STAR-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE, LDA © April 30, 2002
The English language news for Spain and Portugal
Lisbon, 30 April 2002
CREDITS TO SOURCE Star Tribune News Service LDA and Rui Amaral de Brito
Egyptian Multimillionaire Al-Fayed Under Investigation
By France and Portugal
The prestigious French newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche and the renowned Portuguese daily, Horas have both reported this week that Egyptian born, multimillionaire, Mohamed Al-Fayed, owner of London's world famous, Harrod's, is under investigation by Intelligence services and security police in France and Portugal for his part in the illegal procurement of weapons-grade Uranium-235 which was sold to Iran in August 2001.
Al-Fayed was implicated in the deal to provide Iran with the material with which to build atomic weapons
by his Portuguese partner, Jose dos Santos Ferreira, 46 years old, a resident of Porto, in whose residence investigators found the originals of faxes discussing the deal in detail between himself and Al-Fayed. In
the documents, which are in English, Santos Ferreira speaks about his Russian contacts and discusses also
the problems which would arise were the shipments made through Paris.
Al-Fayed, a former brother in law of major arms dealer, Adnan Kashoggi, and the father of the late Dodi
Al-Fayed who died together with Diana, Princess of Wales in Paris in 1997, has long been kept under
scrutiny by British intelligence services. Acting on Information from MI-6 (British CIA) the French DST
(Intelligence Service) discovered quantities of Uranium in the possession of one Serge Salfati. Salfati and
other members of the Al-Fayed smuggling ring, Yves Ekwalla and Raymond Lobe have been detained in France and may be charged.
According to the examining magistrate, Al-Fayed may also be charged. Intelligence sources in France and Israel have revealed that evidence in their possession places Al-Fayed as a member of a group of wealthy Arabs living in the United Kingdom who have been engaged in the clandestine funding of Hamas, Al Qaida, and more recently, the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade.
Os investigadores estão a tentar comprovar se Mohamed Al Fayed recebeu um fax do português, residente nos arredores do Porto, emitido em Agosto de 2001 e enviado para um número dos Armazéns Harrod¿s, em Londres, propriedade do milionário egípcio. O jornal refere que agentes policiais estiveram, no início do ano, na casa de Santos Ferreira, onde encontraram o original de um fax escrito em inglês, aparentemente dirigido a Al-Fayed, pai do namorado da princesa Diana, que morreu juntamente com ela num acidente em Paris,31 de Agosto de 1997.
No documento, Ferreira falava da existência de problemas em Paris e pedia explicações. «É preciso que nos vejamos. Estou pronto a ir a Londres. Contacte-me com urgência», cita o jornal parisiense, que não põe de lado a hipótese de se tratar de uma «manipulação».
A pista foi seguida através de um cidadão camaronês, Raymond Lobé, suspeito de pertencer a uma rede de tráfico de urânio, na posse do qual forma encontrados bilhetes de avião com destino a Portugal. As investigações terão finalmente ligado o camaronês a Santos Ferreira.
French Arrest Men With Uranium
New York Times
July 22, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS © 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-France-Nuclear-Smuggling.html
PARIS (AP) -- Police arrested three men in Paris following the discovery of a tiny quantity of enriched uranium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons, according to a news report Sunday.
Police told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper that they had been tracking Serge Salfati, who had recently been released from prison after serving time for fraud. He led them last week to a van that French nuclear authorities determined was emanating radioactivity.
Inside, police found five grams of enriched uranium-235 encased in a glass bulb stored in a lead container, Le Journal reported.
Salfati, who is French, was taken into custody with Yves Ekwella and Raymond Lobe, both from Cameroon. Police said the men were holding the uranium as a sample for a potential buyer.
A spokesman at Paris police headquarters, reached by telephone, said no one was available to comment on the report during the weekend.
Police have opened an inquiry, and a judge has been assigned to the case. France's internal security agency is closely following the affair, the report said.
