Saif al-Adel and the death of Daniel Pearl
By Asra Q. Nomani
Thursday, May 19, 2011 - 3:04 PM
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The
reported naming
of the Egyptian Saif al-Adel as the "interim" leader of al Qaeda may mark the
opening of a new chapter in al Qaeda's history and the United States' ongoing struggle
against the group. But a closer look at al-Adel's past reveals details about
another problem that plagues us today, the dangerous nexus between al Qaeda and
the Pakistani militancy. It's an intersection that plays out not only in remote
tribal areas in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, but in the
heart of Pakistan in urban centers such as Karachi, the Manhattan of Pakistan
with Pizza Huts, McDonald's, and a slippery network of back alleys teeming with
militancy and radicalism.
Rather than being a recent development, the close working relationship of these
different networks emerged dramatically nine years ago, after the Jan. 23,
2002, kidnapping of Wall Street Journal
Islamabad bureau chief Daniel Pearl. In reporting released earlier this
year by the Pearl Project, a
faculty-student investigative reporting project at Georgetown University that I
co-direct, we reported that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, now imprisoned at
Guantanamo Bay for orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, was sitting comfortably in
Karachi on Pakistan's western coast when he got a call from Saif al-Adel
(whose real
name is reportedly Mohammed Ibrahim Makkawi) that sent him across town to
take over the kidnapping of Pearl, setting off a chain of events that would
culminate in the latter's execution.
Al-Adel had significant clout at the time not only in al Qaeda, but also in
other militant circles. He is said to be between 48 and 51 years old, and by
most accounts once served as a Colonel in the Egyptian special forces. After
the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan,
al-Adel reportedly provided military and intelligence training to al Qaeda and
Egyptian Islamic Jihad members in Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Sudan.
Pakistani militants trained alongside their former Arab comrades from the
anti-Soviet struggle, taking in the same lessons and much of the same ideology.
The FBI wants him in connection with the 1998 East Africa U.S. Embassy
bombings, and KSM told FBI agents that al-Adel may have dispatched "shoe
bomber" Richard Reid to Karachi
to meet with KSM to discuss Reid's plan to blow up a trans-Atlantic jet.
Pearl was chasing a story trying to identify Reid's facilitator when he stumbled
across the path of Omar Sheikh, a British-Pakistani militant who had been
arrested in 1994 in New Delhi, India, for kidnapping foreign tourists,
including an American. In 1999, Sheikh was released in exchange for passengers
on a hijacked Indian Airlines plane. He was flown to Kandahar,
Afghanistan, where,
according to his interrogation file, none other than Osama bin Laden, who was
living at the time at the Kandahar
airport, threw him and other released Pakistani militant leaders a party for
"iftar," the daily sunset meal when Muslims break their fasts during Ramadan.
Omar Sheikh slipped quietly into Pakistan,
stopping first in Karachi before settling down
in his hometown of Lahore.
In January 2002, the United States was pressing for Sheikh's extradition, but
he was wandering freely in Pakistan, newly-married and the proud father of a
young son, when he learned of Pearl's reporting.
Sheikh laid a trap in Karachi, where he had a
trusted network of militant contacts, leading Pearl there on the promise of an interview
with a Muslim cleric suspected of being Reid's facilitator. Pearl
left my home in Karachi
on Jan. 23, 2002, and never returned. Within days, we received a "proof of
life" -- ransom photos of Pearl
with a gun to his head.
The kidnapping did not, however, start as an al Qaeda operation. While Shaikh had extensive contacts with the al Qaeda leadership, he instead relied on his network, which would eventually include militants affiliated with an alphabet soup of Pakistani militant organizations that have emerged as the Punjabi Taliban: Harkat ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Harkat-ul-Islamiya (HUI), and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group believed to be responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attack.
