Old Fashioned American Justice
Posted on 03/02/2003 1:03:06 PM PST by Dog
INTERVIEW WITH AN AL QAEDA MEMBER
On December 10, 2001, the Christian Science Monitor published an interview by Scott Baldauf with a member of the Al Qaeda network.
A conversation with an Al Qaeda true believer
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
QUETTA, PAKISTAN
The interview, like the US war here, did not start well.
"I will say just one word to you: Get out of my face, now!" says Abdul Rehman, an Arab Taliban fighter, from his hospital bed here. Injured last week during the air attacks on Kandahar, Afghanistan, his tone is matter-of-fact, his English near-perfect.
"I hate you; you are my enemy. There is only one conversation between me and you. This is a war conversation, a killing conversation, and you started this war."
Then, in a breath, he changes from warrior to evangelist.
"I have a big faith, that if you read and know what is Islam, real Islam, you will change your religion."
Mr. Rehman's hatred laced with zeal is a chilling reminder that the threat from Al Qaeda operatives won't necessarily disappear with the US military victories in Afghanistan. Rehman and four other Arab and Sudanese fighters are under Pakistani police custody. But the vast majority of the thousands of Arab fighters and their leaders, including Osama bin Laden, remain at large. Afghan warlords say some Arabs have fled with their weapons to cave complexes to carry on guerrilla war against Afghanistan's new rulers, and some have fled to neighboring Pakistan in hopes of finding a haven elsewhere. Their continued presence in the region could remain a threat to any future Afghan government, and will certainly be the unfinished business of America's war on terrorism.
"As you know, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are the real cause of the destruction of Afghanistan," says Tawakal Ishakzai, a tribal elder for the small Ishakzai tribe of Pashtuns. "If they are arrested and given to the Americans, we will support that, because this will bring real peace and reconciliation to Afghanistan."
At present, victory on the battlefield by anti-Taliban forces has brought few signs of the whereabouts of Mr. bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network. Bin Laden himself is thought to be in a cave and tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan called Tora Bora, where anti-Taliban leaders are currently mounting an offensive. Local Afghans say that as many as 10 Al Qaeda leaders have been killed during heavy US bombing of Tora Bora over the past two weeks, although there is no independent confirmation.
In separate interviews, Rehman, the injured Egyptian fighter, confirms to reporters that bin Laden's third-in-command, Egyptian radical Abu Hafz, died in the air assault on Kandahar's airport. This confirmation indicates that Rehman is likely a member of Al Qaeda himself.
Propped up in his hospital bed and dressed in a dark blue Afghan salwar kameez, Rehman looks like many of the devout Muslims who support the Taliban cause in Afghanistan. A long, black beard extends to his chest. His forehead bears a brownish mark, the sign of many years of brushing his head against the ground five times a day in prayer. The one remaining sign of his militant belief is a cast on his leg. Doctors say the leg is beyond repair and will have to be amputated.
Rehman initially refuses to tell reporters gathered in his room anything, not even his name or country of origin. His name is written on his medical chart, however. And while he told Pakistani police his birthplace was the United Arab Emirates, Arab reporters say he speaks with a distinct Egyptian accent.
After an initial bout of hostility, and demands that one American reporter be thrown out for taking his picture, the Arab fighter ends up giving a patient description of his Islamist beliefs.
"I am a slave of Allah," he says. (The name Abdul Rehman is Arabic for "slave of the merciful one.") "Allah orders me to do one thing, and not to do some other things. I'm just obeying him. This is Islam. But in your religion, it is different. You have democracy. Because democracy says 'We control ourselves, we will follow ourselves only, without asking what comes from Allah. We know better than Him.'"
"So the struggle between you and me is cultural," he adds. "The fight will continue." Where? A reporter asks. "Everywhere. God willing, it will be inside your country."
Rehman says Muslims could not have committed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, because Islam forbids killing civilians in times of war. "The people who were killed in the World Trade Center, most of them are civilians, but we did not kill civilians," he says. "I want for [President] Bush to show me the proof that Muslims did this."
