Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Arabia

Biden releases 11 Yemanis at Gitmo to Oman

2025-01-07

[MSN] The Biden administration has released 11 additional detainees from the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, sending the men, all natives of Yemen, to neighboring Oman, the Pentagon said Monday.

The move ends their more than two decades of imprisonment without charges and leaves the detainee population at 15. Over the years, the notorious prison in southeast Cuba has held roughly 780 men, all of them swept up amid the frantic global “war on terror” that followed 9/11.

Monday’s announcement is part of President Joe Biden’s fervent effort during his final weeks in office to reduce the number of those held Guantánamo.

Last month, the Biden administration repatriated four men, including two Malaysians who pleaded guilty to involvement in a Southeast Asian terrorist plot and will now serve out their prison sentences in Malaysia, plus a Tunisian and a Kenyan who were never charged.

The administration also is seeking to repatriate — to an Iraqi prison — a severely disabled Iraqi detainee who pleaded guilty to terrorist involvement, the New York Times reported. Attorneys for the man, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, have sued the U.S. government to block his transfer, arguing he will not be safe or receive adequate medical care in Iraq.
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fwiw, it costs a lot to house these terrorists at GITMO, probably at least double what supermax would cost.

It would probably cost somewhat less if the rules for the guards weren’t so absurd, but President George W. Bush took bad advice about that in the hope that the carpers wouldn’t.

Link

Terror Networks

Iraqi at Guantanamo Bay to Plead Guilty in Afghan War Crimes Case

2022-06-12

[Shafaq] Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, who is accused of leading forces that killed U.S. and allied troops, is disabled. A resolution of his case would involve finding a country to take him into custody.

A disabled Iraqi prisoner at Guantánamo Bay has reached an agreement with military prosecutors to plead guilty to war crimes charges related to his role as a commander of krazed killer forces in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, lawyers disclosed in court Friday.

The secret agreement in the case of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi is the first reached during the Biden administration, the guys that caused the debacle in Afghanistan
...the collection of boodlers, grifters, hangers-on, and self-proclaimed experts affiliated with the Biden Crime Family. Entrusted with an entire nation as the result of a suspicious election, they set about happily implementing stuff they absorbed in college, all of which blew up and splattered the rest of us...
, which has indicated it would support plea bargains to resolve long-running, sometimes stalemated war crimes cases at Guantánamo Bay. Prosecutors are also negotiating with the five men who are accused of plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a process that is expected to be more complicated because of the crime and the punishment sought, the death penalty

.
But the case of Mr. Hadi is poised for a more swift resolution.

Lawyers disclosed in court Friday that they had reached a preliminary agreement in May and completed a document on Thursday that accounts for his crimes as a way of averting a trial.

Prosecutors had sought at most life in prison in a case that cast Mr. Hadi as the late Osama bin Laden
...... who is no longer with us, and won't be again......
’s liaison to the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
and as a commander of Death Eaters who had attacked and killed American and allied forces as well as medical and humanitarian relief workers in wartime Afghanistan and Pakistain from about 2003 to 2004. He was also accused of helping the Taliban blow up monumental Buddha statues in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan
...a place in Afghanistan that used to have some historically interesting statues of the Buddha carved into a mountainside. Then the holy men showed up and now all they have is some big holes...
Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in March 2001.

A busy and ambitious man. Think of what he could have accomplished, had he chosen lawful good instead of lawful evil.

Details of the deal, including for which of those attacks Mr. Hadi has agreed to accept responsibility, could be disclosed as early as Monday.

At a hearing Friday, the military judge, Lt. Col. Mark F. Rosenow of the Air Force, revealed the existence of the agreement but noted discrepancies in documents he would use to question the prisoner on his understanding of the crimes, and whether he had voluntarily entered into the agreement. Prosecutors and defense lawyers said they would work through the weekend, in tandem with the Pentagon brasshat who had approved the deal, to address the judge’s concerns.

Most details of the agreement were under seal Friday, including the length of the sentence a military jury would be asked to consider.

But in a portion of the pretrial agreement that was signed in May, both sides agreed to postpone the prisoner’s sentencing hearing until 2024

...allowing Mr. Biden a final win for his presidency, assuming he is still functioning and in charge at that point...

to give U.S. diplomats time to find a country to take custody of him and provide him with medical care for a degenerative spine disease that has become acute during his military detention.

