Author: AP
Publication: The Washington Times
Date: May 21, 2003
URL: http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20030521-110827-4712r.htm
Norwegians, proud of their role
as a global peacemaker, were puzzled and concerned yesterday that a leading
al Qaeda member singled out their country in a terrorist threat.
The Arab television station Al Jazeera
aired an audiotape purportedly by Ayman al-Zawahri, the top lieutenant
of Osama bin Laden, urging renewed attacks on the United States, Britain
and Australia, which participated in the war against Iraq.
But the inclusion of the Scandinavian
nation in his warning drew questions.
Norway didn't support the war in
Iraq but sent troops and fighter planes to help oust al Qaeda and the Taliban
forces from Afghanistan.
"We were surprised," Norwegian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik said, adding that experts were racing
to try to figure out why al Qaeda would want to threaten Norway.
He said Norwegian interests, including
embassies in the Middle East, were advised of the threat.
Brynjar Lia, a terrorism expert
with the government's Norwegian Defense Research Establishment in the capital,
Oslo, said there were plenty of reasons for radical Muslims to hate Norway
as an oil-rich, highly developed and overwhelmingly Lutheran kingdom in
the north.
"But the [al Qaeda] list of enemy
states is getting to be very long and I would think Norway would be very
far down the list," he said.
Others said al-Zawahri may have
confused Norway with neighboring Denmark, which supported the U.S.-led
war on Iraq by sending a submarine and escort ship.
NATO-member Norway has played pivotal
roles in helping settle world conflicts and is the home of the Nobel Peace
Prize.
Mr. Lia said that Oslo, site of
key Israel- Palestinian negotiations, also symbolized the Mideast peace
process that some want to stop. Norway secretly brokered a 1993 accord
and has been involved in trying to find a lasting peace there.
Norway also chaired the U.N. Security
Council's sanctions committee on Iraq until last year, and is investigating
Mullah Krekar, a refugee in Norway who led the Kurdish Islamic military
group Ansar al-Islam, suspected of having ties to al Qaeda.
Mullah Krekar's attorney, Brynjar
Meling, said his client has no ties to the terror group and has no idea
why it would threaten Norway.
