Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Monday, October 30, 2006 6:52:28 PM
"We could see their children playing soccer in the courtyard." An attack was bypassed because "CIA and the Department of Defense... [feared] civilian casualties and [harming] U.S.-Pakistani relations." (below)
"An al-Qaeda command center is uncovered in Bajaur, Zawahiri is believed to be in the region, and Pakistan still wants to cut the Bajaur Accord. " The Fourth Rail (below)
Zawahiri Was Target in U.S. Attack on Religious School in Pakistan
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/zawahiri_was_ta.html
All ABC NEWS articles can be retrieved from this page
October 30, 2006 1:15 PM
Alexis Debat Reports:
Ayman al Zawahiri was the target of a Predator missile attack this morning on a religious school in Pakistan, according to Pakistani intelligence sources.
ABC News has learned the raid was launched after U.S. intelligence received tips and examined Predator reconnaissance indicating that al Qaeda's No. 2 man may have been staying at the school, which is located in the Bajaur region near the village that is thought to be al Qaeda's winter headquarters.
Despite earlier reports that the missiles had been launched by Pakistani military helicopters, Pakistani intelligence sources now tell ABC News that the missiles were fired from a U.S. Predator drone plane.
Between two and five senior al Qaeda militants were killed in the attack, including the mastermind of the airliners plot in the U.K., according to Pakistani intelligence sources.
No word yet on whether or not Zawahiri was killed in the raid, but one Pakistani intelligence source did express doubt that Zawahiri would have been staying in a madrassa, which is an obvious target for strikes against militants. That source, however, did express confidence that Pakistani intelligence is closing in on Zawahiri's location.
One of the clerics who is believed to have been killed today, Maulana Liaquat, was one of the two main local leaders believed to be protecting Zawahiri.
Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News they believe they have "boxed" Zawahiri in a 40-square-mile area between the Khalozai Valley in Bajaur and the village of Pashat in Kunar, Afghanistan. They hope to capture or kill him in the next few months.
Alexis Debat is an ABC News consultant.
Up to 80 Killed in Attack on Religious School in Pakistan
October 30, 2006 11:50 AM
Rahimullah Yusufzai Reports:
Up to 80 people were killed this morning in Pakistan's Bajaur region, which borders Afghanistan, when a seminary was attacked with missiles.
Reported to be among the dead is Maulana Liaquat, who ran the religious school and was one of the leaders of a pro-Taliban organization of Pakistani tribal clerics. Villagers said most of the others killed were students ages 15- to 25-years-old.
Today's attack comes on the day that pro-Taliban militants were scheduled to ink a peace agreement with the government of Pakistan, in which the militant tribal groups would have agreed not to shelter foreign refugees and not to cross the border into Afghanistan. Some of the dead from today's attack are reportedly Afghans.
The pro-Taliban organization, called Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM), is headed up by Maulana Faqir Mohammad, who is wanted by Pakistani authorities for allegedly sheltering al Qaeda- and Taliban-linked foreign militants. He was not at the school at the time of the bombing, but later showed up at the scene and made a speech blaming the United States for organizing the attack and killing innocent madrassa students. He also accused the Pakistani government of helping the U.S. launch the attack.
Eyewitnesses to today's attack said two missiles were fired from an unmanned Predator plane at around 5:00 a.m. local time. They said the drone had been flying overhead all night.
The Pakistani military, however, has said it was their helicopters, not a U.S. drone, that fired the missiles.
Villagers said they have recovered around 80 bodies so far. "The bodies were burnt. Pieces of flesh were strewn all over the place. Rescuers were picking up body parts from here and there," said Mushtaq Khan, a journalist who was at the scene.
The village where the seminary was located is just a few miles from Damadola, where a U.S. missile attack in January killed 13 people. That attack was ordered following reports that al Qaeda top deputy Ayman al Zawahiri was visiting the village to dine with local tribal militants.
Al Qaeda's Winter Headquarters
October 27, 2006 8:41 AM
Alexis Debat Reports:
U.S. intelligence sources tell ABC News they are "dismayed and alarmed" by published reports that nine men arrested last year during a raid on "al Qaeda's winter headquarters" have been released.
The nine men are family members of a local cleric, who is wanted by Pakistan for providing "extensive help and protection" to al Qaeda's No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahiri, intelligence sources tell ABC News.
Pakistani intelligence officials believe Zawahiri is hiding somewhere in a 40-square-kilometer area of Bajaur, near the Afghan border.