Bet it hurts...

Mr. Hadi, who says his true name is Nashwan al-Tamir,

Add that to his file, Fred!

has been disabled since 2017, when guards found him partially paralyzed and incontinent in his cell as a result of degenerative disk disease. With a hurricane heading toward the base, the Navy rushed in a neurosurgical team for the first of five operations that disrupted the timeline toward trial. Last year, a Navy neurosurgeon recommended a sixth operation to correct one of the earlier surgeries.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Iraqi Man Charged with War Crimes at Guantanamo Tribunal

2014-06-20

[Iraq Sun] An Iraqi man accused of being a senior member of al-Qaeda was formally charged by the U.S. war crimes tribunal in Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday with conspiring to bomb Western forces in Afghanistan and killing civilians and U.S. soldiers.

Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi did not enter a plea during his arraignment on five counts that also included attacking a U.S. military medical helicopter. His attorneys said they wanted to file pretrial motions before entering a plea.

Court documents filed by prosecutors described Hadi al-Iraqi as one of al Qaeda's top military operatives.

Military prosecutors contend Hadi al-Iraqi served on al-Qaeda's senior advisory council, tried to acquire chemical weapons and issued orders to kill Americans and their allies. His orders also authorized al-Qaeda gunnies "to view civilians and medical personnel as acceptable targets," according to prosecutors.

Hadi al-Iraqi is accused of criminal masterminding an April 25, 2003, attack on a U.S. military convoy at Shkin, Afghanistan, that killed two U.S. soldiers and injured numerous others. After another one of his attacks on Oct. 25, 2003, killed two more U.S. soldiers, Hadi al-Iraqi's fighters shot at injured coalition soldiers, prosecutors said.

A roadside kaboom set by Hadi al-Iraqi's fighters killed four U.S. soldiers on May 29, 2004, in Qalat, Afghanistan, the court documents say. In a Nov. 16, 2003, attack, Hadi al-Iraqi is accused of paying Taliban fighters $200 to $300 to kill a civilian U.N. worker near Ghazni, Afghanistan.

Judge Captain J. Kirk Waits agreed to Hadi al-Iraqi's request to replace Army Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Callen as his defense counsel with a civilian attorney. Callen is scheduled to be released from active duty in September.

The arraignment was monitored by Rooters over closed-circuit television at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Hadi al-Iraqi is the 12th person accused of terrorism to be charged before the Military Commission at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. He has been held there for seven years and the U.S. military classifies him as one of 16 high-value detainees.

Following the arraignment, Callen said Hadi al-Iraqi "has great concerns about the fairness of this process."

Chief Prosecutor Brigadier General Mark Martins defended prosecution by a military commission, saying, "The military commissions have rules of evidence that are better-suited to a battlefield."

Link

Home Front: WoT

AP confirms secret camp inside Gitmo

2008-02-09

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret.

For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. In an interview with The Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby also provided a few details about the maximum-security lockup. Guantanamo commanders said Camp 7 is for key alleged al-Qaida members, who must be kept apart from other prisoners to prevent them from retaliating against long-term detainees who have talked to interrogators. They also want the location kept secret for fear of terrorist attack.

This all seems sensible to me: it's like having a special section at a domestic prison for the 'worst of the worst'. These individuals are indeed that, and we don't want them to have access to anyone, let alone Mahmoud the Weasel. But as you read on you'll sense the outrage of the AP reporter.

Many operations have been classified since the detention center opened in January 2002 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. More than four years passed before the military released even the names of detainees held on this 45-square-mile base in southeast Cuba and it did so only after the AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request.

Not clear to me why an FOIA would work, and further, why the AP would want to know.

Detainees have been held in Camp Echo and Camps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Journalists cleared by the military have been allowed to tour some of these lockups, where 260 men are held, but aren't allowed to speak to detainees. Some lawmakers and other VIPs have passed through, and the International Red Cross has access, but doesn't divulge details of visits with prisoners.

Camp 7, where 15 "high-value detainees" are held, is so secret that its very existence was not publicly known until it was mentioned in December by attorneys for Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident who allegedly plotted to bomb gas stations in the United States. Previously, many observers believed the 15 were being held in Camps 5 or 6, which are maximum-security facilities.

