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Every year, as we enter a New Year, my mind goes back to Daniel Pearl, the Mumbai-based American correspondent of Wall Street Journal, who met with a brutal end to his young life during a visit to Karachi in January 2002 to enquire, inter alia, into the suspected Pakistani links of international jihadi terrorists. In his keenness to find out the truth, Pearl fell into a treacherous trap laid by a mixed group of Pakistani terrorists belonging to different organisations and orchestrated by Omar Sheikh, a British resident of Pakistani origin, who had participated in the so-called jihad against the...

ABC News is reporting that Current and former CIA officers speaking to ABC News on the condition of confidentiality say the United States scrambled to get all the suspects off European soil before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived there today. The officers say 11 top al Qaeda suspects have now been moved to a new CIA facility in the North African desert. The disgrunted intelligence officers even disclosed an actual list of 12 high-value targets allegedly held by the CIA, and ABC is reporting it : Abu Zubaydah: Held first in Thailand then Poland Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi: Held in...

The Daily Standard has just published my latest column, which reveals to those who missed my earlier post on the arrests of two Iraqi spies in Heidelberg during February 2001. The discovery of these agents, especially given the time frame, should set off warning bells about potentially devastating connections to the 9/11 plot: In the years following the 9/11 attacks, there has been much argument about the nature of Saddam Hussein's connections to terror. How could the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission fail to consider this, given the other activity occurring in Germany during this period: * Mohammed Atta...

BERLIN - Two suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks will be deported to their native Morocco, authorities said Tuesday, including one who is awaiting a new trial after being sentenced to 15 years for helping the al-Qaida suicide pilots. Both Abdelghani Mzoudi and Mounir el Motassadeq were served with the notice Monday, said ministry spokesman Marco Haase, the first step in what is expected to be a lengthy process that will take place only after all the appeals in their cases go through. Mzoudi, 31, was acquitted in February on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership...

Recently translated documents captured by U.S. forces provide new evidence of a direct link between Saddam Hussein's regime and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Rosters of officers in Saddam's Fedayeen list Lt. Col. Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, who was present at the January 2000 al-Qaida "summit" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at which the 9-11 attacks were planned, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Fedayeen was the elite paramilitary group run by Saddam's son Uday, which was deployed to do much of the regime's dirty work. The U.S. has never been sure Shakir was at the Kuala...

New evidence about a meeting in Prague between September 11 plot leader Mohamed Atta and Iraqi intelligence officer Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani has been uncovered, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service. Investigative journalist Edward J. Epstein has uncovered Czech government visa records indicating al-Ani was posted to the Iraqi embassy in Prague between March 1999 and April 21, 2001, and was involved in handling Iraqi agents. A search of the Iraq Embassy in Prague after the fall of Baghdad to coalition forces revealed al-Ani had scheduled a meeting for April 8, 2001, with a Hamburg student, according to...

Question:     Three years have passed since the putative meeting in Prague between hijacker Mohammed Atta and Iraq Consul al-Ani. What has the CIA, FBI, Czech intelligence (BIS) and other intelligence services established about the activities of the alleged participants at this meeting? Answer: 1)   Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani served as consul at Iraq's embassy in Prague between March 1999 and April 21, 2001 and he was activity involved in agent-handling during this period. 2)  Mohammed Atta applied for a visa to visit the Czech Republic on May 26, 2000 in Bonn, Germany According to Czech visa records,...

The Fourth Circuit's decision on the Moussaoui decision has been released. The introductory paragraph reads: "For the reasons set forth below, we reject the Government’s claim that the district court exceeded its authority in granting Moussaoui access to the witnesses. We affirm the conclusion of the district court that the enemy combatant witnesses could provide material, favorable testimony on Moussaoui’s behalf, and we agree with the district court that the Government’s proposed substitutions for the witnesses’ deposition testimony are inadequate. However, we reverse the district court insofar as it held that it is not possible to craft adequate substitutions, and...

A young man went in to buy a car and realized he had been mistakenly identified as a terrorist. Ryan Allen (pictured, left), 19, turned up on a government list that includes Osama bin Laden and members of al-Qaida. Allen wanted to buy a new Chevrolet Cavalier. He filled out the paperwork at a Kansas City dealership and then the results of the credit bureau check came back. "I filled out the credit thing. I'm probably sitting there an hour ... hour and a half," Allen said. But the dealership's manager came back with what Allen thought was an odd...

Man Trying To Buy Car Finds Out 9/11 Terrorist Took ID Terrorist Apparently Used Allen's Social Security NumberUPDATED: 10:07 a.m. EDT April 21, 2004 KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A young man went in to buy a car and realized he had been mistakenly identified as a terrorist. Ryan Allen (pictured, left), 19, turned up on a government list that includes Osama bin Laden and members of al-Qaida. Allen wanted to buy a new Chevrolet Cavalier. He filled out the paperwork at a Kansas City dealership and then the results of the credit bureau check came back. "I filled out the...

