I'm a little late in getting to it but on Sunday the website of al-Muhajiroun (The Voice the Eyes the Ears of the Muslims U K), the openly al-Qaida supporting, global caliphate endorsing, London-based organization of idiotlogue Omar Bakri Muhammad, published a press release supporting the attack on the United Nations in Baghdad.
"In conclusion, the UN is no more than a front to legitimise US foreign policies. A rubber stamp to legalise the spilling of Muslim blood, a green light signalling the turning of a blind eye to any atrocities committed against Muslims. Hence we see that only the Muslims defending their life, honour and property are in fact 'terrorists' for the UN, as opposed to the Russians who massacre Muslims in Chechnya or the Jews who occupy Palestine or the Hindus who gang rape Muslim women in Kashmir or the US & UK who carpet bomb Muslims in Afghanistan or the US & UK who occupy and continue to kill Muslims in Iraq or the tyrant rulers (given credibility by the UN) who continue to oppress Muslims in Muslim countries…etc…etc…
One of the many benefits of 9/11 was that it clearly delineated the two camps of Islam and Kufr (non-Islam), the camp of Haq (truth) and that of Batil (falsehood), the camp of sovereignty and supremacy for God as opposed to sovereignty and supremacy for man made law. Verily Muslims have no choice but to reject all alliances apart from those with Muslims. This means rejecting the UN and any organisation or body propagating man made law. As Allah (SWT) says in the Qur'an:
'O believers do not take the Jews and Christians as friends and protectors. They are just supporters of and love each other alone. And whoever does turn to them is one of them. Verily Allah does not guide the oppressors' [EMQ 5:51]
And 'The believers are a single brotherhood' [EMQ 49:10]
Let it be known therefore that all regimes, governments and bodies (implementing man made law) in the world today are rejected by Muslims and that the only legitimate authority, recognised in Islam on the state level, is that of the Islamic State i.e. Al-Khilafah, which must be established by Muslims and which will carry the message of Islam to the world - striving for Izhar ud-Deen i.e. the total domination of the world by Islam, through its divine foreign policy of Jihad."
Remember, Bakri Muhammad's al-Muhajiroun is the same Islamofascist organization that plans a celebration this September 11th in memory of "the Magnificent 19" who gave America it's "comeuppance."
That these animals are allowed to disseminate their filth over the web is maddening.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that "al-Fagih deleted the posting Monday, but it reappeared on the site page, which is similar to a chat room. He said he would continue to remove it, and that he regularly deletes postings deemed offensive or which lacked authenticity."
A case of plausible deniability by al-Faqih, a known al-Qa'ida propagandist? I think so.
IRNA [Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency] quoted Tehran's ambassador to Riyadh as saying the Al Qaeda members had been arrested in Iran after the US-led war on Afghanistan, but did not name them, or say how many had been extradited or when they had been handed over to Saudi Arabia.
So who did the Saudis get?
Don't get your hopes up about Saad bin Ladin.
Tehran is now openly refuting charges that Saad bin Ladin and the two Egyptians, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Saif al-Adel (al-Qa'ida #'s 2 & 3), have been allowed to slip out of the country with the help of Revolutionary Guard elements.
In fact, the Iranians say the three had never been detained and claim they have never set foot on Iranian soil.
Update
Today's IRNA press roundup of major Tehran dailys quotes a headline from SEDAY-E EDALAT (6th item) that the handover of the al-Qa'ida members to Saudi Arabia occurred in June during Saudi FM Prince Saud al-Faisal's visit to Tehran.
So this is really not breaking news after all, which may explain why the Western press has remained largely silent on this story: The Saudis don't have anybody of importance.
The Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday that al-Qa'ida "terrorists are plotting to hijack an aircraft in Britain over the next two months and fly it into an important building."
According to the Telegraph, the source of the intel is Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi.
Apparently, al-Ghamdi is not feeding his interrogators disinfo since "intercepted terrorist communications have corroborated his claims."
Recall that in late July al-Ghamdi clued American interrogators to al-Qa'ida's plans to attemp late-summer hikackings in the US, Britain, Italy and Australia.
The department of Homeland Security issued travel warnings based on al-Ghamdi's claims, which were corroborated by other sources.
