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Home Front: WoT

Death penalty trial date for men accused of planning 9/11 is finally set

2019-09-01

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

mastermind of the 9/11 attacks for Al Qaeda, he is also indicted an outstanding terror indictment for the unsuccessful Bojinka plot to simultaneously take down multiple airliners over the Pacific Ocean in the 1990s...

and four other accomplices charged with plotting attacks that killed 2,976 people will be held at Guantanamo Bay in January 2021.

Colonel W. Shane Cohen of the Air Force announced on Friday that the trial is set for January 11, 2021

The case will take place at Camp Justice at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba

Date announcement was included in a 10-page trial scheduling order that also said that prosecutors had until October 1 to get material to defense teams

Cohen's announcement marks the first time that a trial judge in the case actually established a date

Prosecutors had tried to get the ball rolling with two previous judges after the 2012 arraignment of the five men

The other men also charged include: Walid bin Attash,

...also Waleed bin Attash, a Yemeni who allegedly ran an al-Qaeda training camp in Logar, Afghanistan, where two of the 19 hijackers were trained. Bin Attash is believed to have been bin Laden's bodyguard. Authorities say bin Laden selected him as a hijacker, but he was prevented from participating when he was briefly detained in Yemen in early 2001...

Ramzi bin al-Shibh,

...also Ramzi Binalshibh, the unhandsome Yemeni who allegedly helped find flight schools for the hijackers, helped them enter the United States, and assisted with financing the operation. He allegedly was selected to be a hijacker and made a "martyr video" in preparation for the operation, but was unable to get a U.S. visa. He also is believed to be a lead operative for a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's Heathrow Airport.

Ammar al-Baluchi

...born in Pakistan and reared in Kuwait, KSM’s nephew is also known as Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali. He allegedly helped nine of the hijackers travel to the United States and sent them $120,000 for expenses and flight training. He is believed to have served as a key lieutenant to Mohammed in Pakistan...

and Mustafa al-Hawsawi

...also Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi who allegedly helped the hijackers with money, western clothing, traveler's checks and credit cards. Al-Hawsawi testified in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, saying he had seen Moussaoui at an al-Qaeda guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in early 2001, but somehow was never introduced to him or conducted operations with him...

Link

Terror Networks

Book of the Day: Marc Thiessen, 'Courting Disaster'

2017-06-17

Courting Disaster - Here is an excerpt:

Just before dawn on March 1, 2003, two dozen heavily armed Pakistani tactical assault forces move in and surround a safe house in Rawalpindi. A few hours earlier they had received a text message from an informant inside the house. It read: "I am with KSM."

Bursting in, they find the disheveled mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in his bedroom. He is taken into custody. In the safe house, they find a treasure trove of computers, documents, cell phones and other valuable "pocket litter."

Once in custody, KSM is defiant. He refuses to answer questions,informing his captors that he will tell them everything when he gets to America and sees his lawyer. But KSM is not taken to America to see a lawyer Instead he is taken to a secret CIA "black site" in an undisclosed location.

Upon arrival, KSM finds himself in the complete control of Americans. He does not know where he is, how long he will be there, or what his fate will be. Despite his circumstances, KSM still refuses to talk. He spews contempt at his interrogators, telling them Americans are weak, lack resilience, and are unable to do what is necessary to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their goals. He has trained to resist interrogation. When he is asked for information about future attacks, he tells his questioners scornfully: "Soon, you will know."

It becomes clear he will not reveal the information using traditional interrogation techniques. So he undergoes a series of "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved for use only on the most high-value detainees. The techniques include waterboarding. He begins telling his CIA de-briefers about active al Qaeda plots to launch attacks against the United States and other Western targets. He holds classes for CIA officials, using a chalkboard to draw a picture of al Qaeda's operating structure, financing, communications, and logistics. He identifies al Qaeda travel routes and safe havens, and helps intelligence officers make sense of documents and computer records seized in terrorist raids. He identifies voices in intercepted telephone calls, and helps officials understand the meaning of coded terrorist communications. He provides information that helps our intelligence community capture other high-ranking terrorists.

KSM's questioning, and that of other captured terrorists, produces more than 6,000 intelligence reports, which are shared across the intelligence community, as well as with our allies across the world. In one of these reports, KSM describes in detail the revisions he made to his failed 1994-1995 plan known as the "Bojinka plot" to blow up a dozen airplanes carrying some 4,000 passengers over the Pacific Ocean. Years later, an observant CIA officer notices the activities of a cell being followed by British authorities appear to match KSM's description of his plans for a Bojinka-style attack. In an operation that involves unprecedented intelligence cooperation between our countries, British officials proceed to unravel the plot.

On the night of Aug. 9, 2006 they launch a series of raids in a northeast London suburb that lead to the arrest of two dozen al Qaeda terrorist suspects. They find a USB thumb-drive in the pocket of one of the men with security details for Heathrow airport, and information on seven Trans-Atlantic flights that were scheduled to take off within hours of each other:

* United Airlines Flight 931 to San Francisco departing at 2:15 PM
* Air Canada Flight 849 to Toronto departing at 3:00 PM
* Air Canada Flight 865 to Montreal departing at 3:15 PM
* United Airlines Flight 959 to Chicago departing at 3:40 PM
* United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington departing at 4:20 PM
* American Airlines Flight 131 to New York departing at 4:35 PM
* American Airlines Flight 91 to Chicago departing at 4:50 PM

They seize bomb-making equipment and hydrogen peroxide to make liquid explosives. And they find the chilling martyrdom videos the suicide bombers had prepared.

