jam, penganas yang disyaki telah dapat dikesan dan segala butiran telah dikirim kepada agensi risikan asing yang bekerjasama untuk menahan orang itu.

Hubungan antara CIA dan perkhidmatan risikan asing semakin mesra dan memungkin perkongsian maklumat mengenai pengganas yang disyaki, sokongan luar negara dalam siasatan dan memulakan penangkapan beberapa kes.

Usaha asing ini mencetuskan tumpuan Rumah Putih, Jabatan Negara Amerika, FBI dan CIA bahawasanya Osama bin Laden dan jaringannya mungkin mempunyai beberapa rencana serangan keganasan pada masa depan yang dirancang untuk mengganyang Amerika Syarikat dan beberapa hartabendanya di luar negara.

Tidak siapa yang mengetahui berapakah jumlah sebenar penangkapan yang ada kaitan dengan serangan Sept. 11, ataupun identiti yang ditahan itu dan kepentingan penangkapan mereka. Selain 360 penangkapan asing yang disarankan oleh CIA, pihak FBI melalui hubungannya di seberang laut telah berjaya mencetuskan beberapa penangkapan yang berasingan. Beberap negara lain telah meningkatkan program anti-keganasan dana menangkap beberapa suspek, mungkin beratus ramainya tanpa rangsangan daripada CIA ataupun FBI (Contohnya Malaysia yang mentohmah penangkapan mereka yang dicap KMM).

Daripada sejumlah 360 penangkapan di luar negara atas cadangan CIA itu, terdapat 100 yang dilakukan di Eropah, lebih dari 100 di Timur Tengah, 30 di Latin Amerika dan 20 di Afrika. Beberapa pegawai berkata penangkapan itu mungkin mengkucar-kacirkan beberapa kumpulan al-Qaeda. Tetapi tidak pula jelas apakah penangkapan itu membantutkan usaha menyerang Amerika. Empat serangan yang telah dirancang, termasuk satu usaha memusnahkan kedutaan AS di Paris, telah dibantutkan sejak September 11.

CIA sedang mempercepatkan penyusunan maklumat terhadap pengganas yang disyaki dan berusahasama dengan perkhidmatan risikan luar negara untuk memantapkan maklumat sebagai asas penangkapan. Tambah lagi, beberapa perkhidmatan yang dulunya lembab, kini melaksanakan operasi yang mempunyai risiko tinggi untuk memantau pengganas yang disyaki.

Sejak Sept.11, beberapa negara yang selama ini memikirkan tidak diminat oleh al-Qaeda menjadi terkejut apabila berjaya mengesan beberapa sel operasi kumpulan itu di wilayah mereka.

Usaha CIA itu merupakan satu perkongsian risikan yang melibatkan berdozen negara yang telah dikumpulkan oleh pengarah CIA George J.Tenet. Seorang pegawai Rumah Putih ada berkata baru-baru ini bahawa perkongsian bahan risikan adalah sama pentingnya dengan perkongsian maklumat tentera dan diplomatik mengenai peperangan membasmi keganasan, terutama sekali pada tahap awalan peperangan di Afghanistan.

'Perisikan menjadi lebih penting, apabila kita tidak berdaya mengebom ataupun menghantar pasukan khas dan terpaksa melakukan operasi secara rahsia untuk menghapuskan pengganas.'

Dua orang pegawai kanan diplomatik di Washington yang terlibat membantu CIA berpendapat bahawa perkongsian risikan dan tekanan untuk menahan pengganas yang disyaki di beberapa negara memang menakjubkan. 'Kami tidak boleh lupakan petugas CIA ini,' kata seorang diplomat Eropah sambil menambah bahawa agensi itu menghujani negaranya dengan maklumat, senarai dan permohonan.

Pada Oktober 1, Bush telah menyentuh hal ehwal penangkapan di luar negara dalam satu ucapannya di ibupejabat Federal Agency Management Agency (FEMA) di Washington.

Presiden itu bekata bahawa rakyat Amerika 'tidak dapat melihat apa sebenarnya yang berlaku di skrin TV mereka,' dan dia menambah 'secara berdikit-dikit' kemajuan akan tercapai juga.

Pasukan Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID) telah terlibat dalam lebih satu dozen penangkapan banyaknya. CIA telah memberikan nama salah seorang daripada lapan yang disyaki menjadi anggota al-Qaeda, yang tertangkap di Sepanyol pada awal minggu ini.

Dalam satu kes, sebaik berlakunya serangan pengganas, dua orang yang disyaki sebagai anggota al Qaeda telah ditangkap di Bahrain. Mereka dihantar di Arab Saudi untuk disiasat, dan memberi maklumat kepada pihak yang berkuasa satu nombor telefon anggota al Qaeda di negara itu.

Selepas beberapa usaha mengesannya, pihak Arab Saudi berjaya menangkap seorang tokoh al Qaeda yang menggunakan nama perjuangan 'Abu Ahmed'. Dia bersama lima lagi anggota al-Qaeda telah ditangkap ketika bersiap lari dari negara itu.

