Didn't somebody do that a year or two ago? Or was that Fiji? But, boy, those South Sea island babes would make it worthwhile| Submit your comments on this article |
| Terror Networks |
| Tonga again linked to al-Qaeda |
| 2003-01-02 |
| IN a persisting diplomatic nightmare, the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga has again been linked to the world's most wanted outlaw, Osama bin Laden, observers say. The nation of just 109,000 people has acquired notoreity for get-rich-quick-schemes but this time Nuku'alofa, the capital, runs the risk of incurring Washington's wrath. The Washington Post newspaper this week quoted US intelligence officials as saying bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network was moving operatives around the Mediterranean on a shipping fleet flagged in Tonga. The Post said US intelligence officials had identified about 15 cargo freighters around the world that they believed were controlled by al-Qaeda or could be used by the terror network to ferry operatives, bombs, money or commodities over the high seas. Tonga's role goes back to 2000 and the arrival in Nuku'alofa of Peli Papadopoulos, who said he represented Axion Services Ltd in Piraeus, Greece. He persuaded authorities to allow him to run Tonga International Registry of Ships (TIRS) out of Athens. In a country turned into a laughing stock when the Californian court jester lost the kingdom's 50 million pa'anga ($35 million), around 40 per cent of the government's annual revenue, on an Arizona re-insurance scheme, the flag operation unsurprisingly turned sour. In January last year Israeli commandos seized Karine A, a Tongan flagged ship, in the Red Sea and found it was carrying 50 tonnes of mainly Iranian weapons allegedly meant to be given to the Palestinians. Tongan Police Minister Clive Edwards said then that police were investigating what happened. Last February, eight Pakistani men jumped off Tongan ship Twillinger, at the Italian port of Trieste after a trip from Cairo. The Post said US officials have since determined that al-Qaeda had sent the men. In June last year a Tongan government statement said TIRS was to be closed down. "International terrorism and an increase in people smuggling and asylum seekers were clearly key factors. Even our own region has felt the impact of these problems." Fielakepa said the government did not want Tonga's image to be further hurt by events beyond its control. In September Italian authorities intercepted another Tongan ship, Sara. They claimed it landed 15 Pakistani nationals, said to belong to al-Qaeda. In October Croatian police seized the Tongan registered ship Boka Star that they claimed was smuggling military explosives to Iraq. Just prior to that, Edwards told the Tongan parliament that police were trying to close down the registry and added that Tonga had not only not made any money on the deal, but that it had lost $US300,000 ($530,000) in the scheme. Not only greedy, but stupid as well. Humm, now if I was looking for a nice small country to overthrow.............. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 !Didn't somebody do that a year or two ago? Or was that Fiji? But, boy, those South Sea island babes would make it worthwhile |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-01-02 22:52:23 |