Free Republic

Iran’s attempt to control al-Qaeda may be one of the biggest strategic benefits the rogue state has ever enjoyed. And it could cost the United States dearly if Joe Biden is not careful. The death of al-Qaeda’s longtime leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, proves how dangerous it is to lead the world’s most notorious Islamist terrorist organization. Given the group’s international reach and the fact that it has survived nearly 30 years of conflict with America’s war machine, many observers have been surprised by the fact that al-Qaeda did not have a succession plan in place. This is especially odd considering how...

Egyptian-born Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the world's most wanted terrorists, is most likely hiding in Karachi under the protection of Pakistan's notorious spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, a United States media report said. 'Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has been protecting al-Zawahiri, a trained surgeon, since US forces evicted Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan in late 2001,' Newsweek said in a major investigative story claiming that its information is based on several authoritative sources. 'His most likely location today, they say: Karachi, the teeming port city of 26 million people on the Arabian Sea,' the weekly said. This is for the first...

When Osama bin Laden was banished from Sudan in 1996, he left the country in a rented Soviet jet — an aged and antique Tupolev flown by a Russian pilot he did not trust. With him were a few bodyguards, his military commander, Saif al-Adel, and two sons named Sa’ad and Omar — both young men in their late teens. Although it was the corrupt Islamic government of Sudan that had robbed Osama bin Laden of much of his vast personal wealth, he blamed America for his misfortunes, according to Pulitzer Prize-winner Lawrence Wright. “He held America responsible for the...

Some intelligence agencies warn the five men may travel to Syria and make use of its chaotic landscape to plot attacks elsewhere. Iran has released five senior al Qaeda operatives from detention and will soon allow them to leave the country, prompting fears they will join other terrorists in Syria planning attacks on the West. According to intelligence sources, three of the five are members of al Qaeda's ruling committee the Shura Council. Among those released in exchange for the Iranian diplomat was Abu al Kheir al Masri - the former head of al Qaeda's "external relations" committee, who was...

Pair Are Plotting Attacks, Sources Say JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 27 – Two figures who have assumed critical roles in the al Qaeda hierarchy in recent months, including one reported dead by the Pentagon, are being sheltered in Iran along with dozens of other al Qaeda fighters in hotels and guesthouses in the border cities of Mashhad and Zabol, according to Arab intelligence sources.The two – Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian on the FBI's most-wanted list, and Mahfouz Ould Walid, also known as Abu Hafs the Mauritanian, whom U.S. officials reported had been killed near the eastern Afghan city of Khost...

Like father, like son, assert U.S., European and Arab intelligence agencies who believe one of Osama bin Laden's youngest children is beginning to call the shots at the Iranian branch of al-Qaida. Saad bin Laden is one of an estimated 400 operatives of the terror network recruited and protected by Tehran's hard-line clerics, according to the Washington Post. Tehran's elected government, headed by the reformist President Mohammed Khatami, does not appear to have control over this group, called the Jerusalem Force. The Post reports the 24-year-old bin Laden is computer savvy and fluent in English. His father groomed him for...

In recent days, pro-al Qaeda jihadists claimed to confirm a recent news report saying that several senior al Qaeda leaders have been released from Iranian custody. Sky News reported earlier this week that five veteran jihadists were released in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who had been kidnapped in Yemen. Several jihadists on Twitter who are connected to al Qaeda have said the report is accurate. One of them is known as “Al Siyasi al Mutaqa’id,” who has relayed accurate information on al Qaeda in the past. The five jihadists who were reportedly freed are: Saif al Adel, Abu Mohammed...

Image that accompanied Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's audiotape announcing the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The flag was originally al Qaeda in Iraq's banner, but has been adopted by other al Qaeda affiliated and associated groups. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group. The emir of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (also known as Abu Dua), has announced a new brand for his organization's efforts: the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant." The new name replaces all previous brands used by al Qaeda's affiliates in Iraq and Syria, including the...

An Iranian defector, Hamid Reza Zakeri, told German police that Iran was involved in the September 11th attacks, the Chicago Tribune reported. Zakeri, 28, was providing testimony in the trial of accused plotter Abdel-Ghani Mzoudi, a Moroccan student who lived in Hamburg and was friends with three of the four suicide pilots. According to the defector, the attacks were an al-Qaida/Iranian joint venture, for which ultimate responsibility lay with a man named Saif al-Adel, a Hizbullah official in Iran. The testimony was greeted with pronounced skepticism by some German intelligence officials, saying that it "looks a little bit constructed."...

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - A Moroccan accused of helping the September 11 suicide hijackers received training in encryption techniques at an al Qaeda camp in Iran in 1997, an Iranian defector said on Friday. But his testimony to a German court was promptly undercut by comments from Germany's intelligence services, who questioned his credibility and said his evidence was worth very little. Hamid Reza Zakeri, the cover name of a man who says he worked in Iranian intelligence and defected in 2001, was testifying toward the end of Germany's second major trial of suspected members of al Qaeda's Hamburg cell....

