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| Terror Networks |
| Recruiter For al Qaeda Is Not Having a Pleasant Time in Syria |
| 2003-01-31 |
| This story wanders around a bit before it gets to the point. In January 2002, Driss bin Lakoul, a 38-year-old Moroccan committed to jihad, was arrested in Syria after unsuccessfully attempting to reach Afghanistan, where he wanted to fight against U.S. forces. For three months, the soft-spoken, bearded man with glasses recounted in an interview here, he was held in Damascus at the Far' Falastin detention center run by Syrian military intelligence. In the prison, inmates spoke of a German citizen held in the rat-infested basement, a warren of lightless cells each barely three feet long, three feet wide and less than six feet in height, bin Lakoul said. The prisoner was taken out the cell only for interrogation and torture, according to prisoners. That German, bin Lakoul said, was Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a Syrian-born naturalized citizen who had lived in Hamburg and, according to investigators, functioned as al Qaeda's prime recruiter there. Investigators believe Zammar, 41, played a key role in the formation of the Hamburg cell that led the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. snipped part of the article Zammar was arrested in Morocco in November 2001, then flown secretly to Syria two weeks later. In Moroccan officials' view, his detention was a triumph of an international counterterrorism alliance, drawing on cooperation between the United States and Syria, a country that Washington officially condemns as a sponsor of terrorism. But Zammar's fate also exposes the raw underside of the war on terrorism. Human rights groups condemn his transfer to Syria as a "rendition," an extra-legal deportation of a suspect against whom there is deep suspicion but insufficient evidence for a court of law. In some cases, the detainee is sent to countries where torture is common. Sorry, but my sympathy meter for both bin Lakoul and Zammar is reading zero. I tried tapping it and everything... Senior government sources here said that U.S. officials took part in the questioning of Zammar during his 15-day detention in Morocco. And U.S. officials knew Zammar was being flown to Damascus, the sources said. snipped part of the article Standing six feet tall and weighing 300 pounds, Zammar once cut a distinctive figure in radical Islamic circles, and according to German investigators, became al Qaeda's prime recruiter in Hamburg. He was a frequent visitor to the walk-up apartment where Mohamed Atta and other hijackers gathered. Zammar is a loud and arrogant man, acquaintances and investigators said, and his sense of impunity after Sept. 11 cost him his freedom. In the weeks after the attacks, Zammar was questioned by German police but refused to cooperate, according to documents filed in the Hamburg trial of Mounir Motassadeq, a suspected accomplice of the Hamburg cell who is charged with accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization. The lack of hard evidence allowed Zammar to freely leave Germany in October 2001 for Morocco. In interviews here, Moroccan officials provided the first detailed account of Zammar's itinerary in Morocco and his statements under questioning . Under interrogation in Morocco, they said, Zammar acknowledged playing a role in the formation and radicalization of the Hamburg cell, but held firm that after the hijackers went to Afghanistan for training and orders for a specific mission, he was shut out of their plans. He said he was as surprised as anyone else when he watched the attacks unfold on television. Gee, if we were to ask Zammar if he'd like to stay in Syria of go to the living, screaming, hell that is Guantanamo, what to do you think his answer would be? I suppose sometime in the next decade or so somebody from our side should make the offer. Or maybe not. After all, we wouldn't want to suffer searing international criticism for violating Z's rights by exposing him to the ugly reality of Gitmo. No. Best to just let him stay in Syria. |
| Posted by:Patrick Phillips |
| #3 De PAIN Boss! De PAIN!! |
| Posted by: Nik-Nak 2003-01-31 11:01:43 |
| #2 Let's see if I can do a "Bill" here... "Mahmood?" "Yes Boss?" "Dust off my truncheon and fetch my moustache wax! We have a 'Special Guest' arriving." |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2003-01-31 10:16:00 |
| #1 Truncheons, anyone? You have to be a seriously bad character for the Syrians to hold you. Why do they have a major p.o. on for this guy? Did he organize a "Free Lebanon" movement or something? |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-01-31 07:46:51 |