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October 1996, pgs. 30-34 Issues in the News
Compiled by Shawn L. Twing
ARABIAN PENINSULA
Saudi Arabia
Former U.S. Senator Named Ambassador to Saudi Arabia:Former Georgia Senator Wyche Fowler has taken up duties as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, replacing outgoing Ambassador Raymond Mabus. Ambassador Fowler, whose name was submitted to the U.S. Senate on June 10, became a “recess appointee” of the White House after the Senate failed to act on the nomination before its summer recess. The White House issued a statement following the appointment that read, in part: “President Clinton’s decision to name Mr. Fowler to a recess appointment is a reflection of the importance the president attaches to maintaining the closest possible cooperation with Saudi Arabia at a time of particular importance in U.S.-Saudi relations and in the Middle East generally.”
King Fahd Meets With King Hussein:Jordan’s King Hussein met with Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd in Saudi Arabia on Aug. 11 in a continuing effort to mend the rift between the two countries that was created when Jordan publicly supported Iraqi President Saddam Hussain after his 1990 invasion of Kuwait. According to the Jeddah-based Saudi Gazette, Hussein was greeted upon arrival by King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, and other members of the royal family and high-ranking civilian and military officials. Accompanying the Jordanian monarch were his sons Princes Abdullah, Faisal, Ali, Hamza and Hashim, Prime Minister Abdul Karim Al Kabariti, Speaker of Parliament Ahmad Al Laouzi and President of Parliament Saad Hael. King Hussein attended a state dinner hosted by King Fahd that evening and prayed at the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina the following morning before returning to Jordan.
1,200 U.S. Soldiers Assist in Base Move:An additional 1,200 U.S. soldiers—engineers, air traffic controllers and military police—were sent to Saudi Arabia to help the 5,000 U.S. forces stationed there improve base security following the Al Khobar and Saudi National Guard Headquarters bombings that have claimed 24 American lives. Most of the additional U.S. personnel are assisting in the relocation of U.S. forces from bases in Riyadh and Dhahran to Prince Sultan airbase in the desert 80 kilometers south of Riyadh.
Kuwait
U.S. Installations in Kuwait Threatened:U.S. Embassy officials in Kuwait announced on Aug. 7 that they had received a bomb threat against an unspecified U.S. government installation in Kuwait. The threat was relayed to the U.S. Embassy from Kuwait’s As Siyassa newspaper. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said that the United States “was taking further precautions” in addition to a new concrete block perimeter fence being constructed outside the main wall of the U.S. Embassy. U.S. military personnel also extended a perimeter fence at their base north of Kuwait City. The U.S. Embassy also urged Americans in Kuwait to be “vigilant of their personal security and surroundings.”
U.S. Conducts Two Military Exercises in Kuwait:U.S. military forces conducted two late summer training exercises in Kuwait. In August and September 1,200 Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) on board the USS Tarawa deployed in the Gulf conducted a month-long exercise, “Rugged Nautilus 96,” which used aircushioned landing craft to land the Marines around Subbiya, 30 kilometers north of Kuwait City. According to MEU commander Col. John C. Garrett, quoted in Jane’s Defence Weekly, the objective of the exercise was to “demonstrate our capability to project power without any dependence on ports.” On Aug. 10, a four-month exercise began when 1,200 U.S. soldiers were airlifted from Fort McPherson, GA and Fort Hood, TX to Kuwait to participate in “Intrinsic Action 96.” The battalion-sized U.S. force was to train with tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles pre-positioned in Kuwait.
Oman
American Appointed Head of Desalination Plant:An American, Eric R. Jankel, will direct the recently created Middle East Desalination Research Center in Muscat, Oman, according to the UAE English-language daily Khaleej Times. In a message to Jankel, U.S. Vice-President Al Gore said “Everyone involved in making this center a reality is making a real and tangible contribution to the peace process."
