NOVEMBER 2002 : (MARITIME SECURITY : AL QAEDA : CAPTURE OF TERRORIST AL-NASHIRI aka AL-HARAZI aka AL-MAKKI) U.S. efforts to track al Qaeda's activities at sea received a boost last month with the capture of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, an alleged mastermind of al Qaeda's nautical strategy. Officials told the (Washington Post) that he was cooperating with U.S. interrogators. - "U.S. said to track ships believed linked to al Qaeda," Tuesday, December 31, 2002 *
Al-Nashiri, a suspected mastermind of the USS Cole bombing in October 2000, was captured in Yemen...U.S. officials are most interested in what al-Nashiri knows about attacks still to come, but also plan to question him on the Cole bombing which 17 U.S. sailors. A conviction in that case could mean a death sentence. ...CBS News Correspondent David Martin reports that al-Nashiri and Osama bin Laden first met in the 1980s when they both went to Afghanistan to aid in the Muslim holy war against the Soviet army. After the Soviets withdrew, al-Nashiri stayed with bin Laden and, according to U.S. officials, trained the al Qaeda operatives responsible for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 250 people, including 12 Americans. "He has a reputation as a ruthless operator," one U.S. official said. "He is a very committed follower of Osama bin Laden." One of the suicide bombers in the attack on the Nairobi embassy, known only as Azzam, is believed to have been his cousin. Al-Nashiri is said to be Saudi and in his 30s. He has also traveled under a number of other names, including Umar Mohammed al-Harazi and Abu Bilal al-Makki. U.S. officials believe he was in Ghazni, Afghanistan, around the time the American military campaign began there in October 2001. He is thought to have moved to Pakistan when the Taliban fell, and then on to Yemen. In the Cole attack, U.S. officials have said al-Nashiri gave telephone orders to the bombers from the United Arab Emirates. He then fled to Afghanistan. In addition to the Cole attack, officials say he has been involved with a number of plots targeting the U.S. Navy in the past three years. He is thought to be behind a nearly identical attempt to bomb another destroyer, the USS The Sullivans, nine months before the Cole attack, at Aden. That attack failed when the suicide boat, overloaded with explosives, sank. Most recently, he has been tied to a failed al Qaeda plot to bomb U.S. and British warships crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, U.S. officials have said. In June, three Saudis were arrested in Morocco in connection with that plot. He is also suspected of being behind plans to bomb the 5th Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain, a plot revealed in January by another top al Qaeda operative captured by Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan. The 5th Fleet has responsibility for the Persian Gulf and provides ships for the operations of U.S. Central Command, which is running the war effort in Afghanistan. It also supports the enforcement of the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, the U.N. economic embargo against Iraq and the monitoring of sea traffic from the Arabian Sea to the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.
U.S. intelligence also is investigating whether al-Nashiri was behind the Oct. 6 suicide boat bombing of a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, officials said. One crewman was killed. - "Suspected Qaeda Chief Cooperating, " CBS NEWS, WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2002 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/17/attack/main529656.shtml.
Speaking of Yemen...
stepping back in time...BBC NEWS: "INQUIRY LAUNCHED INTO YEMIN BLAST" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The owners of the tanker, Euronav, say they believe their vessel was deliberately rammed by a smaller boat. "In my opinion, this was a terrorist attack," Euronav director Jacques Moizan said. "The crew saw a high-speed vessel approaching on the starboard side. "An explosion followed with fire." All but one of the eight French and 17 Bulgarian crew members have been accounted for and many of them have been taken to hospital.") (100702)
stepping back in time...GULF NEWS.com: "SONS OF YEMENI SPEAKER ARRESTED" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The press office of Yemeni Parliament Speaker, Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein Al Ahmer, has confirmed that two of his sons are in custody for the shoot-out which took place near the British Embassy last Sunday. "Sheikh Abdullah regrets for what was circulated by media about the incident. Fallasies, exaggerations and lies have been circulated by some sick people," said a press release issued by the office.") (100302)
stepping back in time...FOX NEWS.com: (AP): "YEMENI STUDENT SUSPECTED OF AIDING HIJACKERS SENTENCED TO SIX MONTHS" (ARTICE NOTE: The Yemeni student is identified as Mohdar Abdullah, age 24, a former San Diego State University student. ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Abdullah, 24, acknowledged that he lied when he told an immigration officer that he entered the United States on Dec. 7, 1998, at New York on an Italian passport. In truth, he entered three days later from Canada on a Yemeni passport. The sentencing did not address the explosive allegations made in court documents that investigators suspect Abdullah helped three Sept. 11 hijackers who lived in San Diego in 2000.") (100202)