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In Afghanistan, Zawahiri was assisted by Midhat Mursi (alias Abu Khabab). In his late 1940s, Mursi had graduated from the University of Alexandria in 1975.

Wow, he's really old. :)

Sorry to be flip, and I really would like all of this to be true, but I find it hard to believe that some anonymous blogger suddenly has access to all this classified material.

The argument is set forth in much greater detail at the website

http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com

at which I upload the documents produced under FOIA by the DIA.

It was declassified prior to being released with the most important stuff redacted — such as the identity of the second lab Rauf Ahmad visited and the identity of the scientist he consulted with.

I could email you the resume of the Pakistani scientist Rauf Ahmad’s and you can call him. He’s a very nice chap and his English is perfectly passable. The approach is best made by someone willing to listen to and report his side of the story. He lost touch with me when he realized I had his correspondence with Ayman. But he likely would welcome a call by any journalist who is going to give him a chance to explain side of things. For example, I believe inquiry would establish he’s an ecotoxicologist and not a microbiologist.

It was Dr. Ken Alibek who told me what the FBI suspected about Ali when I asked him if he knew Ali (having noticed that both Ken and Ali were at GMU and in microbiology). If you ask nice and respectfully, people more often than you might expect will tell you what you want to know.

MAY 26, 2004 : (DEBKA "FWIW"* REPORT : US LOOKING FOR SIDDIQUI, SHUKRIJUMAH, ...AND MIDAAT MURSI aka ABU KHABAB) DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources reveal that US counter-terrorist authorities are focusing on tracking down two key suspects: a 32-year old Pakistani woman called Aafaya Siddiqui, doctor of neurology who attended a university in the Boston area, and Adnan G. Al Shukrijmah, an al Qaeda activist known to have spent time in Florida. Our sources add that American and foreign counter-terror and intelligence agencies are also hunting for Midaat Mursi, known as Abu Khabab, prominent member of al Qaeda’s operational partner, the Egyptian Jihad Islami, who is considered the organization’s top expert on radiological bombs. Mursi heads a number of terrorist rings who have been instructed to infiltrate the United States through Canada for a dirty bomb attack. They may have made the crossing already. ------- "Some Names of Al Qaeda Terrorists Plotting Hot Summer for America ," May 26, 2004 (Debka) http://www.ianlivingston.com/archived/2004/mursi_alsayid.htm
(* FWIW = FOR WHAT ITS WORTH)