At the time the FBI warned of al-Qa'ida's potential use of explosive laden cameras and stun guns disguised as camera flash attachments. The information was based on raids on al-Qa'ida hideouts.
Yesterday's Telegraph report says the devices were, in fact, found during a raid on al-Ghamdi's house in Saudi Arabia. (No mention is made of when this would have occurred but it would have to have been between the Riyadh blasts of May 13th and al-Gahmdi's surrender to the Saudi Interior Ministry on June 26. Also important to note here is that the Saudis are not only making terror suspects available for questioning by CIA and FBI agents but also are offering evidence seized in raids to the US, both unprecedented measures. I think the White House had these two results in mind when they classified the 28 pages of the 9-11 report.)
Fox News goes the Telegraph one better and reports that it is al-Ghamdi who "is said to have been orchestrating the plot" to hijack the British aircraft and crash it into a British target. Unfortunately, Fox neither supplies a source for this startling al-Ghamdi development nor elaborates on it.
1483 (pdf) recognizes "the specific authorities, responsibilities, and obligations under applicable international law" of the US and UK as the "occupying powers under unified command."
1483 designates the US and UK as the 'Authority.' The Coalition Authority, or CA, works for our purposes though.
Further, 1483 "calls upon the Authority...to promote the welfare of the Iraqi people through the effective administration of the territory, including in particular working towards the restoration of conditions of security and stability and the creation of conditions in which the Iraqi people can freely determine their own political future."
So the UN was targeted because it was seen as sanctioning the US and UK as occupiers who would provide security and stability in order that a Democratic Iraqi government would eventually be formed.
Resolution 1483 also approved the creation of the Secretary General's Special Representative for Iraq (de Mello) who would work "intensively with the Authority, the people of Iraq, and others concerned to advance efforts to restore and establish national and local institutions for representative governance, including by working together to facilitate a process leading to an internationally recognized, representative government of Iraq."
And de Mello was targeted because he was the liason between the CA the UN and the Iraqi protogovernment, the Iraqi Governing Council or IGC.
Resolution 1500 (pdf) would prove to be the tipping point.
1500 is a very short resolution but it is significant because it signals that Democracy is the future of Iraq.
In 1500 the UN "welcomes the establishment of the broadly representative Governing Council of Iraq...as an important step towards the formation by the people of Iraq of an internationally recognized, representative government that will exercise the sovereignty of Iraq."
And the pointman, the man who was to be instrumental in a great many aspects of Iraq's transition to Democracy, was Sergio Vieira de Mello.
So who did it? Who are the bastards that murdered de Mello along with 19 others?
Who would consider the Iraqi Governing Council to be a "group of traitors and infidels who have removed themselves from all of Islam due to their cooperation with America and their implementation of its 'Crusader-Zionist' plans?"
Who would consider "those who have been recruited to the new Iraqi security forces established by the Americans also 'infidels' who 'deserve to die...as is the fate of every traitor who assists the enemies of Allah.'?"
With the UN no longer of use to Al-Qa'ida, and the al-Qa'ida affiliated Salafiya al-Mujahida, old scores could be settled.
UN Security Council Resolutions 1368 and 1373 stipulate that all member states have the duty to act against the perpetrators of terrorism and their organisations.
The two resolutions gave the United States a legal justification for its military strike against Afghanistan and the formation of the Enduring Freedom Coalition to carry it out.
The air strikes against al-Qa'ida and Taliban forces in Afghanistan commenced on October 7, 2001.
On November 3, 2001, al-Jazeera broadcast bin Laden's now infamous videotape in which he denounced the United Nations, calling it an instrument of crime against Muslims for issuing "decisions supporting the oppressive, tyrannical and arrogant America."
Bin Ladin also blasted the organization for the creation of the state of Israel in a 1947 resolution and took aim at UN chief Kofi Annan for putting pressure on the Indonesian government, telling it: "You have 24 hours to divide and separate East Timor from Indonesia."
The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that the meeting between seven members of the US Congress (Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H.; Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn.; and Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz.) and de Mello which was scheduled for a "few hours before the bomb exploded at about 4:30 p.m. local time...was scrapped because the plane the lawmakers were traveling on was delayed on a flight from Jordan. The meeting was to have been at the military headquarters used by the U.S.-led forces in Iraq, about 10 miles from the U.N. site."
