Midhat Mursi | Midhat Mursi | al-Qaeda | Britain | 20030323 | ||||
Midhat Mursi | Egyptian Islamic Jihad | Britain | 20030316 | |||||
Midhat Mursi al Sayid Omer | Midhat Mursi al Sayid Omer | al-Qaeda | India-Pakistan | 20060118 | Link | |||
Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar | Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar | Jaish-e-Mohammed | Afghanistan-Pak-India | 20051104 | Link |
Terror Networks | |
The future of Al Qaeda | |
2012-05-13 | |
Al Qaeda is said to have been weakened globally by the death of its leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who used to be alive but now he's not... last year, but analysts say it is not clear if it makes it less deadly or more. "It has become desperate," says Air Vice Marshall (r) Shahid Khan, a defence analyst. "Its organizational structure has weakened, and it feels vulnerable." Because of this desperation, especially after the Arab Spring that is being seen as an ideological defeat for Al Qaeda in the Mohammedan world, the world's top terror network may reorient its operations and ideology and continue to carry out major terrorist attacks, according to former US counterterrorism official Carl Adams. Al Qaeda is in a new phase, with a new leadership and a new strategy. The consequences of that strategy are yet to be seen. The leadership Dr Ayman al- ![]() ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... After Osama bin Laden's death on May 2 last year, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri became the leader of the organization on June 16, 2011. He had been the ideological head of what is now known as the Egyptian Group within the Al Qaeda network. He has a Master's degree in surgery from Cairo University and was a leader of the Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... group in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He became Osama's deputy after he merged Islamic Jihad with Al Qaeda in 1998. Zawahiri has admitted in his book to have orchestrated the first suicide kaboom in Pakistain in 1995. The target was the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. Zwahiri was last seen, according to US intelligence reports, in Pakistain's ![]() ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency. The Americans believe he resides in North Wazoo and operates with the Haqqanis. He has shown strong-arm tactics forging alliances with Pakistain's sectarian and jihadi organizations to attack targets in Afghanistan and Pakistain. Abu Yahya al-Libi A Libyan citizen who speaks fluent Pashtu, Urdu and English, Abu Yahya al-Libi is the second most big shot of Al Qaeda. He is the ideological and spiritual leader of Al Qaeda members fighting around the world, and heads the network's Sharia and Political Committee. Jarret Brachman, a former analyst for the CIA, says the following about Libi: "He's a warrior. He's a poet. He's a scholar. He's a pundit. He's a military commander. And he's a very charismatic, young, brash rising star within Al Qaeda, and I think he has become the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden in terms of taking over the entire global jihadist movement." Saif al-Adl Saif al-Adl is a former Egyptian Army Special Forces Officer who came to Afghanistan and has trained most of the key fighters of Al Qaeda and Afghan groups in weapons and military strategy. He is the head of Al Qaeda's military committee and wrote one of the most read jihadist manuals, The Base of the Vanguard. He still trains most of the fighters of Al Qaeda and its affiliate groups in military combat. According to Pakistain's ISI, Adl has trained the beturbanned goons who attacked the PNS Mehran navy base in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... in 2011. Intelligence reports say he moves between North Waziristan and South Waziristan. Adam Gadahn
Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! in Bloody Karachi, Gadahn is the global face of Al Qaeda influencing English speaking people around the world as Al Qaeda's chief front man and the head of its Information Committee. In his sermons, he urges Americans to stand up against their government. In 2010, he released a video in which he offered Al Qaeda's 'peace plan'. Al Qaeda offered a truce in that video, if the US withdrew its troops from Mohammedan countries and stopped supporting Israel. Other members of Al Qaeda's core council include: Khalib al-Habib (Egyptian), Adnan al Shukrijumah (Saudi), Atiyah Abd al-Rahman (Libyan), Hamza al-Jawfi (Saudi/Egyptian), Matiur Rehman (Pak), Nasser Abdul Karim al-Wahaysi (Saudi), Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud (Algerian), Fahd Mohammad Ahmed al-Quso (Yemeni) and Midhat Mursi (Egyptian). A new strategy After the death of Osama bin Laden last year and the killing of a large number of key operatives in US drone attacks in Pakistain, Al Qaeda has shifted its attention from South and Central Asia to Somalia and Yemen. It has "outsourced most of its operations to various bad turban groups in Pakistain and Afghanistan", according to Art Keller, a former CIA official who had worked with the ISI to find Al Qaeda operatives in FATA. In Somalia, Al Qaeda operates through Al-Shabaab ![]() ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... , while in Yemen, bad turban organization Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... works with Al Qaeda to fight a war to overthrow