Today, if you asked an average person on the street what they know about the 2006 airlines plot, most would not be able to tell you much. Few Americans are aware of the fact al Qaeda had planned to mark the fifth anniversary of 9/11 with an attack of similar scope and magnitude. And still fewer realize the terrorists' true intentions in this plot were uncovered thanks to critical information obtained through the interrogation of the man who conceived it: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

This is only one of the many attacks stopped with the help of the CIA interrogation program established by the Bush Administration in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In addition to helping break up these specific terrorist cells and plots, CIA questioning provided our intelligence community with an unparalleled body of information about al Qaeda.

Until the program was temporarily suspended in 2006, intelligence officials say, well over half of the information our government had about al Qaeda-how it operates, how it moves money, how it communicates, how it recruits operatives, how it picks targets, how it plans and carries out attacks-came from the interrogation of terrorists in CIA custody.

Former CIA Director George Tenet has declared: "I know this program has saved lives. I know we've disrupted plots. I know this program alone is worth more than what the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency put together have been able to tell us." Former CIA Director Mike Hayden has said: "The facts of the case are that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work." Even Barack Obama's Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, has acknowledged:

"High-value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country." Leon Panetta, Obama's CIA Director, has said: "Important information was gathered from these detainees. It provided information that was acted upon. John Brennan, Obama's Homeland Security Advisor, when asked in an interview if enhanced-interrogation techniques were necessary to keep America safe, replied : "Would the U. S. be handicapped if the CIA was not, in fact, able to carry out these types of detention and debriefing activities, I would say yes."

On Jan. 22, 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13491, closing the CIA program and directing that, henceforth, all interrogations by U. S. personnel must follow the techniques contained in the Army Field Manual. The morning of the announcement, Mike Hayden was still in his post as CIA Director, He called White House Counsel Greg Craig and told him bluntly: "You didn't ask, but this is the CIA officially non-concurring".

The president went ahead anyway, overruling the objections of the agency. A few months later, on April 16, 2009, President Obama ordered the release of four Justice Department memos that described in detail the techniques used to interrogate KSM and other high-value terrorists. This time, not just Hayden (who was now retired) but five CIA directors -including Obama's own director, Leon Panetta objected. George Tenet called to urge against the memos' release. So did Porter Goss. So did John Deutch. Hayden says: "You had CIA directors in a continuous unbroken stream to 1995 calling saying, 'Don't do this.' In addition to objections from the men who led the agency for a collective 14 years, the President also heard objections from the agency's covert field operatives.

A few weeks earlier, Panetta had arranged for the eight top officials of the Clandestine Service to meet with the President. It was highly unusual for these clandestine officers to visit the Oval Office, and they used the opportunity to warn the President that releasing the memos would put agency operatives at risk.

The President reportedly listened respectfully, and then ignored their advice. With these actions, Barack Obama arguably did more damage to America's national security in his first 100 days of office than any President in American history.

Link

Home Front: WoT

AQAP Printer Cartridge Bomb Had Precedent

2010-11-05

The plot is no surprise to intelligence officials, who recalled a similar terrorist plot in 1995 known as Project Bojinka. It was meant to be a large-scale attack planned by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, by al Qaeda affiliates in the Philippines, to blow up 12 airliners carrying a combined 4,000 passengers en route from Asia to the United States.

The plot was uncovered "by luck," a U.S. official said.

Separately, from the same article:

The Obama administration's policy of treating terrorist attacks as a law enforcement matter rather than as acts of war has emboldened terrorists, helped al Qaeda's resurgence and hindered the intelligence gathering needed to thwart attacks, according to a top Republican lawmaker.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., ranking Republican on the Committee on Homeland Security, said the administration's policies have weakened the U.S. position to aggressively go after terror networks. While King praised the administration for its recent handling with the Yemen bomb plot, he said he's "very much concerned" about U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's push to try terrorists as criminals in U.S. courts.

A U.S. official stationed in Afghanistan told The Examiner that al Qaeda and Taliban detainees "are wise to the fact that we have lost an enormous amount of power on what we can and can't do with them. It's as if we've given them the war book and they, terrorists, have more protection than we do."

"We don't know our enemy," the U.S. official said. "But it seems our enemy knows us."

U.S. authorities admitted Monday that the terrorists in Yemen came close to getting bombs through elaborate airport defenses. They believe there may well be more bombs that have not been located.

King said that some policies initiated by Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan have plagued the intelligence community.

"He, more than any homeland security adviser or national security adviser, runs policy," King said. "I know people in the intelligence community believe that he is making the decisions and has influence over the president and, of course, Congress. Because he is a White House employee I can't call him out for questioning or bring him before a congressional committee. He's running homeland security policy and is beyond the jurisdiction of Congress."

Link

Terror Networks

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed & four others to stand trial in New York

2009-11-13

WASHINGTON -- Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees, who will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday.

At a news conference Friday, the attorney general said five other suspects will be sent to military commissions. Holder said the detainees in the New York case will be tried in a courthouse just blocks from where the Sept. 11 attackers felled the twin towers.

Bringing such notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in President Obama's plan to close the terror suspect detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama initially planned to close the detention center by Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

The New York case may also force the court system to confront a host of difficult legal issues surrounding counterterrorism programs begun after the 2001 attacks, including the harsh interrogation techniques once used on some of the suspects while in CIA custody. The most severe method -- waterboarding, or simulated drowning -- was used on Mohammed 183 times in 2003, before the practice was banned.

Holder also announced that a major suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will face justice before a military commission, as will a handful of other detainees to be identified at the same announcement, the official said.

It was not immediately clear where commission-bound detainees like al-Nashiri might be sent, but a military brig in South Carolina has been high on the list of considered sites.

The actual transfer of the detainees from Guantanamo to New York isn't expected to happen for many more weeks because formal charges have not been filed against most of them.

Holder had been considering other possible trial locations, including Virginia, Washington and a different courthouse in New York City. Those districts could all end up conducting trials of other Guantanamo detainees sent to federal court later on.

The attorney general's decision in these cases comes just before a Monday deadline for the government to decide how to proceed against 10 detainees facing military commissions. The administration has already sent one Guantanamo detainee, Ahmed Ghailani, to New York to face trial, but chose not to seek death in that case.