And that was a fine arrangement.

"Under the gag order ... we are prohibited from saying anything more about their camp," lawyer Gitanjali Gutierrez, who met with Khan in October, said Tuesday. Most of the lawyers' notes and memos have been stamped "top secret" by the government.

Buzby told the AP he is sharply limiting to a "very few" the number of people who know Camp 7's whereabouts. He described it as a maximum security facility that was already built when President Bush announced in September 2006 that 14 high-value terrorism suspects had been transferred from CIA secret detention facilities to Guantanamo. An additional detainee, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, arrived last April. "They went straight into that facility," Buzby said.

Buzby, who heads all military detention operations on Guantanamo, said he controls Camp 7, but would not discuss whether the CIA might still be talking with the high-value detainees.

"None of your business!"

Paul Rester, the military's chief interrogator at Guantanamo, told AP he has been interviewing one of the Camp 7 detainees and that others may be interrogated, depending on intelligence needs.

But other key military commanders on the base have been told to leave Camp 7 to others. "Not everybody, even within the Joint Task Force, has access or even knowledge of where Camp 7 is," said Army Col. Bruce Vargo. As commander of the military's Joint Detention Group at Guantanamo, Vargo is responsible for the camps holding 260 detainees. But not for Camp 7.

Isn't that the way the military works? You have responsibility for your command but not for someone else's. Camp 7 is someone else's responsibility. And the way that paragraph reads, I'm betting the AP reporter omitted Col. Vargo's patient explanation of exactly that.

Red Cross representatives have visited Camp 7 and all the other detention facilities at Guantanamo, confirmed Geoff Loane, head of the humanitarian organization's delegation in Washington. He declined to give details.

Buzby said the 15 are kept isolated in part to protect other prisoners. "Detainees have told us a lot of things about this group of people, and if there were potential for retribution it would be a very, very dangerous situation," he said.

Mixing these 15 detainees in would cause all the rest to shut up. It would lead to violence, after which the administration would be accused of 'failing to protect the inmates'. That would be a two-fer for the progressives and for al-Qaeda.

For his part, Vargo said he is preoccupied by the possibility of an al-Qaida attack on Guantanamo. "Although we are trying to be open, security is paramount," he said. "I mean, if you can fly a plane into the towers, you can attack Guantanamo if that's what you choose to do. It's something I think about on a day-to-day basis."

Which is his job. After WTC there isn't any part of our country or military that is immune to al al-Qaeda attack.

Vargo declined to discuss whether the U.S. has received information that al-Qaida may be planning such an attack. "We have intelligence reports, but I don't want to release what we know for obvious reasons," he said.

"I can say no more!"

While some military personnel have reportedly grumbled about being kept out of the loop, others don't mind. Army Col. Larry James, whose team of psychologists assists interrogators, said he does not want to know where Camp 7 is. "I learned a long, long time ago, if I'm going to be successful in the intel community, I'm meticulously in a very, very dedicated way going to stay in my lane," he said. "So if I don't have a specific need to know about something, I don't want to know about it. I don't ask about it."

Sounds like a professional man. Good for him.

Link

Britain

British Arrests 5th Suspect

2007-07-02

British police arrested a fifth person Sunday and raided homes in three cities in connection with attempted car bombings that officials say are connected to al-Qaeda. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair on Wednesday, said in a nationally televised interview that "we are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with al-Qaeda."

Terrorism analysts said it appeared that the timing and location of the planned bombings were intended to coincide with Brown's first days of office. They also noted that Brown is Scottish.

"That was probably a major factor in this," said M.J. Gohel, chief executive of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London policy group that specializes in security issues. "Otherwise, it makes no sense as to why they would pick that particular moment as well as Glasgow as a target." Gohel said the perpetrators may have been trying to fuel public pressure for a rapid withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, an issue that was already looming as a major test for Brown's government.

Peter Clarke, Scotland Yard's chief of anti-terrorism operations, said the investigation was "fast-moving. It is no exaggeration at all to say that new information is coming to light hour by hour." Police were searching homes and buildings near Glasgow and in Staffordshire and Liverpool. Clarke said "extremely valuable" forensic information was found in the two Mercedes sedans. He said the links between the Glasgow and London attempted bombings were becoming "ever clearer."

"I'm confident -- absolutely confident -- that in the coming days and weeks we will be able to gain a thorough understanding of the methods used by the terrorists, of the way in which they planned their attacks, and of the network to which they belong." He also said thousands of hours of closed-circuit television footage was being analyzed.

Scottish police, who encouraged the many witnesses at Glasgow Airport to hand over any cellphone and camera images of the incident, said they were receiving about 100 calls an hour from the public.

In a quarterly intelligence report leaked to the Sunday Times of London and published April 22, Britain's Joint Terrorism Analysis Center revealed that a senior al-Qaeda commander had advocated carrying out an attack in Britain before Blair left office. According to the report, intelligence officials had recovered a letter written by Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a top al-Qaeda operative who was later captured by the CIA, detailing al-Qaeda's desire to attack Britain during "a change in the head of the company," apparently referring to the handover of power from Blair to Brown.

Link

India-Pakistan

ISI warned UK about 7/7 bomber

2007-05-02

Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) twice warned British intelligence about the terrorist threat from a group of British men one of whom would later take part in the 7/7 suicide bombings of Londons transport network living in Lahore in 2003, The Times reports. There is no question that 7/7 could have and should have been stopped. British agencies did not follow some of the information we gave to them, a high-ranking ISI official told The Times.

This information related to a group of British men who took rooms in Sufi House, No 13 Ilyas Street, Lahore, in the summer of 2003. Says The Times report: These young men were no ordinary students. They had come to Pakistan to study violent jihad.

Among those staying at Sufi House that summer were Omar Khyam, and Mohammad Siddique Khan from Yorkshire, who would on July 7, 2005, lead Britains first suicide bomb cell, which killed 52 people in London. The Times learnt that Khan gave immigration officers the telephone number of the Sufi House as his contact point on arrival in Pakistan that summer. The mass murder may have been prevented had intelligence agencies picked up on the trail of clues and connections that identified Khan as a terrorist in the making, says The Times.

Khyam was later arrested and tried for plotting a bombing campaign in Britain. He and four others were convicted and sentenced to 35-40 years in prison on Monday. Khan and Khyam had attended terrorist camps before they met at Islamabad airport in July 2003, on their way to the same jihad training expedition.

In Ilyas Street the neighbours also had their suspicions, and called police after hearing a series of late-night explosions. One woman said: We knew what they were doing and we were afraid at those boys being here, but we couldnt do anything about it.

The group told police that a propane gas cylinder had exploded. The officers alerted their superiors, who ordered a surveillance operation. The authorities became aware that the group had travelled to the mountainous Malakand region, where Al Qaeda maintains training camps and compounds, says The Times. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, the Al Qaeda commander who was transferred to Guantanamo Bay last week, directed their training and attack planning.

Intelligence sources in Pakistan told the newspaper that the group was taught how to manufacture and detonate homemade explosives using ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder. In Lahore members of the group were observed making regular visits to the Gohar Centre, an office complex where the extremist group al-Muhajiroun rented space. Pakistani intelligence sources told The Times that they reported their concerns to British agencies because they were satisfied that the group was not a threat to Pakistan but was intent on carrying out attacks back in Britain.

The report says Khan returned to Britain in August 2003, and after that police missed several clues as to his future intentions as they carried out a surveillance operation of Khyam and his gang.