France's Atomic Energy Commission is studying the sample to find out where it originated. About 22 pounds of the radioactive substance -- about 2,000 times what was found -- would be needed to build a nuclear bomb, according to an engineer with the agency who was quoted in the article.
|
Three more held in UK Arrests Trio questioned at high-security police station Paul Kelso Monday September 24, 2001 © 2002 The Guardian British police were yesterday investigating the possibility that the al-Qaida terrorist network is active in the UK, as anti-terrorist branch officers continued to question three people of Arab extraction arrested at the weekend. The arrests in London and Birmingham, part of the largest security operation in the UK since the Gulf war in 1991, were made following information received from the FBI, which is leading a huge global investigation into the attacks. The suspects were being questioned about whether they had been directly involved in aiding and succouring those who had bombed the World Trade Centre, said the home secretary, David Blunkett. Lotfi Raissi, 27, an Algerian pilot, and his wife Sonia, 25, were arrested at a flat in Colnbrook, Berkshire, near Heathrow airport, in the early hours of Saturday. Mr Raissi's brother Mohammed was arrested in Hounslow, west London, but was released without charge on Saturday afternoon. A fourth man, Abu Imard, 44, a mature student at Aston University in Birmingham, was also arrested. All three suspects were held under the Anti-terrorism Act 2000, and questioned at the high-security Paddington Green police station in central London. Under the act they can be held for up to seven days without charge, providing an order is sought from a magistrate. Yesterday police were granted an order allowing them to detain the suspects until Wednesday. Mr Raissi was on an FBI "watch list" of 200 people sought in connection with the attacks on New York and Washington. Before his arrest Mr Raissi said he was training at a flying school near Heathrow in order to qualify as a commercial pilot in Europe. Before arriving in the UK 18 months ago, he spent some time learning to fly in Arizona. "It's gone crazy. I've heard stories of FBI agents checking many trainee pilots out, here and in America," he said. "I am an airline pilot in Algeria but over here I am just a student. I have been living here nine months now, with my wife, training for my European conversion. "I do have a relative in America who is training as a pilot and he has been interviewed by the FBI just because he is a Muslim." Speaking outside Paddington Green police station, Mr Raissi's uncle Kamal said his nephew was not guilty of any involvement in the terrorist plot. "He has been in the UK for 18 months getting the qual ifications to go with the exams he passed in Arizona. He only had one exam to pass before he became a fully qualified pilot. We are decent people, who have nothing to do with terrorist groups." Sonia Raissi works for Air France on the customer service desk at Heathrow. Mohammed Raissi's wife works for Saudi Arabian airlines. Mr Imard, a father of three, moved to the UK from the US six months ago. Mr Blunkett confirmed yesterday that the activities of individuals involved in the 21 organisations proscribed under the Anti-terrorism Act were being closely monitored and action would be taken if they "step over the line". In continental Europe, meanwhile, police made a number of arrests in connection with the US attacks. French police arrested three men in possession of what investigators believe is uranium-235, a material used in the construction of atomic weapons. The uranium is reported to have been supplied by members of the Russian mafia. Raymond Loeb, Serge Salfati and Yves Ekwella were in possession of air tickets to Kazakhstan at the time of their arrest. Belgian police detained two men and seized bomb-making equipment in raids. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office said 100kg of sulphur and 50 litres of acetone were seized. "It is clear that we have foiled the plans of a European terrorist network, but we do not yet know which objectives were targeted," he said. |
| Headline: | Five Grams HEU Seized in Paris |
| Date: | 23 July 2001 |
| Bibliography: | FBIS Document EUP20010723000399 |
| Author: | Tanguy Berthemet and Michele Bietry |
| Orig. Src.: | Le Figaro (Paris), 23 July 2001 |
| Case: | |
| Material: | HEU |
|
Abstract: © 2002
http://www.nti.org/db/nistraff/2001/20010310.htm
|
|
The billionaire father of Dodi Fayed, who was killed with Princess Diana in a 1997 car crash, has asked a Los Angeles court to order federal authorities to answer his subpoenas.
Mohamed Al Fayed thinks that Henri Paul, the driver who also died in the Paris crash, had ties to British intelligence and that the deaths were a murder conspiracy. He subpoenaed the CIA, FBI and U.S. attorney's office as part of a suit accusing a Beverly Hills lawyer of trying to sell him phony documents for $20 million claiming Diana was assassinated.
His petition, filed Wednesday in federal court, says the agencies' refusal to comply with subpoenas for material he thinks could help his case was "arbitrary and capricious."
CIA spokesman Tom Crispell declined comment Thursday on the petition, but dismissed the suggestion the CIA is withholding information
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/2242431.html