The Gitmo Detainee
Don't miss Stephen Hayes's excellent new piece in The Weekly Standard. He was on the Vice President's trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and has compiled a very interesting narrative, filled with interesting anecdotes and stories.
One of Steve's more interesting tidbits - to me, anyway - is this:
As Cheney and Musharraf met privately, I struck up a conversation with Sohail Ali Khan, a spokesman for Musharraf. We discussed the role of Pakistan in the war on terror. The diminutive spokesman told me that Pakistani authorities are responsible for the capture or killing of more than 700 al Qaeda terrorists since the fall of 2001.
I asked specifically about an al Qaeda member detained in Khuzdar, Pakistan, in July 2002. I had been trying to obtain additional information about this detainee since March, when the Pentagon released a provocative "Summary of Evidence" describing his activities. It describes him as a former member of the Iraqi army who was recruited by the Taliban in Baghdad in 1994. He joined al Qaeda, lived at an al Qaeda camp, and received payments from Osama bin Laden. According to the Pentagon document:
From 1997 to 1998, the detainee acted as a trusted agent for Usama Bin Ladin, executing three separate reconnaissance missions for the al Qaeda leader in Oman, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In August 1998, the detainee traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars.
A Musharraf spokesman put me on the phone with Major General Shaukat Sultan, a spokesman for the Pakistani army. Sultan said he vaguely remembered the capture, and promised to provide additional details in the coming days.
Presumably, the terrorist Steve is referring to is still in American custody at Gitmo. Steve and I commented on him back in July in The Mother of All Connections.
Let's us review what else happened in August 1998, the month this terrorist is said to have "traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars." Other events in that month include:
One of Steve's more interesting tidbits - to me, anyway - is this:
As Cheney and Musharraf met privately, I struck up a conversation with Sohail Ali Khan, a spokesman for Musharraf. We discussed the role of Pakistan in the war on terror. The diminutive spokesman told me that Pakistani authorities are responsible for the capture or killing of more than 700 al Qaeda terrorists since the fall of 2001.
I asked specifically about an al Qaeda member detained in Khuzdar, Pakistan, in July 2002. I had been trying to obtain additional information about this detainee since March, when the Pentagon released a provocative "Summary of Evidence" describing his activities. It describes him as a former member of the Iraqi army who was recruited by the Taliban in Baghdad in 1994. He joined al Qaeda, lived at an al Qaeda camp, and received payments from Osama bin Laden. According to the Pentagon document:
From 1997 to 1998, the detainee acted as a trusted agent for Usama Bin Ladin, executing three separate reconnaissance missions for the al Qaeda leader in Oman, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In August 1998, the detainee traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars.
A Musharraf spokesman put me on the phone with Major General Shaukat Sultan, a spokesman for the Pakistani army. Sultan said he vaguely remembered the capture, and promised to provide additional details in the coming days.
Presumably, the terrorist Steve is referring to is still in American custody at Gitmo. Steve and I commented on him back in July in The Mother of All Connections.
Let's us review what else happened in August 1998, the month this terrorist is said to have "traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars." Other events in that month include:
- On August 7th, al Qaeda simultaneously attacked U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
- On August 22nd, the Clinton administration responded by - in part - destroying al-Shifa, a Sudanese factory suspected of being a cover for a joint Iraq-al Qaeda chemical weapons development project.
- Al-Shifa was just one of several facilities the CIA identified as being part of their joint weapons development efforts. These efforts were included as one of the allegations against al Qaeda in the Clinton administration's original indictment of al Qaeda earlier in 1998.
- Late in August 1998, the Iraqi regime ran a front-page editorial calling bin Laden an "Arab and Islamic hero" in one of its state-controlled newspapers.
- High-level Sudanese and Iraqi officials exchanged visits and jointly denounced the U.S. strike. The Sudanese openly warned of another attack by bin Laden.
There is much, much more; but you get the idea.
Hopefully the Pakistanis give Steve more information about the detainee at Gitmo. He is part of a web of connections that many wish didn't exist and try to explain away.
posted by Thomas Joscelyn at 10:18 AM
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