Let's keep the Dem's on the run!
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Posted on 10/08/2003 1:21:02 PM PDT by JohnBerger
The Path Not Followed
1995 Deportee's Trail Could Have Led U.S. Gov't To Ayman Al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda Uranium Plot, U.S.-based Terror Finance Network, 1998 Embassy Bombing, Southeast Asia Terror Kingpin and 9/11 Plotters
If the FBI had thoroughly investigated Mohammed Jamal Khalifa when they had him in custody in December 1994, they could have uncovered leads to several pending terrorist attacks - up to and including September 11.
The Saudi businessman was detained by the U.S. for nearly six months before being deported to Jordan in April 1995 at the insistence of the State Department. He was allowed to leave the country despite evidence in the FBI’s possession at the time which potentially tied Khalifa to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Bojinka plot and the Oklahoma City bombing. (full story; see below for synopsis)
The decision to drop any criminal investigation may have had a high price in American lives. Khalifa has been tied by the federal government and mainstream news sources to a 1994 al Qaeda attempt to purchase uranium, the mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombing, U.S.-based charities the government claims moved fund on behalf of al Qaeda and the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Khalifa may also have been linked to Ayman al-Zawahiri, who visited the U.S. one month later and stayed a half-hour's drive from Khalifa's hotel, and a conspirator tied to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
(Excerpt) Read more at whoisjohndoe2.com ...
<a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/996225/posts>INS Deported bin Laden Brother-in-Law Just Days After OKC Bombing</a>
Let's keep the Dem's on the run!
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Ayman Al-Zawahiri is (was?) Al-Qaeda'a #2. Associated with Egyptian Islamic Jihad, he is a medical doctor who served time in Egyptian prison for co-conspiracy in the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
Not once, but TWICE... Once earlier in the 1990s, the second time right after Khalifa's arrest, just a short drive down the road.
jmb
But we found out later, Zawahiri had been here? I have a hard time believing we would have knowingly let him into the country.
Then again, with our know-nothng INS, anything is possible.
We don't know how much they did, but we do know that no criminal charges were filed, terrorism charges were expunged from his record, incriminating evidence was returned to him, Loay Bayazid was (sooner or later) released and eventually allowed to flee the country, and Khalifa himself was extradited and eventually freed. Contemporaneous news accounts indicated he was in solitary confinement but his lawyers never indicated he had been interrogated about anything except the Jordan charges.
I am still pursuing detailed information on exactly what sort of interrogation and investigation actually took place. But that's a damn sight harder to dig up. Peter Lance indicated in his book that no interrogation took place at all, but I think that probably needs to be double-checked because I just can't believe they were that foolish, given the interest in him at the time.
jmb
He traveled under an alias in 1995, he may not have been known enough to stop the previous time.
jmb
Yes, the 1995 trip. Ali M. and Khalid abu al Dahab lived in Santa Clara and facilitated Zawahiri on fundraising trips around the country. Funds from this trip were said to be disappointing. Feds suspect the money were used for an Egyptian embassy bombing later that year. This is all from a combination of the WSJ, Sacramento Bee and SF Chronicle, plus some related court documents which are much less detailed.
jmb
I freely admit I could be wrong about this. But I do note with interest (but without a formal allegation) that the very first source to claim the Iraqis were behind OKC appears to have been a tipoff from Saudi intelligence (to Vincent Cannistraro) on April 19, while at that exact moment, prominent Saudi businessman Khalifa was sitting in a U.S. prison, after spending the previous 6 years funneling cash from wealthy Saudis to al Qaeda.
And of course, as the story points out, Khalifa was extradited to Jordan days later.
jmb
I read this, and remember how reluctant the State Department is to deport any Arab Muslim, and wonder if we have vicious treason in government.
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