Got a Big Al Qaeda Fish
Charles Johnson
Fri Apr 27, 2007 at 8:57 am PDT • Views: 732
Good news from the Pentagon: Al-Qaida operative captured.
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon announced Friday the capture of one of al-Qaida’s most senior and most experienced operatives, an Iraqi who was trying to return to his native country when he was captured.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the captive is Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi. He was received by the Pentagon this week from the CIA, Whitman said, but the spokesman would not say where or when al-Iraqi was captured or by whom.
The Pentagon described Al-Iraqi as an associate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and as someone who may have been targeting Westerners outside of Iraq.
The Pentagon took custody of al-Iraqi at Guantanamo Bay, the detention center for terror suspects, Whitman said. He is the 15th so-called high-value detainee to be taken to Guantanamo Bay after being held by the CIA in secret prisons abroad. The other 14 were sent to Guantanamo Bay last September and have since undergone military hearings there to affirm their status as enemy combatants eligible for military trials.
Whitman said al-Iraqi was believed responsible for plotting cross-border attacks from Pakistan on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and that he led an effort to assassinate Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, as well as unspecified officials of the United Nations.
Reached for comment, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called for Al-Iraqi’s immediate release. “How can we surrender to him while he’s being tortured in the Guantanamo concentration camp?” Reid asked, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blinking furiously at his side.
Frank says: