Posted on 07/01/2007 8:58:07 AM PDT by TrebleRebel
WASHINGTON — In the fall of 1992, Kanatjan Alibekov defected from Russia to the United States, bringing detailed, and chilling, descriptions of his role in making biological weapons for the former Soviet Union.
----------- Officials still value his seminal depictions of the Soviet program. But recent events have propelled questions about Alibek's reliability:
No biological weapon of mass destruction has been found in Iraq. His most sensational research findings, with U.S. colleagues, have not withstood peer review by scientific specialists. His promotion of nonprescription pills — sold in his name over the Internet and claiming to bolster the immune system — was ridiculed by some scientists. He resigned as executive director of a Virginia university's biodefense center 10 months ago while facing internal strife over his stewardship.
And, as Alibek raised fear of bioterrorism in the United States, he also has sought to profit from that fear.
By his count, Alibek has won about $28 million in federal grants or contracts for himself or entities that hired him.
The Los Angeles Times explored Alibek's public pronouncements, research and business activities as part of a series that will examine companies and government officials central to the U.S. war on terrorism -----------------------
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
What role does Goldman Sachs play in the US economy? WSJ in 2004 explained:
“The detainee [Mohammed] said that in the early-mid 1990s, he and [convicted 1993 World Trade Center bomber] Ramzi Yusuf would think about what drives the U.S. economy, when brainstorming about potential targets. The detainee listed Hollywood, automobiles and wheat as major contributors to the U.S. economy,” the interrogation summary said.
***
While the Hollywood plot might seem far-fetched today, intelligence analysts point out that when U.S. agents uncovered plans to attack tall buildings with planes, they dismissed them as being the fantasy of a warped mind.
More menacing is another scheme that Mr. Mohammed referred to as the “Anthrax Project,” which studied ways to deliver the lethal germ in the U.S.
***
Some intelligence experts believe it is important for the U.S. to study past al Qaida schemes but warn against relying too heavily on the information to help stop attacks.”It is not necessarily true that past terrorist behavior is a predictor of future events,” says Chris Cox, a California Republican who is chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. “The element of surprise is as important to terrorists as it is to conventional war planners.” [ 12-07-04 0401GMT ]
The former Deputy Director of the FBI Lab helping to chart the lab’s initial course, was Randall Murch. Who does he think was responsible? He is at Virginia Tech. In 2001, Dr. Randall Murch also served as director of the Advanced Systems and Concepts Office, at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Department of Defense.
For DOD’s DTRA, he was responsible for leading advanced studies on complex challenges dealing with weapons of mass destruction. He likely is expert on such issues as the FBI’s attempt in Amerithrax to divine how fast mutation occurs so as to judge the probativeness of the inverted plasmid, and its study of the elements of an anthrax spore. But he also likely is knowledgeable about issues of biosecurity.
For example, in 2001, what did the DOD and FBI do to ensure that someone taught by and working closely with Bin Laden’s sheik, the sheik who was the express subject of Bin Laden’s declaration of war against the US and the express subject of the claim of responsibility for the 1998 embassy bombings, was not working with a high security clearance for the US military on these matters. What was done to ensure that such a person was not given access to the DARPA-funded Center for Biodefense facilities along with the ATCC facilities. Dr. Alibek and Dr. Bailey consulted with Battelle. Dr. Bailey worked for DIA. The Amerithrax deputy director worked for DTRA in 2001. While I don’t presume to know “who did it” or understand the science, I know that there are difficult questions that still needed to be answered.
Now when Professor Frances Boyle raises these same questions, we can take note that he reports he is on a terrorist watch list and avoid the question. When Barbara Rosenberg raises these questions, we can appreciate that she is a longstanding Administration critic on the issue of the proliferation of biological weapons. But Freeper Great Satan once derisively described me as the FBI’s “fanboy” — and even I think there are interesting questions raised by people like TrebleRebel. Only the integrity of the folks leading the investigation provide any assurance that the investigation has always been on a sound course.
Assistant FBI Director Michael Mason for a time was head of the Amerithrax investigation as head of the DC Field Office. In March 2004, Michael Mason explained to students gathered at his alma mater: “Our No. 1 job is disruption today. Now you have 100,000 pieces to a puzzle. Somebody has carted off all the box tops, and embedded inside those 100,000 pieces is a 20-piece picture of an event that you have to get out in front of and prevent before it happens while at the same time trying to preserve all the freedoms and liberties that we have come to embrace in this country.” He continued: “But we still have to do the job the right way. My job is to make sure that we do it the right way — that, in our zeal, we do not do anything that takes away from what defines us.” “If we lose confidence in our institutions, then we tear away at the very fabric that defines democracy. When you no longer trust the courts, the police, congressmen, senators, that’s the beginning of the end. That’s some of the most important work that we do.”
Joining the bureau in 1985, Special Agent Mason handled narcotics violations, violent crimes, white-collar crimes and public corruption. He once worked undercover capacity and as a sniper on SWAT teams, and he has headed up large operations at FBI Headquarters. He was especially relieved the time he did not have to shoot the suicidal Elvis impersonator in a Sears parking lot. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, he served as special assistant to FBI Director Robert Mueller.Growing up in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood, he came to Syracuse and ended up in Buffalo — then went to head the office in Sacramento, before moving on to DC. When he became assistant director in charge of the Washington, D.C., field office, he oversaw the office’s massive counterintelligence efforts against foreign intelligence agents based in Washington, DC. While in Buffalo, harking back to his days watching Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. on television, he addressed the portrayal of the FBI in “X-Files”, suggesting that reality was just as interesting. Special Agent Fox Mulder on “X-Files” might say “There’s no such thing as coincidences.”
Mason was in the Syracuse office, when 2:15 a.m. one night, a 115,000-volt transmission tower came crashing down not far down the street from me. Mason investigated when the tower on the nearby Onondaga Indian reservation came 50 feet from landing on a cigarette shop, near where the local residents buy their smokes.
“This is a serious felony. It is more than just criminal mischief,” Mason said. The Niagara Mohawk spokesperson declined to comment on what caused the tower to fall. But a local Onondaga businessman Oliver Hill said he knew. The tower missed crushing his cigarette shop by about 50 feet, which had been opened without the permission of the local Onondaga tribal leaders. “There has been sabotage on that tower because on each leg there are 20 to 30 bolts,” said Hill. “All the bolts were taken out on all four legs. So when the bolts are taken out, there’s nothing to hold it up so it fell over. Yes, it was sabotage.” I didn’t call the local FBI office about the tower incident. After all, smoking kills 400,000 people a year.
Instead, I contacted the FBI office to tell them that a Ronald Reagan mask had been found along with a bank bag where the man lay in wait with a semi-automatic — first for my brother, and then the next week my father. The FBI agent in the small local office, who did not identify himself, said something to the effect: “We killed the Closing Time Bandit who used a Ronald Reagan mask in robbing banks. So this guy can’t be responsible for those robberies.”
Ronald Petersen had been killed Aug. 15, 1996 by FBI agents in the Rochester suburb of Henrietta while plotting another heist. The rightist, who had been tracked by a miniature television camera on a telephone pole outside his home, died in a hail of bullets. When police searched his house in Liverpool, a Syracuse suburb, they recovered 20 guns, including two Uzis, 20,000 rounds of ammunition and a cache of explosives.
“I know. “ I said, “This guy’s parole officer says his apartment in Watertown is covered with newspaper articles glorifying famous New York State criminals. He’s trying to make you fellows look foolish. By being a copycat and making it look like you killed the wrong guy.”
The ex-convict and three-time loser who tried to take my Dad away at gunpoint that night before Christmas got 25 years to life. Robbery was the apparent motive. That night, the police siren had come on in within seconds of the 9/11 call coming in. The gunman spent the night holed up in a nearby garage and was captured after a psychiatrist/hostage negotiator came from Syracuse and talked him out of the garage. He asked that they kneel and pray together. (I never said the gunman, a former altar boy, was very bright). So why, as a liberal, am I such a booster of the FBI and local law enforcement? Of Agent Michael Mason in particular? Because it is their job to protect and serve when some among us, overcome by anger and not being properly socialized, resort to hurting innocents, such as the elderly Mrs. Lundgren or the infant at ABC. It’s time to stop second-guessing the FBI based on inadequate information and be supportive even if we might disagree with them.
Mason was a friend in Syracuse, anti-war activist Kathleen Rumpf, who calls herself a “felon for peace” and is a staunch IANA supporter. She had been a personal hero of mine long before I met her. She spent several months in prison for trespassing during a demonstration against the School for the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga. She has worked for years fighting for prisoner rights and other issues. When Mason showed up there one of the first things he did was meet with her. “He’s quite wonderful,” Rumpf told the Sacramento Bee in an interview from the Syracuse offices of the American Civil Liberties Union. “He was incredibly responsible and treated me with great respect.” Mason says: “I’m not complicated enough to be political. It’s too hard.”
As part of canvassing as part of a local political campaign, I was walking up a street in Syracuse in front of Kathleen Rumpf’s home on October 15, 2003 when my wife drove up, pointing out that the very short street had both Rumpf and the Berrigans (related to the recently deceased famed Catholic anti-nuclear pacifist). My time would be wasted urging them to vote for The Candidate, my mother-in-law. They were long-time family friends. I had been at a charity fundraiser when she ran merrily around the crowd — at the egging of one of the performers on stage — when the elder Berrigan spoke eloquently against the war in Iraq.
This is how this liberal could be in favor of the Patriot Act — and not as concerned about the privacy rights, for example, associated with what people read in the library. This is just a couple years after I crusaded for what I argued was widespread illegal wiretapping by the local law enforcement authorities in some states such as Vermont. (With the advent of digital wiretapping, the potential for abuse is huge).
The week before, I bought a bumper sticker from Barrie Gewanter, the local ACLU activist, at the Syracuse Festival of Races. I told her that I greatly admired her work and that reasonable people can disagree. The key, I said, to achieve the best balancing of interests was to have an informed debate. But when I know that people like Michael Mason are advising Director Mueller, I feel both secure and confident that authorities will always continue to strive to strike an appropriate balance.
