I had completely missed Ray Robisons excellent reporting on the high level Al-Qaeda leader captured in Pakistan. First here is an excerpt from ABC's blog:
British police made the decision to move in and make arrests when they learned several of the men had booked flights to the U.S. in the next several days, for apparent trial runs.
It turns out British authorities have known of the airline plot for months, where it started and who helped organize and pay for it.
"We have been looking at meetings, movement, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people," said Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism branch.
Intelligence officials tell ABC News the plot's trail leads to Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, where money for the plot was wired to London.
Officials say two of those arrested in London came here in the last few months for explosives training with known al Qaeda commanders.
"It clearly is an al Qaeda-type operation with links to al Qaeda," Rep. Pete King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said.
There were several arrests also made in Pakistan today in connection with the case, but the suspected ringleader remains at large. Pakistani officials say this 29-year old al Qaeda commander, Matiur Rehman, was known to be planning a terror spectacular to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/ll attacks. The London plot may well have been it.
According to Alexis Debat, a Senior Fellow at the Nixon Center and ABC News Consultant, who is in Pakistan, "Matiur Rehman is crucial because he is the interface between al Qaeda's leadership and thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Pakistani militants."
Remember that name. Here is Ray:
The South Asia Terrorism Portal mentions Matiur Rehman in connection with Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI):
was established in 1992, reportedly with assistance from Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front. On April 30, 1992, several of the HuJI leaders addressed a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka and demanded that Bangladesh be converted into an Islamic State.
The HuJI's Pakistani link was further established with the recovery of a diary from Hannan's brother Matiur Rehman, who was also arrested in connection with the assassination plot. Entries in the diary revealed that he was in touch with Pakistan's diplomatic mission in Bangladesh.
HujI is a well known paki militant/terrorist group.
Ray then goes into detail about this group which we shall call HUJI.
[…]2. The HUJI and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) came into existence during the jihad in Afghanistan against the Soviet troops. They subsequently merged to form the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA). After the kidnapping of a group of American and other Western tourists in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) by the HUA under the name Al Faran in 1995, the US State Department designated the HUA as a foreign terrorist organisation in October,1997.
3. Following this, the HUA split and the HUM and the HUJI started functioning once again as independent organisations under their pre-merger names. The HUM became a founding-member of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) for Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People in February,1998. The HUJI joined it subsequently. The two are also members of the so-called 313 Brigade of the IIF, which has come into existence recently. The other members of the Brigade are the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the HUM (Al-Alami), the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JUM), the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ), the Jundullah (the Army of Allah), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and an unidentified group from the Xinjiang province of China.
4. The HUJI has an active branch in Bangladesh, which is identified by the US State Department as HUJI (B). Previously, jihadi recruits from South-East Asia used to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan for training in the training camps located there. Since last year, there have been reports that the HUJI (B) has been entrusted by the IIF with the responsibility for the training of the jihadi recruits from S.E.Asia in training camps in Bangladesh territory. The HUJI of Pakistan also helped the surviving dregs from about 200 jihadis from S.E.Asia, who were helping the Taliban in its fight against the Northern Alliance pre 9/11, to escape to Bangladesh by ship after the US started its military operations in Afghanistan in October,2001.
5. The HUJI had played an active role in the training of jihadi terrorist elements of the Caucasus region of Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in cladestine camps set up in their respective territory. Its volunteers have also gone to Iraq to participate in the jihad against the US troops there.
So what does all this have to do with Saddam? Just the simple fact that Saddam supported a group that supported HUJI. The obvious planners of the now discovered London plane attacks:
[…]What ties this all together is this piece from http://www.freeindiamedia.com/. Now it is a given that there is a paradox with india media about pakistan. There is a danger of propaganda, yet they also have the best sources into Pakistan. Reading this article looks to me like a scholarly work and matches with what else I know about the subject.
6. The MMA consists of the Jammat-e-Islami (JEI) of Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the Jamiat Ulema Islam of Maulana Samiul Haq, the Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP) of Shah Ahmed Noorani, the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith of Sajid Mir and the Tehrik Islami of Sajid Naqvi. Of these, the JEI, the JUI (F) and the JUI (S) are the most important from the point of view of the rest of the world.
10. The JUI (F) is the orchestrator of the activities of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jehad Al Islami (HUJI) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM). Of these, the HUM and the HUJI are active in Chechnya in Russia, J&K in India, in Bangladesh, the Arakan area of Myanmar and the southern Phillipines. They have been training in the madrasas under their control in Pakistan recruits from not only Myanmar and the Philippines, but also from Southern Thailand. The JEM is presently active only in J&K.
So let's put the pieces together. The MMA is a political party of which the Maulana Fazlur Rahman is a high official. He brings to the MMA the political/militant group JUI. The JUI has two factions, which are strongly connected. The JUI commands the HUM and the HUJI which carries out terrorist attacks. In other words, it is the military wing of the militant organization, or in effect, the army.
If you read the IIS agent notebook, you know Saddam was playing footsies with the Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Fazlur Rahman Khalil, a known al Qaeda terrorist. In other words, he was supporting the JUI which provided support to HUJI and would have lead to support for this most recent terrorist attempt if Saddam was still in power. So this is a premier example of why the Saddam regime was part of the war on terror. If they still had Saddam's support, and there is probably a case to be made that the explosive making expertise originally came from Iraq (apparently it was RDX which is mentioned in Iraqi commando training memos) it might have been a little easier for them to pull it off.
He also updates us with the fact that members of HUJI smuggled and used liquid explosives for an attack in 2005. Sound similiar?
Ray has also put together a diagram for those who get confused with all the connections: (click the picture to make it larger)
Knowing that this web of terrorists is hard to put into words, I figured a diagram would work best. The name in Red in the center is our suspect named by ABC news in the Sky Bombing plot. Now maybe it is a little easier to see how he fits in.
But alas, Saddam was not dangerous to no one if you listen to the left.
Sigh.
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This issue does get confusing. There are so many shadowy groups out there and they keep changing all the time. It’s not like they are all listed in the phone book.
The chart does help.