Free Republic

Abu Hamza, the militant, London-based Muslim cleric, maintained close contact with the leadership of al-Qa'eda during the years when it operated a worldwide terrorist network from Afghanistan, according to FBI files. Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph state that Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque, north London, dealt personally with Abu Zubeidah, Osama bin Laden's director of operations. Zubeidah, a Palestinian who is now in US custody, communicated bin Laden's instructions and messages from his hideout in Afghanistan to al-Qa'eda cells around the world. Hamza had the power to refer recruits to Zubeidah for "leadership training" in Afghan...

BBC - The only major Taleban figure to have been arrested by the Americans and then released, the former foreign minister, Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil, has given his first interview to a western news organisation since his release. Mr Mutawakil has emerged from three years in American detention and then house arrest in Kabul as a key figure in the moves by the government to forge peace with the Taleban. Speaking in Kabul, Mr Mutawakil said he was unapologetic about many aspects of Taleban rule, although he did admit that their foreign guests, Osama Bin Laden and his men, had brought...

Taliban told US it would give up Osama - middleman By Mark Trevelyan BERLIN, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. and Taliban officials met secretly in Frankfurt almost a year before the September 11 attacks to discuss terms for the Afghans to hand over Osama bin Laden, according to a German television documentary. But no agreement was reached and no further negotiations took place before the suicide hijackings in 2001, which bin Laden subsequently hailed in a videotape as the work of his al Qaeda network. ZDF television quoted Kabir Mohabbat, an Afghan-American businessman, as saying he tried to broker a...