Jordanian Militants Shown Confessing on State TV

Reuters ^ | 4/26/04 | Suleiman al-Khalidi

[TexKat]

AMMAN, Jordan (Reuters) - Jordanian state television aired Monday what it said were confessions by captured militants tied to al Qaeda who said they had planned deadly chemical attacks that could have killed thousands of people.

Authorities had already reported the plot earlier this month, but the confessions shown on a prime-time broadcast provided further details of the planned attacks.

The arrested militants, who included Syrians, said they were ordered by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, accused by Washington of being a top al Qaeda supporter, to attack targets that included the heavily fortified U.S. embassy and intelligence headquarters.

The head of the group, Azmi Jayousi, said that he first met Zarqawi during his training in an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and met him again in Iraq without giving any dates.

"I pledged allegiance to Zarqawi and after the fall of Afghanistan I met him again in Iraq," said Jayousi, who had clearly identifiable bruises on his face and palm.

"Zarqawi commissioned me to go to Jordan to wage military action," Jayousi said in the 20-minute broadcast where he calmly recounted how he carefully planned with his accomplices the chemical attacks using trucks.

A narrator, without any detailed explanation, said at least 80,000 people would have been killed in the attack by toxic fumes spreading over a radius of more than three miles. The high figure cited was symptomatic of the high tension prevailing in the kingdom, with wide media coverage of raids and street checks.

Jayousi said he set up a chemical factory near the northern city of Irbid, close to the Syrian border, and received $170,000 in financing and logistic aid along with fake passports and forged banknotes from Suleiman Darwish, an alleged Zarqawi aide living in Syria.

The broadcast showed graphic pictures of the location of the alleged chemical plants and the trucks that were to be used in the attacks. It did not say what type of chemical explosives were being prepared.

Another captured militant shown on television was a Syrian national, Annas Sheikh Amin, 18, who said he went to Afghanistan where he was trained at a Qaeda camp before heading to Jordan.

Jordanian Hussein Sharif said he was driven by a fervent belief that the attacks would promote the cause of Muslims.

"I agreed to this operation because I thought it would serve Islam," a bearded Sharif said.

Security sources said al Qaeda had sought to punish Jordan for supporting Washington's efforts to pacify post-war Iraq, and was incensed over covert aid Jordan had given to the U.S. military campaign there.

Jordanian officials said ten days ago they had found explosive-carrying cars believed to have been loaded by an underground group linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Jayousi said he planned the attack with trucks laden with 20 tons of explosives. King Abdullah said after the arrest of the group earlier this month that it had had saved "thousands of lives"

Jordanian intelligence officials have often boasted in recent years that their efforts have foiled plots by al Qaeda-linked militants to launch deadly attacks on Western targets and government installations.

[steve-b]

Ve haf waves of making you talk!

[Leisler]

Is this the one where he sings, 'Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds'? If so there might be a Geneva Convention prohibition.....

[AmericanInTokyo]

Just visited the alJazeera site in Arabic. They are just showing the usual ANTI US photos of Iraqi civilians (who knows?) with their heads blown off, laying down, and people crying over them. Probably in Najaf or Fallujah earlier today. Graphic. www.aljazeera.net

That's as much as they have on this Jordanian attack think, i.e. ZILCH.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Correction: They are in fact running something. It is at:

http://www.aljazeera.net/news/arabic/2004/4/4-27-4.htm

[swarthyguy]

DOn't know if Zarkawi and Juayassi are the same guy or not.

Why would they hide it? What would be the motive.

But, AE, significant to me that two of these jihadis seem like older guys, not that they aren't prevalent in the islamistinternationale, but you rarely see them in operational squads.

Does make sense that Mid40's somethings guys, entranced by the jihad, would, just like younger men, seek salvation through their jihad.

Maybe that our profiling methods just went out the window and the age bracket should expand upward.

[Angelus Errare]

Zarqawi is a member of Bani Hassan, a native Jordanian tribe, while Jayyousi is said to be a Palestinian. The photo the media is using of Zarqawi is his mugshot from back when he was released from Jordanian prison in 1997 and I've seen more recent ones showing him as sporting a full beard. Jayyousi also appears to have broader shoulders than Zarqawi.

As far as age goes, Zarqawi is only in his 30s and he in fact dropped out of high school to go fight in Afghanistan. Jayyousi looks to be in his late 30s to mid-40s so my guess is that he's the older of the two. Jayyousi's now confessed that trained at Zarqawi's camp in Herat and my guess would be that he's part of the first generation of Afghan Arabs from the 1980s and folded into al-Qaeda like most of the rest of them after bin Laden assassinated Abdullah Azzam.

I agree that our profiling bracket should expand upwards, but keep in mind that the traditional profile of a suicide terrorist was more or less demolished by the 9/11 hijackers. As of right now, we should probably be ready for anything.

[GEC]

Thanks for the side by side view.

My brain functions like a face-recognition machine.

I track faces of celebrities in movies and TV with little difficulty in spite of makeup, etc.

If I could see these two guys walking I would know for sure.

The color photo guy has a LOT more weight than the guy in B&W, but I'd bet the ranch that it's the same guy.

That being said, I saw four photos of Zarqawi once and they did not all look like they were the same guy to me.

If the guy on the left is Zarqawi, he was wearing the tuq for a reason. Balding is one of those reasons.

I don't expect the Jordanians to let this guy go either way, but I hope they beat him up some more before they behead him or hang him.

[GEC]

Don't be fooled by the receding hair line.

"Jayyousi" is in his 30s. My guess would be early 30s.

There is no material difference between Jordanians and Palestinians.

If you were Zarqawi and you got busted, would you admit to being Zarqawi?

Zarqawi may indeed be in Iraq, and indeed he may be in Fallujah, but I think the possibility that this "Jayyousi" guy is Zarqawi should be investigated.

Of course, none of the media outlets in the U.S. will even touch the story, let alone investigate the players.

[GEC]

Why would they hide it? What would be the motive

Have you ever known a criminal who doesn't initially try to use an alias when he has a rap sheet as long as his arm, or $10 million on his head?

[swarthyguy]

But why would the JOrdanians hide such a catch.

[GEC]

Never assume that "intelligence" services can figure stuff out on their own. Why did the Jordanians release Zarqawi in 1997 or whenever?

There's a ton of information out there. Sorting through it is the hard part.

Sometimes you miss the forest for the trees.

[apokatastasis]

I've learned two interesting things about Zarqawi's home region of Zarqa: it's the only one of Jordan's 12 governorates in which Palestinians are the majority, and it's the home of 1993 WTC bomber Mohammed Salameh.

[swarthyguy]

The things you learn hanging around this place! Thanx.

Now if people at cocktail parties even cared about this stuff.

[VOA]

bump