This seems to rule out the theory that the US lawmakers were themselves targets but as Dan Darling notes "it doesn't really matter at this point. De Mello was a good man who did a lot of excellent reconstruction work in Kosovo and East Timor and his experience will be sorely missed in Iraq."
Just hours later a Jerusalem bus was blown apart by a suicide bomber as it made its way from the Western Wall. The death toll now stands at 20 dead, 100 injured.
Whoever is responsible for the Jerusalem attack, most likely Islamic Jihad in a 'retaliatory' strike, is as much an ememy of the civilized world as the Baghdad bombers and planners.
The carnage caused by both attacks was evident immediately after the blasts.
In Baghdad, a Japanese television crew was filming at the moment of the blast and in Jerusalem television crews were on the scene within moments of the attack.
Yesterday, Arab News reported that Prince Sultan paid a visit to the family of mass murderer Idi Amin to offer his condolences and that King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah sent cables of condolences to Amin's family.
What does this have to do with today's outrages?
When the top three figures of alSaud legitimize terror by paying homage to a terrorist who killed prolifically and indiscrimately they send a message to the Muslim world that they condone such acts.
They offer a royal imprimatur to crazed killers of civilians in Jerusalem and saboteurs intent on wrecking the reconstruction of Iraq. Posted
3:54 PM
by Robert
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Of particular interest to alphabet city is one Mohammed Fizazi, a leading 'theoretician' of Salafia Jihadia, the Islamist fundamentalist group that planned and carried out the bombings.
Fizazi was convicted of undermining state security, criminal association, sabotage and inciting to violence. He was sentenced to 30 years in the slammer.
Fizazi was the imam at the al-Quds mosque in Hamburg, Germany in 1998 and 1999. He played a key role in the radicalization of Mohammed Atta and the other members of the Hamburg cell.
It wasn't until I actually started reading the damned thing and came to this part,
But the fact is that the blackout hit the entire East and part of Canada....one of the benefits of this strike is that the U.S. will not live in peace until our conditions are met, such as releasing all the detainees including Sheikh Omar Abdulrahman...
that I had a paroxysm, there it goes again, of laughter that made the hour and a half I spent on the N train, and the escape from it, near Union Square here in the Baked, that day certainly, Big Apple worth it:
Al-Faqih charged al-Shamrani with being an intelligence agent for the Saudi Interior Ministry and that al-Shamrani answers directly to Interior Minister Prince Nayef.
More importantly, in the same Jazeera interview, al-Faqih said that "talk inside circles close to the jihad current indicate that big operations are coming" against Western targets in Saudi Arabia.
The Washington Post's John Mintz reported on August 12th that a senior Saudi counterterrorism official told reporters in a briefing that al-Faqih had ties to a 10-person al Qaeda cell that Saudi Police shot it out with the day before.
The cell is now known to have been targeting British Airways for a missile attack inside Saudi Arabia.
While the Saudi counterterror official could be considered a biased source of intel on al-Faqih, the Saudi dynasty having motive to smear al-Faqih - not to mention kidnap him, the Saudi official is correct in his assessment of al-Faqih's connection to al-Qa'ida since the latest news of the plot against British Airways confirms al-Faqih's inside knowledge of "big operations" against Western targets.
Update - Aug. 19
The Financial Times (Saudis in Iraq 'preparing for a holy war') reports today that "increasing numbers of Saudi Arabian Islamists are crossing the border into Iraq in preparation for a jihad, or holy war, against US and UK forces, security and Islamist sources have warned.
One Islamist quoted in the FT piece is none other than Saad al-Faqih, who, yet again, tosses out intel on al-Qa'ida that only a spook or jihadi would likely be privy to.
The FT piece also cites the latest al-Qa'ida communique as confirmation that jihadists are preparing to mount a holy war in Iraq, if, in fact, they have not already begun to do so.
Dan Darling has offered comment on both the FT piece here and the al-Qa'ida communique here.