Mason once gave a speech to 250 high school students gathered at the Syracuse University campus in 1998 for High School Press Day in which he explained to the students that it was important for both the FBI and the media not to rush to judgment. He drew parallels between the two professions, explaining that the most important characteristic in either profession is integrity. On another occasion, he spoke bluntly to young inmates and told them there were consequences to their actions. Another time he and the DA spoke to kids about violence at the request of area educators.
One of his most baffling cases was a rash of thefts of two-way radios throughout the area.
Mason realized the importance of catching a lucky break in a case. Once, in 1998, he had been working for 4 months trying to track down the 2 year old daughter who had been taken by a divorced father from the mother. He fruitlessly tracked leads that seemed to lead to Australia and London. Then one Saturday he went to work to collect his thoughts and plot a new strategy, when someone called from Montreal to describe the drunken boasting of the father in a bar in Montreal.
Before moving on to Washington, D.C., Mason said his most memorable case was the “Closing Time Bandit,” a dangerous bank robber who left few clues. Not long before he was shot dead as 40 FBI agents surrounded him at Henrietta, New York, the robber had decorated his yard with balloons on his daughter’s birthday.
Mason investigated teenage Animal Defense League members in connection with an attempted bombing incident at a local meat plant noting that the FBI was not targeting their beliefs, but their actions when those beliefs turned to violence. During his stay in Syracuse, his only apparent involvement in matters relating to radical islamists was to read of goings-on at the kitchen table in the morning. “Bomb focuses on radical cleric: Imprisoned sheik’s followers might have sent letter bombs,” investigators say,” Syracuse Herald-Journal, Jan. 4, 1997
Mason once described how a bank robbery was solved by discovering that the bank note had been written by a second grader. The bank robber, Michael Davis, handed a teller at the Marine Midland Bank a note demanding money on January 5, 1990. On the bottom half, police found part of a letter to a child signed by “Santa’s Helper.” Agents traced the letter to a second grade class at Franklin Elementary School, where the bank robber’s stepson attended. The FBI then was able to match the robber’s palm print to the note. Let’s hope Mason, while he was working Amerithrax, was working Saturdays — and has a SWAT Team at the ready (and a camera on the telephone pole outside) — and not hoping that a kid wrote the anthrax letters.
How many does it take to monitor one person who needs to be closely surveilled? As many as eight agents per shift if he is mobile. Another half-dozen to listen in on his calls. Others perhaps to file wiretap reports or handle aerial surveillance. A couple supervisory agents to oversee the case. $55 an hour for an agent. $150 for a plane. A lot more for electronic surveillance.
Consider the example of a 35 year-old fellow named Mubarak, who was a friend of Murad, a key player in Bojinka. He lived with Murad before Murad had gone to the Philippines and plotted to blow up a bunch of airliners simultaneously. And, yes, Mubarak went to flight school. Agent Michael Mason, who headed the FBI’s Sacramento Office and then came to head Amerithrax, said “there were sufficient connections that necessitated his removal to another country.” “If he were a U.S. citizen, he might be walking around the [Sacramento] area today,” Mason said. “But .. inasmuch as his residency in this country was an issue, that just became another arrow in my quiver to neutralize the threat.” The same article also provides interesting examples of associates of the likes of 9/11 hijackers and former Falls Church residents Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour.
“What we have over the U.S. is a net,” Mason has said. “At best, what we’re doing is shrinking the mesh in the net. We’re trying to kick down the door of the person who’s going to drive the truck loaded with explosives. But can we do it in time?”
When I told Agent Mason that I thought Zawahiri was behind the anthrax mailings, he responded by email that the FBI had not reached any conclusion but was leaving no stone unturned.
Numerous illustrious legal beagles have been hard at work developing an entire new field of science that would stand up to a withering OJ-worthy scrutiny. “This book describes the new and growing field of Microbial Forensics-the science that will help bring to justice criminals and terrorists who use biological material to cause harm. This book describes the foundation of the field of microbial forensics and will serve as a basic primer to initiate those scientists and officials that have an interest in the topic. It covers a variety of areas from forensic science, to microbiology, to epidemiology, to bioinformatics, and to legal issues.”
Authors of the lead chapter “Microbial Forensics” include Bruce Budowie of the FBI Lab and James P. Burans. Burans, as honored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at a Washington, D.C. ceremony in 2002 for his help during the anthrax attacks. He was a scientific consultant to the FBI on the analysis of the mailed anthrax. The Federal Law Enforcement Officer’s Association also named Burans Civilian of the Year for his assistance.
Names familiar to many who have followed Amerithrax closely include the author of “Bacterial Pathogens” Paul Keim, who has been part of FBI investigation working on the DNA sequencing of Ames and John Ezzell, author of the section on “Forensic handling of biological threat samples in the lab.”
The most interesting chapter is “Non-DNA methods for biological signatures” with a raft of authors.
“Population genetics of bacteria in a forensic context” may not pinpoint the lab, without more, but Paul Keim stands ready with co-author Richard E. Lenski to explain how it can narrow the field.
And to balance the pessimistic comments by former FBI Lab Director Murch to CBS, about whether the science could prove the Amerithrax case, rounding out the text are articles reminiscent of OJ. Joseph M. Campos offers “Quality management in forensics laboratories” and Rock Harmon writes on “Admissibility standards for scientific evidence.” A former long-time Assistant District Attorney from California, he helped develop the protocol to assist law enforcement agencies in solving previously unsolved cases through the use of DNA typing.
Working for the HSD, the Biosecurity and Nanosciences Laboratory has built a computer database of biological signatures, an approach that in Amerithrax is complementary to Keim’s PCR technique, which focuses on DNA signatures. (PCR means polymerase chain reaction.) A detector using PCR amplifies a short stretch of a pathogen’s DNA to determine its characteristics. Dr Yoreo’s lab characterize, for example, single spores of anthrax with high sensitivity. One scientist at the lab has “correlated the growth and processing of samples with results from different techniques (e.g., atomic force microscopy that provides molecular level pictures of bio-agents)” and “looked at surrogate (i.e., harmless) samples of different strains of anthrax, then looked at harmless ‘weaponized’ anthrax surrogate samples.” “Her goal is to identify the growth medium for anthrax, then compare its signature with our library.”
Internal newsletters indicate that the Lawrence Livermore was first enlisted to combat the Bin Laden anthrax threat in 1998 by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. And so although former FBI Lab Director Murch, who once played a key role in charting direction of DTRA research in 2001 and 2002 was quoted in a press account saying there is no “smoking gun” in Amerithrax, these young and talented folks keep looking.
I, for one, sleep well at night knowing men with the integriy of Mason and Mueller are on the job. You should too.
At a recent June 28, 2007 fundraiser for Al-Timimi’s friend, a local oncologist Rafil Dhafir who had been IANA Vice-Chairman, I sat down with his closest supporters and laid out my theory of Amerithrax. The fundraiser was held at the local university with a wonderful buffet at the local mosque afterwards. The day before someone had sent 70 letters from the Queens, NY area purporting to be from AQ USA and threatening an attack on Goldman, Sachs. On July 11, the same sender wrote a letter stating that the first letters had been a hoax by three teenagers pulling what they thought was a funny and creative prank. The second letter said that in connection with the first, furniture polish had been used to wipe fingerprints from the envelope and stamp. That was an odd and intriguing reference given that the July 11 letter also said that the teens had worn gloves. Furniture polish tends to have silicone. Was the sender trying to draw attention away from silica being key to understanding the forensics in Amerithrax? Unlike in Amerithrax, in connection with the Goldman Sachs letters, the sender had made a key mistake and so, according to one FBI official, an arrest was inevitable.
Life continues to be a grand mystery and the answers are seldom going to be found in a book or on a webpage.
Okayyyy, but .......
So you are absolutely correct. The furniture polish aspect is fascinating (to me and you).
So, that's it? I'm loaded with new and better arguments this morning. I'm ready to go.
Do you still believe that people routinely use furniture polish to remove fingerprints from paper?
I was expecting you to continue to say over and over that it says on furniture polish labels that it "removes fingerprints," just the way TrebelRebel endlessly repeats phrases out of context to make his points.
But it appears you just want to go back to talking to yourself about al Qaeda.
It’s almost as if they wanted to point away from silica as being key to understanding the weaponization in Amerithrax.
OR he was trying to point TOWARD what al Qaeda included in some training manual about applying silicone to the insides of envelopes to help keep anthrax powders from escaping.
“Do you still believe that people routinely use furniture polish to remove fingerprints from paper?”
I have no learning on the subject. My Junior G-Man badge didn’t come with a textbook on forensics. I asked you for authority. You pointed out an even more fundamental issue — why use furniture polish at all given they were wearing gloves?
You now write:
“OR he was trying to point TOWARD what al Qaeda included in some training manual about applying silicone to the insides of envelopes to help keep anthrax powders from escaping.”
The reasonable inference, I think, is that the sender does want to have his 7/11 explanation credited. Now if it is a parent of a teen as claimed, they should come forward so as to avoid punishment.
Now as a logical possibility that should be pursued, if it were a militant islamist, one hypothesis is that the sender is looking to create a “reasonable doubt” relating to Amerithrax.
Pointing to the use of silicon sealant would distract away from the importance forensically of the process relating to use of hydrophobic silica nanoparticles. It was one of the things I posted as a possible explanation for the detection of silica.
But I have no idea who sent the Goldman Sachs letters or why. That’s for the FBI to figure out. Now if they offered a reward or raised the Amerithrax reward to $25 million, I might start seeing if Sponge Bob could be depicted with another 50 dots.
But another related hypothesis is that it was announcement of a planned attack against Goldman Sachs for the purpose of hurting the US economy, that has now been disrupted. (See Mason’s comment that is the FBI’s real goal in these matters, not successful prosecutions as such).
Personally, I think it looks like a woman’s handwriting. So I tend to favor a vigorous running down of all employees in the NYC area who might have a beef they expressed to their teenager (a teen planning on going to college).
But combining that with 7/24 coverage of the usual neo-Salafist suspects who were in NYC area at the time of mailing, seems prudent, unless the FBI knows something the public doesn’t. (Hopefully they do).
An authority on what? That furniture polish isn't a good way to remove fingerprints from paper? That would be like looking for an "authority" that says putting paper in a washing machine and washing it isn't a good way to remove fingerprints. Who would be in the "authority" that? Who would think of doing such a thing in the first place?