the Yemeni government. In Pakistain, Al Qaeda has also found reliable partners in the Haqqani Network. Badruddin Haqqani, Nasiruddin Haqqani and Khalil al Rahman Haqqani serve as deputies of Sirajuddin and Jalaluddin Haqqani and organize attacks on major targets in Afghanistan. Ties between Al Qaeda and TTP have worsened over the last few years. "In fact, Al Qaeda in Pakistain has found new friends in the Punjabi Taliban, through the Pak Al Qaeda leader Matiur Rehman," an American intelligence official said. Documents seized from bin Laden's compound and recently declassified by the US government show the Al Qaeda leadership was not happy with Hakeemullah Mehsud's leadership style and had asked him to focus his energies on Afghanistan rather than Pakistain. "We have several important comments that cover the concept, approach, and behavior of the TTP in Pakistain, which we believe are passive behavior and clear legal and religious mistakes which might result in a negative deviation from the set path of the Jihadi Movement in Pakistain, which also are contrary to the objectives of Jihad and to the efforts exerted by us," Osama bin Laden said in a letter. He said the killing of Mohammedans and using people as human shields were part of these "mistakes". Eventually, in late 2011, four major Taliban groups in Pakistain formed the Shura-e-Murakeba - after a deal was negotiated by Abu Yahya al-Libi, Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mansour, an Al Qaeda's Abdur Rehman Al Saudi - and decided to fight the US and other forces in Afghanistan. The future of Al Qaeda: "Where Al Qaeda goes from here is hard to determine," says Carl Adams. "Although they are not as powerful as they used to be, Al Qaeda is neither resting nor going away anytime soon. It is desperate for a big breakthrough, and that makes it an unguided missile: formidable, disorderly, and injurious - even if sometimes crashing short of the intended targets." | |
Link |
India-Pakistan |
Drones are killing off Qaeeda 'senior management' |
2009-01-03 |
![]() A dozen of al-Qaeda's "senior management" have been killed by Predator drone attacks, which have been so effective in locating their targets that the militant group has been forced to move from traditional outdoor training camps to classroom-style facilities that are hidden from view. After the success of the new weapons, which are unmanned and operate by remote control from 15,000 feet, the United States is to step up its drone attacks. On January 1 Hellfire missiles, operated from an air force base in Nevada, hit targets in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan, close to Afghanistan, and yesterday two missiles slammed into the stronghold where Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taleban leader, is believed to live. The killings have had a huge impact on the structure, organisation and effectiveness of al-Qaeda, limiting the capacity for commanders to liaise with each other, further separating the top command from the lower ranks and introducing a high degree of uncertainty and a constant awareness of the likelihood of death lurking in the skies. Bin Laden, al-Qaeda's figurehead leader and Ayman al-Zawahiri, his Egyptian deputy, have had to rely on the loyalty of their associates to stay alive and remain hidden from the American surveillance networks. Predators, armed with Hellfire missiles and precision-guided penetration bombs, have already succeeded in targeting two individuals believed to have ranked number three in the al-Qaeda chain of command: Hamza Rabia and Abu Laith al-Libi. They have also killed Mohammed Atef, reputedly the chief of military operations, and several of the group's most experienced explosives and biological weapons specialists. One of the consequences of the Predator attacks has been that al-Qaeda has had to give up its traditional terrorist training camps. Sending recruits out into the open to receive military-style jihadist instruction in combat and bomb-making has become too risky. "As soon as they are spotted, the Americans attack with Predators," a counter-terrorist source said. Now terrorist training in the tribal regions in Pakistan is carried out "in the classroom", less visible from the air and making it more difficult for the Americans to monitor the scale of the recruiting. Communications between the top echelon and operatives is now restricted to human couriers. Mobile and satellite phones are never used by the core leaders because they know that American signals intelligence will be able to pinpoint individuals as soon as the devices are switched on. Since the Americans acquired missile-armed Predators and the newer model, called Reaper, the CIA and Pentagon have focused on killing terrorist targets rather than monitoring and tracking the activities of suspected al-Qaeda figures. The killing option has led to an increasingly successful record. Despite a number of attacks that led to civilian deaths, in more recent Predator missions -- particularly over the past four months -- the intelligence has been more accurate. In one mission in November a Predator strike on a compound in the village of Ali Khel in North Waziristan killed two of the most senior al-Qaeda operatives, Abu Zubair al-Masri, an Egyptian explosives expert, and Rashid Rauf, the British Pakistani who is alleged to have been linked to the Heathrow bomb plot of August 2006. There were claims