Link

Iraq

More on Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi capture

2007-04-28

Hat tip Drudge

Captured Al-Qaeda leader Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7 suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain.
Busy lad, wasn't he -- wrote the Jihad Handbook so beloved by wannabee jihadis the world over, handled finances and logistics for Al Qaeda in Iraq from his home somewhere along the Afghan border (on the Pakistan side, of course), and a multitude of terror plots in Britain, too!
A former major in Saddam Husseins army, he was apprehended as he tried to enter Iraq from Iran and was transferred this week to the high-value detainee programme at Guantanamo Bay. Abd al-Hadi was taken into CIA custody last year, it emerged from US intelligence sources yesterday, in a move which suggests that he was interrogated for months in a ghost prison before being transferred to the internment camp in Cuba.
So he has been wrung dry, then, as some here proposed yesterday. Clever people, those Rantubrgers. ;-)
Abd al-Hadi, 45, was regarded as one of al-Qaedas most experienced, most intelligent and most ruthless commanders. Senior counter-terrorism sources told The Times that he was the man who, in 2003, identified Britain as the key battleground for exporting al-Qaedas holy war to Europe.
And so it has proved. The British public and politicians might find it useful to ponder this fact.
Abd al-Hadi recognised the potential for turning young Muslim radicals from Britain who wanted to become mujahidin in Afghanistan or Iraq into terrorists who could carry out attacks in their home country. He realised that their knowledge of Britain, possession of British passports and natural command of English made them ideal recruits. After al-Qaeda restructured its operations in Pakistans tribal areas he sought out young Britons for instruction at training camps. In late 2004 Abd al-Hadi met Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, from Leeds, at a militant camp in Pakistan and, in the words of a senior investigator, retasked them to become suicide bombers.
They were sent back to Britain where they led the terrorist cell that carried out the 7/7 bombings, killing 52 Tube and bus passengers.

Pakistani intelligence sources said that Abd al-Hadi was also in contact with Rachid Rauf, a Birmingham man now in prison in Pakistan and alleged to be a key figure in last summers alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners in mid-flight.

Abd al-Hadi has also been linked to a number of other foiled al-Qaeda plots to carry out attacks in Britain. But the Security Service, which has previously sent officials to question detainees at Guantanamo Bay, may not have the opportunity to question him directly. The Governments recently adopted position in favour of closing Guantanamo Bay is likely to act as a bar on agents travelling there. British Intelligence would have to rely on relaying questions it would like asked by American interrogators.
Whoops! Not one of Tony's cleverest ideas, allowing his people to say that.
Security sources said they assessed Abd al-Hadi as a key operational commander, high up the chain in the al-Qaeda structure who was behind many key plots in the UK. He had a close link with another arrested al-Qaeda figure. He is thought to have been in contact with Osama bin Laden before his capture and might be able to provide information about his leaders whereabouts.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said that Abd al-Hadi was a key al-Qaeda paramilitary leader in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, and between 2002 and 2004 led efforts to attack US forces in Afghanistan with terrorist units based in Pakistan.
A very busy lad. It appears he made ample use of the training he received in Saddam Hussein's army. What unit was he in at the end, I wonder. I'll bet the CIA interrogators know.
US officials said he was associated with leaders of other extremist groups allied with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including the Taleban.

Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIAs bin Laden unit and now a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, told The Times that Abd al-Hadi had been an important figure in developing al-Qaedas strategy in the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan and also helped to redirect its terrorist strategy in Europe. Mr Scheuer said: It is a blow for al-Qaeda, especially in Iraq, where it will have consequences.
Consequences are always good, even though Mr Scheuer went on to explain that someone would be promoted to take Abd al-Hadi's place, although he didn't say whether the newbie would have mastered so many and varied skill sets.

Link

Afghanistan

Backround on Abd al-Hadi Al-Iraqi

2007-04-27

Karachi, 27 April (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - The Pentagon today said it was holding one of al-Qaeda's most experienced operatives in detention at Guantánamo Bay following his capture as he tried to enter Iraq. The man was identified as Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a paramilitary leader in Afghanistan in the late 1990s and led efforts to attack US forces in the country after the 2001 invasion.

Abd al-Hadi Al-Iraqi was initially the treasurer of Al-Qaeda and was based in South Waziristan and North Waziristan. Hadi used to supply money to Al-Qaeda operatives for international operations. In 2003, on the instructions of network number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri, he was part of an operational plan to kill General Pervez Musharraf but his role was mainly supplying money to the operatives involved in the plot. "Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi was trying to return to his native country, Iraq, to manage al-Qaida's affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against western targets," the Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said on Friday.

A logistics guy, excellent! He'll have much more info than a fighter

Well-placed sources in Al-Qaeda had told this correspondent many months ago about the migration of Abd al-Hadi Al-Iraqi from Afghanistan to Iraq. Therefore it seems difficult that he would be arrested recently while crossing into the border of Iraq, as his presence in Iraq has already been confirmed.

Likely he's been in the CIA's hands for awhile. They handed him over to the military at Gitmo after he'd been squeezed dry

Abd-al-Hadi compiled a detailed account in a book which reflects al-Qaeda's tactical ideas and deals with chemical weapons and explosives and their application, such as planting them on bridges and at strategic installations to get optimum results. In the circle of al-Qaeda the book is referred to as Encyclopedia of Jehad. It is intended to equip international operations with clear tactical ideas on how upcoming battles should be fought. The encyclopedia is available in jihadi circles in book form as well as on compact disc. It was written in Arabic and translated into Pashto, Urdu and English.

Abd al Hadi moved out of Waziristan after some major divergences emerged between Al-Qaeda and the Taliban over tactical issues, in particular the Pakistan Talibans non-aggression pact with the Pakistan authorites.

Link

Iraq

Top AlQaeda Operative busted

2007-04-27

The US Defence Department has taken one of al Qaeda's most senior and most experienced operatives into custody. The suspect has been named as Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. He was handed over to the the Pentagon by the CIA, Whitman said. Whitman said the suspect was responsible for plotting cross-border attacks from Pakistan on US forces in Afghanistan. He is being held in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Apologies if old news - been away for a week.

Link

Iraq

Gitmo Gets a New Guest

2007-04-27

The Pentagon said Friday it has custody of one of al-Qaida's most senior and most experienced operatives, an Iraqi who was attempting to return to his native country when he was captured.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the captive is Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi. He was received by the Pentagon from the CIA, Whitman said, but the spokesman would not say where or when al-Iraqi was captured or by whom.

The Pentagon took custody of him at Guantanamo Bay this week, Whitman said.

Whitman said the terror suspect was believed responsible for plotting cross-border attacks from Pakistan on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and that he led an effort to assassinate Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

"Abd al-Hadi (al-Iraqi) was trying to return to his native country, Iraq, to manage al-Qaida's affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against Western targets," Whitman said, adding that the terror suspect met with al-Qaida members in Iran. He said he did not know what time period al-Iraqi was in Iran.

The Pentagon said al-Iraqi was born in Mosul, a city in northern Iraq, in 1961. Whitman said he was a key al-Qaida paramilitary leader in Afghanistan in the late 1990s and during 2002-04 led efforts to attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan with terrorist forces based in Pakistan.

Link

Terror Networks

Osama Bin Laden will never surrender, says ex-jihadi

2006-03-09

A Saudi Muslim scholar who spent years with Arab jihadis in Afghanistan said he knows Osama bin Laden well and that the Al Qaeda leader would never surrender, according to a report published Wednesday. He will never surrender because he seeks death and yearns for it, said Musa al-Qorni in an interview with Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat.

He added that he believed bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, is at present under the sway of the Egyptian jihad group led by Al Qaedas second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri and acts according to its plans. Qorni said he and others tried to convince bin Laden when he was in Sudan in the mid-1990s to come back to Saudi Arabia and lead a normal life, but that the Saudi-born militant snubbed them and returned to Afghanistan.

I was thinking about this very subject yesterday, and started to write on it. Naturally, with such an interesting idea, I was interrupted and couldn't get back to it.

I think we've seen enough ferocious bad guyz by now to have a pretty good statistical feel for their actions when cornered. Some are assisted from the gene pool without being given the opportunity to demonstrate their "yearning for death," notably by being helizapped, so they can be dropped from the equation. Udai and Qusay fought it out to the bitter end. In Soddy Arabia they tend to shoot it out to the bitter end — one wonders, in fact, if they're given a choice in the matter.

But Sammy was found cowering in the receiving end of an outhouse and gave up. Abu Zubaydah was wounded and gave up. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was captured in his underwear. Ramzi bin al-Shibh let the minions do the shooting, then gave up. Abdur Rehman gave up, complaining that his human rights had been violated when RAB turned off the water. Bangla Bhai managed to set fire to himself, but then he gave up. Abu Faraj al-Libbi? Captured. Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, ditto. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, captured. Hambali, captured. Hassan Ghul, captured. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, captured. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani ("Foopy"), also captured. Louai Sakra, captured.

Are we getting the impression that "You'll never take me alive, coppers!" only applies to the lower ranks? I think that when Binny's finally cornered his feet will turn out to be the same fine grade of clay as Sammy's. Same with Zawahiri, and same with Zarqawi. You ~~heard~~ read it here first.