He then amends his denial. "We did not kill civilians, but if civilians come to attack us, we will attack them," he says. "I don't like to kill people, and I don't like to see blood. But if you have a gun and try to kill our people, what is my option?"
Similarly, Rehman appears stunned upon hearing the news that Mullah Muhammad Omar, the supreme Taliban leader, has surrendered the city of Kandahar. "I don't believe this; I am sure this has not happened," he says, sitting up suddenly. Similarly, he denies that US troops could have set up a base south of the city. "American movies, like Mr. Rambo, these movies affect too much the American mind," he warns. "They try to say to everybody, 'We have the power to do anything. If you hide anyplace in the world, we are seeing you.' The Taliban will never give up. They are fighting until the death."
Rehman, a husband and father of four children, admits that he didn't start out as a religious zealot. In fact, as a young man, he learned English and planned to travel to America to enjoy "a beautiful life there." But current events in the Middle East prompted Rehman to turn to books, including Western history books, and he came away from this education with a feeling that Western civilization aimed to destroy Islamic culture and to kill Muslim people, from Afghanistan to Kashmir, and from Chechnya to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
"I began to ask, why are all these Muslims killed, and why are the Christians always ending up on top?" he says. "I started to study and to ask, and I discovered that your culture was built on blood."
Rehman says he has no intention of returning to Egypt, where authorities would undoubtedly jail him for his radical Islamist activities. He does not know what he will do next. "My country is wherever there is Islam," he says. "I belong to Islam; I don't belong to the land."
Security officials, also speaking on condition they not be named, said the trail heated up after authorities arrested an Egyptian man during a raid in the frontier city of Quetta on Feb. 14. Authorities had hoped to find Mohammed -- a top al-Qaida figure with links to a decade of deadly plots -- but he was not there.
"At the time of that raid in Quetta the authorities were looking for Khalid Shaikh but he escaped and from there they followed him to Rawalpindi," the senior government official said. "They got information from the man they picked up in Quetta and from phone calls until they tracked him down to Rawalpindi."
A top police official in Quetta said the arrested suspect changed his story many times during questioning, but finally identified himself as Abdul Rehman from Egypt. The official said police were aware that another suspect got away, but were not told of his significance. The police later handed Rehman over to Pakistan's intelligence agency, known as ISI.
"We got some information about two foreigners who were in the neighborhood. When we went there we found only one," the official said. "Rehman admitted there was someone else with him, but he never said anything about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed."
Old Fashioned American Justice
the typical Koran-spouting, virgin-fantasizing, reality-challenged publicity-seeking nutjob terrorist.
Unless the bold portion is a translation from "one word", ol' Abdul is a few digits short on his math skills.
Might be one reason he helped drop the dime on Khalid. Those elite Al Qaeda warriors of Allah just ain't what their Al Jazeera press clippings claim them to be.
That's really, really rich.
MM
Rofl ! Where are they now ? Hiding behind the skirts of their mothers and sisters in Paki ?
Boy, there's some serious amounts of "soap on the brain" and someone is doing a lot of scrubbing.
Hmmmm.... seems to me that Mohammed set about to convert the known world to the Religion of Piece at the point of a sword and that his successors relentlessy attempted to conquer Europe for a period of seven hundred years.
Had he forgotten?
Apparently so. Depending on the type of soap used one could forget most anything.
My way of looking at the scenario (without religion being a factor, just common sense) is when somebody has the mindset to kill innocent people the reasons they have to do so are irrelavent.
To accidentally without provocation kill innocent people in the process to annihalate that threat to large numbers of innocent people (I.E. after the trade towers debacle and the threats of violence being conveyed by some), defending one's self from further bloodshed I consider that reasonable in the eyes of God.
He asks the right questions but has discovered the wrong answers.
Our culture was built on the concepts of individual freedom, free will, respect for the individual and the bedrock of God-given rights and precepts. That basis comes from the Bible, rather than the Koran.
That's why you're the losers and we're the winners, Abdul. You're getting your information and directions from the wrong Book!
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