Posted on 02/26/2003 9:05:58 AM PST by Wallaby
Edited on 02/26/2003 2:42:55 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
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A former Canadian resident is a key commander and ideologue with Ansar al-Islam, a group the United States considers to be the terrorist link between Al Qaeda and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, says a captured Ansar member.
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Ali and another Ansar prisoner interviewed by the Star, 20-year-old Didar Khaled Khedr, said two former Iraqi intelligence agents are among Ansar's leaders - Abu Zurbeh and Abu Wahil. |
Ali said Jaber and his family left Canada after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. He travelled to northeastern Iraq, where he joined Ansar al-Islam, which runs a Taliban-style regime from its mountain stronghold near the border with Iran.
"He said he left Canada because the police accused him of being a member of Al Qaeda," said Ali, adding he was part of an Ansar suicide-bomb cell that Jaber commanded.
If Ali's story is confirmed, it raises further questions about the extent of extremist activity in Canada.
Such questions were first raised in December, 1999, with the arrest in Seattle of former Montreal resident Ahmed Ressam after crossing into the United States with a car full of explosives. The Algerian was convicted in 2001 of plotting bomb attacks during the millennium celebrations.
Jaber, whom Ali described as being in his late 40s, was commander of Ansar's "Yahia Ayash Battalion," named after the notorious Hamas bombmaker killed by Israeli security agents in 1996.
Jaber was also deputy head of Ansar's Al Aqsa Battalion, made up of 80 guerrilla fighters, most of them Arabs from across the Middle East, Ali said. The battalion also includes a six-member group of would-be suicide bombers, which Ali said he was a member of.
Both groups launch attacks against the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, (PUK) a secular Kurdish militia fighting for control of the same area of northeastern Iraqi turf as Ansar.
Ali was arrested by the PUK six months ago after he was to carry out a suicide-bombing mission but lost his nerve.
He told his story to the Star in the Sulaymania prison in northeastern Iraq, part of an autonomous Kurdish region kept out of Saddam's control by patrolling U.S. and British warplanes.
During a two-hour interview, he told a detailed story of how he joined Ansar at the age of 15, how he trained to be a suicide bomber, and how he finally lost his nerve.
Ali mentioned Jaber an hour into the interview, when asked if there were any non-Kurds among Ansar's fighters. He said there were many Arabs, and a Canadian who happened to have been his boss.
A small, thin young man, Ali's hands shook throughout the interview. But his voice was even, and calm.
He said Jaber was highly respected by Ansar's top leaders, including Abu Abdullah Shafeh, and he wielded a lot of influence.
Jaber also regularly conducted classes on Ansar's religious beliefs and political aims, which amounted to transforming the swath of land from the Iranian border to the Turkish city of Istanbul into a hardline Islamic state.
"He said he was happy about what happened on Sept. 11," Ali said of Jaber. "He said (accused terror mastermind) Osama bin Laden is a great Islamic leader and a very good man."
Ali said Jaber left Canada with his wife, five sons and daughter. He said he doesn't know the route the Jabers took to Ansar's base. But he said Jaber told him he made a stop in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and then went on to Arbil, a town in the Kurdish autonomous area, before joining Ansar near the Iranian border.
He said Jaber speaks English, Turkish and Arabic, and his children, all of whom were born in Canada, speak English only. He said his sons act as Jaber's bodyguards, and his oldest is called Ossama.
U.S. President George W. Bush's administration has made Ansar a key part of its argument for waging war against Saddam's regime.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has accused Saddam of actively supporting Ansar, which Powell says produces deadly chemicals that can be used in terror attacks, and is linked to bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.
PUK generals expect U.S. warplanes to bomb Ansar's bases once the looming U.S.-led war against Iraq breaks out.
Terrorism experts have been skeptical about such claims, describing Powell's evidence for an Ansar-Saddam link as flimsy. They say Saddam's secular politics and lifestyle are world's away from Ansar's fundamentalist vision of Islam.
Ansar's leader, Mullah Krekar - who has described Saddam as an enemy of Islam - lives in Norway as a refugee. Norway is now trying to deport him.
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Ali said Abu Zurbeh refers to Saddam as "Uncle Saddam." |
Ali and another Ansar prisoner interviewed by the Star, 20-year-old Didar Khaled Khedr, said two former Iraqi intelligence agents are among Ansar's leaders - Abu Zurbeh and Abu Wahil.
Ali said Abu Zurbeh refers to Saddam as "Uncle Saddam."
Referring to Ansar's leaders, Ali said: "They considered themselves a part of Al Qaeda." Many had trained in camps in Afghanistan when the fundamentalist Taliban ruled, he added.
Both prisoners said Ansar leaders talked about chemical agents, but neither ever saw any at Ansar bases. They also said they had no idea whether Ansar was producing chemical agents.
Ansar al-Islam controls 17 villages dotting the Shineray mountains that hug Iran's border. Prisoners and PUK generals estimate Ansar has between 500 to 800 fighters.
Ansar's mountain-top military bunkers are about two kilometres away from PUK mountain-top positions, and the two often exchange fire.
They're separated by the fertile plains of Sharazoor, and nearby is the Kurdish town of Halabja, which Saddam's army attacked with chemical weapons in 1988, killing 5,000 people.
