History Forum / General / British History / April 2007

Yes, Virginia...

Iraq *is* the Central Front in the Global War on Islamofascist Jihadist
Terrorism.

LOSING there is NOT an acceptable alternative.

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas
--------------------------------------------------

From The Times

April 28, 2007

7/7 ‘mastermind’ is seized in Iraq

Sean O’Neill, Tim Reid and Michael Evans

The al-Qaeda leader who is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7
suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain
has been captured by the Americans.

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a former major in Saddam Hussein’s army, was
apprehended as he tried to enter Iraq from Iran and was transferred this
week to the “high-value detainee programme” at Guantanamo Bay.

GOOD!  HE WAS NOT SIMPLY TURNED OVER TO THE BRITS WHERE HE WOULD PROBABLY
NOT FACE THE DEATH PENALTY. -- DSH

Abd al-Hadi was taken into CIA custody last year, it emerged from US
intelligence sources yesterday, in a move which suggests that he was
interrogated for months in a “ghost prison” before being transferred to the
internment camp in Cuba.

Abd al-Hadi, 45, was regarded as one of al-Qaeda’s most experienced, most
intelligent and most ruthless commanders. Senior counter-terrorism sources
told The Times that he was the man who, in 2003, identified Britain as the
key battleground for exporting al-Qaeda’s holy war to Europe.

Abd al-Hadi recognised the potential for turning young Muslim radicals from
Britain who wanted to become mujahidin in Afghanistan or Iraq into
terrorists who could carry out attacks in their home country. He realised
that their knowledge of Britain, possession of British passports and natural
command of English made them ideal recruits. After al-Qaeda restructured its
operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas he sought out young Britons for
instruction at training camps. In late 2004 Abd al-Hadi met Mohammad Sidique
Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, from Leeds, at a militant camp in Pakistan and, in
the words of a senior investigator, “retasked them” to become suicide
bombers.

They were sent back to Britain where they led the terrorist cell that
carried out the 7/7 bombings, killing 52 Tube and bus passengers.

Pakistani intelligence sources said that Abd al-Hadi was also in contact
with Rachid Rauf, a Birmingham man now in prison in Pakistan and alleged to
be a key figure in last summer’s alleged plot to blow up transatlantic
airliners in mid-flight.

Abd al-Hadi has also been linked to a number of other foiled al-Qaeda plots
to carry out attacks in Britain. But the Security Service, which has
previously sent officials to question detainees at Guantanamo Bay, may not
have the opportunity to question him directly.

The Government’s recently adopted position in favour of closing Guantanamo
Bay is likely to act as a bar on agents travelling there. British
Intelligence would have to rely on relaying questions it would like asked by
American interrogators.

"CLOSING" GUANTANAMO IS A REALLY DUMB IDEA. -- DSH

Security sources said they assessed Abd al-Hadi as a key operational
commander, high up the chain in the al-Qaeda structure who was behind many
key plots in the UK.

He had a close link with another arrested al-Qaeda figure and, the sources
said, would have “a wealth of information”. He is thought to have been in
contact with Osama bin Laden before his capture and might be able to provide
information about his leader’s whereabouts.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said that Abd al-Hadi had been
classified as a “high-value detainee” at Guantanamo, and joined 14 others,
including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, as the most senior
terror suspects at the Cuba prison.

Mr Whitman refused to say when or where he was captured, or by whom. “Abd
al-Hadi was trying to return to his native country, Iraq, to manage
al-Qaeda's affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against
Western targets,” Mr Whitman said.

He added that he was a key al-Qaeda paramilitary leader in Afghanistan in
the late 1990s, and between 2002 and 2004 led efforts to attack US forces in
Afghanistan with terrorist units based in Pakistan.

In a lecture this week Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, commander
of Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism Command, said that the central al-Qaeda
leadership was behind a spate of terror plots against Britain.

He said: “We have seen how al-Qaeda has been able to survive a prolonged
multinational assault on its structures, personnel and logistics. It has
certainly retained its ability to deliver centrally directed attacks here in
the UK. In case after case, the hand of core al-Qaeda can be clearly seen.”

Sources said last night that few figures had been more important at the
centre of the revived al-Qaeda. Abd al-Hadi is credited with forming its
alliance with the insurgency in Iraq.

US officials said he was associated with leaders of other extremist groups
allied with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including the Taliban.

Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit, told The Times
that catching Abd al-Hadi was important but that it did not spell the end of
al-Qaeda.

He said Abd al-Hadi had been an important figure in developing al-Qaeda’s
strategy in the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan and also helped to
redirect its terrorist strategy in Europe.

Mr Scheuer, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, said:
“It is a blow for al-Qaeda, especially in Iraq, where it will have
consequences.

“But al-Qaeda always plans for succession, and there will have been someone
lined up to take his place. It is nonsense to think that al-Qaeda is dead.”