Furniture polish is for polishing furniture. The fact that it says on the label that it "removes fingerprints" doesn't automatically mean that it removes fingerprints from paper unless proven otherwise. A spray polish would soak into the paper. It would leave the paper covered with WAX or SILICONE. Would anyone want that obvious "side effect"?
The reasonable inference, I think, is that the sender does want to have his 7/11 explanation credited.
Could you explain that? The sender wants to have his July 11 explanation credited? What does that mean? That he wants to have it printed in the paper? That he wants the FBI to check out the way he used furniture polish? That he wants to go down in history as the guy who first realized that the anthrax envelopes of 2001 were coated with furniture polish?
Now as a logical possibility that should be pursued, if it were a militant islamist, one hypothesis is that the sender is looking to create a “reasonable doubt” relating to Amerithrax.
How would it create "reasonable doubt?" The FBI would undoubtedly know and be able to prove beyond any doubt if the envelopes used in the 2001 mailings were soaked with furniture polish or not.
Personally, I think it looks like a woman’s handwriting. So I tend to favor a vigorous running down of all employees in the NYC area who might have a beef they expressed to their teenager (a teen planning on going to college).
What is it about the handwriting that suggests it is the handwriting of a woman? Granted, it's very neat handwriting. But it certainly isn't the writing of a teenage girl. The writing by hand of 70 letters (and 3 explanation letters) says it's someone who is virtually obsessed with getting his (or her) message into print. It's not something done as a "joke."
I wrote:
“The reasonable inference, I think, is that the sender does want to have his 7/11 explanation credited.”
You wrote:
“Could you explain that? The sender wants to have his July 11 explanation credited?”
Sure. The sender of the letter wants the FBI to think that the person dictating the letter (and taking the dictation) want the FBI to believe that they are a parent and a teenager girl respectively. And that the 70 letters were a prank intended to be creative and funny, and in retaliation for some beef one of the parents had/has with Godlman Sachs.
You write:
“How would it create “reasonable doubt?” The FBI would undoubtedly know and be able to prove beyond any doubt if the envelopes used in the 2001 mailings were soaked with furniture polish or not.”
I would hope so. This perp may not be schooled in such fine details.
You write:
“What is it about the handwriting that suggests it is the handwriting of a woman?”
It’s just my personal, inexpert opinion. If it’s not woman, he writes like a female.
You write:
“But it certainly isn’t the writing of a teenage girl. The writing by hand of 70 letters (and 3 explanation letters) says it’s someone who is virtually obsessed with getting his (or her) message into print. It’s not something done as a ‘joke.’”
I think you are likely right. I mean I can see a copy machine. But recopying it 70 times seems a bit much.
I would think the writer is a female and someone who has spent many years in the United States. You imagined the Amerithrax mailer watches Bill O’Reilly, so I’ll imagine the letter writer to watch Law and Order and an activist. You imagined the Amerithrax perp to be a drunk and so I’ll imagine the letter writer to be beautiful and charming. I mean, red pretty writing. What’s up with that? Everything about the Goldman Sachs letters is charming — not at all scary.
You imagined the perp to be that Wisconsin bowler based on a botched report that Brian Ross made on December 20, 2001 — when he misunderstood what his source was telling him. (The Battelle connection was right and the insider part was right —but he mistakenly filled in all the details based on a report early in the Fall). The leak actually related to my calling the CIA on the batphone about the perp and it went straight to the top. But it wasn’t the FBI that was leaking to Brian Ross and the actual source just butchered it.
So I’ll recommend Badabing Badablonde as the perp.
I mean all those Eiffel Tower pictures TrebleRebel have got me thinking that Badabing has some damn fine penmanship.
According to the Docket in the Hatfill v FBI et al lawsuit, Judge Walton just issued an Order compelling various reporters to "provide full and truthful responses to questions propounded to them by Dr. Hatfill's attorneys." Judge Walton also provided a Memorandum Opinion to support his Order.
I'll need to study the Memorandum Opinion to see what it says before commenting further. But I expect that the media will be providing lots of explanations very shortly.
If so, any discussion of the subject should probably transfer to a new thread which begins with an article published in the media.
I suspect I'll be spending my time on some new thread about Judge Walton's Order to compel for awhile.
August 12, 2007, The Age (Australia)
“Reality, fiction collide as terror comes to town”
My favorite bioterror novel for beach reading is THE FAITHFUL SPY, by a NYT correspondent.
But this new entry looks interesting.
______________
When d’Hage (”Darj” to his mates) was head of military security for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, it was his job to think up horror scenarios - and find ways to stop them. He had also dealt with the Pentagon, the FBI, the CIA and the top echelons of the NSW police, enjoying access to top-secret documents that would have made ideal source material for a fictional terror plot.
***
The book begins with a warning from fictional al-Qaeda operative Dr Khalid Kadeer, a microbiologist and member of the persecuted Uighur Muslim Chinese minority. The terrorist hints at the location of the first of three “warning attacks” that, if ignored, will precede a cataclysm that will destroy Western civilisation.
***
The cesium poisoning of an Australian city’s water supply is one of many catastrophic events in The Beijing Conspiracy. The book begins with a warning from fictional al-Qaeda operative Dr Khalid Kadeer, a microbiologist and member of the persecuted Uighur Muslim Chinese minority. The terrorist hints at the location of the first of three “warning attacks” that, if ignored, will precede a cataclysm that will destroy Western civilisation.
The novel’s fundamentalist Christian US president Denver Harrison threatens, a la George Bush, to smoke the terrorists out of their hideouts. But the more subtle task of working out the details of Kadeer’s threat is taken up by CIA agent and bioterrorism expert Curtis O’Connor and Australian-born microbiologist Dr Kate Braithwaite, who is working on a US secret weapons program to mix smallpox with the even deadlier Ebola and Marburg viruses. The pair discover that Kadeer’s scientists are only one of two groups planning to unleash an “ Ebolapox” supervirus at the Beijing Olympics. And so begins a desperate chase to prevent the death of millions.
***
Revelations about the Soviet weaponisation of smallpox and anthrax, made by defecting former Soviet scientist Dr Ken Alibek, were also on his mind.
Excerpt from The Beijing Conspiracy (extract posted after communication with PBA rights department):
Chapter 1: THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON DC
‘We will strike you when you least expect it, beneath Eternity
where the windmill has been stolen. This is the first of three
warnings. If you do not heed these warnings and if Allah, the Most
Kind, the Most Merciful wills it, we will be forced to implement the
final solution.’
The mood in the White House war cabinet was tense. The briefing
had been hastily convened in the cramped Situation Room beneath
the Oval Office in the West Wing. The video being viewed was
grainy, but the features of sixty-year-old Dr Khalid Kadeer were
clear enough. Like the Hydra of Greek mythology, al-Qaeda had
grown another monstrous head, and the terrorist mastermind was
calm and chillingly confident. Unlike his thinner and more familiar
colleague, Osama bin Laden, the Muslim Uighur from the Xinjiang
Autonomous Region in western China was powerfully built. He was
tall and his demeanor was menacing. His dark, oval face was etched
with the lines of a lifelong Islamic struggle against the West and the
Han Chinese, and his narrow, hooded eyes were black and coldly
calculating. An elegantly embroidered doppa, the traditional headgear
of his Uighur people, covered his fine, grey hair.
Kadeer spoke quietly, inviting President Denver Harrison and the
members of his war cabinet, the most powerful group of men and
women in the world, to dismiss the warning attack as nothing more
than rambling Islamic bravado. Agent Curtis O’Connor wasn’t so
sure. Kadeer was a brilliant microbiologist who had trained at Harvard
University. O’Connor knew Kadeer was very focused.
Curtis O’Connor, an expert on bioterrorism and one of the CIA’s
most knowledgeable agents on Islam, Central Asia and al-Qaeda,
was seated in one of the advisor’s chairs that were placed along the
dark panelled wall of the White House Situation Room. He was
forty-three, fit, with a solid physique and tall, standing at 178 centimetres.
His thick, dark hair was roughly brushed into place. His face
was tanned and his blue eyes were mischievous, although looks could
be misleading. Originally from Ireland, Curtis O’Connor was very
much his own man, and he had one of the sharpest minds in the CIA.
Some time ago he’d concluded that the President and his advisors
were in a state of denial over the war in Iraq. Somehow, he thought,
he would have to influence a change to the dangerous and arrogant
course the Administration had charted for his adopted country and
for the wider western world. O’Connor had little time for presidents
and prime ministers who started wars on false premises, or for sycophantic
advisors and generals who did their bidding, and he had
even less time for religion and the fundamentalists who misused it,
whatever their creed.
‘The West is increasingly using this so-called war on terror to
persecute Muslims all over the world,’ Kadeer continued. ‘Innocent
women and children are being slaughtered in Iraq, in Lebanon, and
in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. Other government
authorities, like those in Beijing, have followed the lead of the United
States, Britain and Australia, using the war on terror to eliminate
Muslim Uighurs they perceive as a threat. You don’t see this in the
West, but China executes more people every year than the rest of the
world combined. Torture and imprisonment is at the whim of the
communists in Beijing, as is the blocking of the internet. Freedom
of speech is non-existent, yet you will flock to the Beijing Olympics
and show support for a murderous regime. It was the same in 1936,’
Kadeer said, a touch of sadness in his voice. ‘The Berlin Olympics
were opened by Hitler and the Third Reich used sporting teams
and the Nazi salute to glorify their regime. You seem to have forgotten
that the Olympic charter is concerned with the harmonious
development of man and the promoting of a peaceful society and
the preservation of human dignity.’ With stunning irony, Kadeer
warned, ‘If you do not change course, where Hitler failed, Islam
will succeed.’
Curtis O’Connor wondered if the first attack might be biological
and if the athletes and the Games might be the target. ‘Beneath
Eternity where the windmill has been stolen’ didn’t sound like a
bacteria or a virus, but O’Connor knew that among the terrorists on
the United States’ most-wanted list, the Muslim scientist and philosopher
had few peers, and no one was in a better position to exploit the
dark, microscopic world of bioterrorism. Despite the disdain on the
faces of President Harrison and the rest of his cabinet, O’Connor
had a feeling that somewhere within the coded first warning was a real
and present danger that the West would ignore at her peril.
***
The President’s thin mouth turned down as he struggled to comprehend
Kadeer’s message. He seemed to be taking the threat to a sinister new level.