At the last major trial of al-Qaeda suspects held at that courthouse in 2001, prosecutors did seek death for some of the defendants.

Mohammed already has an outstanding terror indictment against him in New York, for an unsuccessful plot called "Bojinka" to simultaneously take down multiple airliners over the Pacific Ocean in the 1990s.

Some members of Congress have fought any effort to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial in the United States, saying it would be too dangerous for nearby civilians. The Obama administration has defended the planned trials, saying many terrorists have been safely tried, convicted, and imprisoned in the United States, including the 1993 World Trade Center bomber, Ramzi Yousef.

Mohammed and the four others --Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali -- are accused of orchestrating the attacks that killed 2,973 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

Mohammed admitted to interrogators that he was the mastermind of the attacks -- he allegedly proposed the concept to Osama bin Laden as early as 1996, obtained funding for the attacks from bin Laden, oversaw the operation and trained the hijackers in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The charges against the others are:

Bin Attash, a Yemeni, allegedly ran an al-Qaeda training camp in Logar, Afghanistan, where two of the 19 hijackers were trained. Bin Attash is believed to have been bin Laden's bodyguard. Authorities say bin Laden selected him as a hijacker, but he was prevented from participating when he was briefly detained in Yemen in early 2001.
Binalshibh, a Yemeni, allegedly helped find flight schools for the hijackers, helped them enter the United States and assisted with financing the operation. He allegedly was selected to be a hijacker and made a "martyr video" in preparation for the operation, but was unable to get a U.S. visa. He also is believed to be a lead operative for a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's Heathrow Airport.

Ali allegedly helped nine of the hijackers travel to the United States and sent them $120,000 for expenses and flight training. He is believed to have served as a key lieutenant to Mohammed in Pakistan. He was born in Pakistan and raised in Kuwait.

Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi, allegedly helped the hijackers with money, western clothing, traveler's checks and credit cards. Al-Hawsawi testified in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, saying he had seen Moussaoui at an al-Qaeda guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in early 2001, but was never introduced to him or conducted operations with him.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Airports Warned About Terror Dry Runs

2007-07-25

Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September. The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20 by the Transportation Security Administration to federal air marshals, its own transportation security officers and other law enforcement agencies. Security officers were urged to keep an eye out for "ordinary items that look like improved explosive device components."

The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern."

The 13-paragraph bulletin was posted on the Internet by NBC Nightly News, which first reported the story. A federal official familiar with the document confirmed the authenticity of the NBC posting but declined to be identified by name because it has not been officially released. "There is no credible, specific threat here," TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said Tuesday. "Don't panic. We do these things all the time."

The bulletin said the a joint FBI-Homeland Security Department assessment found that terrorists have conducted probes, dry runs and dress rehearsals in advance of previous attacks. It cited various types of rehearsals conducted by terrorists before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings; the Aug. 2, 2006, London-based plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights using liquid explosives and the 1994 Bojinka plot in the Philippines to blow up multiple airliners over the Pacific Ocean.

The bulletin said the passengers carrying the suspicious items seized since September included men and women and that initial investigation had not linked them with criminal or terrorist organizations. But it added that most of their explanations for carrying the items were suspicious and some were still under investigation.

The four seizures were described this way:

- San Diego, July 7. A U.S. person - either a citizen or a foreigner legally here - checked baggage containing two ice packs covered in duct tape. The ice packs had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.

- Milwaukee, June 4. A U.S. person's carryon baggage contained wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese. The bulletin said block cheese has a consistency similar to some explosives.

- Houston, Nov. 8, 2006. A U.S. person's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown clay-like minerals and pipes.

- Baltimore, Sept. 16, 2006. A couple's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Experts say KSM arrest slowed al-Qaida

2007-03-16

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's capture four years ago didn't shut down al-Qaida or bring the Americans to Osama bin Laden. But if his mega-confession is to be believed, his arrest was a crushing blow to bin Laden's plans for even more deadly attacks in the wake of 9/11. His expertise was never replaced and his absence has contributed to the group's transition from a fear-inspiring attack force to a hate-filled voice on the Internet, urging others to wage terror against the West.

"In terms of competence for managing, planning and executing terrorist attacks, KSM was the best in al-Qaida," said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert and author of a book on al-Qaida. "That's why Osama bin Laden and other important al-Qaida leaders entrusted him with so many operations."

In his testimony to a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, released in redacted form by the Pentagon on Wednesday, Mohammed claimed involvement in 31 attacks and plots. Some are almost surely true.
Wow. There's a positive statement. Some are almost surely true. Meaning, I guess, that most are probably false?
He was the mastermind of the 9/11 jetliner attacks and, in their wake, certified his bloodthirst by personally beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl bragging about it on the Internet then and in the testimony transcript of last Saturday. "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," he said. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."

His operations ranged from his admitted involvement in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, as well as a failed scheme known as Bojinka to bring down 12 Western airliners in Asia claims that are well documented.

He "sang" to interrogators almost from the start, after his March 2003 arrest at a house outside the Pakistani capital. Much of the information in the 26 pages of released testimony has been long known.

But even if his self-proclaimed status is somewhat exaggerated, he "gave the Americans lots of information about what kind of ideas al-Qaida had, and how they put their plots together," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College. "Mohammed's information gives us a glimpse into the group's imagination. On an operational level, I don't think they have ever been able to replace his experience," he said.

Experts agree the arrest was a major setback for bin Laden's terror network, and one from which the group has never quite recovered.
Which experts? Un-named sources-type experts? The author? The editor?

'Experts', man, 'experts'.

