Posted on 04/27/2007 4:30:10 PM PDT by Pokey78
The al-Qaeda leader who is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7 suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain has been captured by the Americans.
Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a former major in Saddam Husseins army, was apprehended as he tried to enter Iraq from Iran and was transferred this week to the high-value detainee programme at Guantanamo Bay.
Abd al-Hadi was taken into CIA custody last year, it emerged from US intelligence sources yesterday, in a move which suggests that he was interrogated for months in a ghost prison before being transferred to the internment camp in Cuba.
Abd al-Hadi, 45, was regarded as one of al-Qaedas most experienced, most intelligent and most ruthless commanders. Senior counter-terrorism sources told The Times that he was the man who, in 2003, identified Britain as the key battleground for exporting al-Qaedas holy war to Europe.
Abd al-Hadi recognised the potential for turning young Muslim radicals from Britain who wanted to become mujahidin in Afghanistan or Iraq into terrorists who could carry out attacks in their home country. He realised that their knowledge of Britain, possession of British passports and natural command of English made them ideal recruits. After al-Qaeda restructured its operations in Pakistans tribal areas he sought out young Britons for instruction at training camps. In late 2004 Abd al-Hadi met Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, from Leeds, at a militant camp in Pakistan and, in the words of a senior investigator, retasked them to become suicide bombers.
They were sent back to Britain where they led the terrorist cell that carried out the 7/7 bombings, killing 52 Tube and bus passengers.
Pakistani intelligence sources said that Abd al-Hadi was also in contact with Rachid Rauf, a Birmingham man now in prison in Pakistan and alleged to be a key figure in last summers alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners in mid-flight.
Abd al-Hadi has also been linked to a number of other foiled al-Qaeda plots to carry out attacks in Britain. But the Security Service, which has previously sent officials to question detainees at Guantanamo Bay, may not have the opportunity to question him directly.
The Governments recently adopted position in favour of closing Guantanamo Bay is likely to act as a bar on agents travelling there. British Intelligence would have to rely on relaying questions it would like asked by American interrogators.
Security sources said they assessed Abd al-Hadi as a key operational commander, high up the chain in the al-Qaeda structure who was behind many key plots in the UK.
He had a close link with another arrested al-Qaeda figure and, the sources said, would have a wealth of information. He is thought to have been in contact with Osama bin Laden before his capture and might be able to provide information about his leaders whereabouts.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said that Abd al-Hadi had been classified as a high-value detainee at Guantanamo, and joined 14 others, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, as the most senior terror suspects at the Cuba prison.
Mr Whitman refused to say when or where he was captured, or by whom. Abd al-Hadi was trying to return to his native country, Iraq, to manage al-Qaeda's affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against Western targets, Mr Whitman said.
He added that he was a key al-Qaeda paramilitary leader in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, and between 2002 and 2004 led efforts to attack US forces in Afghanistan with terrorist units based in Pakistan.
In a lecture this week Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, commander of Sctoland Yards Counter-Terrorism Command, said that the central al-Qaeda leadership was behind a spate of terror plots against Britain.
He said: We have seen how al-Qaeda has been able to survive a prolonged multinational assault on its structures, personnel and logistics. It has certainly retained its ability to deliver centrally directed attacks here in the UK. In case after case, the hand of core al-Qaeda can be clearly seen.
Sources said last night that few figures had been more important at the centre of the revived al-Qaeda. Abd al-Hadi is credited with forming its alliance with the insurgency in Iraq.
US officials said he was associated with leaders of other extremist groups allied with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including the Taleban.
Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIAs bin Laden unit, told The Times that catching Abd al-Hadi was important but that it did not spell the end of al-Qaeda.
He said Abd al-Hadi had been an important figure in developing al-Qaedas strategy in the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan and also helped to redirect its terrorist strategy in Europe.
Mr Scheuer, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, said: It is a blow for al-Qaeda, especially in Iraq, where it will have consequences.
But al-Qaeda always plans for succession, and there will have been someone lined up to take his place. It is nonsense to think that al-Qaeda is dead.
Yep. Maybe it's really al Qaeda and Iran against the market goers and university students.
No big deal.. Consider this: al Reid, al Pelosi, al NBC/ABC/CBS/CNN/PBS, al Democrats still roam free. This WOT is “lost”. *shuddering as I wait for government cheese and to find out what Rosie does*
BUSH STILL LIED DAMNIT! < /Moonbat >
"Huh?"
Nice catch!
Now you went and made me spray my Diet Coke on the screen.
You should be doing PR for the Bush Administration!
Well, since the article said "arrested", unfortunately it's not Harry Reid.
I hope he gets a few high-value beatings.
And there never was a connection, Bush just went and developed an invade-Iraq fetish for no reason whatsoever.
Al Qaeda also forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezballah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States. -- 1998 US Grand Jury Indictment against Usama bin Laden (November 6, 1998)
I question the timing... where was Rove and what’s Rummy doing nowdays? We all know the CIA and those contractors (probably paid by Halliburton), grabbed an innocent man and framed him... where’s his rights? /dripping sarcasm.
Oh, I forgot:
If Bush hadn’t gone there... Al Q wouldn’t have come to Iraq; Why must you chickenhawks lie and attempt to force a connection? Stop being Bushbots. /insane sarcasm
There... that’s better. Move along... nothing to see here... Ooh Look! There’s Al Gore and Sheryl Crow!
ping
It’s like the global warming thing...facts have nothing to do it, the Democrats will religiously maintain with insistence that Saddam’s Iraq was the one place in the Islamic world that had no connection to Al-Qaeda and terror. It’s theology and doctrine with them now.