that Rauf was not in the compound at the time, but counter-terror officials firmly believe that he was there and that he died. The killing of al-Libi, reputed to be a number three in the al-Qaeda hierarchy, in January last year was one of the biggest blows for bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. He was head of the Libyan fighting group of al-Qaeda and was regarded as an important director. He was also a charismatic, respected religious figure and operational planner who could smooth the way for al-Qaeda in the tribal areas whenever there were confrontations between the terrorist leaders and their Pakistani hosts over the constant threat posed by the American Predators. Another serious loss to al-Qaeda was that of Abu Abeda al-Masri, the head of external relations who died of natural causes after becoming ill with hepatitis. He was a significant loss in terms of the threat to the UK because his role was to train Britons. Another key Predator victim was Abu Suleiman al-Jusayi (or al-Jazairi), an Algerian who was an al-Qaeda trainer and explosives specialist. He had been involved in a series of European terrorist networks. He was killed in the Bajaur tribal district of Pakistan in June. One of the most sought-after American targets was Abu Kabbah al-Masri, al-Qaeda's most experienced biological weapons scientist. He was engaged in the chemical and biological trials that were uncovered in Afghanistan in 2001. He was known to be continuing his experiments in the tribal regions of Pakistan. He was tracked by the Americans and killed by a Hellfire missile in the second half of last year. Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, another poisons expert, is also believed to have been killed by the Americans in a Predator attack. The only al-Qaeda commander to have been killed by other means in the past 12 months was Abu Ghadiyah, who was in charge of the production line of suicide bombers from Syria into Iraq. He died during a controversial US commando helicopter raid across the border from Iraq in October. |
Link |
India-Pakistan |
Pakistan violence leaves 35 dead |
2008-08-13 |
A suspected US missile strike has killed 10 militants at a training camp in a Pakistani tribal area, while 25 people died in fresh clashes near the Afghan border, officials said. The violence in the ethnic Pashtun tribal regions along the mountainous frontier comes amid mounting US pressure for Islamabad to tackle rebels who are launching attacks on international forces in Afghanistan. Four missiles hit the Islamist camp in the troubled South Waziristan region, which was run by a militant from the Hezb-i-Islami group of wanted Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, security officials said. "At least 10 militants were killed in the strikes" late Tuesday, a senior Pakistani security official said. "There were reports about the presence of Arab, Turkmen and local militants." "This is their work," he added, referring to US-led coalition forces deployed across the border in Afghanistan. In Kabul, the US military said the missiles were not fired by either NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) or the US-led coalition. "This is not true. We have no reports of missiles being fired into Pakistan," US-led coalition spokesman Lieutenant Nathan Perry said. The US Central Intelligence Agency is also known to operate pilotless drone aircraft armed with missiles, but it was not available for comment. Another security official said the camp was run by a local militant, Zanjir Wazir, who he described as the "local commander of Hezb-i-Islami, Afghanistan". "It is not clear whether Wazir survived the attack or not, but his brother Abdur Rehman and one of their close relatives, Abdul Salam, were killed in the strike," he added. Hekmatyar himself was not in the camp and is believed to be in Afghanistan, officials said. Hekmatyar, a former commander of the 1978-1989 anti-Soviet resistance, is involved in an insurgency against the Western-backed Government in Afghanistan. The elusive militant leader is wanted by Kabul and Washington. Witnesses said the missiles destroyed two houses close to each other and rescue workers were seen removing debris amid fears that more people could be trapped inside. Local militants cordoned off the area and journalists were not allowed access to the site. Residents said the houses were part of a militant training camp. Al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar was killed in a similar missile strike in July. The Egyptian, 54, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a $US million bounty on his head and allegedly ran terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Pakistan has protested over a wave of missile strikes attributed to US-led forces in Afghanistan in recent months which have killed dozens of people. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani urged US President George W Bush during talks last month not to act "unilaterally" against Islamic militants in Pakistan. Mr Gilani's fledgling government opened peace talks with the Taliban earlier this year but has since launched several military operations, including an ongoing offensive in the Bajaur tribal region. At least 25 people, mostly militants, were killed on Wednesday when Pakistani helicopter gunships strafed villages in Bajaur, taking the death toll from a week of fighting there to more than 180, officials and witnesses said. Residents said people were fleeing to safer places in adjoining areas but Taliban militants were erecting road blocks to prevent the exodus. Separately on Wednesday a gunman shot dead an Islamist militant leader, Haji Namdar, as he taught at a religious school in the Khyber tribal region near the north-western city of Peshawar, officials said. |
