AL QAEDA OPERATIVE CAUGHT IN IRAQ (Hassan Ghul)(Not a re-post)

Sky News ^ | 1/26/04

[areafiftyone]

An al Qaeda operative with close ties to the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks has been captured in Iraq.

US president George W Bush said Hassan Ghul was helping al Qaeda step up attacks by insurgents against soldiers in Iraq.

He was captured last week.

Al Qaeda members are believed to have entered Iraq after the war last year that toppled President Saddam Hussein.

Mr Bush said Ghul "reported directly" to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is suspected of coordinating the September 11 attacks on the United States that killed about 3,000 people and who was captured in Pakistan in March.

"He (Ghul) was moving money and messages around South Asia and the Middle East. He's a part of this network of haters that we're dismantling," Bush said.

"He was captured in Iraq where he was helping al Qaeda to put pressure on our troops. There's one less enemy we need to worry about with the capture of Hassan Ghul."

The Bush administration says there was a link between al Qaeda and Saddam although Bush has said there was no evidence that Saddam was involved in the September 11 attacks.

[driftless]

The same people who said that Al-Qaeda and Hussein would never cooperate now say that it's only because we "stirred up a hornets nest" that Al-Qaeda is in Iraq which we have incontrovertible proof of. I guess they never bother to ask themselves why Al-Qaeda would be in Iraq if Bin Laden hated Hussein. What would he care? The obvious answer is that Bin-Laden saw Hussein as ally against the U.S and a huge source of money and weapons. The libs just don't get it...or don't want to get it.

[Valin]

Thanks for the link.
Question, how often is it updated?

[highlander_UW]

I'm not sure how often it's updated. I wish I did know. It did have a good amount of information on individual terrorists.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Well, to be perfectly fair, the fact that an A-Q operative was captured in Iraq now, does not necessarily mean that there was a working relationship between A-Q prior to the war. The argument can be advanced that A-Q is there now, because we are there now.

And thus, they are not here now. And no matter how you slice it, that's a good thing.

[Zack Nguyen]

There have been so many top-level arrests that I really think that they must have nabbed somebody big.

I don't know - I think we are just finally using our intelligence capabilities. Clinton never bothered, and eviscerated our HUMINT.

[jpl]

Of course, there could also have been a partnership prior to the war, and I think there probably was -- which makes the whole thing moot. ;-)

I agree. There's still the whole point in dispute about Mohammed Atta meeting an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague, which the Czech government absolutely stands by, but our government says there's no evidence for. And if you ask me, the credibility of our intelligence services doesn't really look too good right now.

Plus, there's the little matter of Abu Nidal being assassinated in Iraq by Saddam's thugs, and I don't believe for one second that Abu Nidal just happened to decide to move there shortly prior to the war.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

"Hang 'em high!"

No, I think every one of the AlQaeda skum should be buried alive in a bed of pig dung.

[Destructor]

I would go along with you on that idea, if they were first wrapped in a pig skin, then buried alive in pig dung!

[ikez78]

PING