KSM told FBI agents that he didn't know who had contacted al-Adel about Pearl, but, according to our investigation, there were only two operational cells in Pakistan that had knowledge of Pearl's location, and they included only Pakistani militants. There were seven non-al Qaeda Pakistan militants in the logistics cell that trapped Pearl. They were led mostly by local "emirs," or leaders, of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Another 10 non-al Qaeda Pakistani militants were in the cell holding Pearl. They were affiliated with Harkat ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Harkat-ul-Islamiya, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, reflecting the fluid nature and overlap of Pakistan's militant groups.
They
also often worked with al Qaeda. In a Pakistani police interrogation report,
one of the Pakistani militants said that one of his jobs was to help al Qaeda
hide in Pakistan.
He said he ferried Arab members of al Qaeda from Quetta
to Karachi,
disguising them as patients in ambulances.
Our research has shown that KSM told FBI agents that his al Qaeda colleague
told him about Pearl, seeing in Pearl's
kidnapping an opportunity for the group, as Pearl's Pakistani jailers were at a loss for
what to do with the journalist. The account of al-Adel's involvement with
the Pearl murder was confirmed
in Guantanamo
documents recently uploaded onto the Internet by WikiLeaks. In these documents,
KSM claimed that al-Adel told him not to murder Pearl,
however, telling his interrogators that al-Adel advised him that Pearl should be "returned
back to one of the previous groups who held him, or freed." At this point it
was too late -- Mohammed said he sought the advice of another al Qaeda leader,
Sharif al-Masri, the group's chief financial officer. The two men
"disagreed" with al-Adel on what to do with Pearl, with KSM ultimately siding with
al-Masri. But without al-Adel's original intervention, it may not have come to
this point at all.
After making his decision, KSM went across town to the compound where Pearl was being held with
a bag filled with important tools for his bloody work: a butcher's knife and a
video camera. Within hours, Pearl
was dead at KSM's hands. Within weeks, one of the Pakistani foot soldiers who
held Pearl down, Fazal Karim,a member of Harkat-ul Mujahideen, handed a
propaganda video showing the gruesome murder to a Pakistani courier, who
delivered it soon after to an FBI agent in the marble lobby of the Karachi
Sheraton.
Nine years later, the intermingling of al Qaeda and Pakistani militant groups continues,
and the United States
still grapples with the consequences. One of the leaders of Pearl's
kidnapping, Mati-ur Rehman, is on Pakistan's
Most Wanted list, allegedly making suicide vests in Waziristan, for use against
coalition forces in Afghanistan.
And some experts believe that al-Adel also may be
in Waziristan in Pakistan's
tribal frontier, home both to groups fighting with, and against, the Pakistani
state. And al Qaeda remains tied to both, on Pakistan's edges and deep in its
populated center.
Asra Q. Nomani is the author of Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam. She teaches journalism at Georgetown University and is a cultural trainer to the U.S. military and law enforcement.
Impressive article and the remaining 2 of Kandhar Hijack!
Brilliant Article! Very impressive! Agree with the author's observations.
Fact is that Pakistan and its diaspora have produced some of the world’s most prominent terrorists: would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad; 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef, born in Kuwait to Pakistani parents; 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's kidnapper, Omar Saeed Sheikh; and three of the four men behind the July 2005 train and bus bombings in London.
It is also a fact that apart from bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, prominent non-Pakistanis who used the country as a base include Mohamed Atta; shoe-bomber Richard Reid; and John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban.
3 Terrorists were released in exchange of Indian Airlines plane hijacked to Taliban ruled Kandhar in Millienium Christmas! It was much before 9/11 and most passengers were Indians so rest of the world couldn't care less.
