NOTE: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32567
Baghdad Operations Continue; Several Weapons Caches Found
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2007 – U.S. and Iraqi security forces continued clearing operations in Baghdad today, while other coalition and Iraqi security forces discovered and destroyed several enemy weapons caches in the past few days, officials said.
Nearly 1,600 U.S. and Iraqi security forces teamed up for a second day of anti-terrorist operations in Baghdad’s Mansour district, officials said. During this sweep, U.S. soldiers with the 2nd Infantry Division’s 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team rescued a kidnap victim. The soldiers also found a weapons cache that yielded several AK-47 rifles, ammunition, mortar rounds and other ordnance.
Also today, U.S. troops operating northwest of Taji arrested seven suspected al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists and destroyed an enemy weapons cache during two raids, officials said, and U.S. soldiers detained five more suspected terrorists in Mosul during another raid today.
American soldiers found two large ammunition caches esterday; one cache was discovered near Mushadah and the other was found near Radwaniyah. Both caches were destroyed by explosive ordnance disposal teams, officials said.
Both caches contained machine-gun ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade rounds, mortar rounds and other ordnance, officials said.
“Discovery of caches like this impedes the terrorists’ ability to harm coalition forces and Iraqi civilians,” said Army Maj. Web Wright, a spokesman for the U.S. 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which participated in the Mushadah operation.
Iraqi security forces and U.S. soldiers found another large weapons cache during combined operations in Zubaida on March 21. That cache contained mortar rounds, blasting caps, grenades, and other materials suitable for use in the making of improvised explosive devices, officials said. The cache was destroyed.
Iraqi National Police found a weapons cache during a search of the Al Baneen Mosque in southeast Rashid on March 21, officials said. Iraqi civilians tipped off authorities about suspicious activity in the area. The police confiscated the cache while U.S. soldiers cordoned off the area. The cache yielded several AK-47 rifles, some rocket-propelled grenade launchers, a spool of copper wire, and other bomb-making materials.
In other Iraq news, terrorists detonated explosives to damage a bridge in western Kirkuk province March 21, officials said. About 36 feet of the bridge located near the village of Shumayt was rendered unusable by the explosions, officials said, noting the bridge is much-used as a crossing over the Zaab River.
“The real effect may be shortages in supplies that impact the daily life in the local villages,” said Mohammed Mushi, a senior local Iraqi official.
However, the damage to the bridge likely will be repaired within weeks, said Army Maj. Michael Benson, an American military engineer officer with the 25th Infantry Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32570
DoD Releases More Tribunal Transcripts
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2007 – After hearing the allegations against them, one detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, claimed ignorance of his alleged role in two U.S. embassy bombings, and another, accused of financing terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia, said nothing.
The Defense Department today released the transcripts of the combat status review tribunal hearings for Ahmed Khalafan Ghailani and Mohamed Farik bin Amin Zubair. The tribunals, held at the Guantanamo detention facility, were administrative hearings to determine only if the detainees could be designated enemy combatants.
In his March 17 hearing, Ghailani was accused of purchasing and supplying TNT, detonators and the vehicle used to hold a bomb that exploded near the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 12 and wounding 85.
Ghailani claimed he assisted the attack planners unintentionally.
“I brought the TNT and the gas cylinders to the Ilala house (where the bomb was assembled). … I gave the detonators to Fahad at a different location," he said. “It was without my knowledge what they were doing, but I helped them."
Ghailani claims he was present when attack planners purchased the 1987 Nissan Atlas truck they later used to conceal the explosives. He denied paying for the vehicle and claimed he didn’t know its ultimate purpose.
Additionally, Ghailani is accused of providing a cell phone used to coordinate a near-simultaneous attack on the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 213 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded more than 4,500.
The detainee said he purchased the phone and frequently lent it to a friend. Ghailani claimed he was unaware it was being used to communicate terrorists in Kenya, as the tribunal has alleged.
“I bought the phone for Mustaffa under my name … but Mustaffa kept borrowing it,” Ghailani said. “He never told me who he called, when, why, or who called him. I never asked him for this information.”
Expressing remorse for what he portrayed as his ignorant role in the terrorist attacks, Ghailani said, “I apologize to the United States government for what I did. And I'm sorry for what happened to those families who lost, who lost their friends and their beloved ones."
Ghailani confessed that after the embassy bombings he attended the al Fouruq terrorist training camp in Afghanistan for three months in 1998, where he learned how to detonate explosives and handle an AK-47 assault rifle.
“I wanted this for self defense,” he said, furthering his plea of ignorance.
While in Afghanistan, Ghailani met al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. One of the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists, Ghailani was working for al Qaeda as a passport and document forger in Pakistan when he was captured in 2004.
Ghailani and Zubair are two of 14 high-value detainees who were transferred Sept. 6 to Guantanamo Bay from CIA custody. The CSRT hearings for these detainees are not open to media because of national security concerns, DoD officials said.
During his March 13 hearing, Zubair was accused of personally transporting $50,000 in U.S. currency, a portion of which was used to finance terrorists safe houses and obtain explosive materials for the Aug. 5, 2003, bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, that killed 12 and injured 140, including two U.S. citizens.
Zubair also was linked to Jemaah Islamiya, a terrorist network associated with al Qaeda, allegedly responsible for the bombings in Bali, Indonesia, on Oct. 12, 2002, that killed nearly 200 and wounded 300.
When the tribunal President asked Zubair if he wished to make an oral statement, the detainee turned his head side to side, and in a low voice answered, ‘no.’
The U.S. government established the CSRT process at Guantanamo Bay as a result of a June 2004 Supreme Court decision in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, who challenged his detention at Guantanamo Bay. Between July 2004 and March 2005, DoD conducted 558 CSRTs at Guantanamo Bay. At the time, 38 detainees were determined to no longer meet the definition of enemy combatant, and 520 detainees were found to be enemy combatants.