"The role of al-Qaida has changed a lot," said Talat Masood, a former Pakistani general and security analyst. "It has become devolved and amorphous. It's a more ideological and inspirational force and does not have a centralized command anymore." Gunaratna said the loss of Mohammed, a naturalized Pakistani born in Kuwait, as its top operational commander, combined with increased counterterrorism cooperation worldwide, has left al-Qaida unable to mount attacks on the scale of the 9/11 strikes on America.
I chose to not edit the most gratuitous slam:
One thing his arrest didn't accomplish was the arrest of bin Laden or his top deputy, al-Zawahri.
No, and it didn't help with the death of Zarko-boy, either.
Pakistani intelligence agents say Mohammed was carrying a letter from bin Laden at the time of his arrest, but there is no evidence he knew bin Laden's exact whereabouts.

Mohammed's knowledge now is dated. And clouding the picture further is the view, widely held especially in the Islamic world, that his confessions are not entirely credible either coerced by American captors or exaggerated by Mohammed himself, in the hope of carving out a place in the pantheon of terror.

Oh. Well. Golly. Guess we just have to release him, don't we?

Link

Terror Networks

Bojinka II, Pakistan & Musharraf

2006-08-12

The plot to blow up US-bound airliners is becoming known as 'Bojinka II,' since it is nearly identical in scope and method to Operation Bojinka, which was foiled in 1995 by Filipino authorities.

But Operation Bojinka II, thwarted by the British authorities at the end of an intelligence-led operation which started in December, 2005, differs in some aspects from the original Operation Bojinka of 1995.

Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad had planned Bojinka 1995 as a timer-triggered operation and not as a suicide mission. They had planned to select US-bound flights from South-East and East-Asia with an intermediate halt. The terrorists chosen for the operation were to leave the plane at the intermediate halt after concealing the timed improvised explosive devices inside life-jackets.

Operation Bojinka II was planned as suicide missions to be undertaken by the terrorists on direct flights from airports in the UK to different destinations in the US.

The second difference is that Ramzi and Khalid had planned to have the liquid explosive smuggled into the aircraft in containers used for keeping contact lens cleaning solution. The planners of Operation Bojinka-2006 had planned to have the liquid explosive smuggled into the aircraft by having it concealed at the false bottom of cans used for keeping power drinks.

The idea was that if the airport security asked them to consume some of the power drink before them, they would have had no problem doing so.

Operation Bojinka 1995 involved using a mixed group of Pakistanis and Arabs, with Ramzi and Khalid, both Kuwaiti residents of Pakistani origin, providing the leadership.

Eighteen of the intended suicide volunteers for Operation Bojinka II are reportedly British citizens/residents of Pakistani origin -- the majority of them Punjabis and some Mirpuris from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, whose parents had migrated to the UK when their land was taken over by the Pakistan government for the construction of the Mangla Dam.

All the Pakistani-origin suspects are Sunni Deobandis. There was also one White convert to Islam in the group of plotters -- Umar Islam, 28, (born Brian Young) of High Wycombe.

According to sources in the Pakistani police, some of the 18 persons of Pakistani origin detained by the British police in connection with the investigation had traveled to Pakistan after the earthquake of October 2005, to work as humanitarian volunteers in the relief camps run by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the mother organisation of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and in the Balakote area of the North-West Frontier Province.

These sources say that during their stay in the relief camps, they were taken by the Jundullah, a Pakistani jihadi terrorist organisation which is close to Al Qaeda, to its training camps in the Waziristan area of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan for training. They later returned to the humanitarian relief camps of the Jamaat.

The police sources also say that before returning to the UK, they had visited the jail in Sindh in which Omar Sheikh, who masterminded the kidnapping and beheading of Daniel Pearl, the US journalist, is imprisoned, while he awaits the trial on his appeal against the death sentence imposed on him by a lower court.

Jundullah is a new jihadi terrorist organisation, which started operating in the Karachi area three years ago. It was involved in an abortive attempt to kill the corps commander of Karachi in 2004.

Its involvement was also suspected in a suicide car bomb explosion near the US consulate in Karachi on March 2, in which a US diplomat was killed. This explosion took place on the eve of the visit of President George Bush to Pakistan.

Maitur Rehman, a 29-year-old Pakistani from Multan in Punjab, is reported to be the present amir of Jundullah. He had previously served in the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an anti-Shia terrorist organisation, and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami.

Two of the suicide bombers involved in the 7/7 London blasts of last year were also reported to have met Omar Sheikh in jail during their stay in Pakistan. It is important to have Omar Sheikh interrogated outside Pakistan by independent intelligence agencies.

Since the 7/7 London explosions, the British authorities have been keeping a watch on British citizens/residents of Pakistani origin visiting Pakistan in order to check whether they might had any contacts with Pakistani jihadi terrorist organisations and Al Qaeda during their stay there.

It would appear that it was during such enquiries in December last year that their suspicion fell on one or more of the persons involved. Subsequent enquiries led to others and to the ultimate discovery of the plot of Operation Bojinka 2006.

Reports in the British and American media indicate that the decision to arrest all the suspects under watch was taken following indications that these suspects were planning to undertake a dry run for the operation by traveling by different flights to the US in order to test the airport security measures before undertaking the operation.

Pakistani and British officials have indicated that tip-offs from Pakistani authorities on the basis of the interrogation of two unidentified persons arrested recently in Karachi and one person arrested in the tribal areas adjoining the Afghan border also played a role in the successful and timely discovery of this plot.

While British officials say that all those involved have been identified and taken into custody, US officials claim that there are still five persons who are at large.

While Pakistani officials have definitely cooperated with the British in the investigation of this plot, the extent and nature of this cooperation is not known.

According to the police sources, Pakistani authorities apprehend that the interrogation of the arrested persons in the UK might bring out that they had links with the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, and this could create an embarrassment for them.