After having released Mounir El Motassadeq, the German Court in Hamburg has dropped the terrorism charges against him (3066 counts of accesory). One Charge remains - membership in a terrorist organisation. Until June he remains free, but must remain in Hamburg (at least initially) and must report to the police twice a week. If convicted of the remaining charge, he could face from 1 to 10 years. [my opinion - he will walk on this charge as well.] The entire case has been essentially thrown out based on statements made by others whose connection to the attacks on 9/11 is...

IT makes a chilling picture. The mastermind behind the September 11 attacks has told interrogators that he and his terrorist nephew leafed through almanacs of US skyscrapers when planning the operation. Sears Tower in Chicago and Library Tower in Los Angeles – which was "blown up" in the film Independence Day – were both potential targets, according to transcripts of interrogations of al-Qa'ida operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. "We were looking for symbols of economic might," he told his captors. He recounted sitting looking at the books with Ramzi Yusuf, his nephew by marriage, who was the man behind the...

'I met Osama Bin Laden in Kabul. It was at this time we discussed the Heathrow operation' It makes a chilling picture. The mastermind behind the September 11 attacks has told interrogators that he and his terrorist nephew leafed through almanacs of American skyscrapers when planning the operation. Sears Tower in Chicago and Library Tower in Los Angeles — which was “blown up” in the film Independence Day — were both potential targets, according to transcripts of interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Al-Qaeda operations chief. “We were looking for symbols of economic might,” he told his captors. He recounted...

Operation Infinite Freedom Link to the previous thread Good Morning. Welcome to the daily thread of Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room. It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defeat, this thread is a clearinghouse of links to War On Terrorism threads. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information and mutual support.

KARLSRUHE, Germany - The only person in the world convicted in the Sept. 11 attacks won a retrial Thursday after an appeals court faulted Washington for refusing to allow testimony from a key al-Qaida captive. The Federal Criminal Court overturned the conviction of Mounir el Motassadeq, a Moroccan, leaving German prosecutors with little to show for their efforts to pursue suspects who may have belonged to the Hamburg cell that included three of the suicide hijackers. A month ago, el Motassadeq's friend Abdelghani Mzoudi was acquitted of identical charges of giving logistical aid to the cell. Relatives of Sept. 11...

Al Qaeda finalized 9/11 in Tarragona The mastermind of the attack says that the date was set in August The Yemeni Ramizi bin al Shibh, the mastermind of 9/11 who was captured in 2002 in Pakistan and held by the US in Guantanamo, has admitted to interrogators that he met in July, 2001 somewhere on the coast of Tarragona with Mohammed Atta, 33 years old, the leader of the suicide squad that attacked the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, causing 3,016 deaths. According to the Guardia Civil, Bin Al Shibh told his captors that the...

<p>MADRID, Spain — The suspected coordinator of the Sept. 11 attacks is being held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and has told investigators he met with the lead hijacker, a Spanish newspaper reported Sunday.</p> <p>El Pais, the country's largest daily newspaper, said Ramzi Binalshibh (search), who was arrested in Pakistan in September 2002, acknowledged meeting Mohamed Atta (search) of Egypt in July 2001 — two months before the attacks in the United States.</p>

SEPT 11 SUSPECT ACQUITTED A Moroccan man accused of helping the September 11 suicide hijackers has been acquitted by a German court. Abdelghani Mzoudi, 31, had been charged in Germany's second major 9/11 trial with aiding and abetting the murder of several thousand people and being a member of a terrorist organisation, the Hamburg cell of al Qaeda. The court pronounced its verdict despite a last-minute bid by lawyers for victims' families to delay it, claiming alleged new evidence linked to the case of accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui in the United States. They are appealing against the verdict....

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court postponed on Wednesday the verdict on a Moroccan accused of aiding the Sept. 11 attackers after prosecutors said they had found a new witness, casting doubt on his expected acquittal. The Hamburg court where Abdelghani Mzoudi is on trial said that the verdict would not now be issued Thursday as expected after a request from prosecutors to hear evidence from two police officials about a new witness. "Federal prosecutors sent to the court today a substantial transcript dated January 19 regarding the questioning of a witness whose reliability is guaranteed and who would incriminate...

Mr Mzoudi admits knowing the hijackers but not their plans A German court has agreed to allow a new prosecution witness in the trial of an 11 September suspect which appeared to have all but crumbled last month. The dramatic move has delayed the verdict in the case of Abdelghani Mzoudi which was expected this week. Mr Mzoudi, 31, is accused of being an accessory to the murder of more than 3,000 in the 2001 attacks on America and membership of a terrorist group. The Moroccan national was freed after new evidence cast doubt over the case. It's a...