Wonder what the story is here

[TexasTiger 13,003]

Al Qaeda Detainee's Mysterious Release

Moroccan Spoke Of Aiding Bin Laden During 2001 Escape

By Craig Whitlock

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, January 30, 2006; Page A01

RABAT, Morocco -- For more than a decade, Osama bin Laden had few soldiers more devoted than Abdallah Tabarak. A former Moroccan transit worker, Tabarak served as a bodyguard for the al Qaeda leader, worked on his farm in Sudan and helped run a gemstone smuggling racket in Afghanistan, court records here show.

During the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, when al Qaeda leaders were pinned down by U.S. forces, Tabarak sacrificed himself to engineer their escape. He headed toward the Pakistani border while making calls on Osama bin Laden's satellite phone as bin Laden and the others fled in the other direction.

Abdallah Tabarak, an al Qaeda member captured as he fled Afghanistan, was freed from U.S. detention at Guantanamo in August 2004. He still faces minor charges in Morocco. (By Karim Selmaoui -- Le Journal Hebdomadaire)

Who's Blogging?

Read what bloggers are saying about this article.

the a la menthe

Full List of Blogs (1 links) »

Most Blogged About Articles

On washingtonpost.com | On the web

Tabarak was captured and taken to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was classified as such a high-value prisoner that the Pentagon repeatedly denied requests by the International Committee of the Red Cross to see him. Then, after spending almost three years at the base, he was suddenly released.

Today, the al Qaeda loyalist known locally as the "emir" of Guantanamo walks the streets of his old neighborhood near Casablanca, more or less a free man. In a decision that neither the Pentagon nor Moroccan officials will explain publicly, Tabarak was transferred to Morocco in August 2004 and released from police custody four months later.

Tabarak's odyssey from Afghanistan to Guantanamo and back to his native land illustrates the grit and at times fanatical determination of one bin Laden recruit. Yet his story also shows how little is known publicly about al Qaeda figures who were captured after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Major gaps remain in his account, and terrorism experts and intelligence officials continue to debate whether he was a member of al Qaeda's inner circle or its rank and file.

His case also highlights mysteries of U.S. priorities in deciding who to keep and who to let go. As the Pentagon gears up to hold its first military tribunals at Guantanamo after four years of preparations, it has released a prisoner it called a key operative. At the same time, it retains under heavy guard men whose background and significance are never discussed.

Eighteen months after he left Guantanamo, Tabarak, 50, still faces minor criminal offenses in Rabat, the capital, such as passport forgery and conspiracy. But his attorney predicts that it's only a matter of time before the case is dropped and all allegations of terrorist activities are dismissed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6012901044.html

[AURaptor 1,126]

I'd like to know what the hell is going on in Columbia too. Seems their police force broke up a fake passport ring which they said had ties to al Qaeda. NOW the US officials have come out and denied that's what the Columbians have done, but instead it was a local rebel group. w/ no ties to aQ. WTF ? OUR Gov't is telling the Columbians who they arrested now ?

:huh:

World

Colombia busts fake passport ring with terror ties

Updated Fri. Jan. 27 2006 10:16 AM ET

Associated Press

BOGOTA — Colombia has dismantled a false passport ring with links to al Qaeda and Hamas militants, the acting attorney general said Thursday after authorities led dozens of simultaneous raids across five cities in collaboration with U.S. officials.

In Washington, however, Justice and Homeland Security officials were surprised by the announcement of the investigation, which they said involved people posing as members of Colombia's largest rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — not al Qaeda or Hamas.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

TT,

They most probably planted an RFID in him somewhere, in the hopes that he will lead them to Osama. It's that simple. He will lead them to OBL.

http://www.digitalangelcorp.com/