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Posted on 11/03/2004 12:20:59 AM PST by nwctwx
New Mexico is the 47th state.
Zarqawi Releases Video of Suicide Bombing Attack on British Troops South of Baghdad
http://www.globalterroralert.com/zarqawi-britbomb.wmv
http://www.globalterroralert.com
Globalterroralert.com (11/7/04):
Al-Qaida's Committee in Mesopotamia (led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has released video footage of a November 4 suicide car bombing attack on a patrol manned by the Scottish Black Watch, one of the British military units currently deployed in central Iraq. The soldiers were manning a vehicle checkpoint on a road east of the Euphrates River when the bomber detonated his vehicle; the attack was followed shortly thereafter by insurgent mortar attacks on the same position. Three members of the Black Watch and an Iraqi translator (who had postponed his own wedding in order to serve duty with British troops in central Iraq) were killed in the explosion, and at least eight other soldiers were wounded.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1273596/posts
that aircraft was a proto type to the FA-18 and never was mass produced or exported IIRC.
It would be a big shift. This, however, brings us back to the Texas scenario. If they can do a coordinated strike against key points in several facilities, it could both cause a substantial number of casualities as well as impact the economy (which place had the big disaster in the 50's?). But to pick a natural gas pipeline or even several, would bring a low return for the risk involved. They've only got so much resources and would want to maximize them to get the most bang for the buck.
new thread about the "night of power" on the board we've been watching. Some of it's in arabic.
In the past 20 minutes 3 sets of 3 chinook helicopters have flown by here (heading south). I've never seen 1 group, let alone 3, in this area.
in Washington?
We have made it through election week with no incidents. The Israeli-Palestinan issue has the potential to become unstable due to the impending death of Arafat. Let me know if you want on or off the Ping list.
Current National Homeland Defense threat level is YELLOW
11/07/04 Local Threat Level ORANGE for NYC, N. New Jersey, D.C No Change since 8/1/04
1. Attack threat windows
11/07/04 Primary Window: We have exited the election window. However, with the end of Ramadan and the ‘Night of Power’ along with other indicators, I reccomend another week of vigilance - through Nov 12.
10/23/04 Secondary windows: Nov 24 - Jan 1 - Thanksgiving / Christmas Holiday season.
January 20, 2005 - Presidential inauguration
Feb. 6 Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.
2. Attack Indicators
11/07/04 Jihadi chat traffic suggests that there is another OBL tape waiting to be released.
There are other posts seem to indicate that the posters have some sort of inside information about an attack to occur either in the United States, Iraq, or Afghanistan. These posts need to be evaluated objectively and not over react. There is a high probability that most of the posts are bravado of the type seen so often in the past. AQ knows the necessity of operational security of which communications security is a big part of their success. However, events surrounding 911 suggest that from this kind of chatter (Rumor intelligence - RUMINT) we may glean some key pieces of information. So in this context, lets review some of these postings.
The posters express that they aren't sure who is going to be carrying out this attack, but they have heard that an attack will be carried out in the last days of Ramadan. (Tracking Terrorism). Additional message traffic evaluated by TM has jihadi’s being told to avoid internet cafe’s, only contacting each other on SH (secure host) sites. Potenially cryptic references were made regarding Texas and the targeting of petro-chemical sites. Additional responses suggested a strike on one of the ‘odd’ days in the end or Ramadan, Nov 9 (11/9.......9/11). (FreeRepublic Threat Matrix)
Other internet sources are reporting Jihadi traffic suggesting that AQ will launch a biochemical attack in the heart of Times Square, targeting MTV studios, and highly populated areas such as The Mall of America. Attack is said to happen 11 days after election day if Bush is reelected to correspond with September 11th. The number 11th corresponds with Al-Qaeda's plans to launch a biochemical attack. (http://www.dilby.com/article/osama.htm)
Over the last two months, the CIA has lowered the prospect of a major al-Qaida attack. Intelligence sources said information that was relayed to the U.S. intelligence community of a specific attack this summer has been discredited. DHS has not raised the alert status anywhere in the US in response to these internet threats.