Link |
Terror Networks |
Qaeda deputy Zawahiri releases video in English |
2008-08-11 |
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command to Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, has released his first English-language video call for jihad in Pakistan, the US-based IntelCenter said Sunday. The message was aired on Pakistan's ARY television network, IntelCenter said in a statement, adding that it marked "the first official message ever ... in which he speaks English." Zawahiri "calls for the people to support jihad in Pakistan and lists a litany of grievances against the Pakistani government and US involvement there," said IntelCenter, which monitors extremist websites and communications. In particular, Zawahiri accuses Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf of corruption, arguing that he is only working to support US and Western interests and that he has committed crimes against Muslims all over the world. Zawahiri also describes Abdul Qadeer Khan -- the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb under house arrest for transferring nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea -- as a "scapegoat to appease the Americans." "Let there be no doubt in your minds that the dominant political forces at work in Pakistan today are competing to appease and please the modern day Crusaders in the White House, and are working to destabilize this nuclear capable nation under the aegis of America," Zawahiri was quoted as saying by IntelCenter. The Al-Qaeda chief "also relates his own personal experiences having lived in Pakistan in an apparent attempt to build a stronger connection with the Pakistani people." The Egyptian-born Zawahiri says he picked English because he "wants to speaks directly to the Pakistani people and chose English because he cannot speak Urdu." Zawahiri was briefly rumored to have died in a July 28 missile strike in Pakistan, but US intelligence and Pakistan's Taliban movement subsequently denied the reports. Al-Qaeda in a statement posted on an Islamist website acknowledged that the strike did kill an Al-Qaeda weapons expert, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu al-Khabab al-Masri. |
Link |
India-Pakistan |
Ahmadzai wazirs say US drones threatening peace in their areas |
2008-08-08 |
Ahmedzai Wazir tribes on Thursday asked the government to "keep US drones away" from South Waziristan, saying the American spy planes could threaten peace in their areas. The request comes a day after a new militant alliance claimed responsibility for attacks on security forces in South Waziristan seemingly in retaliation for the US airstrike on July 28. "We met a senior administration official (in Wana) today to ask him to convey to the government that these drones can put peace in Ahmedzai Wazir areas in danger," a tribal elder told Daily Times by phone from Wana after the meeting. He said Tuesday's attacks on an army base and other targets by the Taliban Ittehad -- a new militant group led by Haji Gul Bahadar of North Waziristan and joined by Maulvi Nazir of South Waziristan -- was a "source of concern" for Ahmedzai Wazir tribes. The July 28 missile strike killed Al Qaeda explosives expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, 55, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri in the Azam Warsak town near Wana. A source close to the new militant bloc said the attacks on Zarinoor army base and nearby military airport in Wana on Tuesday were "in reaction to the airstrike in Azam Warsak". A source said the Taliban confirmed the killing of al-Masri in the July 28 missile strike by the US. "He has been killed along with his wife and a child in the missile attack," the source added. |
Link |
India-Pakistan |
Insecurity Increases As Pakistani Army Fights Pro-Taliban Militants |
2008-08-05 |
![]() Afrasiab Khattak, the veteran Pashtun nationalist politician and peace envoy of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), says that Pakistani authorities have thus far failed to sweep insurgents from the Swat Valley in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). "This situation in our tribal areas is similar to that of pre-9/11 Afghanistan. State authority in those regions has nearly ended. Militants fighting in both Pakistan and Afghanistan now control this area, which threatens the whole region," Khattak tells RFE/RL. "We have repeatedly demanded a solution to this situation because we do not want these regions to turn into the battleground of a global conflict, as global powers respond to the threats emanating from these regions might be tempted to intervene [militarily]." An apparent missile strike on July 28 reportedly killed Midhat Mursi as-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, a senior Al-Qaeda trainer known for his expertise in chemicals and poisons. Over the past few years, similar attacks have killed many top Al-Qaeda leaders but Western officials still see the region as a bastion for terrorist activities. Many U.S. officials have warned that Al-Qaeda