John R. Bradley of the Washington Times reported today that "according to a high-ranking Western diplomat who spoke on the condition that he not be identified" the details of the telephone conversation, which were not released, were revealed by the "unidentified Saudi suspect" who "was arrested as part of a crackdown on Islamist militants and their supporters after the May bombings."
Bradley notes that much of the intelligence on al-Qa'ida coming out of Saudi Arabia is being obtained by CIA interrogators which carries more credibility than intel obtained by the Saudi Interior Ministry.
While the source of the Saad bin Ladin information has not been identified, al-Ghamdi, the Riyadh attacks mastermind, would be the most likely source as he has been a rich source of al-Qa'ida intel to the CIA and FBI since the Saudi princes became very cooperative in late July.
Recall that it was al-Ghamdi who yielded the intel that led to warnings of new al-Qa'ida hijack threats in the US.
According to Bradley, both the Saad phone call and a letter from Usama "are linked to a series of al Qaeda actions targeting Westerners in Saudi Arabia."
The blood stained letter was found on the body of Yosif Salih Fahd Ala'yeeri (al-A'yeeri, al-Ayeeri, al-Eiery, al-Ayiri) a member of the Riyadh cell who was killed in a shoot-out with Saudi security forces in late May. Saudi authorities have refused to release the details of the letter.
Sheikh Al-Ayiri was the object of much discussion on Jihad message boards and forums in early June. Posters to the boards were lamenting al-Ayeeri's death and vowing revenge because the Saudi-born cleric was reported by Asharq al-Awsat to have been the founder and webmaster of the al-Qa'ida website al-Neda.
Bradley also reveals that the Saad phone call has strained relations between Riyadh and Tehran since the Iranian regime has denied that the Riyadh attacks were orchestrated from within Iran. Posted
1:08 PM
by Robert
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The recent eagerness of the Saud dynasty in offering unprecedented cooperation and assistance to the US and other Western countries includes:
Allowing American interrogators to question terror suspects held in the kingdom, most notably Riyadh archbomber Ali al-Ghamdi. It was al-Ghamdi who tipped American questioners on possible late summer hijackings by al-Qa'ida cells. (Some reports made the mind boggling claim that al-Ghamdi was handed over to the US and is now at Gitmo.)
Handing over to the US three Americans arrested in the kingdom who were among eleven individuals indicted in the 'Virginia Jihad' case.
The granting of royal pardons to and release of seven Westerners convicted for a series of bombings in the kingdom in 2000 that is believed to have been carried out by Islamists.
The claim by the Saudis to the US that Iran is giving Saudi Arabia the "runaround" regarding the extradition of Saad bin Laden. Less than a month before the 9-11 Congressional Report was released Interior Minister Nayef stated that Saudi Arabia would not receive Usama bin Laden's son because Saad, having had his Saudi citizenship revoked, was no longer a Saudi citizen.
One recent example of the Saud dynasty's attempt at portraying itself as America's ally in the war on terror is the launch on August 3rd of a daily, half-hour television program called, appropriately enough, War on Terrorism.
The first episode of the program, prepared and presented by Dr. Muhammad al-Uwayn, begins with a Koranic recitation, followed by archived footage of the death and destruction caused by past terrorist operations, including the 11 September New York attacks and the 12 May 2003 Riyadh explosions. Scenes of rescue operations are also shown, accompanied by the wailing of ambulance sirens.
After reciting Koranic verses urging unity and cohesion among Muslims, Dr. Al-Uwayn says: "Dear brothers, in this program we seek to know the opinion of our devout Muslim society about terrorism and the reasons for this phenomenon. We will also discuss the spread of terrorism, the size of this phenomenon, the reasons leading to extremism, and why some of our sons deviate from the right path and drift wittingly or unwittingly behind concepts unrelated to this Muslim society, which adheres to its values. We will also discuss this with people in the field and in fax messages to the program. Send us your ideas, remarks, and assessment to help analyze this phenomenon, each according to his opinion and belief. The fax number is in front of you on the screen [4425016]. Send whatever you want. Give your opinion and speak about the reasons behind this phenomenon, the way to combat it, and the early signs noted on those who deviate from the right path. Brothers, give your opinion because you are the ones targeted by all these terrorist acts. These acts target your security, stability, society, homeland, and culture."
