-Caveat Lector- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43988-2001Sep29.html
Bin Laden Seeks Instability In Mideast, Ex-Agent Says Organization Promotes Islamic Fundamentalism in Regimes By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 30, 2001; Page A31 A key reason that the U.S. drive for a coalition against terrorism has attracted so many Middle East governments can be glimpsed in three days of court testimony that emerged earlier this year in New York. Jamal Ahmed Fadl, a former mid-level operative in Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, said that the organization has bolstered a destabilizing brand of Islamic fundamentalism in a long list of existing Middle East and Central Asia regimes at the same time it has declared holy war on the United States. The 38-year-old Fadl, who spent over five years working inside bin Laden's business operations in Sudan, served at the same time as an al Qaeda courier, weapons dealer and general fixer. Fadl's testimony was an important piece of the case against bin Laden and 21 other defendants in the August 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. His words offer the best public window into al Qaeda's goals and methods. Fadl helped smuggle four crates of rifles and explosives by boat to Yemeni rebels.He delivered $100,000 in $100 bills to an opponent of King Hussein at the Jordan airport. He went with a caravan of 50 camels carrying Kalashnikov rifles from Sudan to Egypt for jihad members there. And he gave a message and money to a Saudi opponent of that country's royal family during a meeting in Budapest. He also described al Qaeda's assistance to groups working against governments in Algeria, Syria, Chechnya, Turkey, Jordan, Eritrea, Tajikistan, the Philippines and Lebanon during his testimony in federal court last February. "They have only done pinpricks around the edges to keep those regimes off balance," said Robert Oakley, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and head of counterterrorism at the State Department in the 1980s. Oakley, who is helping the Bush administration in its new approaches to Sudan, said he believes the limited operations also help bin Laden raise money. The big operations against the United States, Oakley said, are designed to force Washington out of the area. "If we go, they [the current Muslim regimes] will drop and bin Laden and his crowd think they will be able turn them into Islamic states," he said. Although Fadl mentioned working with Iraqis who were members of al Qaeda, he did not identify any group within that country that opposes Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. However, he testified repeatedly on bin Laden's criticisms of the Iraqi dictator, sometimes for attacking Muslims and killing women and children, but most importantly for not believing "most of Islam" and setting up his own political-religious group, the Baath party. Fadl was told al Qaeda was supporting a group in Tajikistan called Hezbe Nahda, whose aim was "to change the government." To that end, bin Laden's best weapons instruction team, the Azmarai group, was sent to the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, where, Fadl said, "they help the mujahadeen from Tajikistan. . . . They train them and they help them fight." On Tuesday, Tajikistan was said to be willing to have U.S. forces use its military facilities to strike targets in Afghanistan "if the need arises," according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. Russia has its own reasons for joining the coalition. Muslims in Chechnya were aided in their bloody fight against Moscow by Islamic fundamentalist groups from throughout the al Qaeda network, Fadl said. He was told, "We try to help Chechnya people against Russia . . . and buy some weapons for them." Recruits for Chechnya followed an established route, starting first in Turkey, where a bin Laden operative maintained a guesthouse, and then moving across the Black Sea to Baku in Azerbaijan to another safe house. There, a relief organization, which he said also raised money to buy weapons and supplies, guided the recruits from Baku to Dagestan to Chechnya. The cost to send a person with a Kalashnikov rifle to Chechnya was $1,500, Fadl said. Egypt also has a strong motivation to help the United States against al Qaeda. Abdel Moez Ayman al Zawahiri, head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, is one of al Qaeda's top leaders. He joined bin Laden in Afghanistan, moved with him to the Sudan in 1991 and then returned with him to Afghanistan in 1996, where both men are said to remain today. Egyptians in Zawahiri's group played a major role in the training, both military and religious, of fighters in Afghanistan and Sudan, according to Fadl. Another anti-government terrorist group in Egypt, al gamaa al Islamiya, was also an active partner with al Qaeda. That group's goal is to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and "try to make Islamic government in Egypt," Fadl said. On two occasions, Fadl participated in smuggling Kalashnikov rifles into Egypt using 50 camels that were bought in a village near Khartoum in the Sudan. King Hussein of Jordan often complained to U.S. intelligence that bin Laden money was flowing into his country. In his testimony, Fadl confirmed that the al Qaeda members worked "inside Palestine and Jordan." In 1993, Fadl was sent to Jordan to give $100,000 in $100 bills to a man named Abu Akram Urdani, an apparent pseudonym, since Urdani meant Jordan. The money was hidden in Fadl's bag with clothes. When he arrived at the international airport in Jordan, Fadl was met at the customs counter by Abu Akram Urdani, who arranged with the inspector not to search Fadl's bag. Fadl also participated in sending arms and explosives to Yemen, to support the Jannubi group, "to fight the communists." Fadl said the weapons moved with Sudanese government complicity. Four crates of weapons and explosives were taken from a hangar maintained at an al Qaeda farm in Sudan and carried by truck to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. There, a Sudanese army intelligence officer helped transfer the crates to an army truck. At midnight, the truck was taken to an al Qaeda boat docked in the Sudanese army section of the port. Saudi Arabia was a main target of bin Laden. According to Fadl, bin Laden established a London office "only for al Qaeda members from Saudi Arabia." Fadl also testified that he believed that part of the shipment sent to Yemen was for use "against foreign army and American army in east Saudi Arabia." Fadl described a planned meeting with a Saudi member of al Qaeda in Budapest at an al Qaeda guesthouse run by Abdallah Izzeldine. Fadl was carrying $7,000 in cash and a message, but was jailed before the meeting because he lacked a visa. Libya, whose leader, Moammar Gaddafi, has supported terrorist groups, is at the same time a target of al Qaeda-supported groups, according to Fadl. Members of al Qaeda were also part of the Libyan Fighting Group, which aimed to install a pure Islamic government. One of the Libyans with al Qaeda, according to Fadl, worked in Pakistan obtaining passports and travel documents for the group. The son of a Sudanese businessman, Fadl originally came to the United States in 1986, where he became involved with Islamic fundamentalism at a mosque in Brooklyn. He went to Afghanistan in 1988 to fight Soviet forces. A year later, he was one of the founding members of al Qaeda, and worked his way up the business side, running several companies. In 1994, he embezzled $100,000 and was forced out of the organization. Two years later, he told his story to U.S. agents. Fadl has pleaded guilty to providing arms that were to be used against U.S. forces, a crime that could get him 15 years in prison. But his sentence could be reduced depending on his cooperation. He is in the witness protection program, at a cost to the government of more than $725,000 through February. © 2001 The Washington Post Company ================================================================ Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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