might be planning similar attacks to those of September 11, 2001, on U.S. and European targets from safe havens in the FATA. Khattak's Awami National Party is part of Pakistan's ruling coalition. He insists that although the elected civilian government has been in office for four months, President Pervez Musharraf still controls all decisions on the FATA, and seems averse to any meaningful reforms that would ultimately weaken the militants' control over the area. Khattak adds that the situation in the region is so dire that in July the NWFP's government asked the military for help as the police were helpless after thousands of Taliban overwhelmed local police in the NWFP's southern Hangu district. Fighting in Hangu began in mid-July when some 400 militants surrounded a police station following a police raid that led to the arrest of seven armed Taliban. More than 50 militants and government soldiers died in the ensuing fighting. Furthermore, more than 70 schools have been burned down in the area in the past year. Residents Caught Between Militants, Government But Khattak says a distinction needs to be made between militants and ordinary residents of the tribal areas. He adds that the vast majority of tribesmen are peaceful, but the state has denied them civil and political rights for so long, keeping them marginalized and underdeveloped. "The people of FATA are hostages [in the hands of the militants] and the [federal] government has allowed that because they have not really tried to clear these regions from armed bands," Khattak says. "So, on the one hand people in FATA have been threatened by the militants, on the other the government still wants to perpetuate discriminatory laws in that region," he adds. "Now, when the foreigners [U.S. and NATO forces] intervene in these regions, they only rely on military means -- long-range artillery and aerial bombing." Other analysts in the region agree with Khattak and also describe the situation as alarming. Ijaz Khan, a professor of international relations at Peshawar University, says that the Pashtun regions in both Afghanistan and Pakistan have been turned into a single battlefield, but the political leaderships in both countries have so far failed to address this desperate situation. "The Arab [militants] are fighting their war against the United States on Pashtun soil. Pakistan and India, too, want to fight their conflict on Pashtun soil. And the Pashtuns are dying as a result," Khan says. "A whole generation of Pashtun youth in Swat, Dir, and other war-ravaged regions are deprived of education as their schools are closed," he adds. "What I see [is deeply disturbing]. The destruction that we have seen so far is nothing and six months from now people will remember the current state as being a lot better." Khan adds that the past policies of confronting the militants and appeasing them through talks have failed, as the government lacked a broader policy of democratization and economic development while keeping a credible military deterrent against irreconcilable militant elements. "Democratization should be an ongoing process," Khan says. "But some fighting will go on while there is parallel economic development. And education also has to go on to move the whole situation towards normalcy. But now we have not even started to move that way and the whole situation is going towards further destruction [and bloodshed]." Such pessimism can be widely seen in northwestern Pakistan these days. In early July, the ruling Awami National Party announced it will revive its "Nangyalay Pashtun" volunteers and form them into "peace and defense committees." Though traditionally unarmed and loyal to the party's pacifist heritage, over the past century these volunteers have only been mobilized in extraordinary circumstances. |
Link |
India-Pakistan | ||
It's oficial: Mudhat Mursi no more - friends confirm ''He's dead Jim'' | ||
2008-08-03 | ||
![]() The statement said Abu Khabab al-Masri and three other commanders were killed. It did not give details on when or how they were killed, but Pakistani authorities have said they believe al-Masri died in an American airstrike last Monday on a compound near the Afghan border.
![]() | ||
Link |
India-Pakistan | |
Mudhat Mursi dead again in Wazoo strike | |
2008-07-29 | |
![]()
![]() | |
Link |
Afghanistan | |
Abu Khabab al-Masri Dead Again? | |
2008-07-28 | |
![]()
The Egyptian, 54, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a five-million-US-dollar bounty on his head and allegedly ran terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Officials earlier said that three Arab militants and three | |
Link |
India-Pakistan | |
Mudhat Mursi not as dead as thought | |
2008-04-30 | |
![]() But it seems that Mursi, a chemical engineer known as Osama bin Ladens sorcerer, with a $5m US bounty on his head, is still alive and, the Americans believe, working in secret laboratories across the badlands of the tribal zone to develop chemical, biological and radiological weapons and maybe even nuclear weapons for Al Qaeda. US intelligence officials were never convinced that Mursi, alias Abu Khabab Al Masri, died in Damadola and now even Pakistani intelligence chiefs concede that hes alive and kicking. The Americans say that electronic surveillance of known and suspected Al Qaeda figures in recent months has turned up conversations in which Mursi is mentioned in the present tense.