United Arab Emirates
UAE Establishes Diplomatic Ties With Kyrghyzestan:The United Arab Emirates and the Central Asian state of Kyrghyzestan agreed on Aug. 1 to establish diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level. In a joint statement issued in the countries’ respective capitals of Abu Dhabi and Bishkek, officials said that the agreement stemmed from a common desire to boost friendship and cooperation. Kyrghyzestan, which gained its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, is the 141st country to establish diplomatic relations with the UAE.
Yemen
Missile Found in Aden Airport:Yemeni security officials discovered a missile pointed at a passenger lounge at the airport of the southern port city of Aden on Aug. 7, and were able to remove it before it was fired. Yemeni officials told the Associated Press that they believed the missile was placed there by members of the exiled National Opposition Front, but they did not specify what type of missile was found or how it was to be fired.
Former Yemeni Imam is Dead:Imam Muhammad Al Badr, Yemen’s last ruler before the overthrow of his dynasty by supporters of a republic, died in London on Aug. 6 at age 73. His grandson, Muhammad Al Hassan, said that the Imam died from severe pneumonia after spending two weeks in an intensive care unit in a London hospital. He was buried in a London cemetery where his mother also was laid to rest years earlier.
FERTILE CRESCENT
Lebanon
UNIFIL Extends Mandate:The United Nations Security Council voted in August to extend the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) until Jan. 31, 1997. U.N. Security Council members also condemned all acts of violence in Lebanon, particularly those against UNIFIL personnel, a clear reference to the April 18 shelling of the U.N. compound in Qana by Israeli artillery which killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians. Shortly after the attack at Qana the United Nations and the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International issued reports suggesting that the Israeli artillery barrage was deliberate. Israel has claimed the attack was accidental.
Syria
Syrian Olympian Brings Home First Syrian Gold:Syrian heptathlete Ghada Shouaa, 23, won Syria’s first-ever gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics on July 29. Shouaa, who beat silver medalist Natasha Sazanovich of Belarus and Britain’s bronze medalist Denise Lewis, is the second Syrian ever to win an Olympic medal. The first was Joseph Atiyeh, who won a silver medal in wrestling in the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles.
U.S. Senator Visits Syria:U.S. Senator and former Republican primary presidential candidate Arlen Specter (R-PA) traveled to Syria for an Aug. 28 meeting with Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad. The meeting, which also was attended by U.S. Ambassador to Syria Christopher Ross and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al Charaa, was intended to jump start Syrian-Israeli negotiations which had been suspended prior to Israeli elections. The participants reportedly discussed regional events and the peace process. After his visit to Syria Specter traveled to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Turkey
Turkey Signs $23 Billion Gas Deal with Iran:Iran and Turkey signed an agreement on Aug. 12 that will supply Turkey with Iranian natural gas well into the 21st century. According to the agreement signed in Tehran by Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan and Iran’s First Vice President Hassan Habibi, Iran will begin supplying 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year in 1999. The amount will increase to 10 billion cubic meters per year in 2005, and will continue until at least 2022. The total value of the export deal, the largest for Tehran to date, is estimated at $23 billion. The agreement came shortly after U.S. President Bill Clinton signed into law controversial legislation that allows the president to penalize non-U.S. companies that invest more than $40 million per year in Iran’s oil and gas industries. Turkish officials have said that their agreement with Iran does not violate the new U.S. legislation because the pipeline to carry Iran’s natural gas will be built by Turkish companies on Turkish soil.
IRAN/IRAQ
Iran
Russia Agrees to Help Iran Build Satellite in Three Years:Iran’s ambassador to Russia, Mehdi Safari, announced on Aug. 27 that Russia has agreed to help Iran build and launch its first satellite in the next three years. In an interview with the daily newspaper Iran, Ambassador Safari said that “Iran and Russia have signed an agreement, according to which the technology to build a satellite will be transferred to Iran in three stages.” Ambassador Safari declined to comment on the nature of the satellite or its purpose. Russia also has supplied Iran with military equipment including three Kilo-class submarines, two of which have been delivered, with a third scheduled for delivery this year, and Russia has agreed, despite substantial U.S. pressure, to help Iran build a 1,000 megawatt, $800 million nuclear power plant near Bushehr.
