A worldwide campaign to track down terrorists was picking up pace yesterday, one day after US officials sought increased powers to combat terror at home.
But even as the massive investigation spread, fresh fears emerged in the US that the terrorists could have been planning to use crop duster aircraft to attack the country with chemical or biological weapons.
French police yesterday detained four suspected Muslim militants in the Paris region on orders of anti-terrorist judges.
The detentions were linked to a Europewide crackdown on Muslim extremists following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the US, that have left an estimated 7,000 people feared dead.
It was not clear whether there was a direct link between the latest arrests and the US attacks, but seven people detained in France in similar raids last week had been under surveillance for their alleged links to bin Laden.
In the US state of Virginia, prosecutors said they had Monday charged a man with fraudulently helping to obtain valid state identity cards for some of the suspected hijackers who executed the US hijack attacks.
The identity cards helped the suspects obtain credit cards and tickets for the four passenger flights they hijacked.
US Attorney General John Ashcroft told a congressional hearing Monday that the FBI and immigration authorities had detained or arrested 352 people, and were seeking to question an additional 392 -- a number far higher than originally acknowledged. None of the detainees has however been charged with a crime related to the Sept. 11 attack, with most held on immigration or other charges.
Investigators are trying to piece together clues left by the terrorists to find trails leading to other potential terrorists -- and to the masterminds of the strikes.
But despite the biggest investigation in US history, none of those picked up in US have been charged with a crime directly related to the terror attacks
"Thus far we cannot connect any of those people that we're looking at to any of those 19 hijackers," an official was quoted as saying by the New York Times yesterday.
Ashcroft also told Congress that the FBI "has confirmed that Mohammed Atta, one of the suspected hijackers, was acquiring knowledge of crop dusting aircraft prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11."
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2