Alleged al-Qaida Aide Said to Fake Death

AP/ABC ^ | 01/02/06 | SELCAN HACAOGLU

[ncountylee]

Alleged al-Qaida Operative Wanted for Bombings in Turkey Said to Elude Officials by Faking Death

ISTANBUL, Turkey - An alleged al-Qaida operative accused of serving as a key link between the group's leaders and suicide bombers hid his tracks so well that even fellow militants thought he was dead.

Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, wanted by Turkey for 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 58 people, is said to have eluded intelligence services by using an array of fake IDs, employing aliases even with his al-Qaida contacts and finally faking his death in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004.

The Syrian radical didn't surface until last August, when an accidental explosion forced him to flee his safehouse in the Turkish resort of Antalya, police say. Officers reported finding bomb-making materials meant for an attack on an Israeli cruise ship as well as fake IDs and passports from several countries.

Police eventually cornered al-Saqa in southeastern Turkey and he is awaiting trial on terrorism charges.

His story is an example of how al-Qaida militants operate in the shadows, changing identities, moving from country to country and covering their tracks to help the loosely organized terror network carry out attacks.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

ping

[LibWhacker]

Suspected al-Qaida militant Syrian citizen Loa'i Mohammad Haj
Bakr al-Saqa, center, shouts 'Allahu Akbar,' Arabic for 'God is
great,' as he leaves from a courthouse between plainclothes
Turkish policemen in Istanbul, Turkey, on this Thursday, Aug.
11, 2005 file photo. The Syrian accused of serving as a key
point man between suicide bombers and al-Qaida flew so far
beneath the radar that even fellow militants thought he was
dead. Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, wanted by Turkey for
2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 58 people, is said to have
eluded intelligence services by using an array of fake IDs,
employing aliases even with his al-Qaida contacts and finally
faking his death in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004. (AP Photo/Murad
Sezer/File)

[ncountylee]

A good example of the vermin we face.

[bannie]

Faking his own death is a sure sign that he knows his ship's done for.

(Yea, I know that the metaphor doesn't work; but I'm too tired to fix it.)

:-p

[GeronL]

we need more bug spray

[endthematrix]

One of his conspirators in another plot was a Jordanian-American Raed Hijazi (captured sentenced to death) who was first exposed to radical Islam while studying business at California State University, Sacramento, in 1991. Hijazi had received military training in Afghanistan in 1999.

[SunkenCiv]

The Turks need to make sure, by fingerprinting him before and after the hanging.