Link

Terror Networks

Human Rights Watch's list of "ghost prisoners"

2005-12-02

Take a good, long look at the people on this list and you can decide for yourself whether or not you have any problems with this. I sure don't.
1. Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi
Reportedly arrested on November 11, 2001, Pakistan.
Libyan, suspected commander at al-Qaeda training camp.

2. Abu Faisal
Reportedly arrested on December 12, 2001

3. Abdul Aziz
Reportedly arrested on December 14, 2001
Nationality unknown. In early January 2002, Kenton Keith, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, produced a chart with the names of senior al-Qaeda members listed as killed in action, detained, or on the run. Faisal and Aziz were listed as detained on Dec. 12 and 14, 2001.

4. Abu Zubaydah (also known as Zain al-Abidin Muhahhad Husain)
Reportedly arrested in March 2002, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Palestinian (born in Saudi Arabia), suspected senior al-Qaeda operational planner.

5. Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi (aka Riyadh the facilitator)
Reportedly arrested in January 2002
Possibly Yemeni, suspected al-Qaeda member (possibly transferred to Guantanamo).

6. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi
Reportedly arrested in January 2002
Nationality unknown, presumably Iraqi, suspected commander of al-Qaeda training camp. U.S. officials told Associated Press on January 8, 2002 and March 30, 2002, of al-Iraqi's capture.
This is a different Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi who was placed in command of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan yesterday (who had previously been in command of Brigade 055 rather than a training camp), for those keeping score.
7. Muhammed al-Darbi
Reportedly arrested in August 2002
Yemeni, suspected al-Qaeda member. The Washington Post reported on October 18, 2002: "U.S. officials learned from interviews with Muhammad Darbi, an al Qaeda member captured in Yemen in August, that a Yemen cell was planning an attack on a Western oil tanker, sources said." On December 26, 2002, citing "U.S. intelligence and national security officials," the Washington Post reports that al-Darbi, as well as Ramzi Binalshibh [see below], Omar al-Faruq [reportedly escaped from U.S. custody in July 2005], and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri [see below] all "remain under CIA control."

8. Ramzi bin al-Shibh
Reportedly arrested on September 13, 2002
Yemeni, suspected al-Qaeda conspirator in Sept. 11 attacks (former roommate of one of the hijackers).

9. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (or Abdulrahim Mohammad Abda al-Nasheri, aka Abu Bilal al-Makki or Mullah Ahmad Belal)
Reportedly arrested in November 2002, United Arab Emirates.
Saudi or Yemeni, suspected al-Qaeda chief of operations in the Persian Gulf, and suspected planner of the USS Cole bombing, and attack on the French oil tanker, Limburg.

10. Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman (aka Asadullah)
Reportedly arrested in February 2003, Quetta, Pakistan.
Egyptian, son of the Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted in the United States of involvement in terrorist plots in New York. See Agence France Presse, March 4, 2003: "Pakistani and US agents captured the son of blind Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman. . . a US official said Tuesday. Muhamad Abdel Rahman was arrested in Quetta, Pakistan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity." David Johnston, New York Times, March 4, 2003: "On Feb. 13, when Pakistani authorities raided an apartment in Quetta, they got the break they needed. They had hoped to find Mr. [Khalid Sheikh] Mohammed, but he had fled the apartment, eluding the authorities, as he had on numerous occasions. Instead, they found and arrested Muhammad Abdel Rahman, a son of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric. . ."

11. Mustafa al-Hawsawi (aka al-Hisawi)
Reportedly arrested on March 1, 2003 (together with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad), Pakistan.
Saudi, suspected al-Qaeda financier.

12. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Reportedly arrested on March 1, 2003, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Kuwaiti (Pakistani parents), suspected al-Qaeda, alleged to have "masterminded" Sept. 11 attacks, killing of Daniel Pearl, and USS Cole attack in 2000.