Terror attacks have occured during Ramadan and the ‘night of power’ is an expecially potent period for a potential attack. The government has been very sensitive to this in the past.
3. Current Terrorist Operations
Al-Qa'ida
11/06/04 Osama bin Laden might not have had the means to carry out a mass casualty attack on the United States on the eve of the elections, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service.
U.S. intelligence analysts believe this was the reason why bin Laden released a videotape to discuss al-Qaida and the American presidential elections. They said bin Laden, in his first video appearance in three years, wanted to bolster the morale of his followers who have been waiting for such a strike.
But there is another videotape released by al-Qaida that has U.S. intelligence worried. And that is a 75-minute tape by a U.S. national termed "Azzam the American." Azzam claims to be an al-Qaida member and warns that the streets of America will "run with blood."
It is thought that OBL is passing future US operations to Adam Gadahn and Adnan El Shukrijumah, a former Florida resident and an al-Qaida operative sought by the United States for more than a year. This assessment has been based upon the release of the ABC news tape last month.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41322
11/05/04 "The coming days will show you that the one you preferred will lead you to an unbearable hell," said the group calling itself the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades after the Al-Qaeda military chief killed in Afghanistan (news - web sites) in October 2001.
http://www.trackingterrorism.com/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=701
al-Masri issued numerous threats against Italy this summer, none of which were carried out. The authenticity of this group is questioned by authorities.
Iraq
11/07/04 It is being reported that parts of Iraq are under martial law in support of coalition action against Fallujah.
11/06/04 There have been threats to use chemical weapons against US forces if they attack Fallujah. These threats have been posted on various internet web sites.
11/05/04 A statement attributed to the Al-Qaeda group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on an Islamist website Friday called for the release of kidnapped British aid worker Margaret Hassan in Iraq "unless she is proven to be a collaborator".
"We call on those responsible for her captivity to release her unless she is proven to be a collaborator" with the US-led forces, said the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.
"If this (collaboration) is proven, they should show it clearly to people lest our (Islamic) religion is accused of things that are not true," the statement said.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=32970
Afghanistan
11/07/04 Taliban terrorists continue to threaten the lives of kidnapped several UN elections workers if Coalition forces do not leave the country. Negotiations are under way though.
Israel
11/07/04 The status of Arafat is still uncertain, however it is believed to be very grave. It is very clear that he has not prepared for his death and billions of dollars he is to alledged to have stolen from Palistianian aid will go with him to the grave if he doesn’t recover sufficiently to finalize matters.
11/05/04 Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia joined rival Palestinian groups in a call for unity Saturday, hoping they could work together to ensure calm and keep the Gaza Strip from plunging into chaos if Yasser Arafat dies. But in a sign of the challenges ahead, the Islamic militant group Hamas issued what it called an "urgent demand" for a formal role in Palestinian decision making in the post-Arafat era. "This time is very sensitive. It's a historic time. There is no space for any unilateral decisions," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, alluding to Fatah, Arafat's core organization. http://apnews.myway.com//article/20041106/D866K59O0.html Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) on Saturday asked Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip to refrain from launching terrorist attacks in Israel in the absence of Yasser Arafat.
11/05/04 Members of jihadist message boards expressed little sorrow in responding to reports on Yasser Arafat’s declining medical condition and even premature reports of his death. Although a few voices in the discussion showed respect for this “revolutionary leader who dedicated his life to the Palestinian cause,” the majority welcomed his imminent death, either because they resented his corruption and grouped him together with other autocrats in the region, or because he “provided so many services to his beloved Israeli pigs.”
http://www.siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications10204&Category=publications&Subcategory=0
Syria
11/07/04 Syria, which Washington has accused of failing to stop militants entering Iraq, has reached a border cooperation deal with its neighbor, Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said on Sunday.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6736015
Russia
11/05/04 Russian security forces neutralized a bomb on a natural gas pipeline in the Tver region, Interfax reported Friday. A Russian Interior Ministry source said federal police were examining a section of the Ukhta-Torzhok pipeline in Pogorelovo on Thursday when they discovered and neutralized a homemade bomb near the pipeline. The bomb consisted of an anti-tank grenade, an electric detonator and a clockwork device. Investigators were seeking suspects.