Iran Sues Siemens Over Uncompleted Nuclear Power Plant:The Iranian government has sued the German company Siemens for $5.4 billion in damages for not completing a nuclear power plant in the port city of Bushehr. Siemens began building the nuclear power facility in 1975, but abandoned the project shortly after the start of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, blamed Germany’s current refusal to complete the project on U.S. pressure.
Rafsanjani Pardons Would-Be Assassin:Iran’s President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani pardoned in August a would-be assassin who fired several shots at him during a speech in February 1994. The would-be assassin, Kurosh Nikakhtar, had been sentenced to death. According to Agence France Presse, Rafsanjani sent a letter to Iran’s Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi saying that he would “forego my personal rights and allow him to continue his life.” The Iranian president justified the pardon by saying that Nikakhtar had “learned from his mistake and expressed remorse.”
Iran, China Conclude $4.5 Billion Arms Deal:Iran confirmed on Sept. 3 that it had agreed to a $4.5 billion arms deal with China for the purchase of military aircraft, armored vehicles, naval vessels, missiles and missile launchers and other armaments. Following an August visit to China by Iran’s Defense Minister Mohammad Foruzandeh, Iranian and Chinese officials admitted that an agreement had been reached for “heavy and light arms,” but specifics were not given. China already has provided Iran with advanced anti-ship cruise missiles and fast naval attack vessels, and is suspected of selling Tehran technological information for producing medium- and long-range ballistic missiles. Details about the recently signed defense agreement have not been given by either country.
Iraq
Iraqi Olympian Defects to the United States:Iraqi Olympic weightlifter Raed Ahmed fled Atlanta’s Olympic Village on July 31 and shortly after applied to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service for political asylum. Ahmed, who finished 23rd in the 218-pound weightlifting class, arranged the defection with local members of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a London-based Iraqi opposition organization. According to interviews published in The New York Times and elsewhere, Ahmed, with the help of Iraqi National Congress members in London and Iraq, arranged for his wife to be taken from Basra to safety in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. After he was assured that his wife was safe, the Iraqi weightlifter and Olympic flagbearer waited until Iraqi security personnel accompanying the Iraqi delegation to the Olympics were distracted and ran to a waiting car where he was spirited off to a safehouse outside Atlanta by INC members. Explaining his actions to The New York Times, Ahmed said “I love my country. I just don’t like the regime.”
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Israel
Arrow-2 Scores Successful Hit:Israel’s Arrow-2 anti-tactical ballistic missile apparently destroyed a target missile over the Mediterranean during an Aug. 20 test of the program under simulated battlefield conditions. According to U.S. and Israeli reports, the Arrow-2 intercepted a “Scud-like” target and destroyed it approximately 50 seconds into the test flight. The Arrow-2 program, the continuation of the original Arrow program, is a joint U.S.-Israeli program funded almost exclusively by the United States. Although the Pentagon has stated publicly that it will not buy the Arrow anti-missile system, U.S. taxpayers have invested more than $650 million in the project so far, with promises of more than $700 million more through fiscal year 2001 for a total of $1.3 billion (for a complete analysis of the Arrow missile and U.S. financial contributions to it, see the October/November 1995 issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, p. 12).
Yigal Amir Fan Club Discovered:Three teenage Israeli girls sparked a furor in Israel when it was discovered that they had established a Yigal Amir fan club to honor the convicted assassin of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The three girls, all aged 17 and students at a religious high school in Kiryat Gat, explained on Israeli television that they were attracted to Amir’s “cute smile” and that they regarded him as a “national hero” for his assassination of Rabin. They said that they and other unnamed members of the club attended Amir’s trial and kept scrapbooks with photos and newspaper clippings related to it. After the existence of the fan club was revealed, Israel’s Education Ministry insisted that it was an isolated incident. Other organizations in Israel, however, argued that it was indicative of intolerance taught in Israel’s religious institutions. The three girls later sent a letter of apology to Leah Rabin, widow of the late Israeli prime minister.
