Switzerland Opens Investigation Into Al Qaeda Nuclear Connection

Swiss inquiry into Cern terror suspect underway

Swiss authorities are pursuing a separate investigation into the case of the physicist and suspected al-Qaeda collaborator arrested in France last month.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland opened its investigation at the end of October, according to a spokesman who comfirmed a Sunday newspaper report.
The 32-year-old suspect was a researcher connected to but not employed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern). He also worked at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

• Cern, a joint project backed by 20 member states, has sites on the border of Switzerland and France.
• It is best known for the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator.
  

Arrested along with his brother in the town of Vienne in southeastern France on October 8, the Cern physicist is suspected of being close to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), also known as al-Qaeda's north African wing.

The men are French citizens of Algerian origin.

AQIM's Swiss Hostage Werner Greiner Release - They Paid 3 Million Euros

Word From MEMRI:

Werner Greiner, a Swiss national who had been taken captive by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was released July 11 after nearly six months of captivity...


-Shimron Issachar

of 07/13/2009 7:14 AM
BAMAKO - A Swiss man's six-month hostage ordeal in Mali came to an end on Sunday as he returned safely to the capital Bamako after being freed by an Al-Qaeda group that beheaded a Briton in May.

Swiss officials credited Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure with securing Werner Greiner's release and insisted Switzerland had neither negotiated nor paid a ransom for him.

He was freed in Mali's northern desert region of Gao after fierce clashes there between government soldiers and Al-Qaeda fighters, Malian officials said.Greiner, the last Western hostage held by a group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), returned later Sunday to Bamako where he was welcomed by Swiss representatives.

"He will get a medical examination and care. Once his health permits, he will be repatriated to Switzerland to be with his family," foreign ministry spokesman Markus Boerlin told the Swiss newswire ATS in Geneva.

His health was "quite good" given the circumstances, said Boerlin. "But it is clear that he is tired, exhausted."

"The Mali president obtained the liberation. Switzerland neither negotiated with the kidnappers [Emphasis added by Shimron] nor paid any ransom," he added.

Greiner was snatched in January along with his wife Gabriella Burco, and fellow tourists Marianne Petzold of Germany and British national Edwin Dyer in Niger, near the border with Mali.

Burco and Petzold were released on April 22, along with two Canadian diplomats kidnapped in December.

But on June 3 the Al-Qaeda group announced it had beheaded Dyer because London would not release radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada from a British prison. It was the first time AQIM had killed a Western hostage.

An AFP reporter saw a weary-looking Greiner, dressed in a brown shirt, nod and wave earlier Sunday as he got into a vehicle in a convoy guarded by Malian security forces in the town of Mopti, halfway between Gao and the capital.Earlier this month an official in northern Mali involved in the talks with the kidnappers had said Greiner was in poor shape.

"He is hardly eating at all. He is suffering a lot," he had told AFP on condition of anonymity. Another negotiator had described him as "in a critical state."Dozens of people were reported killed in Gao this month in violent clashes between the Malian army and Al-Qaeda fighters.

Following Dyer's execution Mali stepped up efforts to hunt down the Al-Qaeda militants with President Toure announcing all-out war on the group.

The army said dozens of people were killed on July 4 in the deadliest clashes yet reported in the remote northern region between government troops and Al-Qaeda fighters.AQIM claimed to have killed 28 soldiers and taken three prisoner in an ambush against an army convoy.

The Al-Qaeda group only confirmed one death from among its own ranks, that of a Mauritanian combatant. AQIM emerged from and includes members of the former Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, a radical Islamic movement in Algeria that battled the secular state.

Since 2006, it has sought to enlist extremists in Tunisia and Morocco and extended activities deep into the Sahara and beyond to the Sahel nations of west Africa, where Briton Edwin Dyer was captured and executed.

The movement seeks close ties to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda and wants to be considered its north Africa-based armed wing. An official Malian source said a ceremony to mark Greiner's liberation was scheduled at the presidency in Bamako on Monday.

The Rest @ ABS CBN News

as of 07/13/2009 7:14 AM

Chris Huber of Switzerland Accused in Congo War

I have been out of pocket, back now, sorry for the time off.

-Shimron


Swiss man is being accused of funding rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo through his lucrative mineral business.

Chris Huber is believed to be working closely with the Rwandan army through his business ventures in exporting a mineral called colombo tantalite, or coltan, widely used in electronic devices such as mobile phones.

• A new report by over 30 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) states that natural resources, such as coltan, are being smuggled from Congo by other countries involved in the current war, such as Rwanda, which are using revenues to sustain their war efforts.
  
• The report, presented in Brussels on behalf of the NGOs by the Antwerp-based International Peace Information Service (IPIS), calls on electronic manufacturers to ban the import of coltan from warring countries such as Congo, where the number of war victims since 1998 is estimated to be 2.5 million people.

Coltan is a metallic ore, which, when refined, changes into a heat-resistant powder that can hold a high electrical charge. This makes it a vital element in creating capacitors, the electronic elements inside miniature circuit boards used in mobile phones and laptops.

The recent technology boom has caused the price of coltan to rocket to as much as $400 per kilogram, with manufacturers such as Nokia and Sony struggling to meet demand.

Offshore companies

According to IPIS,

Huber has played an important part in financing war efforts in Rwanda, which is supporting rebel forces in eastern Congo.

Huber’s offshore companies, including Finmining and Raremet, purchase coltan from Rwanda Metals, a business affiliated to the Rwandan armed forces, says the report.

IPIS calls on the federal cabinet and the Swiss parliament to carry out a detailed investigation into Huber’s business activities.

Rapid reaction

Ieron Cuvelier, the co-author of the IPIS report, said it was imperative that the Swiss authorities act quickly, as Huber, who has been active in the trading of coltan since 1997, is one of the Rwandan army’s most important partners.

Speaking to swissinfo, Cuvelier added that Huber should be arrested unless he was able to provide evidence that his business activities were compliant with international trade regulations.

Questions regarding the sale of coltan in eastern Congo, which is valued at $100 million, were previously raised during a session of parliamentary question time last October.

The Swiss economic minister, Pascal Couchepin, responded to the query by saying that Bern had been working closely with a panel of United Nations experts on the matter.

As a result a report published by the UN on the sale of the mineral, both Swissair and the Belgian carrier, Sabena, had suspended flights originating from eastern Africa that were being used for the export of coltan in June 2000.

The UN report stated that although most illegal activities were organised by local businesses and individuals, there were also international companies involved in the trade of minerals in the region and it called for sanctions against these businesses.
The almost limitless mineral resources in Congo were a curse on the war-torn nation, the report said, with unscrupulous profiteers making the most of political instability in the country.
Endangered gorillas
The production of coltan is not only a political problem, but also an environmental one, because the material is being extracted from Congo’s national parks.
There are over 10,000 mineral workers active in the Kahuzi-Biega national park, one of the most important retreats of the endangered Grey Gorillas. In recent years, their numbers have dwindled from 8,000 to 1,000.
Since the workers moved into the area, gorillas are being slaughtered for meat.
Swiss-Congo trade
Despite the political instability in Congo, Hugo Salvisberg, a member of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce for African Countries, said Switzerland was keen to develop business ties with the country.
Salvisberg told swissinfo that great efforts were being made to build up contacts with the new Congolese leader, Joseph Kabila.
It was important to build up a presence in the region, said Salvisberg, and there were many small to medium-sized businesses interested in becoming involved in the region. He added that a Swiss congress in nearby Cameroon would take place in the near future, with the aim of introducing Swiss businesses to the region.

by Jean-Michel Berthoud

The Rest @ Swissinfo