Thanks for posting your research on this page, piasa.
I appreciate it.
2001 late : (IRAQI KURDS FORMERLY RECRUITED BY AL QAEDA TO TRAIN IN AFGHAN CAMPS RETURN HOME TO PUK TERRITORY IN NORTHERN IRAQ, WILL EVENTUALLY MERGE INTO ANSAR AL-ISLAM & SET UP ANTI-PUK ENCLAVES) On their return home to PUK territory, they merged a variety of radical organisations into the Ansar movement in 2001 and established their breakaway anti-PUK enclave. Following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, scores of Arab al-Qaeda fighters have joined them after escaping through Iran - "Chemical war threat by Iraq's 'Taliban' ," By Damien McElroy in Nicosia, UK Telegraph , Filed: 12/01/2003 (jan 12, 2003)
SEPTEMBER 1, 2001 : (IRAQ : JUND AL ISLAM ESTABLISHED -- IT WOULD BECOME ANSAR AL ISLAM -- See AL QAEDA-IN-IRAQ) Jund al-Islam, was established on 1 September 2001, controlled a strip on the Iranian border, comprising several villages and two townships, Biyara and Tawela. The group immediately declared “holy war” on Iraqi Kurdish secular ruling parties. - "Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
SEPTEMBER 4, 2001 : (MILAN, ITALY : WORLD TRADE CENTER PICS ARE SAVED ON A COMPUTER AT THE VIA QAURANTA MOSQUE : SEE FOREKNOWLEDGE, AL QAEDA & 9/11, MILAN CELL ) ...pictures of the World Trade Center were saved as temporary files on one of the computers at the Via Quaranta mosque in Milan. (The mosque was founded by Abdelkader Mahmoud Es Sayed aka Abu Saleh, an Egyptian.) - "Terrorists' Twin Tower Images, Secret Porn Messages ," ABC News , 5/8/03
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 : (AL QAEDA HIJACKING ATTACKS ON US WTC & PENTAGON)
SEPT 11, 2001 - JULY 18, 2002 : (ITALY : TERROR-RELATED ARRESTS / TUNISIANS CONVICTED FOR HELPING AQ RECRUITS IN THIS PERIOD -- See MILAN CELL) Between Sept. 11, 2001 and July 18, 2002, Italian authorities have made more than a dozen arrests of suspected Islamic militants and a Milan court convicted seven Tunisians for helping al-Qaida recruits. - "Italy: Judge Indicts Three North Africans (connected to al-Qaeda)," AP via Europe Daily , July 18 2002
SEPTEMBER 23, 2001 : (JUND AL ISLAM ATTACKS PUK FIGHTERS; PUK DISCOVERS THEY ARE AL QAEDA-BACKED AND THERE ARE "AFGHAN ARABS" IN JUND AL ISLAM'S RANKS) On 23 September 2001, they attacked and slaughtered more than 40 fighters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, which led to a wide range armed confrontation between the two sides. Jund al-Islam was reported, by PUK officials and London-based Arabic newspapers, to have Afghan Arabs in their ranks, as well as Kurds who served in Afghanistan and Chechnya. It was also reported that the group was financed by Al-Qaeda organization and its members were trained in Afghanistan. - "Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
SEPTEMBER 2001 late : (FOUR JORDANIAN FIGHTERS FORMERLY IN AFGHANISTAN WERE KILLED IN IRAQI KURDISTAN : THEY BELONGED TO JUND AL-ISLAM -- See ANSAR AL ISLAM , AL QAEDA-IN-IRAQ) The Saudi newspaper, Al-Watan reported on 23 November 2001, involvement of Jordanian nationals in the Islamic radical group. The newspaper said four Arab afghans of Jordanian origin were killed late September 2001 in Iraqi Kurdistan. They were members of Jund al-Islam group, or Soldiers of Islam, which became Ansar al-Islam later in December of the same year.- "Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
SEPTEMBER 24, 2001 : (WILLIAM SAFIRE REPORTS THAT THE LINK BETWEEN BIN LADEN & SADDAM MAY BE FOUND IN KURDISTAN -- See JUND AL ISLAM {LATER ANSAR AL ISLAM}) On Sept. 24, 2001 — not two weeks after 9/11 — Kurdish sources led me to report: "The clear link between the terrorist in hiding [Osama] and the terrorist in power [Saddam] can be found in Kurdistan. . . . The Iraqi dictator has armed and financed a fifth column of Al Qaeda mullahs and terrorists. . . . Some 400 `Arab Afghan' mercenaries . . . have already murdered a high Kurdish official as well as a Muslim scholar who dared to interpret the Koran humanely." The C.I.A. blew off that report. Our National Security Council did not learn of subsequent warfare against the Kurds by the Qaeda affiliate doing Saddam's bidding until its members read it in The Times. After Jeffrey Goldberg of the New Yorker and C. J. Chivers of The Times developed the story from inside northern Iraq, it dawned on some intelligence analysts that a "clear link" was probable. --------- "(Safire) Found: A Smoking Gun," by William Safire, The New York Times, 02/11/04 [Safire was one of the people Saddam HUssein railed against I think]