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041105-020644-2871r.htm
Saudi Arabia
11/05/04 Prominent Saudi religious scholars have called on Iraqis to support militants waging holy war against the US-led coalition forces, saying fighting the occupation was a duty and a right.
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2004-daily/07-11-2004/main/main16.htm
Netherlands
11/06/04 Dutch officials are promising tougher measures against Islamic radicals, as one lawmaker laments the arrival of "jihad" in the Netherlands. The comments follow the slaying of prominent Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, whose attackers left a note pinned to Theo Van Gogh's body with a knife that threatened Dutch legislators and "enemies of Islam" throughout Europe. A deputy prime minister described the increase in radical Islam as "worse than we thought." The Dutch justice minister is ordering government officials, including Amsterdam's mayor, to hire bodyguards.
http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/3895921/detail.html
Australia
11/06/04 The federal government has moved to re-list four terrorist organisations and warns that Jemaah Islamiah (JI) may step up its terror campaign with nuclear weapons. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said any organisation that targeted innocent people, such as JI had in the Bali bombings, was capable of using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction to further their campaign.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/JI-may-use-nukes-next-Downers/2004/11/07/1099781237726.html
United States
11/05/04 Authorities surrounded a house in Lacey Friday evening, after a man in a pickup was denied entry to Fort Lewis, then used the vehicle to strike a guard and flee. Other guards fired shots at the pickup, but apparently no one was hit, and the suspect escaped. The incident began about 2:20 p-m at the fort's Madigan Gate.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/3897123/detail.html
4. Attack method.
11/07/04 No real change in the preferred method of choice of AQ which are bombs - the bigger the better. With the exception of 9/11, car/truck bombs have been widely used. There are special concerns regarding the use by terrorists of the following vehicles:
1. Uhaul type cargo trucks.
2. Gasoline / Propane supply trucks.
3. Emergency vehicles (ambulances, police cars, fire trucks)
5. Personnel
11/07/04 Nothing new to report.
6. Significant meetings canceled:
11/07/04 No new cancellations.
7. Security has been heightened in specific cities
11/07/04 No significant change since 8/11/04. NYC, N. NJ and D.C. are still at threat level ORANGE and DHS continues to review the threat towards these potential targets daily. Specifically identified targets include the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in D.C.; Prudential Financial in Northern New Jersey; and Citigroup buildings and the New York Stock Exchange in New York. I don't look for any change in the status of these locations until after the inauguration at the earliest.
GENERAL: Ongoing work to upgrade security at sea ports and airports.
8. Military operations.
11/07/04 Carrier Battle Groups
Deployed
CV-67 Kennedy 25 Jul 2004 - Persian Gulf
CVN-75 Truman 01 Nov 2004 - Mediterranean Sea
CVN-72 Lincoln 19 Oct 2004 - Pacific Ocean
Surge Ready
CVN-70 Vinson 02 Oct 2004
Basic Training
CVN-68 Nimitz 29 Oct 2004 - Pacific Ocean
CV-63 Kitty Hawk entering Ship's Restricted Availability (SRA) maintenance period following its deployment The other carriers are in post deployment and / or maintenance.
11/07/04 F-117s are still reported to be deployed in S. Korea.
9. Dept of Homeland Scty. / State Department
11/04/04
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
This information is current as of today, Sat Nov 06 2004 02:28:46 GMT-0800. UZBEKISTAN
November 4, 2004
This Public Announcement is being issued to alert U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist actions in Uzbekistan. This Public Announcement updates the Public Announcement of August 24, 2004, and expires on May 4, 2005.