Continuing, Al-Uwayn says: "We will also discuss what the writers write in the press. Many of our writers express their opinion based on their assessment and research. Also many readers send good articles. We will briefly discuss these things during the episodes of this program, which will be presented alternately by some of my colleagues. Accordingly, this program conveys the opinion of the Saudi Arab and Muslim society about this abnormal phenomenon, which is unrelated to our society. You are welcome. Be with us." [emphasis mine]
Let me repeat that in case the bold face wasn't bold enough: al-Uwayn says terror attacks against targets on Saudi soil are "unrelated to our society."
One need only look at the anti-Western and anti-Jewish rants by Saudi 'preachers' (hat tip: Charles Johnson) that are commonplace during Friday sermons in the kingdom, regardless of the Saudi government's claims of crack downs on hatred spewing clerics and ulemas, to understand just how related Islamist terror is to Saudi society.
Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia TV1 in Arabic, official television station of the Saudi Government, at 0935 GMT carries a 23-minute live sermon from the holy mosque in Mecca.
Concluding, the imam prays to God: "O God, strengthen Islam and Muslims, protect Islam, and destroy the enemies of Islam, the tyrants, and the corrupt. O God, close the ranks of Muslims and give wisdom to their leaders." He goes on: "O God, help mujahidin elevate Islam everywhere. O God, support them in Palestine. O God, destroy the tyrant Zionist Jews, for they are within your power."
Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabic TV2 in Arabic, official television station of the Saudi Government, at 0935 GMT carries a 27-minute live sermon from the holy mosque in Medina.
Concluding, the imam prays to God: "O God, strengthen Islam and Muslims, humiliate infidelity and infidels, and destroy the enemies of Islam. O God, give safety to this country and the other Islamic countries."
The Saudis consider Saudi Arabia to be Islam. Logically it follows that as long as the politic of murder, instead of the religion of peace, is shouted from the pulpits of Saudi Arabia (the two examples above carry clout considering they were uttered from the mosques of Islam's two holiest cities) Islamist terror attacks in the kingdom and abroad will be intricately related to Saudi society. Posted
7:26 PM
by Robert
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As many as 15 al Qaeda leaders and operatives are currently in Iran, but Tehran is dragging its feet in responding to requests from Arab governments to repatriate the accused terrorists for interrogation and trial, a senior Saudi official said yesterday.
Among the al Qaeda members being held in what Iranian officials describe as "safe houses" are Saad bin Laden, who was being groomed to succeed his father, Osama bin Laden, as al Qaeda's leader, and Saif Adel, an Egyptian described by U.S. officials as the terrorist network's security chief, said the Saudi counterterrorism official who asked not to be identified.
"Iran has been giving us the runaround" about the al Qaeda personnel in that country, and for months Iranian officials denied knowing their identities, the Saudi official said.
Is the new Saudi transparency for real or is it for show? Have the Saudi's been actively seeking the extradition of Saad bin Laden from the Iranians?
Considering an fbis translation (MidEast Web News) of an interview Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef (Naif, Nayif) gave to Al-Dammam Al-Yawm's Faysal al-Faryan in late July the answer would appear to be no.
[Al-Faryan] If we assume that they [Iran] arrested Sa'd Usama Bin Ladin, will you then ask that he be tried in the Kingdom?
[Prince Nayif] We do not consider this person a Saudi citizen. Neither Usama Bin Ladin nor his sons in Afghanistan are Saudis. But we will pursue anyone who plans or works against the Kingdom.
Nayef's statement is anything but transparent. It's purposefully vague, as are the rest of his comments on a variety of subjects in the interview.
The interview took place before the 28 page redaction became public and Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal flew to Washington in protest, so perhaps Nayef has since been reined in by Crown Prince Abdullah.
Keep in mind, however, that Nayef publicly stated in the aftermath of 9-11 that Jews were behind the attacks.
In a piece for Front Page Magazine today (The Dysfunctional House of Saud) Steven Schwartz says Nayef is the Saudi "figure most infected with Wahhabi hatred of the West, according to Saudi dissidents, and the minister responsible for the terror-funding charities, to which he has contributed generously." Posted
2:18 PM
by Robert
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The seven Westerners were imprisoned for a string of bombings in the Kingdom that the Saudis claimed were carried out in a battle between rival alcohol smuggling rings. The sell and consumption of alcohol is banned by sharia law in Saudi Arabia.
