ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2011

7MIDEAST

Drone crash unmasks US spying in IranISIS says explosion near Isfahan, not a nuclear site

WA S H I N G T O N ,Dec 10, (RTRS): Thecrash of a CIA dronein Iran has broughtinto the open whatUS intelligence agen-cies would preferkept secret: intensespying efforts in acountry where theUnited States has noofficial presence.

Iran on Thursday airedwith great flourishfootage of the captureddrone, which appearedlargely intact. Pentagonand CIA spokesmenwould not comment onwhether it was the miss-ing US RQ-170 Sentinelunmanned aircraft.

A person familiar with thesituation confirmed that thedrone that crashed was on asurveillance mission overIran.

It is believed to havecrashed because of a mal-function and not from beingshot down or computer-hacked by the Iranians, a USofficial said on condition ofanonymity.

Although there are risksthat Iran could attempt toreverse engineer the tech-nology, or sell it to othercountries, like China, USofficials believe that Iranwill not be able to mine thedrone’s computer systems to

learn details of the US sur-veillance mission.

US surveillance of Iranthrough various means hasbeen going on for years, USofficials and others withdirect knowledge of the situ-

ation say.A private US defense

expert, who spoke on con-dition of anonymity, saidthat when he visited thecommand center at a USmilitary base in the Gulf

region in 2008, it was clearthat the installation wasreceiving multiple feeds ofelectronic surveillanceinformation from insideIran.

Some of the information

appeared to be transmittedfrom high-altitude aircraftand some from electronicsensors which the UnitedStates had somehowinstalled on the ground inIran, the expert said.

The United States has noofficial presence in Iran so itis difficult to determineexactly what is going oninside its borders. Onerecent incident has yet to befully unraveled.

On Nov 28, there werecontradictory reports out ofIran on whether an explo-sion had occurred in the cityof Isfahan, which is alsohome to a major nuclearsite.

David Albright, presidentof the Institute for Scienceand International Security,said he has been studyingimagery of that area and nodamage was detected at theIsfahan nuclear site. But, hesaid, “it is credible there wasan explosion, but not at thenuclear site.”

He said it was puzzlingthat Iranians clearly saidan explosion at a missiledepot two weeks earlierhad been an accident, butdid not provide similarclarity about Isfahan.“We’re trying to figure outwhat actually happened,”he said.

“Explosions are happen-ing in Iran, and Iran is notmaking a big deal out ofthem. They are either callingthem accidents or sayingthey didn’t happen, andtherefore when these thingscontinue to happen it couldbe because intelligenceagencies are actually nowplaying sabotage,” Albrightsaid.

Iraqis shop at Shorja market in Baghdad on Dec 10. The withdrawal of US troops from Iraq more than eight years afterthe invasion leaves a country grappling with political deadlock and vulnerable to regional inteference and a domestic

insurgency. (AFP)

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Ramadan al-Zaalan, 12, during his funeral in Gaza City on Dec 10.Zaalan was killed with his father Bahjat in an Israeli air

strike on a civilain house in Gaza, medics said. (AFP)See Page 9

Secularists reassured

‘No Islamic dresscode for women’RABAT, Dec 10, (RTRS): The man set to becomeMorocco’s first Islamist prime minister said onFriday his government would not try to make womendress more modestly.

Abdelilah Benkirane is to lead a coalition govern-ment after his Justice and Development Party (PJD)became the latest Islamist movement in the MiddleEast to win an election in the wake of the “ArabSpring” revolutions.

The party is anxious to reassure powerful secularistsin the Moroccan establishment, foreign investors, andthe tourists who provide much of the country’s revenue,that it will not try to impose a strict Muslim moral code.

“We are proud that our point of reference isIslamist,” Benkirane, the PJD’s secretary general andprime minister designate, told a small group ofreporters invited to a briefing.

“I will never be interested in the private life of peo-ple, Allah created mankind free. I will never ask if awoman is wearing a short skirt or a long skirt.”

“But there are things forbidden by the law. I thinkeven in some European countries, people cannot benaked in public places,” he said.

On relations with countries in Europe, Morocco’sbiggest trading partner, Benkirane said: “They areour friends and we need them and they will need us... Morocco not only has historical ties to Europe butphilosophical ones.”

ConcertThe most high profile test of Moroccan Islamists’

stance on moral issues came last year, when PJDpoliticians said they were opposed to gay singerElton John giving a concert in the country. He wentahead and performed anyway.

Benkirane declined to answer questions on whateconomic policies his government would pursue.Economists say Morocco needs to tame its budgetdeficit, stimulate growth and tackle the poverty andunemployment that are fuelling unrest.

Morocco’s monarch, who has the final say on allissues of defence, national security and religion, thisweek named a bitter opponent of the PJD, Fouad Aliel-Himma as a royal adviser.

That appointment could signal an attempt by thepalace to rein in the Islamist-led coalition.

Asked about el-Himma, Benkirane said it was cus-tomary in Morocco not to comment on decisionsmade by the monarch.

“I am forming the new government in a countrywhose head of state is King Mohamed VI, he is myboss. It is not my business how the head of state, whois my boss, manages his royal court,” said Benkirane.

News in Brief

Chemical weapons use denied: The Turkish mili-tary denied on Thursday it was using chemical weapons inits fight against the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)and said it did not even possess such arms.

“There have been no chemical weapons or ammunitionregistered in the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces,”said the General Staff, which presides over the armedforces, according to the Anatolia news agency.

“The fight against the separatist terrorist organisationcontinues in compliance with national and universal rulesof law,” it added.

The military was responding to claims published in somemedia at home and abroad that the army was using chemi-cal weapons in its operations against Kurdish rebels.

The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP)also accused the army several times of using such weapons.

The claims are “baseless, biased and aimed at slanderingthe Turkish armed forces,” the General Staff said.

Listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much ofthe international community, the PKK took up arms forKurdish independence in southeastern Turkey in 1984,sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.(AFP)