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| Arabia |
| Ex-Kuwaiti security chief sez 2 MPs are al-Qaeda members |
| 2005-09-08 |
| So by my count we now have at least 1 Bahrain royal, 2 Qatari princelings (including the interior minister!), 2 Kuwaitis MPs ... and we're supposed to believe that there's no ties whatsoever between al-Qaeda and any of the 6,000 or so Soddy princes? The former head of the Kuwaiti security services, Mashaal Jarrah, has caused controversy in the tiny emirate with claims this week that two lawmakers are members of al-Qaeda. Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyasa reports that other members of parliament have avoided commenting on the statements Jarrah made to the US-funded Arab language TV station Al-Hurra. He made the claims during the Majlis programme, stating that the al-Qaeda terror network had managed to infiltrate two of its members onto the parliamentary benches. Jarrah went on to denounce the presence of mosques in the emirate which are not controlled by the Kuwaiti authorities, and which he says are run by imams close to the terror network. It is the first time a senior security official has made such serious revelations about the presence of al-Qaeda within Kuwaiti institutions. However, he exonerated the Muslim Brotherhood movement and the local Salafists from accusations that they were involved in terrorism. The parliament is made up of 50 elected MPs, of whom 21 are Islamists. Despite tough opposition from the Islamist bloc, in May the parliament approved a new law giving women the right to vote and run in municipal and parliamentary elections. The approval came too late for them to participate in the municipal elections in June, but several women have already declared their intention to run in the 2007 parliamentary elections. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |