§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information his Department has collated concerning links between Saddam Hussein's regime and Mansour Thaer; and if he will make a statement. [76021]
§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with other departments following the attempted attack on the British High Commission in Jakarta in December 2001 concerning placing Jamaah Islamiyah on the UK list of proscribed terrorist organisations. [76025]
§ Mr. StrawAs my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister told the House on 15 October(Official Report column 177ߝ9), we are urgently considering the proscription of Jemaah Islamiya. Decisions to proscribe are taken by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary after consideration of all relevant aspects.
§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment his Department made of the threat posed by Jamaah Islamiyah(a) following the Singapore authorities naming it as responsible for the attempted attack on the British High Commission in Jakarta in December 2001 and (b) following the terrorist attack on Bali on 12 October. [76023]
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§ Mr. StrawAs my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister told the House on 15 October (Official Report, column 177–9), we identified the South East Asian region as an area with a real threat from groups linked to Al Qaida even before 11 September 2001. One of the most prominent of these is Jemaah Islamiyah, which has a network stretching across a number of countries in the region.
The discovery of the plot to attack targets in Singapore last December confirmed the seriousness of the threat from this group. It is too early to know whom was responsible for the Bali atrocity, but Jemaah Islamiyah must be one of the groups under most suspicion. We are therefore urgently considering proscribing them under the Terrorism Act 2000.
§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information his Department has collated concerning the court procedures against Mansour Thaer in Germany and Italy; what evidence he has collated concerning links between Thaer and terrorist organisations; and if he will make a statement. [76020]
§ Mr. StrawMansour Thaer was arrested on 23 April 2002 in Germany and held on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist group. He was being investigated on suspicion of connections to the Abu-Ali group (linked to 11.9.) and the Meliani Case (the Frankfurt cell linked to the Strasbourg bomb plot). He was released on 6 August. Thaer has also been investigated in Italy for his links with a terrorist cell and for participation in a criminal conspiracy to traffic in arms, explosives, chemical weapons, identity papers, receiving stolen goods and aiding illegal immigration. According to the Italian authorities he is a member of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), an Algerian-based group operating in North Africa and Italy. The UN added GSPC to the list of terrorist groups linked to al Qaeda on 8 October.
§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the statement by the Australian Prime Minister on 16 October that Australia's Foreign Affairs Department received United States intelligence reports in September 2002 which mentioned Bali as a place at risk from a terrorist attack; when his Department received these reports; what that information consisted of; what action his Department took in response to this information; and if he will make a statement. [76024]
§ Mr. StrawI refer the right hon. Member to my statement to the House on 21 October,Official Report, columns 26ߝ27.