The United States Government has received information that terrorist groups may be planning attacks against U.S. interests in Uzbekistan in the near future. We remind all Americans that terrorists do not distinguish between official and civilian targets. The Department of State urges Americans in Uzbekistan to exercise extreme caution, including avoiding large crowds, celebrations, and places where Westerners generally congregate.
http://travel.state.gov/travel/uzbekistan_announce.html
10. Suspicious Domestic Incidents Not Currently Linked to Specific Terrorism Attempts
11/07/04 Nothing significant to report.
Connecticut (E. of Hartford)
whole other side of the country!
lol, I guess I should have said where I was in the first post... ;)
That's one of my favorite books, David. I know exactly what you mean.
hmm, 3 more.
I should find out if this is just one group of 3 cirlcing the area. ;-)
I'm so ticked. Just tried to call the hospital and get an update on my husbands condition from the nurse, they have talking to me for two weeks and now I get one that says she's not allowed to tell me anything over the phone. Witch.
You can thank HIPPA regulations
I am having a hard time accepting a bioattack as a mainforce event. IOW the primary mode of attack. It's not violent enough and is too difficult to spin up into a full blown epidemic that will have the potential of spreading nationwide.
I think that the main event calls for extreme violence which will be easily documented for the inevitable photo or sound byte. Rivers of Blood sort of stuff. Violence on this level will be replayed around the world as a way to energize the base of terror. It has to be IMHO, a multipronged attack that has widespread effect, nationwide.
Our greatest fears were realized when the 9/11 Commission report confirmed the presence of al qaeda in Arizona. But how did they get here? By Len Sherman Illustrations by Jason Moore
There are 59 references to Arizona in the 9/11 Commission Report. But it tells only a fragment of the story when it comes to terrorists in the Grand Canyon State. A joint FBI-CIA analysis titled Arizona: Long Range Nexus for Islamic Extremists remains classified. Its existence was revealed for the first time when the 9/11 Commission released its final report this summer. But the long-standing link between Islamic terrorists and the Arizona desert has been in the public record for years–and it’s centered dead on Tucson, and in particular, the Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT).
For nearly two decades, the most important nexus for international jihad outside of Pakistan and the Middle East has been Arizona.
It’s not clear quite how or why the state has attracted what seems to be more than its fair share of individuals linked to terrorist organizations over the years. Experts have posited that the familiar desert climate; the anonymity provided by life in cities outside New York, California, and D.C.; and the easy access to a wealth of flight-training schools all played a role. But the most ominous explanation came from FBI agent Kenneth Williams, the author of the now infamous “Phoenix Memo.” In his testimony to a congressional committee in 2003, he said, “These people don’t continue to come back to Arizona because they like the sunshine or they like the state. I believe that something was established there, and I think it’s been there for a long time.”
To be sure, the vast majority of the Muslims and Middle Easterners who have chosen to live or study in Arizona are decent, law-abiding people. The University of Arizona in Tucson, for one, has a long tradition of attracting people from the region thanks to its renowned science programs and the city’s quality of life. Since September 11th, however, U of A has seen a 54 percent drop in enrollment from the Middle East.
The Center’s current leadership says the terrorists who have indisputably found their way to its gold-domed mosque across the street from a U of A dormitory and next to a Carl’s Jr. have nothing to do with the 8,000 or so Muslims living in Tucson. But that assessment is not universally shared. State law-enforcement agencies and the FBI have conducted numerous investigations in Arizona since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and many of those centered on Tucson and the ICT’s well-documented, sordid history of attracting extremists.
On November 19, 1999, two friends–both doctoral students, one from Arizona State University, the other from the University of Arizona–were driven to Sky Harbor Airport by a third friend in order to catch a flight for Washington, D.C.