Israel and Canada Sign Free-Trade Agreement:Israel and Canada signed a free-trade agreement in August that will eliminate tariffs on most industrial items traded between the two countries as well as reducing or removing duties on agricultural goods exchanged. According to the Jerusalem Post, the agreement was signed in Toronto by Israel’s Minister of Industry and Trade Natan Sharansky and Canada’s Minister for International Trade Arthur Eggleton. Other countries with similar agreements with Israel include the United States and members of the European Union.
Netanyahu Forced to Abandon U.S.-Style National Security Council:Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave up requests for a national security council modeled after that of the United States after facing substantial obstacles to his plan, not the least of which came from his Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai. Instead of a security council, Netanyahu settled for the appointment of former General Avraham Tamir, who will serve as a “strategic adviser” to the prime minister. Tamir, 70, has worked for and is a close personal friend of former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. According to the Jerusalem Post, Tamir also is rumored to have met with PNA President Yasser Arafat in the 1980s, and with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz. Tamir also was in charge of security arrangements following the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai under the Camp David accords. The prime minister’s new adviser reportedly will concentrate on security talks with Syria and Lebanon.
B’Tselem Urges Arrest of Former Shin Bet Official:The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem urged human rights groups in foreign countries to find and arrest former Shin Bet officer Ehud Yatom, who admitted publicly in Israel’s Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot that he crushed the skulls of two Palestinian captured bus hijackers with a stone. Yatom, the brother of current Mossad chief Danny Yatom, told the Israeli newspaper that 12 years ago he killed Subhi and Majdi Abu-Jamya at the request of then-Shin Bet head Avraham Shalom, after they were forcibly taken from a hijacked bus and pistol-whipped and beaten by Israeli security officials. Israeli authorities originally claimed that the two hijackers were killed when Israeli police stormed the bus to overpower the hijackers, but videotaped footage of the hijackers being led away alive from the bus forced Israeli officials to admit that the two were killed while in Israeli custody. Because those involved, including Ehud Yatom, were later pardoned, they cannot be tried for the crime in Israel. Ehud Yatom’s whereabouts are unknown, but B’Tselem encouraged anyone who finds him in a foreign country to bring him to justice, which the Israeli human rights group argues cannot happen in Israel.
Interior Ministry Plans to Expand Jerusalem’s Borders:Israel’s Interior Ministry is planning on expanding Jerusalem’s borders to include Jewish enclaves in Israel proper, as well as illegal settlements in the West Bank. According to the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv, Interior Ministry officials met with residents of these areas, including the sprawling Ma’ale Adumim settlement, in order to finalize the plan to expand the city. According to international law, Israel’s unilateral annexation of Jerusalem as its “eternal and undivided capital” is baseless. Based on international agreements past, present and pending under the Oslo accords, Jerusalem is an international city whose final status is to be negotiated between its Jewish and Arab residents. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, argue that Jerusalem will remain completely in Israeli control indefinitely.
Palestine
PLO Official Says Iran Plotting to Kill Arafat:Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee member Mahmoud Abbas told the Arabic-language daily Al Sharq Al Awsat on Aug. 22 that Iran is plotting to overthrow the interim government in Palestine through surrogate militant Palestinian groups in the West Bank and Gaza. During the interview, Abbas told the newspaper that militant Palestinian group members had attended a recent terrorist summit in Tehran where they were instructed to plan and conduct “military operations and assassinations aimed at the Palestinian Authority and its symbols with the aim of overthrowing it.” The senior PLO official, one of the chief Palestinian architects of the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, declined to give the source of the information or to cite a specific assassination threat.