As a precautionary measure to avoid any allegations from the West of inaction against the Jamaat and the Lashkar, General Pervez Musharraf ordered the police on August 9 to place Hafeez Mohammad Sayeed, the amir of the Jamaat, under house arrest for one month. They are hoping that by that time the British investigations would show whether the arrested persons had any link with the Lashkar. If no evidence of such link turns up, he is likely to be released from the house arrest.

The continued involvement of members of the Pakistani Diaspora in the UK in acts of terrorism committed or planned against Western targets poses a dilemma for the British authorities.

While General Musharraf has been providing to the Western countries all the assistance they require after a particular plot has been detected, he has not been acting against the flourishing terrorist infrastructure in Pakistani territory. How to make him act against Al Qaeda and others without endangering his own position in the army, that is the question they keep asking themselves.

They do not realise that the continuing presence of Al Qaeda and other jihadi terrorist infrastructure in Pakistani territory is the only guarantee for him to ensure his continued importance in the eyes of the West. He will continue to follow his present policy of feeding and sustaining the terrorists and sacrificing only those whose terrorist activities are detected by the West.

Unless and until they act against Musharraf, they will have no respite from acts of jihadi terrorism originating or inspired from Pakistani territory.

B Raman

Link

Home Front: WoT

A terror plot is exposed by the policies many American liberals oppose.

2006-08-11

Wall Street Journal house editorial

Americans went to work yesterday to news of another astonishing terror plot against U.S. airlines, only this time the response was grateful relief. British authorities had busted the "very sophisticated" plan "to commit mass murder" and arrested 20-plus British-Pakistani suspects. As we approach the fifth anniversary of 9/11 without another major attack on U.S. soil, now is the right moment to consider the policies that have protected us--and those in public life who have fought those policies nearly every step of the way. . . .

"This wasn't supposed to happen today," a U.S. official told the Washington Post of the arrests and terror alert. "It was supposed to happen several days from now. We hear the British lost track of one or two guys. They had to move." Meanwhile, British antiterrorism chief Peter Clarke said at a news conference that the plot was foiled because "a large number of people" had been under surveillance, with police monitoring "spending, travel and communications."

Let's emphasize that again: The plot was foiled because a large number of people were under surveillance concerning their spending, travel and communications. Which leads us to wonder if Scotland Yard would have succeeded if the ACLU or the New York Times had first learned the details of such surveillance programs.

And almost on political cue yesterday, Members of the Congressional Democratic leadership were using the occasion to suggest that the U.S. is actually more vulnerable today despite this antiterror success. Harry Reid, who's bidding to run the Senate as Majority Leader, saw it as one more opportunity to insist that "the Iraq war has diverted our focus and more than $300 billion in resources from the war on terrorism and has created a rallying cry for international terrorists."

Ted Kennedy chimed in that "it is clear that our misguided policies are making America more hated in the world and making the war on terrorism harder to win." Mr. Kennedy somehow overlooked that the foiled plan was nearly identical to the "Bojinka" plot led by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to blow up airliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1995. Did the Clinton Administration's "misguided policies" invite that plot? And if the Iraq war is a diversion and provocation, just what policies would Senators Reid and Kennedy have us "focus" on?

Surveillance? Hmmm. Democrats and their media allies screamed bloody murder last year when it was leaked that the government was monitoring some communications outside the context of a law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA wasn't designed for, nor does it forbid, the timely exploitation of what are often anonymous phone numbers, and the calls monitored had at least one overseas connection. But Mr. Reid labeled such surveillance "illegal" and an "NSA domestic spying program." Other Democrats are still saying they will censure, or even impeach, Mr. Bush over the FISA program if they win control of Congress.

This year the attempt to paint Bush Administration policies as a clear and present danger to civil liberties continued when USA Today hyped a story on how some U.S. phone companies were keeping call logs. The obvious reason for such logs is that the government might need them to trace the communications of a captured terror suspect. And then there was the recent brouhaha when the New York Times decided news of a secret, successful and entirely legal program to monitor bank transfers between bad guys was somehow in the "public interest" to expose. . . .

In short, Democrats who claim to want "focus" on the war on terror have wanted it fought without the intelligence, interrogation and detention tools necessary to win it. . . .

The real lesson of yesterday's antiterror success in Britain is that the threat remains potent, and that the U.S. government needs to be using every legal tool to defeat it. At home, that includes intelligence and surveillance and data-mining, and abroad it means all of those as well as an aggressive military plan to disrupt and kill terrorists where they live so they are constantly on defense rather than plotting to blow up U.S.-bound airliners.

As the time since 9/11 has passed, many of America's elites have begun to portray U.S. government policies as a greater threat than the terrorists themselves. George Soros and others have said this explicitly, and their political allies in Congress and the media have staged a relentless campaign against the very practices that saved innocent lives this week. We doubt that many Americans who will soon board an airplane agree.

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Home Front: WoT

U.S. raises airline threat level to Red

2006-08-10

WASHINGTON The U.S. government issued its highest terrorism alert ever for commercial flights from Britain to the United States early Thursday after a terror plot was disrupted in London, with a specific concern for tourist-filled flights to major U.S. cities. Terrorists had targeted United, American and Continental airlines, two U.S. counterterrorism officials said.

"The plot was to board international flights, potentially headed to the U.S., with bombs fashioned in a way that they would be in carry-ons, and blow them up in midair," one intelligence official said. This official said the terrorists had hoped to target flights to major airports in New York, Washington and California, all major summer tourist destinations.

In addition to the highest alert for flights from Britain, the alert for all flights coming or going from the United States was also raised slightly, to orange. The government banned beverages, hair gels and lotions from flights, explaining only that liquids emerged as an explosive risk from the investigation in Britain. Hastily printed signs were posted at major airports warning passengers in red capital letters, "No liquid or gels permitted beyond security."

Multiple flights to multiple American cities were put on alert. Specifically, these airlines included United Airlines, American Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc., the two counterterrorism officials said. American and United flights were turned into terrorist weapons on Sept. 11, 2001, when they were hijacked and crashed.