| |
Link |
India-Pakistan | ||||
"He's Back! - The Eveready Bunny of Al Qaeda | ||||
2008-02-05 | ||||
A key operative and chemical engineer who was reported to have been slain is alive and leading the effort, officials say. After a U.S. airstrike leveled a small compound in Pakistan's lawless tribal regions in January 2006, President Pervez Musharraf and his intelligence officials announced that several senior Al Qaeda operatives had been killed, and that the top prize was an elusive Egyptian who was believed to be a chemical weapons expert. ![]()
![]()
Abu Khabab, whose real name is Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, is believed to have set up rudimentary labs with at least a handful of aides, and to have provided a stable environment in which scientists and researchers can experiment with chemicals and other compounds, said several former intelligence officials familiar with Al Qaeda's weapons program. Recent intelligence shows that Abu Khabab, 54, is training Western recruits for chemical attacks in Europe and perhaps the United States, just as he did when he ran the "Khabab Camp" at Al Qaeda's sprawling Darunta training complex in Afghanistan's Tora Bora region before the Sept. 11 attacks, according to one senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the CIA's intelligence is classified. Some experts questioned how far Al Qaeda could get in reconstituting a weapons program in the mountains of Pakistan.
Several international counter-terrorism officials concurred with the U.S. intelligence assessment of Al Qaeda's weapons' effort. Raphael Perl, who heads the Action Against Terrorism Unit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said it is widely assumed that Al Qaeda developed chemical weapons years ago, and that if it doesn't have biological capabilities already, "they are certainly not far from it." Given that Abu Khabab "has the technical knowledge," he said, "it's very, very clear that they are working both in the chemical and biological fields." Pakistani Information Minister Nisar Memon refused to comment on Abu Khabab and Al Qaeda's weapons program, but security officials from three Pakistani intelligence agencies, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that he is alive. The senior U.S. intelligence official described Al Qaeda's effort as "a very small, very compartmented program, and not nearly on the scale of what they had going on in Afghanistan, because you don't have the size, the security, you don't have the ease of movement" that the Taliban government provided. Chris Quillen, a former CIA analyst specializing in Al Qaeda's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, said the network's program in Pakistan could have made significant progress without authorities knowing about it by operating in small compounds, as it did in Afghanistan. "I am not saying the programs are great and ready for an attack tomorrow," said Quillen, who left the agency in August 2006 and is now a U.S. government intelligence contractor. "But whatever they lost in the 2001 invasion, they are back to that level at this point." That is a source of major frustration at the CIA, which a few years back identified at least 40 people that it wanted to kill, capture or question about their suspected involvement in Al Qaeda's weapons program, Quillen and others said. They said at least half of those suspects remain at large. Abu Khabab's ties to terrorism date to at least the mid-1980s, when he was a prominent member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization led by Ayman Zawahiri, who merged the group with Al Qaeda. Over the years he has trained hundreds of fighters at Al Qaeda's camps on how to use explosives, poisons and rudimentary chemical weapons, according to FBI documents. Educated in Egypt as a chemical engineer, Abu Khabab has no formal training in biological or nuclear weapons, intelligence officials say. But he has ended up in charge of the weapons program at least in part because some operatives believed to be more knowledgeable about biological and nuclear weapons have been captured or killed. Abu Khabab was described by several intelligence officials as a cranky, showboating self-promoter as well as one of its top explosives experts. He has had a stormy relationship with the two top Al Qaeda leaders, Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri, and their top command, in part because of his ego and independent streak, those current and former intelligence officials said. | ||||
Link |
Terror Networks |
Binny and Ayman now traveling separately |
2006-04-24 |
Osama bin Laden is hiding in a remote tribal area along Afghanistan's 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, separated from his top deputy and, in a sign he has to be careful about whom he trusts, surrounded by fellow Arabs. His No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, is hiding in a more settled area along the border, surrounded by al-Qaida operatives of his Egyptian nationality, according to U.S. intelligence officials familiar with his pursuit. Their separation has opened a debate in national security circles in the United States and elsewhere about whether the leaders have split up. Neither man mentions the other by name in public pronouncements, and both headed separate groups before joining forces in 1998. Al-Zawahri has decided to take a more prominent public role than has bin Laden, releasing dozens of written and recorded Internet messages, including a video this month urging Muslims to support Iraqi insurgents. On Sunday, bin Laden was heard in his first new message in three