3 released terrorists were - a) Omar Sheikh - who later was involved in Daniel Pearl's murder b) Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar - who had carried out the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the new appointed Indian Home Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Immediately after his release, Zargar renewed the activity of Al-Umar Mujahideen in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and c) Maulana Massod Azhar - who was the general secretary of Harkat-ul-Ansar and had visited many international locations to recruit, to raise funds and to spread the message of Pan-Islamism. Among his destinations were Zambia, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, the United Kingdom and Albania. Azhar confessed that in 1993 he traveled to Nairobi, Kenya to meet with leaders of al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, an al-Qaeda-aligned Somali group, who had requested money and recruits from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). Masood Azhar's outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed allegedly carried out a string of deadly attacks against Indian targets, including the attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a full-scale war. Soon after the Indian parliament attack, Masood Azhar was detained for a year by Pakistani authorities in connection but was never formally charged. The Lahore High Court ordered an end to the house arrest on 14 December 2002
Just like bin Laden, Ayman-Al-Zawahiri, Saif-al-Adel, Omar Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mustaq Zargar are all birds of the same feather!
High time to send them quickly where bin Laden is, so that Laden has good company while enjoying his 72 virgins in heaven!
Omar Sheikh sent money to Atta on Pakistani ISI orders
Same Omar Sheikh figured in Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI) sending money to lead hijacker of 9/11 attacks in his Florida bank account.
Pakistani ISI Director General Mahmud Ahmad had asked Omar Sheikh (the kidnapper of Daniel Pearl) to send $100,000 from a Dubai bank account to Mohammed Atta (the lead 9/11 hijacker) in his Florida bank account one year before those attacks.
Mohammad Atta used that $100,000 for flight training, living expenses and to purchase flight tickets on the day of 9/11 attacks in US and returned unspent $25,000 back to same Dubai account.
Musharraf was forced to retire ISI director General Mahmud Ahmad after Wall Street Journal exposed General Ahmad as the chief financier of 9/11 attacks.
Pakistani ISI was heavily involved in planning and execution of 9/11 attacks as corroborated by former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham but whitewashed by Bush administration after forcing Pakistan to join U. S. fight against Taliban under the threat of ‘bombing Pakistan to stone age if Pakistan refused‘ by Richard Armitage in 2001.
Asra Nomani,Barack Obama both '“Chalaques”
My answer to anything Asra Nomani has to say remains the same just as she remains adament in avoiding the real issues
around the death of Daniel Pearl,ICTS International and 9/11.And it has been obvious for a long time that Barack Osama Obama,(who appears to me to have been in employ of CIA when he traveled to Pakistan as a student back in the day when Osama bin Laden was our 'friend'), has continued the 9/11 cover up for W Bush,Dick Cheney,Donald Rumsfeld, et.al. as well.
But also the cover up and threats to anyone who brings up ICTS International of Benjamin Netanyahu's convicted in Israel money laundering partner in crime,Menachem Atzmon and his Shin Bet boys of ICTS International who 'guarded' Logan Boston on 9/11 and who were involved with Richard Reid 'the shoe bomber' who established media acknowledge was Daniel Pearl's reason for staying at Asra's luxury pad in Karachi just before his disappearance and death in the first place.Both Asra and Obama are beyond '“Chalaque”.They are beyond dispicable for covering up and lying about what they both know about both 9/11 and the death of Daniel Pearl.
And it's not like water or 'blood over the bridge' and thus too far in the past to matter.Menachem Atzmon's ICTS International still controll Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam(at the pleasure of Queen Beatrix,Geert Wilders and the Rothschild crime family),and as early as Christmas 2009 allowed Mutallab 'the Islamic crotch bomber' to board flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.(Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas from our Israeli pals who caused by that incident the violation of American rights and private parts on Thanksgiving 2010!)
My last correpondence with Asra she said Mansoor Ijaz, (whose 'advise' led to Pearl's beheading),was a very interesting character and she might interview him.Just goes to show what a sick hypocritical phony she is and that's about the best you can say for both her and Pakistani American Ijaz of corrupt Bill Clinton regime. .
Nigeria: SaharaReporters: Africa's Wikileaks
Global Voices Online - ?May 12, 2011?
Also in December 2009, we got the attention of the world by providing reports that were the first to identify the Nigerian “Underwear Bomber” Farouk Abdul Mutallab including the first ever real photo of him that eventually ended up on CNN and the BBC. ...
