Krekar's lawyer unaware of alleged US military plot

The Norwegian defense attorney for terror suspect Mullah Krekar said he was unaware of an alleged US military plan to kidnap his client three years ago. Norwegian politicians claim they also were left in the dark.

We knew that there was a threat of kidnapping in 2003, but the evaluation of something resembling a military action is new to me," attorney Brynjar Meling told newspaper Dagbladet on Friday.

Meling was responding to a report in the international magazine Newsweek that US officials at the Pentagon considered sending special forces to Oslo to seize Krekar, who recently landed on both US and UN lists of people suspected of supporting or financing terrorism.

The Newsweek article claimed Krekar was the subject of "intense" talks in Washington in 2003 and that the Pentagon evaluated sending Navy Seals to Oslo to kidnap Krekar and confine him in another country for questioning.

The alleged military plan was ultimately dropped because Pentagon officials feared their forces could land in a gun battle with Norwegian police charged with protecting Krekar.

Mullah Krekar, who first came to Norway as a refugee in the early 1990s, has long been a headache for the Norwegian authorties. He violated the terms of his asylum by travelling back to northern Iraq, where he led the guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam, which is believed linked to terrorist group al-Qaida.

Krekar has since been declared a threat to national security in Norway and local authorities want to deport him, but they won't, because they fear Krekar will face the death penalty in Iraq. That, along with the fact that Krekar isn't in police custody in Norway, has frustrated the Americans who want him confined.

Erna Solberg, the head of Norway's Conservative Party who was government minister in charge of immigration matters at the time, said she was never informed of any such plan. She said it would have "created a huge conflict with Norwegian authorities... but they can certainly have planned it and thought about it," she told Dagbladet.

Jan Petersen, a former head of the Conservatives who was Norway's foreign minister at the time, said he wasn't aware of any such plan, either.

"We don't know anything about it, so there's nothing to comment on," he said. "The most important thing is that it didn't happen."

Related stories: Krekar tops terrorist lists - 08.12.2006 Government to assess Krekar's freedom of movement - 29.11.2006 Krekar can be expelled - 22.11.2006

According to Newsweek, "a Pentagon official proposed inserting a U.S. Navy Seal team on the ground to use a "snatch rope" operation against Krekar—a plan that was quickly rejected on the grounds that Norwegian police might start shooting at the invading Seals, according to a former U.S. intelligence official who was present at the meeting."

Shame they didn't do it... IMO, Krekar has been good and ready for Gitmo for years.

"The Norwegian defense attorney for terror suspect Mullah Krekar said he was unaware of an alleged US military plan to kidnap his client three years ago."

Because, more than likely, there was no plan.

It's NEWSWEAK who 'reported' this 'plan'.

(highlights intentional)

2 posted on 12/15/2006 8:52:41 AM PST by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)

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