Sudan, a Bin Laden Haven, Cracks Down on Extremists

In a blow to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, Sudan has quietly begun rounding up extremists who have used the African country as an operating base and safe haven for more than a decade, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Sudan’s willingness to cooperate, which officials said includes offering the use of its military facilities, is considered a breakthrough in the United States’ battle against terrorism. The Khartoum government is both Arab and rigidly Islamic and thus sets an important precedent for other countries in the Muslim world, officials said.

“Sudan is now effectively eliminated as one of the biggest bases of operation for Bin Laden,” a senior U.S. official said. “Bin Laden and his allies now have one less place to hide, one less place to operate, one less place to have friends. That’s a very important development.”

Sudan’s moves are also significant in the larger war against terrorism because it is one of the seven remaining countries on the State Department’s list of nations that sponsor it.

Meanwhile, Iran’s hard-line supreme leader announced that his nation would refuse to participate in any U.S. military operation in neighboring Afghanistan and said any global campaign against terrorism should be led by the United Nations, not the “incompetent” United States.

And President Bush, in a show of support for the CIA, visited the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va., and declared his confidence in its director, George J. Tenet.

Before moving to Afghanistan in 1996, Bin Laden spent five years in Sudan building a broad base of supporters as well as several business interests, including in construction and agriculture. By the mid-1990s, thousands of Arabs from more than a dozen countries were involved with Bin Laden’s extremist activities or businesses, U.S. counter-terrorism officials say.

In an attempt to end U.S. sanctions imposed because of its support for terrorism, Sudan expelled Bin Laden in 1996 and claimed to have deported about 3,000 of his Arab and African allies over the next two years. But many remained, and Sudan has been used repeatedly by Bin Laden’s agents as a secure base for assisting allies elsewhere, the State Department said in its annual report “Patterns of Global Terrorism.”

In 1998, the Clinton administration, retaliating against the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, launched cruise missiles at a factory in Sudan that Washington said was producing chemical weapons.

Khartoum has also provided refuge for allies of Bin Laden in groups such as Islamic Jihad and Gamaa Islamiya from Egypt as well as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the State Department said. Members of many of these groups are also being rounded up, officials said.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Sudan’s government has also offered to allow the United States to make use of its military facilities, although it wants to maintain secrecy about logistical cooperation, U.S. officials said. Like many countries in the Islamic world, Sudan is not eager to draw attention to its cooperation because of potential backlash at home. The Foreign Ministry has denied earlier UPI and Agence France-Presse reports this week about U.S. use of its bases, although Bush administration officials insist that the offer has been made.

The cooperation is the product of a broader yearlong U.S. effort to reach out to Sudan. In response to congressional pressure to aid Sudan’s Christians, the administration this month appointed a special envoy, former Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), to try to mediate Sudan’s 18-year-old civil war between the Muslim-dominated government in the north and Christian and animist rebels in the south.

Stronger ties with the U.S. are important to Sudan for economic and security reasons. Khartoum would like to be removed from the U.S. terrorism list, which limits its access to government aid, private investment, loans and other international incentives.

In mid-2000, the United States and the government of President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir launched a dialogue on counter-terrorism, which eventually led Sudan to sign all 12 international conventions on combating terrorism. But not until recently has it begun to comply with U.N. resolutions 1044, 1054 and 1060, all passed in 1996, which demand that Sudan end all support for terrorism.

Iran Refuses to Aid U.S. Military

Word from another of the countries on the U.S. terrorism list was not welcomed by the administration. Iran said it would not participate in or condone any U.S. military operation in neighboring Afghanistan. The Islamic republic has taken on special importance because it has the second-longest border with Afghanistan.

In comments one day after a visit by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States is not “competent and sincere” enough to lead a global war on terrorism, and he called for the U.N. to lead any campaign.

“Iran will not participate in any move under U.S. leadership,” Khamenei, leader of Iran’s hard-line political faction, said in a speech to families of troops killed in Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq. “Iran will not extend any assistance to the U.S. and its allies in attacking the already suffering Muslim neighboring Afghanistan.”

In response, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said, “The president has made it clear that this is a time for nations to choose about whether they are with the United States and the free world in the war against terrorism or they are not, and I will leave it at that.”

Other U.S. officials said they never expected Tehran to play a role against terrorists in Afghanistan but are not yet prepared to close the door on possible cooperation with Iran on terrorism generally. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, they noted, expressed “deep regret and sympathy” after the U.S. attacks and made more conciliatory overtures on terrorism in two telephone conversations with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Asked about Russia’s pledges of support, Fleischer emphasized that the administration is not inducing the nation to take that position by easing U.S. concerns about Russia’s behavior in Chechnya, where rebels are waging a war against government troops.

But “there is no question that there is an international terrorist presence in Chechnya that has links to Osama Bin Laden,” Fleischer said.

The administration has criticized the ferocious nature of Russian counter-assaults and called for Russian troops to respect human rights in the breakaway republic.

Also Wednesday, Bush offered a show of support for the CIA, an agency stung by questions about whether intelligence lapses left the United States vulnerable on Sept. 11. The president visited CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., toured the agency’s counter-terrorism center and spoke to 500 CIA staff members.

With Tenet at his side, Bush said: “George and I have been spending a lot of quality time together. There’s a reason. I’ve got a lot of confidence in him and I’ve got a lot of confidence in the CIA. And so should America.”

The comments came hours after Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he thinks the job of running America’s intelligence apparatus is “getting away” from Tenet.

Bush also said the nation should recognize the devotion of the CIA workers--”men and women who are spending hours on the task of making sure our country remains free; men and women of the CIA who are sleeping on the floor, eating cold pizza, calling their kids on the phone, saying, ‘Well, I won’t be able to tuck you in tonight,’ because they love America.”

Later, at the White House, Bush said U.S. intelligence agencies are “doing a fine job. These terrorists had burrowed in our country for over two years. They were well-organized. They were well-planned. They struck in a way that was unimaginable.”

Bush also resumed his nearly daily contacts with other leaders, speaking by telephone with Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok and President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister. Nazarbayev offered to assist the anti-terrorism campaign with “all available means,” Fleischer said.

As a Central Asian neighbor of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan could ease logistical obstacles to launching attacks on the landlocked nation.

Elsewhere, 635 additional military reservists were called to duty Wednesday, including members of Inshore Boat Unit 17 from San Diego.