It is the first time the red alert level in the Homeland Security warning system has been invoked, although there have been brief periods in the past when the orange level was applied. Homeland Security defines the red alert as designating a "severe risk of terrorist attacks." One intelligence official said the first-ever red alert signaled extreme concern within the government. "We are concerned enough to put the highest wall up we can," this official said. Officials said the government has been aware of the nature of the threat for several days, and President Bush was fully briefed.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff issued a statement overnight.

"We believe that these arrests (in London) have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted," Chertoff said in announcing that the threat level for flights from Britain to the United States has been raised to the highest "severe or red" level. A statement issued by Chertoff said "currently, there is no indication ... of plotting within the United States."

A U.S. law enforcement official said there have been no arrests in the United States connected to the plot. A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities believe dozens of people were involved or connected to the overseas plot that was unraveled Wednesday evening. The plan "had a footprint to al-Qaida back to it," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

It was not believed to be connected to the Egyptian students who disappeared in the United States more than a week ago before reaching a college they were supposed to attend in Montana. Three of the 11 have since been found and the FBI has said neither they nor the still-missing eight are believed to be a threat.

The plan involved airline passengers hiding masked explosives in carry-on luggage, the official said. "They were not yet sitting on an airplane," but were very close to traveling, the official said, calling the plot "the real deal." U.S. intelligence has been working closely with the British on the investigation, which has been ongoing for months, the second official said.

The metal detector and X-ray machines at airport security checkpoints cannot detect explosives. At many, but not all airport checkpoints, the TSA has deployed walkthrough "sniffer" or "puffer" machines that can detect explosives residue. As part of the foiled Bojinka Plot to blow up 12 Western airliners simultaneously over the Pacific Ocean in the mid-1990s, terrorist mastermind Ramzi Youssef planned to put together an improvised bomb using liquid in a contact lens solution container.

Likely one of those pint bottles.

At U.S. Northern Command, the military headquarters established in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to improve coordination of the defense of U.S. territory, spokesman Sean Kelly said it would be inappropriate to discuss military operations.

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Down Under

Inquiry to be launched into Hamwi

2006-04-10

One might contrast this with the UK, which apparently has 400-600 known al-Qaeda members operating within its borders and doesn't appear to be making any serious efforts to remove them.
THE Howard Government will launch an investigation into why an alleged senior al-Qaeda bagman was allowed into Australia a decade ago and whether he lied to immigration authorities about his past.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation will also examine information revealed in The Weekend Australian on Saturday about Ahmad al-Hamwi and allegations that he had supplied funds for terrorists across South-East Asia.

An Immigration Department spokeswoman said the case files of Mr Hamwi, who was found living in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Riverwood last week, would be reopened and examined to determine if he had committed citizenship fraud.

Mr Hamwi, also known by his alias Abu Omar, told the Refugee Review Tribunal in 1996 he had no involvement in terrorism and failed to mention a residency in Turkey. Philippines National Police intelligence reports allege that he had been banned from Turkey for his suspected involvement in a 1986 bombing.

The Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday that Mr Hamwi was the director of an Islamic charity that US and Philippines counter-terrorist officials say was a conduit for funding an al-Qaeda cell in Manila planning a major terrorist attack on US airliners and an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1995.

Philippines National Police intelligence reports also say the charity funded the Philippines terrorist group Abu Sayef and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The spokeswoman said if there was enough evidence to show Mr Hamwi had committed immigration fraud his citizenship or residency in Australia could be revoked.

"We would have to establish there was a case to answer, then it would be referred to the Australian Federal Police," she said.

A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the information contained in the story would be of interest to security agencies. "Anything that goes to national security is not something that the Attorney would comment on, his view would be that if there are people of a security concern, our agencies would obviously be concerned and investigating that," Mr Ruddock's spokeswoman said.

"At this stage they're reports, that information is now obviously in the public domain and clearly available to security agencies."

A spokesman for Opposition national security spokesman Arch Bevis said the federal Government had to explain why a person with close ties to Osama bin Laden had been given refuge in Australia.

"The Government's handling of immigration and asylum matters has seen some Australians deported whilst people close to terrorists remain at large here in Australia," he said.

The Weekend Australian put detailed questions to Mr Hamwi but he repeatedly refused to respond.

Mr Hamwi admitted to the Refugee Review Tribunal that he was the director of the International Research and Information Centre (IRIC) in Manila from 1993 to 1995.

According to terrorism researcher Zachary Abuza and Philippines National Police counter-terrorist investigator Rodolfo Mendoza, he was part of a three-man team at the charity, which was the chief conduit of funds to 1993 World Trade Centre bomber Ramzi Yousef. Yousef was planning to blow up 11 US airliners over the Pacific in 1995 when an accidental explosion in his apartment alerted Philippines police to the plot, known as Operation Bojinka, and the related plot to assassinate John Paul II.

Mr Hamwi became involved in the charity through his brother-in-law and former flatmate, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa - who is Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law - and was sent to the Philippines by the world's most wanted man to establish a Southeast Asian arm to his worldwide terrorist network.

The pair lived together for years and married Filipina sisters, Nora and Alice.

For Khalifa, this was one of two wives - his other wife is Osama bin Laden's older sister.

One of the other men involved with the IRIC was Wali Khan Amin Shah, a close associate of bin Laden who became a key planner in the Bojinka plot. Wali Khan was arrested in February 1995. He was later convicted along with Yousef. He has since co-operated with US authorities.

Mr Mendoza's investigation fingered Mr Hamwi for providing funding to Yousef for his terrorist activities through an intermediary, Carol Santiago (who revealed his name during interrogation), and her boyfriend, Wali Khan.

Mr Hamwi was questioned but never arrested for his role in the plot. Philippines officials were ill-prepared to round up all the suspects, who soon fled the country. Mr Hamwi fled to Australia just months after the discovery of the plot.

