The Gitmo Files: Fazul Mohammed continued to seek bin Laden's direction

[Jacaylbaro]

Leaked Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) threat assessments contain intelligence reports pointing to Osama bin Laden's influence over the East Africa Al Qaeda (EAAQ) network, including the recently slain Fazul Mohammed. The assessments also contain striking details about the relationship between the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and al Qaeda, including ties between the current president of Somalia and a former Guantanamo detainee who was transferred from US custody despite JTF-GTMO's conclusion that he was a "high" threat.

 

 

One file summarizes the intelligence on former Guantanamo detainee Abdullah Sudi Arale (internment serial number 10027), who was identified as "a courier and facilitator between EAAQ and al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan." The file cites Salim Awadh Salim, who was captured with Fazul's wife and held in Ethiopian custody, as a source on Arale's activities. Salim described Arale as an Islamic Courts "official and al Qaeda courier" and stated that Arale "was responsible for putting Fazul in touch with al Qaeda in Pakistan." The Islamic Courts was an alliance of Islamist groups that took control of much of country in 2006 and included Shabaab, which has since become al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia.

 

 

"In a January 2007 conversation with Salim about al Qaeda's operational priorities," the threat assessment for Arale reads, "Fazul stated that in late 2006, he asked an al Qaeda operative located in Pakistan to reach out to senior al Qaeda leadership, including [Osama bin Laden], and ask them to provide Fazul with operational advice."

 

 

 

Fazul reportedly told Salim that bin Laden "had responded to Fazul's request for advice and had told Fazul that he wanted al Qaeda's East Africa cell to focus on operations outside Somalia."

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2011/06/the_gitmo_files_al_q.php#ixzz1PC9acPgJ