‘The Prophet, peace be upon him, predicted that the end times
would be very near when you, the Mushrikeen, and the Jews amongst
you “swarmed against Islam from every hill”. You are swarming
against us today from every hill in all the four corners of the earth. If
your leaders persist with the destruction of the Muslim people; if you
continue to humiliate the Prophet, peace be upon him, your civilisations
will be destroyed in the final solution, as it is predicted in the
noble Qu’ran.’ The Muslim microbiologist closed his holy book.
‘September 11 was the forerunner of much worse to come. Very
soon you will be given your first warning and we will attack you
beneath Eternity. This will be followed by a second and a third warning,
and if you do not heed these warnings from Allah, the Most
Kind, the Most Merciful, you will perish when the single strand
meets its double.’
The blind sheik Abdel Rahman’s son spoke alongside Ali at the 1993 IANA conference — coming from Afghanistan. The blind sheik’s son later was on the WMD Committee that oversaw weaponizng anthrax. Did Ali know this fellow speaker at the conference who was in charge of weaponizing anthrax? Yes.
Now let’s turn to a related question. Did he know the Taliban minister reportedly in possesion of anthrax packets intended for mailing to government officials? Here is the AFP story. It is on the Defense Threat Reduction Agency website.
http://dtirp.dtra.mil/CBW/CBW/Calendar/displayEvent.cfm?link=NG/Ng_17jan07.htm
The miniater’s real name was Abdul Haq Haqiq.
This learned microbiology grad student Al-Timimi, who had a high security clearance for work for the Navy, shared a restroom with the famed Russian bioweaponeer and former USAMRIID head (who was a prolific Ames anthrax researcher. He actively supported the Taliban in a secretive operatrional way. So one key question is: did Ali know this Taliban minister? Timimi believed the Taliban perhaps represented the ideal implementation of shariah and establishment of a caliphate. See, for example, Ali’s 2001 lecture in support of the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddha statues.
Relatedly, the question is whether that alleged weaponized anthrax product pre-dated 9/11, such as Ron Suskind says the stuff seized at Kandahar in 2003 id. Kandahar is where the hijacker with the leg lesion came from. The Washington Post says that the FBI theorized that the anthrax used in the mailings was weaponized in the US and then taken to Afghanistan which is why they searched places in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005 in connection with Amerithrax. Given that the Washington Post has also reported that the FBI suspected Al-Timimi, it is important to understand the nature and extent of the Timimi- Taliban connection.
The destruction of the two fifth-century Buddha statues lining Bamiyan Valley’s soaring cliffs, in March 2001, came after a fatwa ordered by the Taliban that all Afghan “idols” be destroyed as anti-Muslim. Islamists scholars supported the destruction of the Buddha statutes. Among the supporters was American Muslim scholar, GMU microbiology grad Al-Timimi. Ali had long travelled throughout the US and world — Australia, Singapore, London, Canada. See, e.g., Islamic Conf Leicester Univ. 25-28 Aug ‘95 UK with Bilal Philips (then in Dubai and conference speeches in Beijing in 1995) Before Taliban were “the bad guys,” had Ali met some of the ministers while travelling? Did young Hanif ever speak alongside Ali? (I don’t know).
Yazid Sufaat told his wife in 2001 that he was working for a Taliban medical brigade outside of Kandahar.
Ali’s active operational support for the Taliban is well known and a matter of public record. On September 16, 2001, Ali al-Timimi gathered together at least eight of his followers in Virginia to discuss a plan of action following the 9/11 attacks. To ensure the meeting’s secrecy, al-Timimi and the attendees drew the window blinds and disconnected the phones. Al-Timimi then told them that the gathering was an amanaa trust that should be kept secret. He stated that the 9/11 attacks were justified and that the end of time battle had begun. Al-Timimi discussed possibilities for his followers to travel abroad, stressing that the best option would be to answer the call of Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, to fight against American troops who were expected to invade Afghanistan in pursuit of al-Qaeda.
Pakistan was the correct organization from which to obtain military training prior to taking up arms in Afghanistan, because its belief system was good and it focused on combat. After the meeting, four of al-Timimi’s followers agreed to travel immediately to L.E.T. The following day, al-Timimi told two of the four followers how to reach L.E.T. undetected. By September 22, 2001, these four followers had obtained travel visas, driven to J.F.K. airport in New York, and flown to Karachi, Pakistan. Within another two weeks, all four were training and firing weapons in L.E.T. As explained by the wonderful American University Law Review article I’m taking this discussion from, unlike the line of First Amendment cases from Schenck to Brandenburg that addressed public speech, al-Timimi’s speech dealt with private, secretive speech advocating acts dependent on a global network. These characteristics distinguish some speech scenarios in the War on Terror from the public, localized characteristics of previous free speech cases. Al-Timimi intended to incite imminent lawless action because he advocated secretive, global, and detailed action Al-Timimi offered more than abstract guidance on his interpretation of jihad1in Islamic law. Al-Timimi offered specific directions to his followers to achieve the jihadist objectives. A Department of Justice news release alleged Al-Timimi believed that an American invasion of Afghanistan was imminent because the Taliban refused the demands of the United States to turn over Usama Bin Laden. Al-Timimi directed his followers to obtain training in anticipation of the arrival of American forces to achieve a time sensitive goal, not at some indefinite future time. For example, after his meeting with five followers, al-Timimi met again with two of them the very next day and specified how to reach L.E.T. Further, al-Timimi’s insistence on the mission’s furtiveness offers support for his unlawful intentions. The window blinds were drawn, the phones were disconnected, and al-Timimi ordered the burning of the fatwas. Al-Timimi did not intend for the public to learn of his advice. Rather, al-Timimi intended that his followers act as soon as possible before the marketplace could deter his unlawful solicitation.
In October 2001, shortly after the FBI first questioned Al-Timimi, the Taliban emissary to Pakistan denied any involvement in the anthrax mailings, saying “We don’t even know what anthrax is.” The Taliban had long denied having any interest in biological or chemical weapons research. The next month, however, reporters were tipped off by a senior official of the Northern Alliance to check out the Institute of Veterinary Vaccine Production in Kabul run by the Minister of Agriculture.
The lab was repeatedly targeted by bombers but the closest of 13 B-52 bombs landed 50 feet away, causing craters. There was a walk-in incubator to develop bacteria. The equipment used to make vaccines was taken away the day before the bombardment began. The cement walls of the building were cracked. Doors were blasted off their hinges. Shards of glass were strewn on the floor. At the end of one corridor on the second floor a reporter and photographer from The Mirror (UK) were led into a small office. The word “anthrax” was scribbled on an unbroken test tube. A sign read “to be safe than sorry” — the word “better” had fallen off. When AP journalist Kathy Gannon and a photographer stood in front of a glass bottle labeled in English “anthrax spore concentrate” in the two-story building, the photographer’s reflection shone back. The scientists explained that their work at the lab was intended only to develop animal vaccines. Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that “the one place where the only vial that had English on it said ‘anthrax’ kind of gives you pause.” Testing showed that it was avirulent strain used in developing animal vaccines. The scientists complained that much of the anthrax vaccine on hand had expired and that they were having trouble getting the supplies they needed to produce more. Before 9/11, private companies in India and Iran had been their main suppliers. Shipments were halted after Sept. 11, and the laboratories have had to rely on their stocks.
Mullahs oversaw the anthrax vaccine laboratory much to the consternation of the scientist in charge of the lab. The mullahs had ordered that the lab be moved to Kabul so that they could oversee it. According to one British press report, much of the laboratory staff had disappeared some months before 9/11 and their whereabouts were unknown. The Institute once had a staff of 45 and one of Afghanistan’s most modern buildings. The scientists gathered before an AP journalist and photographer pointed to a large clear container that held concentrated anthrax spores. The scientists explained that the Taliban had taken a keen interest in their work. Although he was famed for his ability to recite the koran and not scientifically inclined, the Minister of Agriculture would come and inspect what they were doing. The head of the lab explained, “He and his Taliban superiors were interested in the technical detail of what happened here, although they had no background in science.” The International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization provided the scientists technical help. The head of the lab acknowledging that the Taliban could have obtained the knowledge to handle and develop anthrax. Dr Raoufi said: “Sadly, some use what is meant to be good for their own destructive ends.”
Minister of Agriculture Mullah Qari Abdullah hated the West. Seven months before 9/11 half of the lab’s staff disappeared. “We’d rather have been running the labs on our own,” the lead scientist explained. “But the mullahs were in charge of everything and we couldn’t stop them learning about our activities. There was always a danger information could get into the wrong hands.” The lab was first built in a northern province in 1993 with equipment from India. Scientists infected three sheep to study the results in developing new vaccines. They told a reporter from the Mirror that they buried the carcasses 30 feet down away from any water supplies. “This was very dangerous work, though we knew what we were doing. We developed the technology of how to keep anthrax bacteria and how to develop it for use in vaccines.” I would be suspicious of the anthrax research and any research during the Taliban (period) because they were under the control of Osama and al-Qaida,” the deputy head of Northern Alliance military intelligence, told The Associated Press. “We have strong evidence of their involvement in chemical weapons,” he added. “We believe that they were using government facilities, like the Ministry of Agriculture, to do their research in terrorism.” A source who worked at the factory told the Mirror (UK):: “There’s no doubt the Taliban were planning chemical or biological warfare against the West. I believe anthrax might have been first on their list.”
Connect the dots. Hint: If you aren’t inclined to start with Sadat’s assassination (as you should), start in 1993.
Here is the authority I rely upon partial authority on attendees at the 1993 IANA conference at which Ali gave several talks. In archives.org, you can pick up selected audios including some talks at this conference by Ali Al-Timimi, such as “How to Choose Friends”
The FBI started wiretapping Hassoun in Florida in 1993, as I recall, and so given WTC 1993, they very likely had someone in the audience from the FBI. So they would know better than me whether these speakers actually showed up.
“Sh. Bilal Philips and Sh. Mohammad Qutb at IANA Conference”
More options Dec 8 1993, 1:50 pm
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
From: Juhar Mohammad@crow.csrv.uidaho.edu (Juhar Mohammad)
Date: 7 Dec 93 16:14:11 GMT
Local: Tues, Dec 7 1993 12:14 pm
Subject: Sh. Bilal Philips and Sh. Mohammad Qutb at IANA Conference
Assalamu Alaikum Brothers and Sisters
Below, please find the new list of some of the speakers attending IANA conference:
1 - Sh. Mohammad Qutb. (Egypt)
2 - Sh. Bilal Philips. (U.K.)