months, purportedly saying the West was at war with Islam and calling on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed U.N. force in Darfur. U.S. and Saudi officials, several of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information's sensitive nature, say the al-Qaida leaders have made a strategic security decision to hide in different places from one another. These officials do not yet see evidence of an ideological split. "I don't think they have the luxury to have a rift," said Jamal Khashoggi, an adviser to the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal. A former reporter and editor, Khashoggi interviewed and traveled with bin Laden at times between 1987 and 1995. Bin Laden lost his Saudi citizenship in 1994 after governments in Algeria, Egypt and Yemen accused him of financing subversion. Bin Laden's at-large status has hounded the Bush administration. When people were asked in a recent CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll if bin Laden will be killed or captured in 2006, only 27 percent said yes, while 68 percent said no. In a position paper released late last month, congressional Democrats pledged to "eliminate" bin Laden by doubling the number of special forces and adding more intelligence operatives. A senior Pakistani security official said Pakistani security forces working closely with the CIA came close to capturing bin Laden a couple years ago, missing by a few hours. Clues to his whereabouts have dried up. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media, said bin Laden and some associates were hiding in Waziristan, near the Afghan border, at the time. The official would not elaborate on who those associates were or who had sheltered the al-Qaida leader. It is unclear now where bin Laden and al-Zawahri are. Some U.S. officials believe they are hiding on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan, protected by tribes that warn when Pakistani forces may be approaching, several U.S. counterterrorism officials said. The Pakistani government does not believe that is true. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told The Associated Press that he has no information suggesting the al-Qaida leaders are in Pakistan. "Naturally, we can't go on a wild goose chase. We can only act if we get credible information about the hide-out.... We have got no evidence," he said. He and others believe bin Laden and al-Zawahri may be on the Afghan side of the border, perhaps in rugged, autonomous Kunar. One of 34 provinces in Afghanistan, Kunar is slightly smaller than Delaware. No matter which side, the border gets little respect, particularly compared with deep-seated tribal and family loyalties. Complicating the search, the mountainous region - with peaks taller than the Rockies - is full of centuries-old routes used for trade, smuggling and invasions that would be invaluable for evading capture. Parts of the Afghan side are controlled by renegade Islamic militia leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who Khashoggi and others say may be allied with bin Laden and al-Zawahri. "They don't have many choices to hide in Afghanistan," Khashoggi said. "I think they are roaming in a very limited area." The marriage would be one of convenience, centered largely on a mutual disdain for the United States. After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, U.S. officials began to suspect Hekmatyar was aligning himself with al-Qaida. The CIA tried to kill him with a Predator drone in May 2002. Help from Hekmatyar would be invaluable, given that bin Laden and al-Zawahri are foreigners and do not speak the languages native to the region. Joining the U.S. in any searches on the Afghan side are thousands of NATO troops from countries including Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. Intelligence officials got some confirmation that al-Zawahri is surrounded by only the closest of associates with the Jan. 13 Predator drone attack on a house in Damadola, just across from Kunar. U.S. officials will not confirm that the strike happened, and Pakistani officials suspect at least four foreign militants died in the strike. The list includes Egyptian Midhat Mursi, an explosives and chemical weapons expert; Abu Obaidah al-Masri, a chief responsible for attacks on U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan; and Al-Abdul Rehman al-Maghribi, al-Zawahri's Moroccan son-in-law. Mursi had a $5 million bounty on his head and is on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists. Authorities hoped al-Zawahri would be at the high-level dinner called Eid al-Adha, marking the end of Muslims' pilgrimage to Mecca. The fact that the U.S. could target the gathering signaled to some security experts that someone in the region betrayed the al-Qaida leader - and the U.S. was able to take advantage of the fissure. "For the United States to get wind of a high-level dinner like that and have precise information on when it is taking place, someone must have betrayed somebody - absolutely," said Ken Katzman, an expert on terrorism at the Congressional Research Service who recently traveled to Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence officials believe bin Laden and al-Zawahri are surrounded by smaller entourages of perhaps 10 or 20 people. Katzman called it a "fairly sculpted group" of "close cronies" - often of their own country. "If you are an Egyptian in that region, Zawahri is your mentor and the one you look up to more," he said. Counterterrorism officials say Egyptians in the region play an important role in protecting the al-Qaida leaders. |
Link |