It turns out that the bombings were carried out by Islamist extremists who were targeting Westerners.
As the Financial Times (subscription required) notes, the Saudi royals have, publicly at least, been in denial over the existence of Wahhabist extremists in the kingdom. May 12th changed that.
The case of the westerners reflected stubborn denial of the Saudi authorities until recently that local Islamist militants could be responsible for the series of attacks against foreigners.
Much to the dismay of the government, Prince Nayef, the interior minister, had convinced other senior members of the Saudi regime that the westerners were guilty. He continued to deny that terrorist cells linked to al-Qaeda existed in Saudi Arabia long after the September 11 bombings waged by a group of mostly Saudis.
The interior ministry's attitude changed after al-Qaeda suspects bombed three western residential compounds in Riyadh in May.
Meanwhile, CanadaEast.com reports that a failed kidnap attempt by Saudi operatives in London may have contributed to the release of the seven Westerners.
A failed kidnap attempt in London allegedly backed by the Saudi government sped up the release of Canadian William Sampson, says a Saudi exile group.
Sampson's surprise release from prison Friday in Saudi Arabia along with five Britons and a Belgian unfolded like a spy novel, said Ali Al-Ahmed of the Saudi Institute in Washington, D.C. A failed kidnapping, clandestine political pressure and the bizarre world of Saudi politics all contributed to the release, he said.
"It is a spy movie. We don't live in a normal country. We live in a twisted place."
Al-Ahmed said the British government had threatened to create a huge international incident by exposing Saudi Arabia's backing of an attempt in June to kidnap a prominent Saudi dissident living in London.
"(The British) told them, 'Either your head or our people. So they said 'OK,' and the British said, 'We need the Canadian and the Belgian, too."'
Saad Alfaqih was the target of the kidnap attempt, Al-Ahmed said.
"He's a prominent Saudi dissident in London who now runs a TV satellite station that beams into Saudi Arabia through a European satellite and people are very engaged with him," said Al-Ahmed. "They wanted to shut him down and to kidnap him."
Alfaqih was beaten, but able to escape the kidnap attempt by two men, Al-Ahmed said.
Who is Saad al-Faqih and why would House Saud want to kidnap him?
Al-Faqih is the head of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA), a London based group which openly calls for the overthrow of the Saudi regime.
It's worth noting that the current Saudi ambassador to the UK is Turki al-Faisal, former head of Saudi Intelligence (Istakhbarat). While Prince Turki has not been implicated in the attempted kidnap of al-Faqih, it is inconceivable that he would not have at least known about it if, indeed, he did not order it himself.
Alphabet city is still working on its Turki piece. Stay tuned. Posted
3:37 PM
by Robert
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Time magazine reported on Thursday that "the source for the tip that al-Qaeda leaders are attempting to mount another multi-pronged airline hijacking attack" against targets in the United States, Britain, Italy and Australia is none other than Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, alias Abu Bakr al-Azdi.
Two official sources report that al-Ghamdi is providing an intelligence windfall about potential a-Qaeda plots against the U.S., western and Saudi governments. The sources say Saudi authorities passed al-Ghamdi's allegations about what could be multiple airline hijackings to the CIA, which then briefed President Bush and also provided them to the Department of Homeland Security.
The al-Ghamdi revelations could partly explain why the Bush administration is so determined to maintain smooth relations with the Saudi government in the wake of a congressional report which blanks out 28 pages of information about informal financial links to terror groups.
However, also on Thursday, CNN (hat tip Dan Darling), while confirming that al-Ghamdi is indeed the source for the new hijack warnings, reports that a "government source" has told the cable news channel that the Riyadh bomber is being held at Guantanamo.
CNN adds that "all the detainees who provided information relating to a possible hijacking plot are being held at Guantanamo, according to the source, but he would not disclose any other names."
So, did the Saudis pass along to the US information on new al-Qa'ida hijack plots provided by al-Ghamdi or did they hand over al-Ghamdi himself, or both?