3 - Sh. Abdulaziz Qari’a. (Saudia)
4 - Sh. Mohammad Ashshankitte. (Saudia)
5 - Sh. Abu Abdulaziz. (Bosnia)
6 - Sh. Mohammad Othman. (Somalia)
7 - Sh. Jamal Zaraboozaa. (U.S.A.)
8 - Sh. Usamah Abduladheem. (Egypt)
9 - Sh. Jaleel Adeen Khan. (Pakistan)
10- Sh. Abu Ishaq Alhwainy. (Egypt)
11- Br. Anwar Haddam. (Algeria)
12- Br. Mohammad Abdulrahman. (afghanistan)
13- Br. Jamal Sultan. (Egypt)
When: Dec. 18-21 Rajab 5-8
Where: Holiday Inn, O’Hare. Chicago
For More Information Please Call:
(303)745-9866
Fax (303)745-9865
IANA
13918 E. Mississippi Ave. # 240
Aurora, Co. 80012 U.S.A.
A couple months later the same fellow gave notice of a lecture by Ali’s mentor, Bilal Philips, that was given at Dar al-Hijirah mosque in Falls Church, VA in association with the Islamic Assembly of North America and The Society for Adherence to the Sunnah (which was Al-Timimi’s group).
He notes that Dr. Phiiips had just been fired from his job in Saudi Arabia. That was when (in 1994) when Sheik al-Hawali was arrested. The rest is history, as they say, with the Bin Laden attacks aimed at obtaining his mentor al-Hawali’s release beginning that year. Al-Hawali was the express subject of OBL’s declaration of war in 1996 and then the subject of his claim of responsibility for the embassy bombings in 1998. Al-Timimi then drafted a letter for al-Hawali and had it delivered to every member of Congress on the first anniversary of the anthrax letters to Senator Daschle and Senator Leahy.
Prior to being fired by Saudi Arabia, BP was working for the government in recruiting US troops to islam.
BP would be named as an unindicted WTC 1993 conspirator along with another lecturer who continued to lecture alongside Ali at Dar Arqam.
” 7. Lecture by B. Philips ................................. from Juhar Mohammad
Lecture by B. Philips
from
Juhar Mohammad
WITH THE NAME OF ALLAH THE MERCIFUL, BESTOWER OF MERCY
THE SOCIETY FOR ADHERENCE TO THE SUNNAH (SAS)
AND
THE ISLAMIC ASSEMBLY OF NORTH AMERICA (IANA)
IN COOPERATION WITH
DAR AL-HIJRAH
CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO MEET AND HEAR OUR RESPECTED GUEST
ISLAMIC SCHOLAR, LECTURER, WRITER, AND DA’EE
SHEIKH BILAL PHILIPS
AT:
DAR AL-HIJRAH MOSQUE
DATE:
FRIADY, RAMADAN 22, 1414/ MARCH 4, 1994
TIME:
BEGINNING WITH THE FRIDAY SERMON AT 1:15 PM
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL
DAR AL-HIJRAH (703) 536-1030 OR
THE SOCIET FOR ADHERENCE TO THE SUNNAH (202 833 4993
-————————————————————————————————————— -
P.S.: SEIKH BILAL WAS FIRED FROM HIS JOB IN SAUDI ARABIA LATELY AND WAS
ASKED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY WITH SHORT NOTICE. “
The anthrax mailer would think that Mohammed Qutb’s brother — the Qutb you hear more about — is a more important thinker than Zawahiri, whose peers (such as Cairo islamist attorney Montasser al-Zayat) do not view him as an intellectual. They think of him as a fanatic and a strategist. Mohammed is said by some as more moderate than his brother. His brother Sayyid’s landmark book was called “Milestones.”
Umar Lee attended the 1995 conference — I don’t know if he attended the 1993 conference. Umar, if I am mistaken on any of these facts, and I may very well be given that the list is not a list of attendees who actually showed up, please let me know.
Radicalization in the West:
The Homegrown Threat
Prepared by:
Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt
Senior Intelligence Analysts
NYPD Intelligence Division
Here is a report issued today by the NYPD intelligence unit that covers the Falls Church, VA cell. It also discusses, for example, Qutb.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA (Virginia Paintball)
¥ The Salafi Mosque. The Dar Al-Arqam, in Falls Church, Virginia served as a
Salafi ideological incubator for the Virginia cluster. It was used as a meeting
place for extremists and where members of the Virginia cluster were exposed to
radical rhetoric and people
o Ali Al-Timimi, a Salafi and doctoral student in computational biology,
frequently gave lectures at the mosque and became the clusterÕs spiritual
and intellectual leader and mentor to many in the group.
o Prosecutors alleged that al-Timimi enjoyed “rock star” status. He had
enormous charisma, wielding significant influence over this group of young
Muslim men in northern Virginia.85
o Randall Todd Royer, a convert, former U.S. army member and veteran of
the jihad in Bosnia in 1994, lectured at the mosque and spent time with
members of the cluster.
o Lectures at the mosque discussed the righteousness of violent jihad in
Kashmir, Chechnya, and other places around the world.86
¥ Gravitating Towards Salafi Islam. After meeting Ali Al-Timimi and Randall
Todd Royer, some congregants of the group began to interact with them and
discuss religious matters outside the mosque.
STAGE 3: INDOCTRINATION
Both the Portland and Virginia clusters, like the European, Canadian and Australian
groups, withdrew from the mosque as part of their self-imposed isolation.
***
NORTHERN VIRGINIA (Virginia Paintball)
¥ Withdrawal from the Mosque. Beginning in 2000, having progressed to
preparing for jihad, the Virginia cluster met frequently in private locations,
furthering their radicalization with discussions.
¥ Politicization of New Beliefs. In approximately June 2000, Randall Royer, the
convert and former U.S. army member who had fought in Bosnia as a jihadi, held
private discussions with members of the cluster on his experiences serving with
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in Pakistan earlier that year. Members of the cluster were
told not to discuss further any of what they heard. 90
**
STAGE 4: JIHADIZATION
For the Virginia and Portland groups, the attacks of September 11 served as the trigger
for their decision to commit to jihad. Many of these plotters had previously traveled
abroad and attended training camps where they had completed their indoctrination.
***
¥ Training/Preparation. During the summer of 2000, the members of the Virginia
cluster accelerated their purchase and usage of semi-automatic weapons,
ammunition and regularly participated in shooting practice in Pennsylvania and
Virginia. The individuals in the cluster clearly saw themselves as soldiers and this
was part of their training.
o In March 2001, in rural Virginia, the cluster used paintball weapons and
equipment to practice small-unit military tactics, with the intention of
simulating the actual combat environment that they would face.
o By July, another member of the cluster traveled to Pakistan to train in a LeT
camp. All in all, three members of the group engaged in military training in
Pakistan before September 11, 2001. 93
¥ The group also prepared themselves mentally by watching jihadi tapes, prior to
launching on their journey to become mujahedeen.
o The clusterÕs favorite video, “Russian Hell,” a jihad video that featured bloody
clips of a Chechen Muslim rebel leader executing a Russian prisoner of war,
served as a key inspirational force in maintaining the groupÕs zeal and
The New York City Police Department
courage to continue on their path to become jihadists.
According to one member of the cluster, “They (the videos)
motivated us. It was like they gave us inspiration.” 94
***
¥ Accepting Jihad/Decision to Commit Jihad. Although some of the individual
group members had committed to jihad, the decision to accept jihad as a group
occurred five days after the 9/11 attacks at one of the membersÕ house, in
Fairfax, Virginia. The spiritual sanctioner, Ali al-Timimi, told his followers that the
time had come for them to go abroad to join the mujahedeen engaged in violent
jihad in Kashmir, Chechnya, Afghanistan, or Indonesia and that U.S.troops were
legitimate targets. He also told the conspirators that they could fulfill their duty to
engage in jihad by joining the LeT in Pakistan, because the LeT was on the
correct path.
o By September 20, 2001 four members of the cluster had departed the U.S.
for Pakistan and by October, all four had participated in training at a LeT
camp.
¥ The Result. On June 27, 2003, eight of the eleven men were arrested on
charges they formed a ``Virginia jihad network’’ with ties to the Kashmiri
separatist group LeT. 95
[Here are some miscellaneous excerpts]
***
o According to Babar, although his mother had worked in the World Trade
Center, the attack had made him more committed toward the cause of jihad.
He had wanted to fight a jihad in Chechnya and the Palestinian territory but
had not been able to make the right contacts. After September 11, he knew
that Afghanistan would be his only opportunity to participate in jihad. He left
New York the next week. 115
¥ Babar initially traveled to the U.K. and to Pakistan, with the
intention of going to Afghanistan. 116
¥ Hashmi moved to Britain from Queens in 2003, and allegedly
allowed his London flat to be used to store supplies and money
that Babar was shipping out to Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, then head of
al-Qaeda’s operations in Afghanistan. 117
Oui...le message a reçu Samedi.
It is worth noting that GMU microbiology grad Ali Al-Timimi was not the only US-based insider who supports the militants. One New York-based post office worker was an Islamic Group leader according to DOJ officials. US Postal employee Ahmed Abdel Sattar was a “surrogate” for the blind sheik Abdel-Rahman and issue in Abdel-Rahman’s name a fatwa to kill jews. He distributed through the Vanguards of Conquest publicist in the Fall of 2000.
In the Spring of 1999, he had fielded a proposal by Al-Timimi’s colleagues from the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA) quarterly journal — one of whom was the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad — to channel their efforts through nonviolent means, through political participation. After that proposal was rejected, the post office worker worked closely with the head of the Egyptian Islamic Group Taha, the blind sheik’s successor. Taha was the guy pictured alongside Zawahiri and Bin Laden urging that Americans be killed and vowing to free the blind sheik. Abdel-Rahman’s voice was heard in the September 2000 videotape aired on Al Jazeera urging “avenge your sheik” and let the spilling of blood begin. The New York-based post office worker was home from work and watching the videotape as it aired in his small Staten Island apartment when the Islamic Group head Taha called to ask him what he thought.