The pair boarded the aircraft and took their seats. They weren’t sitting together at first, but an empty seat allowed them to do so. The flight proceeded in the usual manner, and the friends did the usual things. They chatted, went to the bathroom, and asked the flight attendants a few questions. One expressed his surprise that the plane was not going directly to Washington–it made a stop in Columbus, Ohio, and the two students fretted that they might not arrive in D.C. in time to attend a conference hosted by a foreign university.
The plane landed on schedule in Columbus, where local police officers entered the aircraft, handcuffed the students, and took them into custody. The authorities had been summoned by members of the flight crew, who found the students’ behavior strange at best, suspicious at worst. The FBI got involved as well as the local police, but the whole matter, as unpleasant and as ugly as it was, ended with the release of the students, who were not formally arrested or charged with a crime. They proceeded on to Washington, once again on an America West plane, and attended their conference.
For their troubles, they sued the airline.
That’s one way the story is told. Here’s another way.
On November 19, 1999, Zakaria Mustapha Soubra drove Mohammad al Qudhaieen and Hamdan al Shalawi to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. The two men boarded an America West plane headed to Washington, D.C. with a stop in Columbus. On route to Ohio, al Qudhaieen got up and appeared to be headed towards the first-class bathroom. Though informed by a flight attendant that, as a coach passenger, he was supposed to use the bathrooms in the back of the aircraft, he proceeded to move to the front, where he was observed attempting to open the cockpit door on two occasions. He claimed to be looking for the bathroom. The crew was sufficiently alarmed that they asked the captain to contact the Columbus police, who were waiting when the jet landed.
When the students eventually arrived in Washington, they attended a conference hosted by Imam Muhammad Islamic University, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which sponsored their studies in the United States.
Though the students later sued America West for “ethnic discrimination,” the case was dismissed by the court.
At the time, the authorities could make neither heads nor tails of this, and the matter was dropped. But in the aftermath of 9/11, FBI analysts wondered whether this was a “dry run” for the attacks.
It is now clear that Zakaria Mustapha Soubra–the two students’ driver to Sky Harbor Airport that day–was more than a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott. FBI agent Williams interviewed him at his Tempe apartment in April 2000. This encounter, Soubra told the Los Angeles Times, was probably prompted by his visit to a shooting range with Abu Mujahid, an American-born jihadist who had fought in the Balkans and the Middle East. While in Soubra’s apartment, Williams noted a poster of Osama bin Laden on the wall and another of wounded Arab fighters in Chechnya.
Soubra’s name was added to the U.S. State Department’s watch list one year later after intelligence indicated he may have received explosives and car-bomb training in Afghanistan. (The Soubra inquiry led to an investigation of six other individuals associated with him.)
Soubra was also a leading member of a radical Islamic movement known as Al-Muhajiroun (the name of which translates to “The Emigrants,” a reference to the people who accompanied the Prophet Mohammed on his hijira from Mecca to Medina). It was this association that caused Soubra to be the “primary focus” of Williams’s “Phoenix Memo,” which tried to alert his superiors about Islamic extremists studying in U.S. flight schools.
Al-Muhajiroun has its headquarters in London, and its web site asserts that its goal is to form a “fifth column” in Western countries for the purpose of penetrating “strongly in society and to become in position to overthrow the... kufr (infidel) regime.”
Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, Al-Muhajiroun’s spiritual leader, also remains a fervent supporter of Osama bin Laden, describing him to United Press International on the second anniversary of September 11th as “the lion of the Muslim nation.”
Zakaria Mustapha Soubra was responsible for setting up a branch of this organization in the United States, according to Bakri. In a May 26, 2002 interview with the London Telegraph, Bakri, who also presents himself as the spokesman of bin Laden’s International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, declared Soubra “has been an active member of our movement. ... He came to the U.K. from the Lebanon. He approached me after I gave a talk in Luton and I subsequently sponsored his studies at the London School of Sharia. He said he wanted to know about Islam. He stayed in Britain for two years before going back to Beirut. The next time I heard from him he was on an aircraft engineering course in Phoenix. He was still committed to our group and set up a branch for us.”