It's Bush's job to educate you??? Clearly this news was released by the administration. Your frustration is misdirected. Your complaint should be with the MSM.
The AQ home office is looking to resume more control worldwide. Look at this in connection with recent events in Africa where AQ has taken over what is basically the remnants of GSPC. They want to be more than just the owners of the franchise name, they want real control.
"This is crap. Announce on Friday so it can be old news by Monday. Should be announced on Monday along with a press conference featuring the CinC making the announcement. Also point out that this is the anniversary of the fall of Saigon, and reiterate the danger of the Reid surrender bill. Then the 'craps send their surrender bill up on the anniversary of "Mission Accomplished". CinC vetos the Iraq surrender bill and announces, Mission Reaccomplished. Point out that they gave Saigon to the enemy, they will not give America to the enemy.Hey George, how about doing it? Past time to play hard ball with the 5th column.""Great post. Tony Snow, if you still read this site, please note the hardball politics eloquently expressed in detail in this post."
Wait a minute! How is this possible? Didn’t we already “lose” this war?
1992 : (THIS YEAR IS WHEN IRAQ BEGAN CONSIDERING OSAMA BIN LADEN TO BE THEIR INTELLIGENCE ASSET - See HARMONY DOCS, IRAQ / BIN LADEN) We know from these IIS documents that beginning in 1992 the former Iraqi regime regarded bin Laden as an Iraqi Intelligence asset. We know from IIS documents that the former Iraqi regime provided safe haven and financial support to an Iraqi who has admitted to mixing the chemicals for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. We know from IIS documents that Saddam Hussein agreed to Osama bin Laden's request to broadcast anti-Saudi propaganda on Iraqi state-run television. We know from IIS documents that a "trusted confidante" of bin Laden stayed for more than two weeks at a posh Baghdad hotel as the guest of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. --------Weekly Standard: The Mother of All Connections
NOVEMBER 1992 : ONE OF AL JEHAD WA'L TADJEED'S LEADERS VISITS IRAQ, READY TO STRIKE AGAINST "US INTERESTS AT ANY TIME") The documents describe Al-Jehad wa'l Tajdeed as "a secret Palestinian organization" founded after the first Persian Gulf War that "believes in armed struggle against U.S. and western interests." The leaders of the group, according to the Iraqi memo, were stationed in Jordan in 1993, and when one of those leaders visited Iraq in November 1992, he "showed the readiness of his organization to execute operations against U.S. interests at any time." (See More Saddam Connections to al Qaeda) Tefft believes the Tajdeed group likely included al-Zarqawi, whom Teft described as "our current [2004] terrorist nemesis" in Iraq, "a Palestinian on a Jordanian passport who was with al Qaeda and bin Laden in Afghanistan prior to this period (1993)." ------- "Exclusive: Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties," by Scott Wheeler, CNSNews, October 4, 2004
DECEMBER 29, 1992 : (ADEN, YEMEN : BIN LADEN'S FIRST ATTACK AGAINST THE US - TWO HOTELS FREQUENTED BY AMERICANS?) Bin Laden's first attack against US-two hotels in Aden, Yemen ---------- "PRE-BUSH timeline/list of Iraq's Ties To Al Queda," by Sam Pender-author of Iraq's Smoking Gun and other books on the matter , 6/12/04 [from US News & Time 1997 to 2000]
FEBRUARY 1993 : (NY CITY : 1993 WTC BOMBING --- See IBRAHIM SULEIMAN, HIKMAT SHAKIR, MUSAB YASIN, ABDULRAHMAN YASIN, ZSM & KSM ) Shakir, the Iraqi-born facilitator, would be arrested six days after the September 11 attacks by authorities in Doha, Qatar. According to an October 7, 2002, article by Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, "A search of Shakir's apartment in Doha, the country's capital, yielded a treasure trove, including telephone records linking him to suspects in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Project Bojinka, a 1994 Manila plot to blow up civilian airliners over the Pacific Ocean." (Isikoff, it should be noted, has been a prominent skeptic of an Iraq-al Qaeda connection.) [The Iraqi Hikmat] Shakir had contact information for a lot of bad people. As noted, one was a Kuwaiti, Ibrahim Suleiman, whose fingerprints were found on the bombmaking manuals U.S. authorities allege were used in preparation for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Suleiman was convicted of perjury and deported to Jordan. Another was Musab Yasin, the brother of 1993 Trade Center bomber Abdul Rahman Yasin. Yet another was Zahid Sheikh Mohammed, brother of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, now in U.S. custody. Shakir also had an old number for Taba Investments, an al Qaeda front group. It was the number long used by Mahmdouh Mahmud Salim, the highest-ranking Iraqi member of al Qaeda. According to testimony from al Qaeda informants, Salim maintained a good relationship with Saddam's intelligence service. Despite all of this, the Qatari authorities released Shakir shortly after they arrested him [in late 2001]. ------ "Stephen Hayes:See No Evil, Hear No Evil," (What the 9/11 Commission narrative left out: Iraqis) , Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, September 5 / September 12, 2005, Posted on 08/28/2005 1:49:07 PM PDT by RWR8189
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