Sattar came to the United States in 1982 as a tourist. He married a Catholic who converted. He became a naturalized American. They had four children and lived in a small apartment in Staten Island. He went to work for the main post office in Staten Island in 1988. He became a fan of the blind sheik when Abdel Rahman arrived in 1991 and was giving lectures in New Jersey and Brooklyn. He can been pictured alongside Abdel-Rahman in 1993 leaving the courthouse with the blind sheik followers. Sattar made hundreds of phone calls from his family’s small apartment to fundamentalist followers of the sheik across the globe, from Britain to Egypt to Afghanistan. He ran a diaper and baby foods business to raise funds for Abdel Rahman. Over the years, in the course of the calls he arranged, Mr. Sattar eventually joined their debates about using violence. Senior IG leaders began calling in late 1998.
The wiretapped calls show a tense dispute over whether to continue a cease-fire in their long war against the Egyptian government or return to violence. His comments suggest he came to favor the view of those who wanted to abandon the truce. Mr. Sattar’s phone calls show the debate between Sheik Salah Hashim, the group’s leader in Egypt, an outspoken proponent of the cease-fire and Taha, who opposed it. Taha was close to the Taliban and drawing ever closer to Bin Laden and Zawahiri. It was public outrage over those killings led the Islamic Group to announce the cease-fire later that year
In his opening argument, the federal prosecutor explained:
“Sattar led a double life. By day he was a postal worker. By night he was a terrorist living in a shadowy world, a world where to avoid detection people speak in code and don’t use their real names when they speak on the telephone. A world where Abdel Rahman is revered, a world where violence is solicited and terrorist conspiracies are hatched, a world where Sattar can proudly utter the words that he wants everybody to hear. These are his words: ‘Kill Jews wherever they are and wherever you find them.’”
In 1999, Sattar emphasized in a Frontline interview that reaction to what he perceived as a war against Islam was inevitable “You’re going to see the same feeling everywhere in a Muslim country toward Americans right now. In Syria, in Lebanon, in Palestine, in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia, in Morocco, everywhere you go, you’re going to have the same feeling that there is a war declared by the West on Islam, and in particular, the United States of America on Islam. And ... something has to be done about it. [The] reaction ... could be like the bombing in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. It could be some demonstrations in front of American embassies throughout the Islamic world that we saw before. Could be kidnapping of Americans.”
In 1999, US Postal employee Sattar explained his admiration for Bin Laden “I have an admiration for anybody who will stand up to a tyrant and tell him, “You are a tyrant” whether this tyrant [is a] man named [Mubarak] or [the] government of the United States of America.” Sattar described the Blind Sheik as “My friend, my mentor, my sheik, my imam, my father... “ He recognized that it made him a suspect. He explained that he had been followed days and nights, under surveillance 24 hours a day sometimes. He said he had been visited by FBI agents at his Staten Island Post Office job in an attempt to prejudice my co-workers against me. He said “To me, am I a terrorist? Nope. I am a father. I am a man who believes in his religion.”
When the Frontline interviewer in 1999 suggested that the NYC joint terrorism task force likely thought he knew a lot of people who know a lot, he said he did. But he explained that an act like the World Trade Center or Oklahoma City bombing or the 1998 embassy bombings does not need many people to do it. As the result of this operational security and compartmentalization, he is not in a position to know. “Could be four or five people like in the World Trade Center.” He continued: “I’ll tell you something. When the World Trade Center occurred here, the American government released a list. 173 names. And they called them co-conspirators of people who were living in this country, and people living abroad. 173 names. So, let’s not just jump to conclusions because the American government, you know, released a name that he must be a part of it. 173.”
Before 2000, Mr. Sattar seemed to stay aloof from the group’s internal feuds, simply connecting phone calls among its members after finishing his work at the post office. But he began to change in June of that year after Mr. Abdel Rahman issued a statement, announced by Attorney Stewart in a press release in defiance of formal prison restrictions on communication, in which he withdrew his support for the cease-fire. He rushed the news of the cleric’s new view in calls to Islamic Group members overseas. Islamic Group military leader Hamza, who was in Afghanistan at the time as was Taha, protested the sheik’s change and pleaded with Mr. Sattar not to release it to the press.
In his opening argument before the jury, the federal prosecutor explained: “But all the secret messages back and forth between Abdel Rahman and his terrorist network culminate in the spring of 2000, when a public announcement is made by Abdel Rahman, courtesy of these defendants, saying that Abdel Rahman no longer supported a cease fire by this terrorist organization, the cessation of terrorist violence between his organization and the Egyptian government. In essence, these defendants helped Abdel Rahman break out of jail to inspire his terrorist group to return to terrorism. They allowed Abdel Rahman to tell his followers, ‘Fire.’”
After the press release by Attorney Stewart announcing the blind sheik’s new position, Mr. Sattar set up conference calls and then remained on the line while Mr. Hashim speaking from Egypt and Mr. Taha speaking from Afghanistan argued angrily. Mr. Taha said the Egyptian government of President Hosni Mubarak “must be removed, and will not be removed except by using armed force.” “We are in a difficult stage; we can’t use force at all,” Mr. Hashim insisted. Many hundreds of IG members were still in jail and negotiations were underway with the government that sought their release.
At the time of these exchanges, Taha appeared with Bin Laden on a videotape that was broadcast on September 21, 2000, by Al Jazeera. The call for violent worldwide jihad, or religious struggle, to free Mr. Abdel Rahman from jail. A couple days later Mr. Taha called Mr. Sattar to get his reaction. “The words caused such an impact,” Mr. Sattar exclaimed.
In late September 2000, during an upsurge of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Coming home from the post office each day, the transcripts show, he immediately goes to monitor Arab news Web sites and television. The images all look to him like Israeli attacks on innocent Palestinian civilians, according to the transcripts. “Animals, animals, I swear by God the Almighty,” Mr. Sattar said, referring to the Israelis. When Mr. Taha called, Mr. Sattar urged him to compose a religious decree that they could attribute to the sheik. Later he edited Mr. Taha’s draft. “Kill the Jews wherever they are found,” it says. On the day after the fatwah was published Sattar read a newspaper article to Taha. That article identified a man named Atia as the leader of the Islamic Group military wing in Egypt and so Sattar knew full well the line of work of the fellow that would be one the telephone conference call with him and Taha. Taha commented to Sattar that the writer of the article had really good information. Three days later, Taha called Sattar and told Sattar that he should contact Atia and tell them about the fatwah they had issued, the one demanding the murder of the Jews. Sattar agreed to do so and called Atia in early October 2000.
In his opening argument, the federal prosecutor explained: “Using the pretext of attorney-client visits and telephone calls, these defendants were able to break Abdel Rahman’s message of terror out of jail and deliver it to the very people who never should have heard it, other terrorists who still walk the streets and were still able to follow his instructions.” Separately, Taha wrote a legal justification for killing innocents and Sattar had a copy of the book.
Sattar helped Islamic Group leader Taha, who was in Afghanistan with the IG military commander Mustafa Hamza, compose a religious edict and release it under the sheik Abdel-Rahman’s name. He arranged for it to be uploaded to the internet and released to the press. He coordinated with Vanguards of Conquest spokesman Yasir Al-Sirri, based in London. Sattar says he was moved to order the killing of jews after the visit of Ariel Sharon to the site of the Al Aqsa mosque in September 2000. At trial, he lamented Mr. Sharon’s visit as a “violation of that holy place.” His fatwa urged young Muslims to fight Jews “by all possible means of jihad, either by killing them as individuals or by targeting their interests and their advocates, as much as they can.” The blind sheik did not see the fatwa issued in his name until the next week but approved it. The sheik has signed a power of attorney for Mr. Sattar and trusted his judgment completely.
There were among some 90,000 intercepted conversations from Sattar’s home phone made between March 1995 and March 2002, as part of a federal foreign intelligence investigation. The Assistant United States Attorney explained at trial that the “criminal investigation and any consideration of charges were put on hold due to a fear that the criminal investigation could possibly blow the intelligence investigation.” The coincidence that anthrax would be delivered by a postal worker, however, likely did not go unnoticed by those pursuing the theory that US-based supporters of Al Qaeda were responsible for the anthrax mailings.
On July 7, 2004, the restaurant two doors down fired his sons, after 8 months working there, Sattar’s sons were fired from their jobs as busboys. The son confronted the owner, after hearing from cooks and waitresses that it was because of who his father was. The ownder said: “My wife died 9-11, every time I look at you I think of my wife and I don’t want you working here!” His children wrote the judge and urged that their father had done nothing wrong and that it was too painful to be kept away from him. His wife urged leniency too, noting: “ I am convinced that you cannot truthfully evaluate a person unless you have actually had a chance to become acquainted with them.” “Honesty, respect, kindness as well as compassion towards all, qualities that are almost non existent in our youth today, are his legacy to our children.”
A May 2005 Statement of Deputy Assistant Attorney General Chief Counterterrorism Section before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Committee in the House of Representatives described Sattar as an Islamic Group leader. Sattar put Taha in direct contact with the head of the Islamic Group in Egypt who was hiding in southern Egypt. His name was Alla Atia. On October 11, 2000 Sattar told Taha that he had spoken with Atia. He told Taha that he believed that Atia was eager ready and able “to do things,” and that he ad o warn Atia repeatedly during their telephone call that his telephone was “not safe.” Atia then was killed in a raid a week later. In early November, Taha gave Sattar the news that Atia had been killed. Sattar claims that he realized only later that the Atia had been a key planner of an attack at the ancient ruins in Luxor, Egypt in November 1997 in which 58 tourists were killed. Taha in the calls set up by Sattar was urging him to conduct operations. Then Atia was caught and killed. “I feel guilty, guilty. I am telling you I suspect it is 90 percent my phone.”
On October 25, 2000, Sattar spoke by telephone to Taha and told Taha that an Egyptian male was involved in the bombing of the US.S. Cole and that Sattar should help in delivering a message to the US government suggesting that similar attacks wuuld occur unless Abdel Rahman were freed.
