New US aviation security fee from Feb 1

WASHINGTON: Air travelers in the United States will on February 1 start paying up to $10 extra on a round-trip ticket to help cover the cost of added security, the US Department of Transportation said on Monday. Carriers with aircraft departing from US airports will be responsible for collecting $2.50 per travel segment, up to $5 on a one-way ticket, from travelers February 1 to help pay for passenger and baggage screeners, security managers and law enforcement personnel at airports and other security steps.

In November, President George W Bush signed into law a measure that would make screeners of passengers and baggage federal workers within one year, require 100 per cent screening of bags and deploy explosive detection systems all at a cost of about $2.5 billion-$2.6 billion.

Security at US airports have been under the microscope and heavily criticised since September 11, when four airliners were hijacked by men carrying box-cutter knives. Two of the aircraft toppled the World Trade Centre towers, a third hit the Pentagon and the fourth crashed in a field, leading to the death of more than 3,000 in all. “Both the (Bush) administration and Congress are committed to making significant improvements in aviation security,” US transportation secretary Norman Mineta said in a statement. “The funds raised through this September 11 security fee will be used to implement new aviation security measures to help achieve this important goal.”
About $900 million would be raised in fiscal 2002, the DOT said.

Al Qaeda computer found, says WSJ
NEW YORK: Two Al Qaeda computers containing hundreds of documents and files, including plans to launch a chemical and biological weapons programme, have been found in Kabul, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. A Wall Street Journal reporter bought the computers for $1,100, the report said.

obtaining text and video files dating back to early 1997, the IBM desktop computer was used by the leadership of al Qaeda, the militant organisation led by Osama bin Laden, to co-ordinate secret operations around the world, the newspaper said. According to the computer’s internal records, it was also used last May to type a letter to anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, the newspaper said.

Written in what the Journal described as “clumsy French in the name of an obscure London-based Islamic information agency,” the letter requests an interview with Massoud for a television report on Afghanistan. Massoud was killed September 9 by two French-speaking Arabs posing as journalists.

The Wall Street Journal said the computer was apparently recovered by a looter who found it and a Compaq laptop in an office used by al Qaeda in Kabul. US officials have confirmed the authenticity of the video files and text documents, many of which are protected by passwords, the newspaper reported. The computer contains correspondence with militant Muslims around the world, while files discuss subjects ranging from fund-raising to efforts to create a chemical and biological weapons programme, dubbed al Zabadi, or curdled milk, the Wall Street Journal said. Also found was a letter written by someone using the name Abu Yaser which states that “hitting the Americans and the Jews is a target of great value and has its rewards in this life and, God willing, the afterlife.”

The files apparently do not outline the plotting of September 11 or show any clear plans for additional attacks, the newspaper said.

— Reuters