Ahmed dianggap orang al-Qaeda yang paling tinggi pangkatnya yang ditangkap untuk disoal. Dia juga dipercayai mempunyai pengetahuan awal akan serangan keganasan yang lepas-lepas.

Ada sumber mengatakan Ahmed memberikan maklumat yang melibatkan seorang pegawai risikan Yemeni dalam serangan keganasan Oktober 2000 terhadap kapal perang USS Cole di pelabuhan Yemeni, di mana 17 askar AS terbunuh. Ahmed dikatakan mempunyai maklumat lanjut mengenai serangan yang dapat dibanteras di Amerika Syarikat sebelum diadakan majlis sambutan millennium pada Disember 1999.

Ada satu sumber yang mengatakan betapa Ahmed kenal beberapa orang antara 19 pejuang yang merampas empat buah pesawat pada Sept. 11 dulu yang menyerang dan menyebabkan kematian sekitar 4,000 orang. Maklumat Ahmed dianggap penting sebagai satu hubungan yang ketara antara para perampas dengan al Qaeda, dan FBI serta CIA telah diberikan peluang terhad untuk menyoalsiasat beliau, kata sumber itu.

Agensi perkhidmatan risikan Mesir telah bergiat cergas dan membantu CIA. Mesir mempunyai salah satu perkhidmatan risikan yang mantap dan ganas di Timur Tengah. Beberapa orang yang ditangkap di negara lain telahpun dihantar ke Mesir untuk disoal-siasat ataupun dibawa ke mahkamah. Mengikut bahan bukti yang dikumpulkan untuk perbicaraan 1999 di Mesir, daripada 100 yang disyaki itu datangnya daripada Egyptian Islamic Jihad (Jihad Islamiah Mesir) yang telahpun bersekutu dengan al Qaeda pada tahun sebelumnya. Agensi risikan telah menggunakan penderaan untuk mendapatkan perakuan daripada pengganas yang disyaki.

Kemungkinan wujudnya penderaan yang zalim adalah satu perkara yang menjadi perhatian pentadbiran Bush, mengikut satu sumber, yang juga berkata betapa usaha menangkap segala pengganas secara besar-besaran ini mungkin dijadikan satu alasan oleh regim yang zalim untuk menangkap pihak pembangkang dan menekan mereka juga (seperti di Malaysia).

Pada Oktober 1, ketika berucap di FEMA itu, Bush telah mengulangi gelagatnya yang kerap diulang-ulang sejak Sept. 11 untuk mendedahkan sedikit secara umum apa yang dilaksanakan di sebalik tabir.

'Anda tentu sedar bagaimana kami memberitahu seluruh dunia: 'Perkara ini mungkin terjadi kepada anda, di bumi anda sendiri, kenalah anda anggap perkara ini sebagai satu ancaman yang serius, juga' kata Bush. 'Kita sudah mulakan perkongsian risikan di kalangan negara lain. Kita sudah semakin mengetahui pergerakan al-Qaeda, siapa mereka, di mana mereka fikir mereka dapat bersembunyi. Kita akan secara berdikit akan dapat membawa mereka ke muka pengadilan.

Terjemahan: SPAR

Asal:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/ nationalsecurity/spying/A822-2001Nov21.html

THE WASHINGTON POST

50 Countries Detain 360 Suspects at CIA's Behest

By Bob Woodward

At the urging of the CIA, foreign intelligence services and police agencies in 50 countries have arrested and detained about 360 suspects with alleged connections to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network or other violent terrorist groups, according to well-placed sources.

The massive, aggressive international roundup mirrors, in part, the broader detention program carried out by the FBI in the United States that has netted more than 1,100 people, including a small number believed to have information about terrorists and a far larger number of Middle Eastern nationals held on immigration violations.

The growing number of foreign detentions, part of the "unseen" war on terror that President Bush has frequently alluded to, shows the degree of cooperation other nations are quietly providing to the U.S. effort to crush al Qaeda.

The number of overseas arrests has grown considerably from what has been previously acknowledged -- on Oct. 21, President Bush said more than 200 suspected terrorists had been rounded up overseas. An exhaustive search of English-language newspapers worldwide turned up the names of only 75 foreign terror-related arrests since Sept. 11.

In one CIA case, intelligence reports indicated the general whereabouts of a suspected terrorist who may have had advance knowledge of previous attacks. Only a handful of suspects fall into that category -- a key group that is targeted because its members might be involved in future attacks.

But one country balked at providing the information the CIA needed to pinpoint the terrorist's location. Time was critical, so a covert CIA team broke into a facility overseas and stole the information. Within 12 hours, the suspected terrorist was located and the details were passed on to a fully cooperative foreign intelligence service, which had the individual arrested by one of the country's law enforcement agencies.

As part of the deepening relationships between the CIA and foreign intelligence services, agency officials abroad are increasingly sharing sensitive intelligence on suspected terrorists, supporting overseas investigations and initiating -- in several cases virtually insisting on -- arrests.