When the expert on functionalized polymers, Magdy al-Nashar who arranged for the London flat used by the 7/7 bombers is represented by Mamdouh Ismail (allegedly Zawahiri’s chief conduit to jihadis), it is significant that al-Nashar was connected to the people who did Luxor, according to the biochemist’s brother. US Postal office worker. Sattar was arrested in April 2002 at just about the time the pressure in the media on the FBI was increasing to investigate a US biodefense insider (rather than Al Qaeda) for the anthrax mailings.
The same sort of counterintuitive theory (a bioevangelist theory) was raised in connection with the earlier letter bombing of newspapers to DC and New York City and people in symbolic positions. (Al Hayat letter bombs for which there is up to a $5 million reward under the rewards for justice program) But that time it was US Post Office worker Ahmed Abdel Sattar who noted that the bombs were mailed on December 20, 1996 one day before the brief in support of the blind sheik on appeal. He questioned whether someone (like the FBI) was trying to undermine the appeal’s prospects. This time, Mr. Sattar did not need any help making the argument with respect to the anthrax letters — numerous people with political agendas rushed to do it for him.
NPR set the scene. It was January 2, 1997, at 9:15 a.m. at the National Press Building in Washington, D.C. The employee of the Saudi-owned newspaper Al Hayat began to open a letter. It was a Christmas card — the kind that plays a musical tune. It was white envelope, five and a half inches by six and a half inches, with a computer-generated address label attached. It had foreign postage and a post mark — a post mark in Alexandria, Egypt. It looked suspiciously bulky, so he set it down and called the police. Minutes later they found a similar envelope. These were the first two of four letter bombs that would arrive at Al Hayat during the day.” A fifth letter bomb addressed to the paper was intercepted at a nearby post office. They all looked the same. Two similar letter bombs addressed to the “parole officer” (a position that does not exist) arrived at the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth. It seemed evident how some Grinch had spent the holidays in Alexandria, Egypt.
Egyptian Saif Adel (Makawwi), thought to be in Iran, was involved in military planning. Adel was a colonel in the Egyptian Army’s Special Forces before joining Al Qaeda. He helped plan the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Africa. He was also a planner in the attack on the USS Cole and has served as the liaison officer between Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. Adel assisted Atef, who had overall responsibility for Al Qaeda’s operations. There was part of a long-running disagreement with Saif Adel (Makawwi) and Ayman, however. As Attorney Al-Zayyat has said, Makkawi had many times claimed responsibility for operations that were carried out inside Egypt but when the perpetrators were arrested, it would be al-Zawahiri’s name whose name they shout loyalty to from the docks. Some would even say they did not know a person named Makkawi. After the letter al-Hayat letter bombs were sent in January 1997, Saif Adel (Makawwi) gave a statement denying responsibility on behalf of the Vanguards of Conquest. He got admonished by the unnamed but official spokesman for the Vanguards organization — chastising him as not being authorized to speak for the organization (or even being a member).
On January 7, 1997 Col Muhammad Makkawi purporting to be speaking for the Egyptian Vanguards of Islamic Conquest denied responsibility for sending the letter bombs. He said: “Those are messages of admonishment. There is no flirtation between us and the Americans in order for us to send them such alarming messages in such a manner.” Makkawi said that “the Vanguards of Conquest “are heavyweight and would not embark on such childish actions.” US press and political commentaries had hinted at the Vanguards of Conquest organization’s involvement in these attempts. In his statement to `Al-Hayat, Makkawi added “I am surprised that we in particular, and not other parties, should be accused of such an operation.”
But then someone else credited with being the Vanguards official spokesman denounced Makkawi’s authority to speak for the group, referring to the January 5th statement it had made denying responsibility. This other claimed spokesman said “We welcome any Muslim who wants to join us, and if Makkawi wants to [join us], he will be welcomed to the Vanguards march, but through the organizational channels. But if words are not coupled with actions, we tell him: Fear God, and you can use a different name other than the Vanguards to speak on its behalf.” The spokesman for the Vanguards of Conquest was Al-Sirri, who US Post Office worker Sattar would have upload a fatwa to kill jews that he wrote with the Islamic Group head Taha in September 2000. Sattar issued under Sheik’s Abdel-Rahman’s name, without him even knowing of it until after the fact.
The FBI would not speculate as to who sent the letters or why. But this was your classic “duck that walks like a duck” situation. As NPR reported at the time, “analysts say that letter bombs are rarely sent in batches, and when they are it’s generally prompted by politics, not personal animus.” Al Hayat was a well respected and moderate newspaper. It was friendly to moderate Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt — just as, say NBC and CBS. That, without more, was accurately discerned by observers at the time as sufficient to make the newspaper outlet a target of the militant islamists. The newspaper, its editor explained, does not avoid criticizing militant islamists. The Al Hayat Editor-in-Chief explained: “We’ve been opposed to all extremists in the Arab world, especially the fundamentalists.” Mohammed Salameh, a central defendant in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sent to Leavenworth in 1994. The other three Egyptian extremists convicted in the bombing were sent to prisons in California, Indiana and Colorado. Like the blind sheik, Abdel Rahman, Salameh had complained of his conditions and asked to be avenged. The Blind Sheik was particularly irked that the prison officials did not cut his fingernails.
Rahman was convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy, bombing conspiracy, soliciting an attack on an U.S. military installation, and soliciting the murder of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. His followers were indicted for plotting to bomb bridges, tunnels and landmarks in New York for which Rahman allegedly had given his blessings. The mailing of deadly letters in connection with an earlier attack on the World Trade Center, was not merely the modus operandi of militant islamists, it was the group’s signature — it’s their calling card. Khaled Abu el-Dahab, a naturalised American, from Silicon Valley in a confession detailed in a state security document from Egypt’s defense ministry dated October 28, 1998, explained that he was trained to make booby-trapped letters to send to important people, as well as asked to enroll in American aviation schools to learn how to fly gliders and helicopters. He was a friend of Ali Mohammed, a former special forces officer in the Egyptian army and former US Army Sergeant. He ran the Blind Sheik’s Services Organization in Brooklyn. Islamic Group member Islambouli, the brother of Sadat’s assassin, headed the organization in Peshawar.
After the Al Hayat letter bombs to newspapers in DC and NYC and people in symbolic positions, in January 1997, both the Blind Sheikh and his paralegal, Sattar, were quoted in separate articles in Al Hayat (in Arabic) denying that they or their supporters were responsible. The Blind Sheikh commented that al Hayat was fair and balanced in its coverage and his supporters would have no reason to “hit” them. Sattar noted that the bombs were mailed on December 20, one day before the brief in support of the blind sheik on appeal. He questioned whether someone (like the FBI) was trying to undermine the appeal’s prospects. For its part, al Hayat reporters, editor and owner were not expressing an opinion — though the owner did lay out various possibilities (e.g., Iraq, Iran etc.). The owner of the paper had commanded Saudi forces during the Persian Gulf War, when Bin Laden was so upset about American troops on the Arabian peninsula. Moreover, al Hayat had recently opened up a Bureau in Jerusalem, giving it a dateline of Jerusalem rather than al Quds, which some thought blasphemous. But none of the possibilities would plausibly explain why the letter bomb was sent to Leavensworth where three of the WTC 1993 defendants were imprisoned, including Ramzi Yousef’s lieutenant who had asked that his mistreatment be avenged. (That was the criminal genius who returned to Ryder to reclaim his deposit after blowing up the truck at WTC). Egyptian security officials claimed that said that the letters were sent from outside of Egypt, the stamps were not available in Egypt, and that the postmark was not Alexandria as reported. Whatever the place of mailing, the sender likely was someone who was upset that KSM’s and Ramzi Yousef’s associates had been imprisoned, to include, most notably, the blind sheik. Whoever is responsible for the anthrax mailings, it is a very good bet that they are upset the blind sheik is detained. That should be at the center of any classified profile of the crime.
On December 31, 1996 Mohammed Youssef was in Egypt — having gone to Egypt months before. The al Hayat letter bombs related to the detention and alleged mistreatment of the blind sheikh and the WTC bombers were sent 10 days earlier — on the Day of Measures. In 2006, he was named as co-defendant with Hassoun, Daher, Padilla and Jayyousi. Youssef was born in Alexandria. Do authorities suspect the “Florida cell” of being involved in the al Hayat letter bombs? Kifah Jayyousi’s “Islam Report” over the years — distributed by Adham Hassoun in Florida and Kassem Daher in Canada — expressed outrage at detention/extradition due to terrorism law and also what he perceived as attacks on his religion by some newspapers. His headlines on the internet groups blazed “Just In! First Muslim Victim of New Terrorism Law!: US Agents Arrest Paralegal Of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman Without Charge Prepares To Hand Him To Egyptian Regime,” soc.religion.islam, dated April 27, 1996 and “Islam Report (Newspaper Attacks Our Religion! Act Now!,” soc.religion.islam, Apr. 16, 1996
In connection with the January 1997 letter bombs, Ayman got the know-how to send sophisticated electronic letter bombs from Iraqi intelligence according to one item from the highly controversial Feith memo. In the al Hayat letter bombings, Ayman allowed the finger to be pointed at Libya. In the Amerithrax letters, he allowed the finger to be pointed to a United States biodefense insider. Tenet in his May 2007 book included Saif Adel as among “al-Qa’da’s leadership to the group’s highly compartmentalized chemical, biological, and nuclear networks.”
In September 2006, in a Sahab Media production called “Knowledge is for acting,” there is a clip in which Al Quds editor Atwan refers to his visit with OBL in 1996 (see his 2006 book The Secret History of al Qaeda) and he says that Bin Laden was planning to attack America “and America prisons in particular.” That was an apparent reference to the Al Hayat letter bombs sent to newspapers and prisons in January 1997. There were recurrent references to Abdel-Rahman in the tape.
Given that the EIJ/Vanguards of Conquest people (such as Al-Sirri and Zawahiri) are working with the Egyptian Islamic Group leaders (such as Taha and Islambouli, the brother of Sadat’s assassin), it seems that Amerithrax can be thought of as a joint operation. After the merger between Al Qaeda and EIJ, and the joining of Al Qaeda by some of the Islamic Group leaders, the group responsible can be thought of as by the code name Zawahiri used — the Greendale School. He used “school” in May 2001 correspondence announcing to his followers the course he had embarked upon.
After Ayman and Atef, among senior Egyptian islamists, who has greater culpability in the anthrax mailings?