Palestinians Hold General Strike:In response to an Aug. 28 request by PNA President Yasser Arafat, a general strike was held throughout the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza on Aug. 30 to protest Israel’s demolition of a Palestinian building in Jerusalem and the Israeli government’s decision to allow some 900 more settlements in the occupied territories. Reminiscent of the days of the intifada, an estimated 8,000 Palestinians gathered to attend prayers in Jerusalem at the Haram Al Sharif, Islam’s third holiest site. During a Palestinian Council meeting in Ramallah, Arafat urged all Arabs in Israel and in the territories as well as all Muslims, Christians and Jews who support peace to gather in Jerusalem’s Old City despite the Israeli closure of the West Bank and Gaza. The primary impetus for the strike, the first called by Arafat since the signing of the Declaration of Principles in 1993, was the early morning bulldozing of a Palestinian building in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Although the building was destroyed because it did not have a proper building permit, it is widely known that Israel routinely and systematically denies building permits in Jerusalem and elsewhere to Palestinians in a self-proclaimed effort to “Judaize” the city. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted to Arafat’s call for a strike by saying that it was an effort at escalating violence that would damage the peace process.
Arafat Meets Shimon Peres After Lengthy Delay:PNA President Yasser Arafat met with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres at the Erez border crossing in Gaza on Aug. 22 to buttress support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Palestinian-Israeli relations reached a crisis point early in the day when Israeli authorities initially refused to allow Arafat to fly over Israeli territory in his helicopter from Ramallah to the Erez crossing to meet Peres. After a three-hour delay, Israel finally allowed the flight. During the one-and-a-half-hour meeting, Peres reportedly told newsmen that he “did not come here to attack the Israeli government,” but that he has “obligations as a former Israeli foreign minister and prime minister.” Among the obligations, Peres said, was the need to ensure that Israel fulfills “all the commitments that we have taken” with the peace process and the Palestinian people. PNA President Arafat reportedly said that he was “very proud to see an old friend and partner with whom we made peace.” According to Reuters news service, Netanyahu senior adviser David Bar-Ilan reacted to the meeting by saying he thought it was “ill-advised” and that it “bordered on the irresponsible.” Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier had accused Peres of “sticking spokes in the wheels of peace” by meeting with Arab leaders while a member of the opposition.
NILE VALLEY
Egypt
Egypt, IMF Sign Debt Agreement:Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced on Aug. 3 that Egypt had reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that will cancel the remaining $4 billion owed to the Paris Club consortium of international lenders. Egypt began an IMF-sponsored economic liberalization program in 1991 and has taken several measures since then to improve its lagging economy. Paul Chabrier, the head of the IMF’s Middle East division, also told Egypt’s Al Ahram newspaper that there was “an imminent agreement…between the IMF and Egypt” that would take place formally within the next two months.
Arab League Pressures Israel to Sign Non-Proliferation Treaty:Arab officials meeting in Cairo Aug. 21 called on Arab countries not to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention if Israel continues to refuse to sign and adhere to the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Representatives from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates attended the meeting to discuss the potential threat resulting from Israel’s undeclared but publicly known nuclear weapons program that analysts suggest has produced as many as 300 nuclear warheads. The eight officials were to present their findings at a Sept. 14 ministerial meeting of the Arab League.
Egyptian Court Upholds Divorce Sentence of “Apostate”:An Egyptian court upheld a controversial ruling calling for the divorce of an Egyptian professor and his wife because the man allegedly is an apostate from Islam. On Aug. 5, a Cairo appeals court upheld the June 14, 1995 decision of a lower court that called for the divorce of Cairo University professor Nasser Hamed Abu Zaid and his wife, Ibtihal Mohamad Yunes, because of his modernist interpretations of Islam. The original court decision divorced the couple, both of whom say they are happily married, at the request of an Islamist who brought the case to the court. According to the ruling, the plaintiff can ask for the couple to be divorced forcibly, or a moral case can be brought against the woman for living with a man to whom she is not married. The couple currently are living and teaching in the Netherlands and with their lawyer are planning to appeal the court’s decision. Egyptian human rights groups have called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to overturn the case because they say it only strengthens the Islamists’ hold on Egyptian public and private life. Also, there is speculation that Egypt’s prosecutor-general can rescind the decision based on legislation adopted earlier this year which prevents legal action from being taken by someone not directly involved in a case. Prof. Abu Zaid, an Islamic scholar who has memorized the Qur’an, rejects the charges of apostasy.