Speaking with counter-terrorist investigators, Bakri explained Soubra’s role: “he himself just supports al Muhajiroun, and effectively he becomes in charge [in Arizona].”
It is still unknown whether Soubra played a part in September 11th, but one thing is clear: If the authorities had followed up on any of the leads developed by agent Williams, there may have been another outcome. If just one Saudi flight-school student had been picked up and interrogated, that might have led to a second student, with more questions asked and answered, and then the next student, and then the next. Pulling on that first thread could have pulled the entire cloth apart–but that first thread was never touched, and tragically, the plot remained intact.
Bin Laden’s 1985 decision to leave his privileged life in Saudi Arabia at the age of 28 to take up jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan has been much commented upon in the press. But the inspiration that sparked this radical move, the man who gave voice to bin Laden’s beliefs, has not received the same attention.
Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian cleric who preached hatred for all Christians and Jews, long advocated worldwide jihad and the restoration of an Islamic empire. He was also bin Laden’s teacher at King Abdul Aziz University in Jidda, Saudi Arabia. Azzam moved to Pakistan at the start of the Soviet invasion in 1979 and set up the Mujahideen Services Bureau (also known as the al Kifah Refugee Center) to recruit and train fighters.
The cleric eventually established dozens of al Kifah centers throughout the United States too, and its most important office after the one in Pakistan was found in Tucson.
Bin Laden had become a central figure in Azzam’s organization by the end of the ‘80s, but his role was about to get much, much bigger. On November 24, 1989, a car bomb killed Azzam and two of his sons in Pakistan. Fundamentalists immediately blamed the Israelis, who surely had good reason to want Azzam dead. However, bin Laden and his right-hand man, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, have also been suspected of murdering Azzam, as the cleric’s demise allowed bin Laden to step forward and take control of the outfit, transforming al Kifah into an even more militant organization and a force with which the world would soon become all too familiar–al Qaeda.
The terror network that would become al Qaeda has had scores of members living and working in Arizona during the past 25 years. The U.S. government is still sifting through information that spans decades, but the picture of bin Laden’s associates has been brought into sharper focus since September 11th.
One of the earliest known preachers of jihad in Arizona was Wa’el Jelaidan, a Saudi cleric who co-founded al Qaeda with bin Laden. According to state corporation records, Jelaidan was the president of ICT from 1983-1984, during which time, according to a 2002 Washington Post article, “the mosque provided money, support and, at times, fighters to the forces resisting the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, according to longtime members.”
During his ICT presidency, Jelaidan also was a graduate student at U of A’s School of Agriculture and president of the university’s Muslim Students Association. However, he left Tucson in 1985 and turned up the next year in Peshawar, where he joined the Afghan resistance along with bin Laden and Azzam.
In a 1999 interview with the Arabic-language news network al Jazeera, bin Laden discussed the founding of al Qaeda, saying, “We were all in one boat, as is known to you, including our brother, Wa’el Jelaidan.”
On September 6, 2002, the U.S. Treasury Department named Jelaidan as a “specially designated global terrorist” and ordered his assets frozen after designating him as “a supporter of al Qaeda terror.”
But perhaps most prominent among bin Laden’s early al Qaeda associates was Wadi el Hage, who eventually became his personal secretary. Born in Lebanon, el Hage was a Christian-born convert to Islam who studied at the University of Southwestern Louisiana before moving to Pakistan and becoming a mujahideen in the war against the Soviets.
In 1987, he returned to the United States and moved to Tucson, where he was a regular attendee at the ICT. He made his living as a janitor, became a U.S. citizen in 1989, and stayed quite busy during his Arizona days. FBI agent Williams testified before a 2002 Congressional inquiry that “el Hage established an Osama bin Ladin support network in Arizona while he was living there, and this network is still in place.”
