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news
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Bomb
in Iraqi Kurdistan kills boy, 4, wounds two others: police
Bahceli: Barzani's Statement Is Unacceptable How Kurdistan's first suicide bomber changed his mind Interrogations link Al Qaeda to Iraq Two hundred Iraqi Kurdish immigrants land in southern Italy Turkey, Iraqi Kurdish Tensions High Jalal Talabani Interview with Asharq Al-Awsat Iraqi Kurd Fighters Seen More Organized Iranian troops deployed on Iraqi border: Kurds Saddam's son says Iran not al-Qaeda behind Kurdistan Islamist group KDP Slams Berlin Embassy Seizure as "Terrorism" Barham Salih: The Radical group Ansar al-Islam Plans Attacks Talabani Wants US Date for Post-Saddam Poll U.S. Monitors Kurdish Extremists raq orders banks to be opened in Kurdistan Saddam will not stop me being a Kurd
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Kurd Extremist Makes Offer to U.S. Associated Press By NILS MYKLEBOST
OSLO, Norway -- The
leader of a Kurdish extremist group with suspected ties to al-Qaida is willing
to talk to U.S. investigators, his lawyer said in a letter to the U.S. Embassy
in Norway.
Lawyer Arvid Sjoedin said in the letter sent Friday that his client Mullah Najm al-Din Faraj Ahmad, who is being detained in the Netherlands, wants the talks to be held in Norway, where he was given refugee status in 1991. Ahmad, also known as Mullah Krekar, was arrested by Dutch police at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport last week on his way to Norway. His family still lives in Norway, but that country revoked his residency permit and informed him that he would not be admitted there following his arrest. "He is willing to be questioned by American authorities. His condition to be questioned is that an interrogation take place in Norway, with the guarantees for judicial security that that would entail," Sjoedin said in the letter obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday. Ahmad is the head of Ansar al-Islam, or Supporters of Islam, an anti-American group of several hundred fighters based in Kurdish areas in northern Iraq. Washington claims Ahmad has links to Osama bin Laden and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but says it has no proof. The group's fighters are also believed to have trained with al-Qaida and U.S. officials suspect it of helping hide al-Qaida members fleeing Afghanistan. He is being held at a Dutch high-security prison, where he is fighting extradition to Jordan on charges of heroin smuggling. A Dutch court on Thursday extended his detention for another 20 days. "We sent this letter because we believe that the United States is behind the Jordanian extradition request. Therefore we think it is just as well to meet in Norway under secure conditions," Sjoedin said by telephone. Sjoedin said he hadn't received a response from U.S. officials. Erik Holm-Olsen, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, declined to comment Saturday. The U.S. government has said it is interested in questioning Ahmad, and Attorney General John Ashcroft discussed the matter with his Dutch counterpart Piet Hein Donner in Denmark last week.
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