13. Majid Khan
Reportedly arrested on March-April 2003, Pakistan.
Pakistani, alleged link to Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, alleged involvement in plot to blow up gas stations in the United States. Details about Khan's arrest were revealed in several media reports, especially in Newsweek: Evan Thomas, "Al Qaeda in America: The Enemy Within," Newsweek, June 23, 2003. U.S. prosecutors provided evidence that Majid Khan was in U.S. custody during the trial of 24-year-old Uzair Paracha, who was convicted in November 2005 of conspiracy charges, and of providing material support to terrorist organizations.

14. Yassir al-Jazeeri (aka al-Jaziri)
Reportedly arrested on March 15, 2003, Pakistan.
Possibly Moroccan, Algerian, or Palestinian, suspected al-Qaeda member, linked to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

15. Ali Abdul Aziz Ali (aka Ammar al Baluchi)
Reportedly arrested on April 29, 2003, Karachi, Pakistan.
A Pakistani, he is alleged to have funneled money to September 11 hijackers, and alleged to have been involved with the Jakarta Marriot bombing and in handling Jose Padilla's travel to the United States.
U.S. Judge Sidney Stein ruled that defense attorneys for Uzair Paracha could introduce statements Baluchi made to U.S. interrogators, proving that he was in U.S. custody. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey also mentioned Baluchi during remarks to the media about the case of Jose Padilla on June 1, 2004

16. Waleed Mohammed bin Attash (aka Tawfiq bin Attash or Tawfiq Attash Khallad)
Reportedly arrested on April 29, 2003, Karachi, Pakistan.
Saudi (of Yemeni descent), suspected of involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, and the Sept. 11 attacks. See Afzal Nadeem, "Pakistan Arrests Six Terror Suspects, including Planner of Sept. 11 and USS Cole Bombing," Associated Press, April 30, 2003. His brother, Hassan Bin Attash, is currently held in Guantanamo.

17. Adil al-Jazeeri
Reportedly arrested on June 17, 2003 outside Peshawar, Pakistan.
Algerian, suspected al-Qaeda and longtime resident of Afghanistan, alleged "leading member" and "longtime aide to bin Laden." (Possibly transferred to Guantanamo.)

18. Hambali (aka Riduan Isamuddin)
Reportedly arrested on August 11, 2003, Thailand.
Indonesian, involved in Jemaah Islamiyah and al-Qaeda, alleged involvement in organizing and financing the Bali nightclub bombings, the Jakarta Marriot Hotel bombing, and preparations for the September 11 attacks.

19. Mohamad Nazir bin Lep (aka Lillie, or Li-Li)
Reportedly arrested in August 2003, Bangkok, Thailand.
Malaysian, alleged link to Hambali.

20. Mohamad Farik Amin (aka Zubair)
Reportedly arrested in June 2003, Thailand.
Malaysian, alleged link to Hambali.

21. Tariq Mahmood
Reportedly arrested in October 2003, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Dual British and Pakistani nationality, alleged to have ties to al-Qaeda.

22. Hassan Ghul
Reportedly arrested on January 23, 2004, in Kurdish highlands, Iraq.
Pakistani, alleged to be Zarqawi's courier to bin Laden; alleged ties to Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.

23. Musaad Aruchi (aka Musab al-Baluchi, al-Balochi, al-Baloshi)
Reportedly arrested in Karachi on June 12, 2004, in a "CIA-supervised operation."
Presumably Pakistani. Pakistani intelligence officials told journalists Aruchi was held by Pakistani authorities at an airbase for three days, before being handed over to the U.S., and then flown in an unmarked CIA plane to an undisclosed location.

24. Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan (aka Abu Talaha)
Reportedly arrested on July 13, 2004, Pakistan.
Pakistani, computer engineer, was held by Pakistani authorities, and likely transferred to U.S. custody. (Possibly in joint U.S.-Pakistani custody.)

25. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
Reportedly arrested on July 24, 2004, Pakistan
Tanzanian, reportedly indicted in the United States for 1998 embassy bombings. U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials told UPI that Ghailani was transferred to "CIA custody" in early August.

26. Abu Faraj al-Libi
Reportedly arrested on May 4, 2005, North Western Frontier Province, Pakistan.
Libyan, suspected al-Qaeda leader of operations, alleged mastermind of two assassination attempts on Musharraf. Col. James Yonts, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, "said in an email to The Associated Press that al-Libbi was taken directly from Pakistan to the U.S. and was not brought to Afghanistan."

Link

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