El Hage spent the 1990s traveling between the United States and Africa, but his role in al Qaeda ended in 2001 when he was convicted in U.S. federal court and sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Also noteworthy is the Arizona residency of Mohammed Bayazid, a Syrian-American who lived in Tucson in the 1980s and was suspected of being an al Qaeda arms procurer. Bayazid allegedly tried to purchase uranium in the early 1990s, and though he was subsequently arrested for his association with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, it is unclear what became of him after that arrest in Mountain View, California. According to a 2002 affidavit, he was released under unclear circumstances and later fled the country.
Today, Bayazid’s whereabouts are unknown, but he had a lot in common with Mubarak al Duri, an Iraqi native who also lived in Tucson in the late 1980s and who also allegedly tried to procure weapons of mass destruction for al Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission Report says al Duri traveled “as far afield” as China, Malaysia, and the Philippines but not whether he was successful in his search. The report does not document his activities in Tucson, either.
Someone whose activities in Arizona have been very well documented, however, is Hani Hanjour, one of the hijackers who smashed American Airlines flight 77 into the Pentagon on September 11th.
Hanjour moved from Saudi Arabia to Tucson in 1991 and enrolled in the University of Arizona when he was just 19 years old. He lived within walking distance of ICT, and authorities, as well as Hanjour’s family, believe he developed radically fundamentalist beliefs while in Tucson.
In 1996, Hanjour began flight training in Arizona, enrolling in Scottsdale’s CRM Airline Training Center. He ultimately earned a commercial pilot certificate, issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, in April 1999. In the spring of 2000, however, he trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In early 2001, Hanjour and fellow hijacker Nawaf al Hazmi–who was in Central Asia with Hanjour from December 2000 to April 2001–trained at a flight school in Mesa, completing this phase of their education by the end of March 2001.
The 9/11 Commission Report states that Hanjour also was associated with Rayed Abdullah, a radical Islamist from Phoenix, who received flight training too. Abdullah was a leader of the Islamic Cultural Center in Tempe, where, the FBI determined, he gave “extremist speeches.”
Hanjour’s other radical, Arizona-based associates make up a considerable list, but one man in particular stands out: Ghassan al Sharbi. Al Sharbi attended training camps in Afghanistan, swore bayat (personal loyalty) to bin Laden in 2001, and was captured in March, 2002 in Pakistan.
Al Sharbi also studied at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott and leads us full circle back to the alleged 9/11 “dry run” on that America West flight in 1999.
The 9/11 Commission Report has an intriguing footnote that begins with al Sharbi: “After he left the camps [in Afghanistan], Sharbi looked for his friend Hamdan al Shalawi, another student in Arizona, for a secret project. Al Shalawi reportedly trained in the camps in November 2000, learning how to conduct ‘Khobar Towers’-type attacks that he and a colleague planned to execute in Saudi Arabia.”
Al Shalawi returned to Arizona after that, earning a Ph.D. in English from ASU in August 2001, and he claims that the Khobar Towers re-creation plan never happened.
The other America West passenger, Mohammad al Qudhaieen, was arrested by the FBI in June 2003, apparently in connection with the 9/11 investigation. He was released two months later and returned to Saudi Arabia.
Soubra was denied a visa to re-enter the United States in 2001 following his alleged terrorist training in Afghanistan, but he was later allowed back in the country and was in Tempe when he was arrested in May 2002. Held without bond on a visa violation, he was ruled a national security threat and ordered deported. But federal agents blocked that order by obtaining a material-witness warrant and to keep him in custody, and Soubra testified before a federal grand jury under a grant of immunity. One year after being picked up, although never charged with a crime, he was deported to Lebanon.
No one knows if or when terrorists will strike in Arizona, or anywhere else in America. What we do know is that our enemies will continue to try to live among us, attack us without remorse or quarter, and that this war will go on, beyond this year or next, generation after generation, on both the battlefields of distant lands and in the cities and towns of America. In a world of terror and fanaticism, shadows and lies, conspiracies and deception, this brutal, miserable reality is the one certain truth.
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