The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 21, 2001, Image 4

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Page 4
THE BATTALION
Wednesday, Novemto
Bodies of four slain journalist
recovered by Afghan rebels
ednesday.
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JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) —
Anti-Taliban militiamen recovered the bod
ies Tuesday of four international journalists
who were ambushed in a narrow mountain
pass as they headed for the Afghan capital.
The journalists were attacked Monday as
they traveled in a convoy of about eight cars
from the eastern city of Jalalabad to Kabul.
An anti-Taliban leader in the area said the
attackers were bandits, but witnesses said
they shouted pro-Taliban slogans.
Militiamen loyal to the new administra
tion in Jalalabad set out early Tuesday to
search for the missing journalists, and they
reached the spot of the ambush around 8
a.in., encountering no resistance as they
retrieved the bodies. They brought the bod
ies to a Jalalabad hospital, where colleagues
identified them.
The journalists were Australian televi
sion cameraman Harry Burton and
Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan photographer,
both of the Reuters news agency; Maria
Grazia Cutuli of Italian newspaper Corriere
della Sera; and Julio Puentes of the Spanish
daily El Mundo.
Cutuli and Puentes filed reports Monday
about finding what they believed were cap
sules of deadly sarin nerve gas at an aban
doned al-Qaida camp in the Jalalabad region.
Fuentes’s story said he discovered a card
board box with Russian labeling that said
SARIN/V-Gas. His report said the box con
tained 3(X) vials of a yellowish liquid.
A Japanese terrorist organization used
sarin in March 1995 in the Tokyo subway
killing 12 people.
A Pentagon duty officer said the U.S.
military had no information on the reports.
Colleagues and the Red Cross were
working to take the bodies to Pakistan on
Wednesday.
The area of the ambush recently came
under the control of anti-Taliban forces.
However, some Taliban stragglers and Arab
fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden are still
believed to be in the area, and there had been
earlier reports of armed robberies on the
road.
The convoy set out Monday morning.
Because the road was dusty, the cars in the
convoy spread out. and their occupants often
lost sight of one another.
Near the town of Serobi. 35 miles east of
Kabul, six gunmen on the roadside waved
the first three cars in the convoy to stop. One
car sped ahead, while tw'o stopped, said
Ashiquallah, who was driving the car carry
ing the Reuters journalists. He uses only one
name.
He said the gunmen, wearing long robes,
beards and turbans, warned them not to go
any farther because there was fighting ahead
with the Taliban. At that moment, a bus from
Kabul came by and said the road was safe.
The cars' drivers thought the gunmen were
thieves and tried to speed away, but the gun
men stopped them.
The gunmen then ordered all
ists out of the cars and tried tofoi
climb the mountain. Whentheyrel
gunmen beat them and threw stone!
Ashiquallah said.
“They said, 'What, you
are finished? We are still inpoi
will have our revenge,’” Ashiquals
The gunmen then shot the
and one of the men, he said,
men also had been shot.
The drivers tied back toward
he said, leaving behind the Afgk
tor. a man named Homuin.
whereabouts w ere unknown It
Ashiquallah's account was
by another translator and
escaped in the other car.
Haji Shershah, an anti-Tali
mander in Jalalabad, said y
area reported numerous other at
ing gunfire on vehicles on the
during the day.
A French journalist was
area the day before, and to
Monday’s assault on the jour
Afghan car arrived in Jalalabat
bullet holes after being attacked
Shershah said the attackers were:!
not Taliban or his own lighters.
“They’re not Taliban, they ait I
Shershah said. “They just want to
blame on the Taliban. ...Thevwere
lots of people.”
robtoi
Tight security on high seas in wafei
terrorist attacks, strikes on Taliba
SAN JUAN. Puerto Rico (AP) —Beneath
the blackjack tables and bulging all-you-can-
eat buffets, divers search cruise ship hulls for
icxplosives. At the docks, workers screen pas
sengers for weapclhs and contraband.
In the wake of die Sept. I 1 suicide
hijackings, security has been tightened
aboard the giant vessels that can stretch
nearly a quarter of a mile long and carry
thousands of passengers.
In the United States, Coast Guard boats
have been escorting cruise ships into port since
the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, and cruise companies have been
submitting crew and passengers’ names to the
FBI and immigration officials for checks.
“We have always had security measures
in place,” said Tim Gallagher, spokesman
for Carnival Cruises. “But since the attacks,
we’ve gone to level three security, the high
est security level there is.”
Still, security experts say that with atten
tion focused on air safety, cruise ships could
be enticing targets for terrorists.
“When you protect air, land and other tar
gets, terrorists are going to look for soft tar
gets,” said Rohan Gunaratna, a research fel
low at the Center for Study of Terrorism and
Political Violence at Scotland's University of
St. Andrews. “Cruise ships are considered
prestigious because there is a perception that
they are filled with wealthy Americans."
Gunaratna, \vfto has been asked by'vari
ous governments to work as a Consultant and
question terrorists from the Middle East,
Latin America and Asia, said groups such as
Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaida are being
trained for maritime attacks.
In Sri Lanka, divers have planted explo
sives on commercial ships and suicide
bombers have sunk navy vessels. In the
South China Sea, pirates have attacked com
mercial vessels. And in Yemen, suicide
bombers attacked the destroyer USS Cole in
October 2000, killing 17 U.S. sailors.
Cruise ship officials say that since Sept.
1 1 they have added security personnel and
increased staff, making their ships far less
vulnerable than planes. They also point to
the industry’s safety record — only one large
cruise ship has been hijacked since 1985 —
and say modern construction with watertight
compartments makes ships difficult to sink.
Kim Petersen, chief executive officer of
SeaSecure LLC, a maritime security con
sultant in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said armed
passengers would be hard-piesed
aboard a ship, and if terrorisis ta
hull, casualties would be low.
“The cruise industry has, for]
acti-ee anrfiterrorisru programs
prevent an arraj Of potential atti
Petersen. “Those programs,
stringent security, make takiip®
of the safest options Americafk
Governments forced ttiiniiistn
implement minimum secti§je»
after terrorists, hoping to smuggle
into Israel, hijacked the Italian
Achille Lauro in 1985 and
American passenger.
Gunaratna said that attack ha
ramifications. “Only one American
aboard the Achille Lauro yet ittoob
the industry to recover,” he said “
be unlikely that terrorists would inflict
damage on a cruise ship but even
managed to kill 10 to 15people.it
have a huge impact and people,
Americans, would stop taking cruise
Already, fewer passengers are talari
high seas. Shortly after Sept. 11,Flo#
Renaissance Cruises filed for bankrupt
ing it was a victim of tourism fallout
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