A. Islamic Group leader Taha (based at the time in Afghanistan) who was working with Post Office worker Sattar
B. Islamic Group commander Hamza (based at the time in Afghanistan)
C. London=based EIJ/Vanguards of Conquest spokesman Al-Sirri
D. Cairo attorney Mamdouh Ismail, who has been named as Zawahiri’s chief conduit to jihadists in Iraq and Egypt and Yemen. (London-based EIJ shura member al-Sibai and the AQ spymaster who wrote the treatise on Amerithrax alleged as intermediary.)
E. IANA writers Habib/Sultan, both EIJ one-time heavyweights.
F. Islambouli, the brother of Sadat’s assassin (mailing dates were on date of Sadat’s assassination and the date he entered Camp David Accord).
G. Shehata/Saif Adel. EIJ Special Operations and military head.
H. None of the above
I. All of the above.
J. Some combination of the above.
My best guess is Mohammed Islambouli, Sadat’s assassin’s broher, given he was in a cell with KSM planning attacks on the United States using aircraft and other means, is thought to have travelled to the United States in planning those attacks, he recently was revealed by Zawahiri to be the leader of the IG members who have joined Al Qaeda, he was head of the blind sheik’s Makhtab Khidmat al-Mujahiden in Peshawar (which had a branch in Brooklyn), the blind sheik stayed with him when he visited Peshawar in 1990. and there are the strong pointers to the Sadat assassination.
In a December 4, 1998 Presidential Daily Brief to President Clinton, the CIA noted that it was expected that Mohammed Islambouli, the brother of Sadat’s assassin, was expected to travel to the United States to meet with other Egyptian Islamic Group members to discuss options regarding planned attacks on the United States. The planned attacks included attacks involving the hijacking of aircraft in an attempt to free the blind sheik Abdel-Rahman and an imprisoned dissident Saudi sheik who was allied with Bin Laden. Islambouli had headed Khidmat Services in Peshawar and an Al Qaeda training camp. Washington Times reporter and author Bill Gertz reports in the book Breakdown that in 1996, KSM was in a cell with Islambouli in Qatar, where they were given safe harbor by a high level minister of religious affairs. In the Amerithrax investigation, the FBI should have given priority to establishing who the man, Mohammed Islambouli, met with when he travelled to the United States. According to Egyptian intelligence officials, Islambouli reportedly had two Egyptian passports, a Qatari passport and an Algerian passport in the name Mahmoud Youssef.
But certainly there are other persons of interest. EIJ founder Kamal Habib and former EIJ member Gamal Sultan had the strong connection with the US-based IANA and Ali Al-Timimi. Kamal Habib knew Ayman well and was in the middle of the attempt to have political parties formed in the Spring of 1999.
Shehata and Saif Adel had the special operations and military connection. Shehata had been in charge of the EIJ Civilian Branch. They both reportedly operated out of Iran in recently years. Shehata had been one of the one sto go to Russia and get Ayman and Mabruk out of jail in Russia. Born in 1960, Shehata briefly took over for Ayman as head of EIJ. He, in another life, was Montasser al Zayat’s law partner Saif Adel, taking his comments about the December 1996 mailings to newspapers in New York and DC at face value, might not want to be involved in any operation that seemed mere “flirtation.” At the time, he seemed to hint that Egyptian Islamic Group was responsible for the al Hayat letter bombs to newspapers in DC and NYC and people in symbolic positions.
Vanguards of Conquest spokesman Yasir Al-Sirri was alleged by the US to have financed the public relations efforts of the Blind Sheik’s Lynne Stewart and US Postal employee Ahmed Abdel Sattar. In an April 2002 indictment, the United States alleged that the Egyptian Islamic Group has an active membership in the United States, concentrated in the New York City metropolitan area. Al-Sirri certainly might have been acutely affected by the detention of other London EIJ cell members in the late 1990s.
Taha and Hamza both have a strong Sattar/Blind Sheik connection. Hamza is in Egyptian custody. Hamza became head of the Gama’a al-Islamiya group’s shura council in 1998 after an internal split over responsibility for the Luxor massacre of 1997. Iran reportedly handed him over to Egypt as part of trade for information an an exile group living in Egypt. Mustafa Hamza and Jihad leader Ahmed Salama Mabruk had graduated from the same Cairo University class. (Mabruk was the former EIJ military commander who had been Ayman Zawahiri’s confidante and who had known about Ayman’s plan to weaponize anthrax upon Mabruk’s capture Baku, Azeibaijan in 1998.) Jailed after Sadat’s assassination, after his release from pirson, Hamza went to Afghanistan, from where he paid frequent visits to other countries such as Pakistan, Sudan and Iran.
Rifa’i Taha Musa (Taha) favored a return to armed operations. Taha sets forth his views in an article published in the May 1997 issue off Nida’ul Islam magazine titled “The Islamic State in Egypt is Approaching.” Taha in early 2001 published a book in which he attempted to justify terrorist attacks that would cause mass casualties. Like Mustafa, he was in close telephone contact with Sattar, who in an indictment announced in April 2002 was described as a “surrogate” for the blind sheik. In her webblog, former blind sheik attorney Lynne Stewart says Sattar came to favor Taha’s view. When theblind sheik’s’ US attorney, radical Lynne Stewart, announced in a press release in mid-June 2000 that Abdel-Rahman was withdrawing his support for the cease-fire, Taha said: “Stopping operations [attacks] is a human decision that can be cancelled if a majority of the Gama’a finds this to be in its interest, especially after the sheikh’s latest instructions, in which he withdrew his support for the initiative.” Taha argued that militant groups were never given the opportunity to become political parties. “I have repeatedly said the government will never allow the Islamist trend to play an effective political role through recognised parties.” “It will not let anyone else share in the power game.” He continued: “When the Gama’a announced a halt of armed operations, it did not say it would give up its opposition of the Egyptian government. In my view, the only way for the Islamist movement to achieve victory is for Islamist factions to unite and mobilise the Egyptian people, led by the army, clerics and university professors, in a revolution that should not stop until the regime is overthrown.” In December 1999, the Associated Press reported that Taha threatened in an email published by the Arabic-language newsapper Asharq Al-Awsat ``The Egyptian government commits a grave mistake if it believes that the Luxor operation is unrepeatable.’’ Taha had grown closer to Bin Laden and Zawahiri while in Afghanistan in the 1990s and also had a close connection to the Taliban. In Fall 2001, Ayman had sent him with several others to form Ansar Al-Islam in Kurdish controlled terroritory of Iraq. He lived for a time in a suburb of Tehran. Taha was rendered to Egypt while in transit through Syria in 2001, at which time Taha’s wife and children lived with Hamza’s family in Mashhad, Iran.
Al-Zayat / Mamdouh Ismail have an Al-Nashar connection. Al-Zayat explained at the time that the blind sheik’s US attorney Lynne Stewart announced he had withdrawn his support for the cease-fire, that to the contrary, Abdel-Rahman’s statement should be viewed merely as a request for the Gama’a to “re-evaluate” its decision of maintaining a unilateral cease-fire with the government. He said it was a personal message sent to him via e-mail to be delivered to the Gama’a’s imprisoned leaders. (There is no disputing, however, that his US attorney issued a press release and the blind sheik later instructed that he did not want anyone denying that he had issued the press release). While Zawahiri has suggested that Montasser Al-Zayat has too cozy a relationship with Egyptian security services, explaining his access to imprisoned IG leaders, others knowledgeable about the movement assure me that is not true. In his letter, Abdel-Rahman criticized the Egyptian government for maintaining its policy of putting Islamist militants on trial before military courts, conducting mass arrests and imposing death sentances against them. Al-Zayat argued that it was in light of these charges that Abdel-Rahman called on the group’s leaders to “re-evaluate the policies of the Gama’a.” Al-Zayyat urged that the Blind Sheik’s position was only that the group assess the “positions that best serve the interests of the group.” Al-Zayyat said that Gama’a leaders imprisoned inside Egypt had responded to Abdel-Rahman’s letter by a letter of their own in which they asked him to clarify his position on the cease-fire in order to clear up the controversy. The blind sheik’s son called Sattar and urged the same so as to smooth things over. In a letter to Abdel-Rahman, the jailed shura members informed him that the government had halted extra-judicial killings, mass arrests and military trials and that it had released some 2,500 militants. Al-Zayat basically was in the role of the great negotiator, announcing his prediction that weaponized anthrax would be used against targets in the US because of the detention of senior Egyptian militants, while at the same time, negotiating the release of many hundreds of those militants.
Al-Zayat’s partner in attempting to form a political party, fellow islamist attorney Mamdouh Ismail, was arrested in late March 2007 and alleged to be the chief conduit between Ayman Zawahiri and jihadists in Egypt, Iraq and Egypt. The government alleges he took his instructions, in part, from intermediary al-Sibai based in London. Both he and al-Zayat had worked closely with fellow attorney Shehata, head of the EIJ civilian branch in charge of special operations.
I doubt it is all of the above because the operations tended to have the player not know more than two others. The same sort of compartmentalization may exist at the highest levels. Probably the answer is some combination of the above But regardless, the person likely defers to having the Blind Sheik’s blessing. Even the imprisoned shura members do not doubt that the blind sheik Abdel Rahman would be the leader of the Islamic Group if released.
Story on recent hoaxes and hallmark greetings -
Police Seek Source of Suspicious Packages
By CHRISTOPHER FAHERTY
Special to the Sun
August 22, 2007
Police are working to trace the source of several suspicious packages sent to financial institutions over the past two days, police officials said.
The packages, which contained ziplock bags that in some cases were filled with flour or cornstarch, were sent to companies in three Midtown buildings, police said.
***
The packages sent to the financial institutions, whose names were not released by police officials, arrived in envelopes postmarked Hartford, Conn. Along with the powder-filled plastic bags, the envelopes contained greeting cards with no threats or messages of any kind, Mr. Browne said.
In June, several newspapers in the New York area received letters threatening the lives of employees at the investment bank Goldman Sachs from an anonymous sender who claimed to have infiltrated the company. The Federal Bureau of Investigation later determined the letters were a hoax.
The suspicious packages began arriving on Monday at 1345 Sixth Ave., 787 Seventh Ave., and 505 Fifth Ave., home to a number of financial companies. Investigators were not informed about the packages until yesterday, police said.
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