"Al Qaeda's winter headquarters" was a high-walled compound located near the village of Shin Kot, about eight miles from the Afghan border, U.S. and Pakistani sources tell ABC News.
A U.S. intelligence source said CIA and special forces had the compound under such close surveillance, "We could see their children playing soccer in the courtyard."
According to that source, al Qaeda's operational commander, Abu Faraj al Libbi, was among those staying at the house. He was captured elsewhere in May 2005.
The CIA and the Department of Defense decided not to raid the compound, fearing civilian casualties and harm to U.S.-Pakistani relations.
The "winter headquarters" compound was later burned to the ground by Pakistani officials.
An al-Qaeda command center is uncovered in Bajaur, Zawahiri is believed to be in the region, and Pakistan still wants to cut the Bajaur Accord
As we noted earlier this week, the release of nine al-Qaeda suspects in Bajaur is just the precursor to Pakistan surrending the tribal agency to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. According to an American intelligence source, the released al-Qaeda weren't just 'family members of Maulana Faqir Mohamed, they are actually staff members and functionaries of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammed (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Sharia), a radical Islamist group with close ties to the Taliban and al-Qaeda that sent Pakistanis to fight the Americans during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Bajaur has long been believed to be a command and control hub for al-Qaeda and the Taliban entering Afghanistan in the north east into Kunar province.
Alexis Debat reports that Bajaur hosted al-Qaeda's "headquarters" during the winter of 2005-06. The headquartes was located in the town of Shin Kot, which just south of Damadola, where a U.S.predator strike targeted, and missed Ayman al-Zawahiri but killed five senior al-Qaeda commanders, including Abu Khabab, al-Qaeda's chief of WMD program.
The Shin Kot compound was under heavy observation, and according to Mr. Debat's source, "We could see their children playing soccer in the courtyard." An attack was bypassed because "CIA and the Department of Defense... [feared] civilian casualties and [harming] U.S.-Pakistani relations." The failure to strike at Shin Kot highlights the difficulty the U.S. and NATO face with the al-Qaeda safe havens that exist along the Afghan-Pakistani border. According to Mr. Debat, "the "winter headquarters" compound was later burned to the ground by Pakistani officials," however an American intelligence source informs us that members of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammed burned down the compound to destroy any evidence.
Mr. Debat notes one other important piece of intelligence that calls into question the motivations of the Pakistani government in considering a surrender in Bajaur. Mr. Debat states that "Pakistani intelligence officials believe Zawahiri is hiding somewhere in a 40-square-kilometer area of Bajaur, near the Afghan border." In an interview with Brian Ross, Pakistani spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan was emphatic that high value targets would be hunted, after stating just days before they could indeed live in 'peace' in the region. "If someone is found there, we will see what is to be done... Pakistan is committed to the war on terror, and of course we will go after any terrorist found to be operating here," said Sultan.
If Pakistani intelligence believes Zawahiri is in a 40 square kilometer region in Bajaur, why negotiate terms that would send troops back to the barracks and allow the Taliban and al-Qaeda to openly run the local administration of the region?
Pakistan Releases over 2,500 Taliban, al-Qaeda
September 15, 2006
http://billroggio.com/archives/2006/09/pakistan_releases_ov.php
Pakistan follows the truce to the letter and releases thousands of Taliban and al-Qaeda members captured since 2001
The Pakistani government is living up to its commitments on the "Waziristan Accord," and has emptied the prisons of Taliban and al-Qaeda who have been captured since the fall of 2001. The "Waziristan Accord" calls for the Pakistani government to "release prisoners held in military action and would not arrest them again," and that is exactly what is happening.
The Daily Telegraph discloses that Pakistan has released over 2,500 Taliban and al-Qaeda, although an American military intelligence source estimates the number is higher. The Pakistani military has in the past put the number of al-Qaeda and Taliban captured at around 500-700.
The Daily Telegraph then tracks down some of those released. The resultant interviews give the impression those released were somehow incorrectly identified as jihadis. A "young Tajik who entered Pakistan last year to study... at a madrassa in Peshawar... was shot in the side by Pakistani police as he tried to escape when the madrassa was raided." A "37-year-old Algerian... worked in the honey business when he was arrested last year." Al-Qaeda was deeply involved in the "honey business" and use this and other industries to mask their terror financing. A "Bangladeshi who has an American degree in engineering, admitted helping the Taliban against US-led forces in Afghanistan five years ago" was released to the al-Khidmat Foundation. The Daily Telegraph fails to recognize the al-Khidmat Foundation is in fact the Makhtab al-Khidmat, or the MAK, which was founded by Abdullah Azzam and Osama bin Laden in the 1980s and was used to funnel men and material into Afghanistan. The MAK is on the U.S. Department of State Terrorist Exclusion List.