Sudan
Sudan Masses Troops on Border With Eritrea:Reacting to cross-border attacks by a newly created opposition organization, Sudanese officials announced on Aug. 3 that Sudan was mobilizing its military forces along the border with Eritrea. The organization, called the National Democratic Alliance, had killed two Sudanese soldiers in the border region prior to the mobilization order and has vowed to overthrow the government of Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir. Sudanese-Eritrean relations took a downturn after Khartoum and Asmara exchanged accusations that they were harboring opposition groups trying to topple each other’s governments.
NORTH AFRICA
Libya
Airstrikes Against Libyan Rebels:Libyan air force attack aircraft reportedly bombed the hideouts of suspected members of Islamic opposition organizations hiding in the mountains of the Jebel Akhdar region around Dirnah, a coastal city approximately 260 kilometers west of the Egyptian border. According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, sources in Libya and in Cairo said the attacks were under cover of a live-fire training exercise and were held in conjunction with an increased troop presence in the region. Libya denies the existence of any Islamic opposition and has said publicly that its operations are aimed against drug smugglers in and around Jebel Akhdar. Estimates based on opposition reports and from travelers coming from the area suggest that some 600 government soldiers and opposition fighters have been killed in the past year and an additional 800 wounded.
SUBCONTINENT
Afghanistan
U.S. Senator Offers U.S. Support For Afghanistan:U.S. Senator Hank Brown (R-CO) made his second trip to Afghanistan this year, meeting with high-level government officials and with members of the Taleban militia, an opposition army that has besieged the country’s capital for the past year in an effort to topple the government. Senator Brown began his trip by meeting with Taleban representatives in their stronghold in the southern city of Kandahar. He later traveled to Kabul, where he met with Afghanistan’s President Burhanuddin Rabbani and military commander Ahmed Shah Masoud. He did not, however, meet with the former opposition leader turned prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who greeted the Republican senator’s arrival by saying that “the United States supports terrorism,” and that America is “starting a conspiracy against the Islamic world” because of recently signed U.S. legislation that punishes Iran and Libya for their alleged sponsorship of international terrorism.
Russian Hostages Escape From Taleban Captors:Seven Russian airmen escaped from their Taleban militia captors to the United Arab Emirates in August when they tricked their guards into letting them on board to start the engines of their Ilyushin-76 cargo plane. The seven hostages had been held captive since July 1995, when they were forced to land their weapons-laden aircraft en route to Afghanistan’s besieged capital. All seven denied any knowledge of the cargo contents, but their Taleban captors detained them for interrogation in their southern stronghold of Kandahar. Six Taleban militiamen were arrested for negligence in connection with the escape.
Pakistan
American Citizens in Pakistan Warned:The United States Department of State issued a warning to U.S. citizens in Pakistan on Aug. 15 saying it had learned that terrorists in Pakistan were planning to attack U.S. citizens or installations. The State Department statement encouraged U.S. citizens to be watchful of surveillance, to vary their day-to-day routines, and to be cautious when dealing with out-of-the-ordinary incidents. The Sept. 5 conviction in New York of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and two others on charges of attempting to bomb U.S. commercial aircraft in the Far East, also added to the alert. Yousef, who also is suspected as the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing in New York, was arrested in Pakistan. Raised in Kuwait as the son of a Pakistani father and Palestinian mother, he has told authorities he is “Pakistani by birth and Palestinian by choice.”
UNITED STATES
Pentagon Admits U.S. Troop Exposure to Chemical
Weapons
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