http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2007/07/03/image3011485g.jpg
Thanks to a Special Emailer for pointing to this article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/03/terror/main3010835.shtml
“Two Men Linked To Both U.K. Plots
Sources Tell CBS News Suspects Recruited By Leader Of Al Qaeda’s Iraq Branch”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “(CBS/AP) British authorities investigating the fast-moving U.K. terror plot now suspect that Iraqi-born doctor Bilal Abdulla and Lebanese-born Khaled Ahmed, the two men who tried to bomb Glasgow International Airport, also attempted the two London car bombings a day earlier, CBS News has learned.
British intelligence services also believe that the failed car bombings in London and Glasgow bear the fingerprints of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Intelligence sources tell CBS News that the people behind the attempts were directly recruited by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the present leader of the terror group’s Iraq franchise.
Sources say that al-Muhajir recruited people for the plot between 2004 and 2005, while they were living in the Middle East, upon orders from then-al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Muhajir was told to recruit young men who could easily move into Western countries, assimilate and lay low until the time came to attack. Britain has a fast-track visa program for medical students which makes it easier for them to enter the country.
The belief that this small cell of militants was recruited purposely by a major terror organization for their specific qualifications differentiates the group from the cell of “homegrown” attackers who were behind the bloody July 7, 2005 attack that left 52 people dead on London’s transport network. “
http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/images/abu_alMasri.jpg
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Note: The following text (minus the photos) is a quote:
http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/index.cfm?page=masri
Wanted
Abu Ayyub al-Masri
Up to $1 Million Reward
Abu Ayyub al-Masri, aka Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, is the last remaining original member of the Mujahidin Shura Council in Iraq, and remains a central figure in al-Qa’ida in Iraq. Al-Masri is an Egyptian national who served as Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi’s senior operational coordinator and arranged the first meetings between Ansar-al-Islam commander Umar Baziyani and al-Zarqawi.
Al-Masri has conspired with al-Zarqawi and al-Qa’ida in Iraq to launch terrorist attacks against U.S. personnel and property in Iraq, to include constructing and supplying vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) used in suicide attacks and providing safe houses for insurgents. It is likely al-Masri was involved in the construction of the VBIEDs that were used in the al-Zarqawi network attacks on the U.N. Headquarters, Jordanian Embassy, Ashura and Arba’een commemoration bombings, and the Assassin Gate attack on the Coalition Provisional Authority.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/09/29/al_qaeda_in_iraq_beckons_nuclear_scientists/
Al Qaeda in Iraq beckons nuclear scientists
Also calls for kidnappings of Westerners
By David Rising, Associated Press | September 29, 2006
(excerpted)
BAGHDAD — Al Qaeda in Iraq’s leader, in an audiotape released yesterday, called for nuclear scientists to join his group’s holy war and urged insurgents to kidnap Westerners so they could be traded for a blind Egyptian sheik who is serving a life sentence in a US prison.
The speaker, who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir — also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also said that more than 4,000 foreign militants have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. It was the first known statement from the insurgents about their death toll.
The fugitive terrorist chief said experts in the fields of ``chemistry, physics, electronics, media and all other sciences — especially nuclear scientists and explosives experts” should join his group’s jihad, or holy war, against the West.
“We are in dire need of you,” said the speaker. ``The field of jihad can satisfy your scientific ambitions, and the large American bases [in Iraq] are good places to test your unconventional weapons, whether biological or dirty, as they call them.”
The 20-minute audio was posted to a website that frequently airs Al Qaeda messages. The voice could not be independently identified, but it was thought to be Masri. He is believed to have succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who died in a US airstrike north of Baghdad in June, as head of the Al Qaeda-linked organization. . . .