Former ASIS spy Warren Reed said allowing Mr Hamwi into the country was a "potentially dangerous situation".

Link

Down Under

More on al-Hamwi

2006-04-08

FOR years, Ahmad al-Hamwi has led an inconspicuous life like thousands of refugees from the Middle East who settled in Sydney's southwest.

But in fact Syrian-born Hamwi is anything but an ordinary asylum-seeker. An investigation by The Weekend Australian has revealed that he has alleged links to terrorist organisations spanning a good part of the globe.

Hamwi is allegedly connected to the international web of Osama bin Laden, and his terrorist arm, al-Qa'ida.

Hamwi has been accused of being a senior al-Qa'ida bagman linked to the 1993 World Trade Centre bomber, Ramzi Yousef.

Living for a decade in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Riverwood, he has admitted he was a confidant of some of bin Laden's closest lieutenants, and he is a relative by marriage to the world's most wanted man.

Since Hamwi, also known by the alias Abu Omar, was given asylum in June 1996, it has been revealed he was a key figure in a Manila-based charity funding Yousef's terrorist cell, which was conspiring to blow up US airliners and assassinate Pope John Paul II.

Hamwi was, by his own admission to the Refugee Review Tribunal, a key figure in the Islamic charity known as the International Research and Information Centre.

According to Philippines National Police intelligence reports obtained by The Weekend Australian, Hamwi and his two colleagues at IRIC were funding Yousef's plans, codenamed Operation Bojinka, which were a harbinger for September 11.

Research by world-renowned terror expert Zachary Abuza also alleges that Hamwi was an "important money man for the cell".

"He (Hamwi) was the hand-picked executive director of the IRIC, which had little in the way of charitable works and I refuse to believe he did not know what was going on," Abuza told The Weekend Australian yesterday.

"At the time, (in the mid-1990s) the IRIC was involved in funding the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), al-Qa'ida and Abu Sayyaf, the group involved in military training with Jemaah Islamiah operatives."

According to Abuza, Hamwi helped bin Laden's brother-in-law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, with introductions to set up al-Qa'ida's network in Southeast Asia, and then ran IRIC for him as a front for terrorist financing.

The pair lived together for years and married Filipina sisters, Nora and Alice.

For Khalifa, this was one of two wives - his other wife is Osama bin Laden's older sister.

But when the refugee tribunal granted Hamwi asylum in June 1996, they had scant details about his past, and he denied he knew Yousef or anything about the men involved in the Operation Bojinka plot.

Although Hamwi revealed to the tribunal he had shared the apartment with Khalifah, who has been named by the US State Department's co-ordinator for counter terrorism, Philip C.Wilcox, in a letter to a US court as a "terrorist financier", the tribunal was aware only that Khalifa was a suspected terrorist.

The tribunal asked ASIO whether Hamwi was "directly or indirectly responsible for any acts of terrorism", and despite Hamwi being interviewed several times by the intelligence agency, "neither ASIO nor DFAT could or would provide any evidence to the tribunal in this regard".

Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, told The Weekend Australian that Canberra had "in the past had a policy where people who were very much involved in terrorism could enter Australia".

But Gunaratna said this had now changed in the wake of the Bali bombings.

Abuza said that at the time sought a protection visa in Australia there was not much information-sharing between countries.

"I would be surprised if the Australians had any idea (about his background)," he said.

The Weekend Australian put detailed questions to Hamwi but he repeatedly refused to respond.

A spokeswoman for federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said that should an applicant for a visa be assessed as a risk to national security, the Immigration Department had no option but to reject it.

But it appears that the authorities may not have been told about claims, known by the Philippine National Police counter-terrorist unit, that Hamwi had been involved in radical activities in Turkey and was one of four foreign students banned by the Turkish government for their suspected involvement in a 1986 bombing.

He explained the Turkish visa in his passport by saying he told Syrian authorities that was where he was going to study to enable him to get a passport, but that he went to Pakistan instead.

He later turned up in The Philippines running the Islamic charity IRIC, a "three-man operation" with a tiny office in Manila, Abuza said.

One of the other men involved with the IRIC was Wali Khan Amin Shah, a close associate of Osama bin Laden who became a key planner in the Bojinka plot.

Wali Khan was arrested in February 1995. He was later convicted along with Yousef. He has since co-operated with US authorities.

Hamwi, when questioned by Philippine police, admitted he had known Wali Khan since 1993.

While Hamwi denied any involvement with terrorism to the refugee tribunal in 1995, The Weekend Australian has learned from US Court documents that when his former flatmate Khalifa was arrested in the US, he had letters on him on IRIC letterhead discussing funding the establishment of military training camps.

In Khalifa's defence, Hamwi, as director of the IRIC, wrote letters to the US Immigration Court considering Khalifa's deportation, denying any allegations that the IRIC was clandestinely funding militant training.

Khalifa now lives in Saudi Arabia and regularly protests his innocence.

Hamwi's role in the Manila al-Qa'ida cell was discovered after Yousef's Operation Bojinka was literally blown apart by an accidental explosion in Manila in January 1995.

It resulted in the subsequent arrest of cell member Abdul Hakim Ali Hasmid Murad, alias Abdul Murad, who later proved crucial to US investigators unravelling the September 11 plot.

Philippine senior counter-terrorist Police Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza Jr, who led the manila investigation, found plans to bomb 11 US planes over the Pacific and to kill Pope John Paul II. Tragically, the plot had already had a dry run, when they bombed a Philippines Airlines flight to Tokyo, killing the Japanese passenger sitting over the bomb.

Mendoza's investigation fingered Hamwi for providing funding to Yousef for his terrorist activities through an intermediary, Carol Santiago (who revealed his name during interrogation), and her boyfriend, Wali Khan, who was Hamwi's offsider at IRIC.