It’s obvious that justice wasn’t served when another Washington, D.C. and CIA connected scumbag,ex CIA director James Woolsey’s partner in stock fraud and money laundering and fraud against Americans,Mansoor Ijaz, is never mentioned by Zionist shill Asra Nomani when she lays the blame to distract from any real investigation,( just like Daniel Pearl’s Zionista daddy Judea Pearl).
It was, after all, Mansoor Ijaz ‘advice’ and connections in Pakistan that got Daniel Pearl murdered in the first place. And Asra Nomani knows all this and if she was a Wall Street Journal ‘reporter’ she is an embarrassment,(or a good example of the pseudo-journalists WSJ hires),because she doesn’t even know of her fellow Beltway parasite Mansoor Ijaz’ involvement in stock fraud,particularly but not only Crescent Hydropolis,with James Woolsey,Lt.General James Alan Abrahamson and Lt. General Mcinerney on the London AIM stock exchange that had the backing of Dubai war AND MONEY LAUNDERING criminal Sheik Mohamed Al Rashid bin Maktoum whose country sent $100,000 from Pakistani Kalid Sheik Mohamed to Mohamed Atta, pre 9/11, in Venice,Florida where he was hanging out at Jeb Bush’s pal Wally Hilliard’s terrorist flight school,Huffman Aviation.This Snake of Dubai Sheik Mohamed al Rashid Maktoum was then rewarded with over 20% ownership of the U.S.NASDAQ FOR HIS MONEY LAUNDERING BUSINESS IN DUBAI AS A CONSOLATION PRIZE FOR NOT BEING ALLOWED TO BUY CONTROL OF U.S.PORTS THROUGH DUBAI PORTS.Asra Nomani and other phoney ‘professional’ reporters made sure to not write about Sheikh Maktoum’s take over of 20%+ of NASDAQ and SEC Chairwoman Mary Scapiro and IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman’s self dealing and millions of dollars for their treasonous act of selling it to him in their roles as FINRA execs before their retired to their Barack Osama Obama approved SEC and IRS positions in the U.S. ‘government’.
Asra Nomani is a sick joke and she is also the only Moslem I know of, besides Richard Reid ‘the shoe bomber’, who was given VIP treatment and an easy and welcome pass to travel to Israel.Maybe Israel welcomed her because she is such a good Moslem ? Ha.
Asra likes to forget that even according to the ridiculous movie and book supposedly written by Mariane Pearl,(whose role was played so absurdly by the white ‘actress’ Angelina Jolie),that Daniel Pearl’s main reason for being in Pakistan was to investigate Richard Reid ‘the shoe bomber’ .And yet if Daniel Pearl was sincere he would have been in his own country of Israel investigating because as any fool who is familair with the background knows,it was Israel and El Al Airlines and particulary Israeli money launderer and 9/11 mass murder suspect Menachem Atzmon and his ICTS International(who allowed 911 to happen in the first place by allowing Atta and his gang to board flights 175 and 11 from Logan Airport ,Boston on 9/11/901 with their plastic cookie cutters in the first place), who also facilitated Richard Reid’s vacation in Israel,( supposedly to visit Hamas) !
If you or I were to wanted to enter Israel to visit Hamas do you think Israel and ICTS and El Al would facilitate and aid our visit ? I don’t think so.However if you are Richard Reid the shoe bomber or the great Islamic WSJ ‘reporter’ and Georgetown University journalism fraud Asra Nomani, Israel gives VIP treatment.Why!?
Why !?
Even thedailybeast is becoming a sick joke for sponsoring and playing the straight role to the Asra Nomani ‘who killed Daniel Pearl’ and ‘burn all Korans’ comedy act.
Thank you AryaBhat for your kind words. And thank you Mandy345 and Marty Martel for your comments. We will have something to publish soon regarding your comments, Mr. Martel. To Mr. Ryals, I wish you well in the world. May you find peace. Warmly, Asra
May/June 2013
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