It seems a certain 28 page redaction is proving to be an effective tool in leveraging an unprecedented degree of cooperation from House Saud in the war on terror.
While it is apparent that the Saudis are falling all over themselves in their eagerness to provide information on al-Qa'ida, don't be fooled into thinking they're our partners in the war on terror. They're only interested in saving their own royal asses.
A U.S. Senate committee is demanding a list of Saudi Arabian citizens that the U.S. Treasury Department has secretly identified since Sept. 11, 2001, as financiers of terrorist front groups.
Treasury has published the names of 202 individuals from several nations who have provided funding to either al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Another 79 people have been named for funding other terror groups, allowing the U.S. and United Nations member states to freeze their assets.
The Treasury has been blocked from seizing the bank accounts of another list of Saudis and others whom the department has identified as funding terrorism, senators and U.S. officials said at a Government Affairs Committee hearing in Washington.
"There is a considerable concern here in the Congress about Saudi Arabia being shielded for foreign policy purposes," said Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican. He and Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin asked the Treasury to provide the Senate panel within 24 hours with the names of people who've been kept off the lists by State or other agencies.
The committee is looking into Saudi Arabian financial and ideological links to al-Qaeda and Hamas. The two groups have claimed responsibility for terrorist bombings against the U.S. and Israelis.
Richard Newcomb, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in response to senators' questions that his office had documented the financial ties of some individuals to terrorist organizations and then been prevented from identifying them.
"There are a whole range of targets that we are prepared to move forward on, can move forward on and have developed evidentiary packages," Newcomb said.
Often the U.S. State Department objects to listing Saudi citizens on diplomatic grounds, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation insists on not naming individuals it has under investigation or surveillance, Newcomb said.
"We look very strongly to the State Department and the State Department is a very active player in all of these," Newcomb told Government Affairs.
"The people have a right to know about the trail of money that made it possible for the Sept. 11 terrorists to murder our people," said Jonathan Winer, former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration.
The Saudi government has called for release of the report's 28 classified pages. Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said after meeting with Bush Tuesday that his country has been accused "by insinuation" because of speculation about what the secret section contains.
"The paper trail of Saudi money, funneled through a network of charities and religious organizations, leads to some of the most violent terrorist groups in the world, including al-Qaeda and Hamas," said Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project, a group that conducts research on Islamic terrorists.
Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and author of the 2003 book "Hatred's Kingdom; How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism," will cite documents seized by Israel and the FBI showing Saudi funds going to terrorists.
"The Israeli national assessment is that Saudi Arabia today funds more than 50 percent of the needs of Hamas and the Saudi percentage in the total foreign aid to Hamas is actually growing," Gold said, according to prepared testimony.
The prepared testimony of the four gentlemen in bold face above, as well as that of John S. Pistole - the FBI's acting assistant director of counterterrorism, can be found here. Posted
5:31 PM
by Robert
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Mr. Gill rightfully asserted that the engine that drives al-Qai'da is a 'brain trust' of radical Islamic clerics (In the same AFPC forum, Mr. Gill claimed that elements of Pakistan's ISI know where Usama bin Laden is).
The Al Qaeda network may be driven by an extremist religious 'brain trust', operating behind the scenes and providing its followers with ideological underpinnings for terrorist attacks, according to counter-terrorism expert K P S Gill, who is credited with wiping out militancy from Punjab.
"It is a brain trust bent on world conquest, Islamic conquest," Gill said in a speech at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington.
Echoing Gill's view, a senior US official was quoted by the Washington Post saying that the idea of a 'secret religious hierarchy behind the Al Qaeda network' was being investigated.
One key piece of evidence was the videotape obtained in Afghanistan, in which Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is seen explaining the September 11 attacks, the official said.
On the tape, Laden spoke as though reporting to a Saudi cleric named Al Ghamdi.
Investigators are probing whether Al Ghamdi is connected to a network of Islamic extremist religious leaders who are behind Al Qaeda, the official said.
[ed. note: The cleric bin Ladin is seen reporting to in the videotape is now known to be the Saudi Shaykh Khaled al-Harbi (aka Abu Sulaiman al-Makki).]