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By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer The Associated Press February 21, 2003, Friday, BC cycle BEIRUT, Lebanon Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said Baghdad had no ties to Ansar al-Islam nor an alleged al-Qaida fugitive Abu Musaab Zarqawi, who has been linked to the murder of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan and poison plots in a half-dozen European countries. Sabri, in a 13-page letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to rebut U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the Security Council earlier this month, also said Baghdad is offering to hand over to Washington Abdul-Rahman Yasin, a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who is on the FBI's most-wanted list. Sabri's letter, which was posted on the Iraqi Foreign Ministry's web site Thursday, denied any link between Iraq and Zarqawi or Ansar, saying both operated in northern Iraqi areas under the control of Kurdish groups allied to Washington and beyond Baghdad's reach. Powell also accused Ansar of harboring al-Qaida fugitives from Afghanistan, implying the group would not have offered al-Qaida any refuge without Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's consent. "The Government of the Republic of Iraq stresses that no Iraqi government or nongovernment party had any meeting in the past or currently with this person (Zarqawi)," the Iraqi Foreign Ministry statement said.
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Baghdad found no evidence Zarqawi had entered Iraq through any border point "whether using his own name or other aliases the Jordanians have provided." They are still looking for other fugitives, whose entry into Iraq also have not been proven. Iraq said Zarqawi is in Biyara, part of the Sulaymaniyah region in northern Iraq. The areas "are not under central authority since 1991," the statement said. That was a reference to autonomous Kurdish areas that are protected by U.S. and British warplanes enforcing a no-fly zone. Iraq also denied U.S. accusations of Iraqi government links to Ansar, saying it has helped fight the group.
Sabri also said Washington refused Iraqi offers of cooperation in the case of Yasin, the man accused of mixing the bomb that blew up in the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993, killing six people and injuring 1,000. Iraq arrested Yasin in Iraq in 1994. Baghdad has offered America information and, through an international mediator, said it was willing to hand Yasin over, but the U.S. government rejected the offer, the statement said. It did not explain why the United States would have rebuffed the offer, and U.S. officials could not immediately be reached to confirm the Iraqi account. "Iraq's government once again would like to assert that it is ready to hand over this suspect in a formal way to American authorities," the statement said. The FBI has offered a $25 million reward for information leading to Yasin's arrest. The FBI questioned him after the bombing but let him leave America. He was later indicted on charges he helped mix the explosives. Yasin, of Iraqi heritage, was born in Bloomington, Ind., while his father studied at Indiana University. He moved to Iraq as a child and returned to the United States in 1992. |
...They're separated by the fertile plains of Sharazoor, and nearby is the Kurdish town of Halabja, which Saddam's army attacked with chemical weapons in 1988, killing 5,000 people.Rahbar Said Ibrahim, the PUK commander in the area, said 300 PUK fighters have been killed in clashes with Ansar since the fighting between the two began in Sept. 23, 2001.
Ibrahim said his fighters can't raid Ansar mountain positions because paths leading to them are booby-trapped with explosives and landmines.
Ali said he joined Ansar in April, 2000. He said he received 45 days of training in using AK-47 rifles, machine guns and grenades.
Then he was chosen to be part of a six-man suicide bomb squad.
"They choose the most religious fundamentalists among us to do that," he said.
His suicide bombers course was held in Sergat village and lasted 10 days. Ali said the class listened to taped speeches by Abu Qatada, a Palestinian recently arrested in London and detained under Britain's anti-terrorism law. The young bombers were also told of a paradise filled with 72 virgins waiting for them, Ali said.
In case religious fervour wanes in the moment of truth, Ali said bombers are given a drug in pill form that "makes you euphoric."
Ali said he proudly graduated from the course and was chosen to carry out a suicide attack inside a PUK militia post. The plan was to simply walk in and pull a rod that would detonate four grenades hidden under his sleeve.
He said he signed a declaration saying he was ready to blow himself up and Ansar also taped his statement on video. But he then described a torturous process of changing his mind three or four times, encouraged by friends not to do it and Ansar members to plow ahead.
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Deutsche Presse-Agentur July 20, 1994, Wednesday, BC Cycle New York, July 20
"We voluntarily said that we would be ready to cooperate with the U.S. authorities if they act in a proper manner to search for the truth (about the bombing)," said Aziz, who refused to disclose anything regarding the information. Last March, the Iraqi minister categorically denied allegations of Iraqi government implication in the February 26, 1993 Trade Centre bombing, which killed six people and injured over 1,000. Then in April, Baghdad first offered to provide information about the bombing to the U.S. On July 4 a joint Newsweek magazine/American Broadcasting Company (ABC) investigation into the explosion raised questions about official Iraqi involvement in the terrorist attack. |
Iraq and the U.S. broke off diplomatic ties after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The U.S. State Department has also posted a 2 million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of two fugitives from the bombing who are both linked to Iraq. One of the fugitives, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who prosecutors say built the bomb, drove the van in which it was placed and organised and helped finance the project, entered the U.S. with an Iraqi passport, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) says. Abdul Rahman Yasin, the other suspect on the run, was questioned and released by the F.B.I. a week after the explosion and subsequently went to Baghdad via a flight to Amman, according to the F.B.I. Newsweek reported seeing Yasin in Baghdad three weeks ago and said his neighbours claimed he was working for the Iraqi government. Despite an extradition treaty signed with Iraq in 1934, the U.S. has not asked Baghdad to extradite Yasin. Asked if Iraq would turn him over if such a request were made, Aziz said: "I don't know about the details of this and I cannot say yes or no." |
I wasn't aware they had a backup drug. I wonder what type of drug it is?
An absurd spectacle, indeed, though no less innocent would be the victims of that homicidal act. Incidentally, though I employed the commonly accepted label 'suicide bomber' I much prefer 'homicide bomber'. After all, the intention of the bomber is to destroy other lives, his own death being but a foreseen and unintended side-effect. For if these killers could murder the targets without killing themselves, they certainly would.
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