The foreign effort reflects the continuing concern of the White House, the Justice Department, the FBI and the CIA that bin Laden and his network may have future terrorist attacks already planned in the United States or against U.S. facilities abroad.

The total number of people detained worldwide as part of the Sept. 11 probe is unknown, as are the identities and significance of most. In addition to the 360 foreign arrests generated by the CIA, the FBI through its own contacts and legal attachés overseas has helped produce a separate, unknown number of arrests. Dozens of countries have also stepped up their counterterrorism programs and have arrested on their own many more suspects, possibly in the hundreds, without any encouragement from the CIA or the FBI.

Of the 360 suspects arrested or detained abroad at the CIA's instigation, there were more than 100 in Europe, more than 100 in the Near East, 30 in Latin America and 20 in Africa. Officials said those arrests may have thrown some known al Qaeda groups off balance, but it is not clear whether any terrorist attacks in the United States have been disrupted or aborted. Four planned attacks, including a highly publicized plan to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris, have been aborted abroad since Sept. 11.

The CIA is rapidly developing information on suspected terrorists and working intensely with foreign intelligence services to turn that information into arrests. In addition, the agency, which had been accused of timidity, is undertaking some high-risk operations of its own to track suspected terrorists.

Since Sept. 11, a number of countries where the authorities thought al Qaeda did not have a presence have received a loud wake-up call and discovered cells or operatives within their own borders, several sources said.

The CIA effort is part of the work of a substantial foreign intelligence coalition involving dozens of countries assembled by CIA Director George J. Tenet. A senior White House official said recently that the intelligence coalition is as important as the military and diplomatic coalitions involved in the war on terrorism, particularly in the war's initial phase in Afghanistan.

"Intelligence may be more important down the road," the official said, "when we can't bomb or send in the [U.S.] Special Forces and have to operate covertly to root out" the terrorists.

Two senior diplomats in Washington involved in assisting the CIA said that the intelligence-sharing and the pressure to detain suspected terrorists in their countries are remarkable. "We can't get away from these [CIA] people," said one European diplomat, adding that the agency inundates his country with information, lists and requests.

On Oct. 1, Bush made reference to the foreign arrests in a speech at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Washington.

The president said that the American people "aren't going to see exactly what's taking place on their TV screens," but he added that "slowly, but surely," progress was being made.

Since Sept. 11, intelligence-sharing and cooperation among foreign services worldwide have flourished, several sources said.

The Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID) has been involved in more than a dozen arrests. The CIA provided the name of one of the eight suspected al Qaeda members arrested in Spain earlier this week.

In another example, shortly after the terrorist attacks, two suspected al Qaeda members were picked up in Bahrain. The two were sent to Saudi Arabia for questioning, and they provided authorities there with an al Qaeda contact telephone number in the country.

After several weeks spent tracing calls from that number to other phone numbers, Saudi authorities tracked down and arrested a senior al Qaeda figure who uses various aliases, including "Abu Ahmed." He and five other al Qaeda members were arrested while attempting to leave the country.

Ahmed is believed to be the highest-ranking al Qaeda member to be held for questioning, and is one of the people believed to have had advance knowledge of previous terrorist attacks.

Sources said that he has provided information about the alleged involvement of a Yemeni intelligence officer in the October 2000 terrorist boat-attack on the destroyer USS Cole at a Yemeni port, in which 17 U.S. sailors were killed. Ahmed reportedly had details of the planned attacks that were thwarted in the United States before the millennial celebrations of December 1999.

One source said Ahmed also knew some of the 19 hijackers who took over four planes on Sept. 11 and carried out the worst terrorist incident in U.S. history, killing about 4,000 people. Ahmed's information is considered a critical link between the hijackers and al Qaeda, and both the FBI and the CIA have been given limited access to him and his interrogation sessions, the sources said.

The Egyptian foreign intelligence services have been particularly active and helpful to the CIA. Egypt has among the most formidable and ruthless intelligence services in the Middle East, and several of those arrested in other countries as part of the Sept. 11 roundup have been sent to Egypt for interrogation or trial. According to evidence gathered for a 1999 trial in Egypt of more than 100 defendants from the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which had merged with al Qaeda the previous year, the intelligence agents regularly used torture to obtain confessions from suspected terrorists.

The possibility of torture has raised some concerns within the Bush administration, according to one source, who also said there are worries that the wide-ranging terrorist roundup might be used by repressive regimes to crack down on their political opposition.

In his Oct. 1 speech at FEMA, Bush, as he has often done since Sept. 11, tried to lay out publicly and in general terms what was going on behind the scenes.

"You see, we've said to people around the world: 'This could happen to you, this could have easily have taken place on your soil, so you need to take threats seriously, as well,' " Bush said. "We're beginning to share intelligence amongst our nations. We're finding out members of the Qaeda organization, who they are, where they think they can hide. And we're slowly, but surely, bringing them to justice."

Staff researchers Jeff Himmelman and Margot Williams contributed to this report.