It should be noted that the videotape in which bin Laden is seen explaining the 9-11 attacks to Khaled al-Harbi was most likely made in the same Kandahar guest house where the final details of the plot were hammered out during an al-Qa'ida council consisting of the the four 'pilots' (Atta, Jarrah and Al-Shehhi of the Hamburg cell along with the Saudi Hanjour) and other key players (including Binalshibh of the Hamburg cell, who would have participated in the attacks had he been able to obtain a visa, along with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) in late November-early December, 1999.
The 'religious' figure that "operated behind the scenes" of the Hamburg cell and provided it with it's "ideological underpinnings for terrorist attacks" would be Mohamed Fizazi, alias Abou Mariam.
Fizazi was the imam of Hamburg's al-Quds mosque which the Hamburg conspirators frequented during their radicalization in 1998 and 1999.
[German] Police and intelligence officials said the imam...preached an unusually heated stream of anti-Western and anti-Jewish abuse at the mosque.
The German police have no evidence that Mr. Fazazi was involved in the attacks on Sept. 11. But investigators are intrigued by the number of paths that cross his door. His hate-filled message, the fact that he left Hamburg before Sept. 11 and his ties with people involved in the attacks have all attracted the attention of the German police.
Mr. Fazazi said that "Christians and Jews should have their throats slit" and called on followers to "fight the Americans as long as they are keeping Muslims in prison," according to videotaped sermons seized earlier this month in raids by the Hamburg state police on a bookstore two blocks from the mosque, the police said.
The police said they believed that the sermons offered a religious justification to the extremists who organized the attacks. Mr. Atta and two other suspected pilots of hijacked aircraft were among five Arabs implicated in the attacks who attended Al Quds.
Like some of the other conspirators, Mr. Atta came to Hamburg as a university student in 1992 and gradually embraced a radical brand of Islam, people who knew him said. Authorities now believe that Mr. Fazazi may have played a role in Mr. Atta's transformation into a suicide pilot, but the stages of Mr. Atta's conversion from student to plotter remain unclear.
Fizazi, from Tangiers, left Germany for Morocco prior to September 11, where he continued his incitement of jihad and attacks against Western and Jewish targets.
It turns out that Fizazi is the chief 'theoretician' for the Islamist terror group Salafia Jihadia.
SJ and its members are accused of planning and carrying out the Casablanca attacks in May of this year in which 44 persons were killed and plotting yet more carnage in Morocco.
Fizazi now sits in a Casablanca jail awaiting trial, set to begin on Friday. Officially, Fizazi is charged with "inciting Jihad and violence" but is also accused of sending coded messages about future terror targets in an interview with a Moroccan newspaper in late May.
Mohamed Fizazi it can undoubtedly be said, using K. P. S. Gill's phrase, is a member of an "extremist religious 'brain trust', operating behind the scenes and providing its followers with ideological underpinnings for terrorist attacks."
It also stands to reason that this maniac should be indicted as a co-conspirator in the 9-11 attacks. Posted
6:00 PM
by Robert
The man was furious with the bride's brother for taking the photograph to keep as a memento, Al-Madinah reported.
Conservative Islam does not allow photographs to be taken, since images of living beings are forbidden.
After being dissuaded from attacking his brother-in-law, the man promptly divorced his wife of minutes.
Islamic law in force in the kingdom allows Saudi men to have up to four wives, whom they can divorce by telling the woman three times that he divorces her.
And in a twisted example of Saudi idiocy, a Saudi couple tortured their Asian maid to death simply because she could not speak Arabic.
An 18-year-old maid has died as a result of severe burns inflicted by her employers, Al-Madinah [newspaper] reported.
The woman of the house poured scalding water on the maid because she could not understand Arabic, the paper said, while the husband tied her up. Both husband and wife are teachers. When the maid’s condition worsened following the assault, the woman took the maid to her mother’s house with the intention of having her deported for failure to fulfill her contractual obligations.
The mother attempted to treat the maid with aspirin, but the girl, of Asian nationality, succumbed to her injuries soon after, the paper said.
A court sentenced the husband to four years and the wife to two years in jail. The wife’s mother will receive 80 lashes for conspiring to conceal the crime.