Hamwi was questioned but never arrested for his role in the plot. Philippine officials later told Abuza that after the plot was discovered they realised they were ill-prepared to round up all the suspects, who soon fled the country.

Hamwi fled to Australia just months after the discovery of the plot.

Former ASIS spy Warren Reed said allowing Hamwi into the country was a "potentially dangerous situation".

Link

Southeast Asia

How the US stopped Hambali

2006-02-11

IT should have been no surprise that the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiah and its operations chief Hambali were named by US President George W. Bush as the figures behind a 2002 plot to fly a plane into California's tallest building.

JI and Hambali, mastermind of the Bali bombing, were not only intimately connected with al-Qa'ida's chief strategist Khalid Sheik Mohammed in the plan to destroy the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles, they had been in cahoots for years, planning to blow up US airliners and fly them into skyscrapers.

As far back as 1995, Mohammed and Hambali put together a terror blueprint that has become known as Operation Bojinka. It was a three-pronged plan to assassinate Pope John Paul II during a visit to Manila, blow up 11 US planes and fly a Cessna packed with explosives into the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

But for the second wave of attacks on the US, planned for 2002, they had decided to avoid operatives with Arab backgrounds. Instead, Hambali recruited a Malaysian militant named Zaini Zakaria to head the cell responsible for flying a plane into the LA skyscraper, then known as the Library Tower. Mr Bush released details of the planned attack on Thursday, naming JI and Hambali and saying it illustrated the need to move swiftly against any suspicious terrorist activity.

"It took the combined efforts of several countries to break up this plot," the President said. "By working together, we stopped a catastrophic attack on our homeland."

While it might have come as a revelation to the Americans that a Southeast Asian terror group might be targeting US interests, it was no surprise to Australian and Asian intelligence agencies who have been hunting JI for years.

JI operates mainly in Indonesia and The Philippines and is blamed for a string of attacks including the 2002 Bali bombing, which killed 202 people, among them 88 Australians.

The terror group has also been accused of staging the October 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, the Marriott Hotel bombing and three suicide bombings in Bali last October that killed four Australians.

Its former director of operations Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, was considered the link man between JI and al-Qa'ida and he had been crucial to plans by JI to set up terror cells.

Intelligence documents have revealed that JI had divided its operations into four major cells, known as mantiqis, and Mantiqi 4 covered the Indonesian province of Papua and Australia.

In preparation for his plans, Hambali had sent terrorist trainer Azman Hashim to Australia to run a paramilitary weapons training camp for Australians in the Blue Mountains.

Hambali also organised for twins Abdul Rahim Ayub and Abdul Rahman Ayub to further the JI cause in Australia. They lived in Sydney and Perth. Both brothers have since left the country. One of them is now on the Phillipine island of Mindanao training terrorist recruits.

The US Government's 2004 9/11 commission report detailed the close links that developed between Hambali and Mohammed in the late 1990s. "Hambali did not originally orient JI's operations toward attacking the United States, but his involvement with al-Qa'ida appears to have inspired him to pursue American targets.

"Hambali's newfound interest in striking against the US manifested itself in a spate of terrorist plans. Fortunately none came to fruition," the report concluded in an oblique reference to what could have been the LA plot.

The commission said Mohammed, when interrogated by US agents, had taken credit for Hambali's shift of focus, claiming to have urged the JI operations chief to concentrate on attacks on the US economy.

The al-Qa'ida-JI partnership led to a number of proposals that would marry al-Qa'ida's financial and technical strength with JI's access to materials and local operatives, with Hambali in the critical role of co-ordinator.

According to terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, Hambali played a key role in Operation Bojinka. He said the plot was to involve a sequence of events from the assassination of Pope John Paul II in The Philippines on January 15 to the bombing of 11 airliners on January 21 and 22 followed by the flying of a Cessna packed with explosives into CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

But the plot came undone after a fire in a Manila apartment on January 6, 1995. Police discovered evidence of the plot on a computer in the apartment and the operation was abandoned. But plans to blow up planes and fly them into buildings continued. And in the wake of the September 11 attacks, Hambali and Mohammed began hatching the Library Tower plan.

It has been revealed that they established a cell and four terrorists were being trained to carry out the attack, which included using shoe bombs to break into to an aeroplane cockpit.

The JI operatives trained in Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden.

The head of the cell also received instructions on the use of shoe bombs from Briton Richard Reid, who in December 2001 tried to blow up an airliner with explosives planted in his shoes.

But the plan was thwarted early in 2002 when a key al-Qa'ida operative was arrested in Southeast Asia. In the subsequent debriefings of this operative, enough information was gleaned to round up the terrorists involved in the plot.

The Bush administration has not revealed the name of this al-Qa'ida operative. But The Weekend Australian has confirmed Mr Bush was almost certainly referring to Zaini Zakaria, a Malaysian recruited by Hambali and sent for pilot training by Mohammed. Zakaria was one of several Malaysians recruited to form a suicide cell for al-Qa'ida, and it is understood he and the others met bin Laden.

Zakaria, who is mentioned in the 9/11 Commission report, was key to the second wave operation against the US planned by Mohammed. The Library Tower attack was planned to follow the September 11 attacks.

Ken Conboy, whose book The Second Front is largely about Hambali, said revelations of the Library Tower plot came from several sources. "They knew about the plot well before Hambali was captured (in Thailand in 2003)," he said.

Conboy said the Library Tower plans were underway before September 11. "The first people got wind of it in late 2001. By spring the next year, the Indonesians were looking into it. It was corroborated when they got Mohammed."

Zakaria is now in detention in Malaysia. Two of the other Malaysian suicide cell recruits, Bashir bin Lap, known as Lillie, and Mohammed Farik bin Amin, known as Zubair, were arrested in Thailand with Hambali. Hambali is in US custody, in an undisclosed location, possibly Jordan.

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