The Obama administration finally highlights Iran’s key role in supporting al Qaeda On July 28, the Treasury Department designated six al Qaeda operatives involved in shipping money and men from the Persian Gulf to senior al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The move targets a node of the global terror network that is critical to its overall strength, freezing any of its financial assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting any transactions with the operatives. Of the many conduits for al Qaeda funds and personnel across the world, the U.S. government believes this one is the most important. “This network...

Pakistani news outlets reported Tuesday that al Qaeda had selected Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian former special forces commander, to be the interim head of the Islamist terrorist group. According to the News International, an English-language newspaper, “the issue of the succession of Osama bin Laden was resolved in a meeting of al-Qaeda held at an undisclosed location.” The reports in the Pakistani press said al-Adel will be the interim leader of al Qaeda while Muhammad Mustafa Yamni, a Yemeni living somewhere in Africa, is being groomed for the top post. U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday could not confirm the reports....

Iran's Revolutionary Guards are training hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters to carry out attacks against coalition forces throughout the Middle East. The Iranian government has been providing a safe haven for fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terror group since they were forced to flee Afghanistan in late 2001. ... The decision to allow Al Qaeda fighters to train in Iran was made by President Ahmadinejad as part of his policy of attempting to forge closer links with Mr. bin Laden's organization. The training of Al Qaeda operatives is part of a wider Iranian ambition: to take control...

Early on the morning of March 16th, 1984, William Buckley left for work at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Officially, Mr. Buckley, a decorated veteran of the Special Forces, served as the political officer at the embassy. In reality, however, Mr. Buckley was the embassy’s CIA station chief. On his way to the compound, Buckley’s car was stopped by a group of masked men, who forced him from his car at gunpoint. His assailants would later be identified as terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad, which served as an alias for the real perpetrators, Hezbollah. The circumstances surrounding the...

Iran has confirmed it has tried and sentenced fugitive members of Al Qaeda detained on its soil, but maintained tight secrecy over which members of Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network were in the Islamic republic.'The sentences have been pronounced,' a Tehran justice department offical said, confirming a report from the semi official Fars news agency that all Al Qaeda detainee cases had been treated in Tehran by a 'special judge.'The official refused to say who the accused were, how many of them there were, what verdicts were reached or how the sentences were handed out. Quoted by the Fars news...

Scores of masked gunmen went on an audacious daylight rampage through the flashpoint Iraqi town of Fallujah yesterday morning, launching twin attacks on a police station and civil defence compound that left at least 23 people dead and 35 wounded. At least 14 of the dead were lightly-armed police officers, recently recruited to the force, who could offer little resistance to the heavily-armed gunmen, suspected of being foreign fighters. About 70 raiders shouting "God is great" fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machineguns at policemen, throwing grenades as they cleared the police station room by room and released at least 20...

Iran to Put Dozen Al Qaeda Captives on Trial Fri January 23, 2004 11:45 AM ET DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Iran plans to put about a dozen jailed al Qaeda suspects on trial, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Friday. "They are currently in prison. Their relations are cut off from outside and they are going to be tried," Kharrazi told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The most important al Qaeda figure that Western intelligence agencies say may be in Iran is an Egyptian -- Saif al-Adel, the network's security chief. Kharrazi declined to comment on whether Iran...

RIYADH (Reuters) - A senior al Qaeda militant orchestrated the bombing of a residential compound in Saudi Arabia earlier this month by telephone from Iran, a Saudi newspaper says. Okaz newspaper, quoting informed sources on Sunday, said the militant network's security chief Saif al-Adel gave orders for the attack in the capital Riyadh by satellite phone. Neither Saudi nor Iranian officials were immediately available to comment on the Okaz report. "The sources said Saif al-Adel led the bombing operation of the Muhaya residential compound, using a Thuraya phone to give instructions to the terrorists in the kingdom who carried out...

<p>September 12, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. military forces in northern Iraq captured 80 foreign fighters from several Arab countries on suspicion that they are part of a new al Qaeda offensive against American troops, officials said yesterday.</p> <p>Pentagon officials said the suspected terrorists were nabbed by the Army's 101st Airborne Division and the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment between Mosul and the Syrian border.</p>

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday it would not hand over any detained members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network to Washington and denied trying to strike a prisoner exchange deal with the United States. Iran publicly acknowledged for the first time last month that it was holding some senior al Qaeda figures and said it planned to extradite some of them to "friendly countries." On Saturday the New York Times quoted a U.S. official as saying Washington had approached Tehran with a request to hand over al Qaeda men in Iranian custody, including Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian...