Official: Al Qaeda-Linked Official Captured Near Baghdad

Saturday , March 10, 2007

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BAGHDAD  — 

Iraqi officials said Saturday they had arrested a top Al Qaeda official, but that he was not the terror mastermind Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, as they had identified him a day earlier.

 

"After preliminary investigations, it was proven that the arrested Al Qaeda person is not Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, but, in fact, another important Al Qaeda official," said Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, an Iraqi military spokesman. "Interrogations and investigations are still under way to get more information."

Al-Mousawi declined to give the suspect's name on Saturday.

Also Saturday, a suicide car bomb struck Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City, killing at least 10 people, police said. The bomb hit an Iraqi patrol and scattered burning debris for hundreds yards, witnesses said.

It was al-Mousawi who announced late Friday that al-Baghdadi had been captured. A senior adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also had told The Associated Press that al-Baghdadi had been taken into custody. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The reported arrest followed rumors this week that al-Baghdadi's brother had been arrested in a raid near Tikrit.

Almost nothing is known of al-Baghdadi, including his real name and what he looks like; his capture would be difficult for officials to verify.

The man captured Friday was found along with several other insurgents in a raid on the western outskirts of Baghdad, officials said.

Al-Mousawi said the suspect at first identified himself as al-Baghdadi, and that his identity was corroborated by another man captured with him.

Al-Baghdadi is believed to lead the shadowy Islamic State of Iraq, an Al Qaeda-inspired group that challenged the authority of Iraq's elected government. He has also signed militant messages posted online, as the leader of the Mujahedeen Shura Council — an umbrella group that includes Al Qaeda in Iraq.

U.S. officials in Baghdad said they were looking into the arrest but could not confirm the suspect's identity. In Washington, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Pentagon officials had received no official confirmation that al-Baghdadi was captured.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have increasingly focused on al-Baghdadi's group in their fight against Sunni insurgents, especially the hardcore religious extremists who have shown no interest in negotiating an end to their struggle.

But some analysts have pointed out that the Al Qaeda-linked extremists rebounded following the death last June of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the charismatic Al Qaeda in Iraq leader who died in a U.S. airstrike in Diyala province.

The self-styled Islamic State of Iraq was proclaimed in October, when a militant network that includes al-Qaida in Iraq announced in a video that it had established an Islamic state in six provinces — including Baghdad — that have large Sunni populations, along with parts of two other central provinces that are predominantly Shiite.

Since then, the trappings of an Islamic shadow state with Al Qaeda as its base has been taking shape in some towns and cities of Anbar province where a government presence hardly exists, according to Sunni residents.

Residents of Sunni insurgent areas north and west of the capital have reported seeing handbills posted on walls in the group's name warning against un-Islamic behavior such as drinking alcohol.

Some residents of Anbar say Islamic State members have on occasion publicly flogged men for other offenses such as wearing long hair or harassing women and provided cooking fuel to residents in areas where the I

BadNews, I can think of no that wants to stop fighting or hunting Al Qaeda.  My frustration is that fact the administration knows Al Qaeda is in Pakistan (that's where this guy was nabbed) and we seem to do nothing but gentle persuasion with Mushariff.  Pakistan is sheltering Al Qaeda the same way the Taliban sheltered them. I don't undertsand why we have seemed to loose our nerve. If it means war with Pakistan, so be it.

http://www.military.com/pics/community/btn_back.gif" border=0> http://images.military.com/pics/print_page.jpg" border=0> http://images.military.com/pics/mlpfv.jpg" width=163 align=left border=0>http://www.military.com/pics/NL_icon.gif" width=15 border=0> Subscribe to free Military Insider Newsletter Military Says Surge Producing Results Associated Press | March 14, 2007 BAGHDAD - Key U.S. and Iraqi officials on Wednesday issued cautiously optimistic reports one month into the latest drive to curb sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad but warned that months would pass before the operation could be labeled a success.   Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the U.S. military spokesman, also said the level of sectarian killings had dropped significantly in the month since the operation began. Poll: Do you think the "surge" will ultimately help the war effort in Iraq? "By the indicators that the government of Iraq has, it has been extremely positive. But I would caution everybody about patience, about diligence. This is going to take many months, not weeks, but the indicators are all very positive right now," Caldwell said. One possible reason for the lowered violence in the capital could be the continued absence of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who remained in Iran "as of 24 hours ago," Caldwell said. The anti-American chief of the Mahdi Army militia was reported to have taken refuge in the neighboring Shiite theocracy before the security operation. "He's a very significant part of this political process. We do continue to track his whereabouts," Caldwell said at a briefing to mark the end of the first month of the security drive. Al-Sadr's militia was seen as responsible for much of the sectarian bloodshed, especially the executions and murders of as many as 50 people a day before the security operation began. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters melted away and have not confronted U.S. forces as American and Iraqi troops launched the third crackdown on sectarian violence in the capital in less than a year. There was great concern the operation would force an all-out showdown with al-Sadr's forces in their Sadr City stronghold in eastern Baghdad, but that has not materialized. While Caldwell's assessment was largely positive, he expressed concern about a spike last week in the number of what he called "high-profile" car bombings. "If the high-profile car bombs can be stopped or brought down to a much lower level, we'll just see an incredible difference in the city overall. Murders and executions have come down by over 50 percent. ... But the high-profile car bombs is the one we're really focused on because that's what will start that whole cycle of violence again," he said. The commander of the Baghdad security plan, Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, warned that all terrorists and outlaws "will be smashed with the foot of the Iraqi people" unless they reconsider their "position and return to logic before it's too late." Qanbar also sought to reassure the capital's residents   Quote    Reply

Plutarch    Iraqi involvement   3/15/2007 12:01:15 AM Notice though the absence of any Iraqi complicity in either WTC attack.   Of course it could be blacked out, classified, or KSM's unswerving loyalty to Saddam means he never revealed their secret connection....but it's kind of doubtful.     I also doubt the contention that AQ would be "here" rather than "there"...improved airline security measures and tougher immigration laws combined with 4,000 miles of ocean are kind of a deterrent.    Quote    Reply

Plutarch       3/15/2007 12:12:18 AM   Irony in Iraq:   We've overcome the terrorist acts, militant groups, criminal gangs, sectarian killings and displacement," he said at a press conference in the heavily fortified Green Zone.         Quote    Reply

sofa       3/15/2007 1:23:32 AM Notice the central location of Iraq in the middle east. Remember the tyrannical dictator with documented support for jihadi organizations and numerous WMD programs. Notice all the AQ affiliates who poured resources, men, and material into Iraq, just to provide us with intel about their organzation, operations, and financing. Notice all the regional actors who pour and continue to pour resources, men, and material into Iraq, just to provide us with intel about their organzation, operations, and financing. Notice how we have established detailed intelligence, destroyed regional and global organizations, established superior military and diplomatic positions. Notice how we have 100,000 men and 100's of  airplanes in bases centrally located in the region. Notice the built up logistics, strategically positioned on prime geography. Notice how the Iraqis are taking on more and more responsibility within their government and militarily. The battles aren't over. Iraq and afganistan have suffered. Iran is just starting to suffer. When US talks ,the local have seen some small portion of what can happen to them. And they see our significant forces in place, right in their back yard, within easy striking distance.   There are significant challenges ahead. And, sure, it could always be better if we listened to the advice of smart nit-picking-nabobs-of-negativism on this website.   On 9/11 we had nothing in the region. Now we dominate.    What you see as a mess, looks like a hard won dominant strategic position, to me.       Quote    Reply

sofa       3/15/2007 1:32:30 AM Draining the swamp of aligators takes time. Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan. Progress is low but steady. The swamp is being methodically cleared.   Iran obviously plays a significant role in the GWOT, and our plans have always had more to do with Iran and Saudi Arabia than Iraq and Afganistan. Follow the money!   First we must we destroy their existing way of life based on tyrannical dictatorships, kill all the bad guys, use their oil wealth to rebuild their infrastructure, and then re-educate the next generation. In our wake, we can leave the foundations of democracies based on western markets and tolerant values. A long war of attrition is their strength. Organization and Decisive military action is our strength.     Quote    Reply

Bob       3/15/2007 11:17:15 AM Just read the tribunal transcript. Boring, except for his long list of accomplishments: I, Khalid Sheikh Muhammed claim responsibility for following acts: 1. I was responsible for 1993 World Trade Center bombing 2. I was responsible for 9/11 attacks, from A to Z 3. [REDACTED] What the hell was #3?????   Quote    Reply

BadNews       3/15/2007 1:52:13 PM Just read the tribunal transcript. Boring, except for his long list of accomplishments: I, Khalid Sheikh Muhammed claim responsibility for following acts: 1. I was responsible for 1993 World Trade Center bombing 2. I was responsible for 9/11 attacks, from A to Z 3. [REDACTED] What the hell was #3????? My fear would be that that one has potential of still being underway. who knows, dirty bomb in DC? Mas waves of Jihadi running amuck through our shopping malls with AKs?   Obviously something that Intell guys don't want in the papers or up here on SP   Quote    Reply

Plutarch       3/15/2007 4:09:29 PM Just read the tribunal transcript. Boring, except for his long list of accomplishments: I, Khalid Sheikh Muhammed claim responsibility for following acts: 1. I was responsible for 1993 World Trade Center bombing 2. I was responsible for 9/11 attacks, from A to Z 3. [REDACTED] What the hell was #3????? My fear would be that that one has potential of still being underway. who knows, dirty bomb in DC? Mas waves of Jihadi running amuck through our shopping malls with AKs?   Obviously something that Intell guys don't want in the papers or up here on SP Number 3 was Daniel Pearl, he cut off his head with his "blessed right hand".  There was no redacted text except when names and locations of CIA personnel were mentioned.  He also claims that Pearl was Mosad and CIA, and that's why he was killed.   Quote    Reply