But beyond the three low level operatives interviewed are a host of senior and mid level al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives. A sample of those released included the following individuals, including the killers of journalist Daniel Pearl:
Ghulam Mustafa: "He was once close to Osama bin Laden, has intimate knowledge of al-Qaeda's logistics and financing and its nexus with the military in Pakistan."
Maulana Sufi Mohammad: "Maulana Sufi Mohammad was Faqir Mohammed's first jihadi mentor who introduced him to militancy in Afghanistan in 1993. Sufi Mohammad was one of the active leaders of Jamat-e-Islami (JI) in the 1980s. He was the principal of the JI madrassa in Tamaergra, a town in the northwestern part of NWFP. He was an instinctive hardliner and in due course developed differences with JI and left them in 1992 to form Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammed [TNSM]." Sufi Mohammad organized Pakistanis to fight jihad in Afghanistan and along with the TNSM fought in Kunduz November of 2001.
Mohammad Khaled: A brigade leader who led the Taliban in against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. ""It is a difficult time for Islam and Muslims. We are in a test. Everybody should be ready to pass the test - and to sacrifice our lives," said Mohammad Khaled.
Fazl-e-Raziq: A senior aide to Osama bin Laden, and "an ethnic Pakhtoon resident of Swabi district of the North West Frontier Province."
Khairullah Kherkhawa: The former Taliban governor of Herat.
Khalid Khawaja: "Khalid Khawaja is a retired squadron leader of the Pakistan Air Force who was an official in Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, in the mid 1980s. After he wrote a critical letter to General Zia ul-Haq, who ruled Pakistan from 1977 till 1988, in which he labeled Zia as hypocrite, he was removed from the ISI and forced to retire from the airforce. He then went straight to Afghanistan in 1987 and fought against the Soviets along side with Osama Bin Laden, developing a relationship of firm friendship and trust. Khalid Khawaja’s name resurfaced when US reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted and subsequently killed. Pearl had come to Pakistan and met Khalid Khawaja in order to investigate the jihadi network of revered sufi, Syed Mubarak Ali Gailani."
Mansour Hasnain: A member of the group that kidnapped and murdered Danny Pearl. He also was "a militant of the Harkat-al-Mujahedin group, is one of those who hijacked an Indian Airlines jet in December 1999 and forced New Delhi to release three militants -- including Omar and Azhar."
Mohammad Hashim Qadeer: "Suspected of being one of [Daniel] Pearl’s actual killers, was arrested in August 2005 and has notable al-Qaida links" and "ties with the banned extremist groups Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen and Jaish-e-Muhammad."
Mohammad Bashir: Another Pakistani complicit in the murder of Daniel Pearl.
Aamni Ahmad, Hala Ahmad and Nooran Abdu: Facilitators/couriers, and wives of al-Qaeda members. "Pakistani authorities arrested 23 Arabs, including two children, suspected of links to Osama bin Laden, officials said Wednesday. All of them sneaked into the country from Afghanistan in recent weeks. The suspects include three women, identified as Aamni Ahmad, Hala Ahmad and Nooran Abdu, who are believed to be relatives of bin Laden. An interior ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the arrests were made in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan."
Gul Ahmed Shami & Hamid Noor: Al-Qaeda foot soldiers who fought in Afghanistan. "I want to be the next Osama bin Laden," said Shami in 2001. "Allah is with us. The Americans have technology but they don't have the courage to face death, which we do. I will be there until my death if need be. I know I probably won't come back," said Hamid.
These “miscreants” and “foreigners” are said to be streaming back to al-Qaeda's new safe haven of the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, and reconstituting al-Qaeda's organization.
As the Pakistani government lives up to their end of the “Waziristan Accord,” the Taliban and al-Qaeda have broken it repeatedly. Anti-Taliban clerics and tribal leaders have been shot and beheaded in Waziristan. A government official was also kidnapped in Waziristan, and a reporter was murdered in Dera Ismail Khan. The Taliban flaunts the terms of the truce and expends into neighboring agencies, and the Pakistani government continues to look the other way.