al Qaeda

Ex-Guantanamo Osama bin Laden photog to produce for al Jazeera TV ‘human rights program’

Today, Pakistan’s Daily Times reported that Sami al-Haj will produce for a television station notorious for publishing al Qaeda propaganda, as well as for other Islamic terrorist organizations. It is believed that Sami al-Haj used his job as a cameraman for al Jazeera to make videos for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden prior to his capture in Pakistan and being turned him over to U.S. authorities.

A US Air Force jet arrives at Khartoum with Sami al-Haj aboard after his release from Guantanamo

When he was released from Guantanamo two months ago, a reasonably healthy looking al-Haj was flown to the Sudan by US Air Force jet yet faked weakness once he landed in Khartoum after spotting the media waiting on the tarmac.

Sami al-Haj being carried off a US military aircraft in Khartoum

Even before al Jazeera TV reported, “he was carried off US military aircraft clearly exhausted and in pain,” their report’s video showed Sami al-Haj a few minutes later, rushing to his young son, easily lifting him, and vigorously kissing and hugging him in a Khartoum hospital.

Sami al-Haj rushing to his son

Sami al-Haj easily lifting his son

Sami al-Haj hugging and kissing his son

According to DoD spokesman Navy Commander Jeffrey Gordon:

The aircrew who brought him to Khartoum on a military transport said he was relaxed, standing up, walking around during the entire flight. When they landed at Khartoum, he looked out the window, saw all the media, and immediately collapsed in a chair. “I can’t walk,” said the former cameraman for Al-Jazeera, demanding an ambulance. He can be seen being carried off the plane on a stretcher, wincing as if in pain. In another video shot the same day, he’s seen reuniting with his family, walking, standing, smiling, miraculously healed. Gordon reports that the man who said he engaged in a 16 mos hunger strike “left Guantanamo four pounds lighter than when he arrived.”

Also in the video is aj-Haj, with an I-V wrapped around his wrist yet not inserted, strongly shaking hands and hugging well-wishers:

Sami aj-Haj, with an IV wrapped around his wrist yet uninserted, strongly shaking hands and hugging well-wishers

Sami al-Haj’s lawyers were not shy about creating propaganda for him while he was detained at Guantanamo; they had this cartoon drawn up for al-Haj, based upon his description of being force-fed during his 16-month hunger strike while at Guantanamo.

Sami al-Haj's lawyers had this propaganda drawn up for him, based upon his description of being 'force fed' during his 16 month hunger strike while at Guntanamo

Now, al Jazeera has appointed al-Haj to what it alleges is a human rights department:

Al Jazeera television said on Wednesday it had appointed a cameraman held for six years without charge at the United States prison in Guantanamo Bay as producer at its new freedoms and human rights programmes department. “I will do my utmost to reveal to the world the violations committed against humans,” Sudanese-born Sami al-Haj, who was handed to Sudanese authorities in May, said in a Jazeera statement announcing the appointment. “I hope Jazeera, through creating this department would be able to help those who suffer quietly due to such violations,” he said. Haj who suffered health problems after a long hunger strike returned to the Sudanese capital Khartoum on May 1 aboard a US military plane. A senior US defence official in Washington said at the time that Haj was transferred to the custody of the Sudanese government and not released. Haj, who had been accused of making videos of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, was handed to the US military in January 2002 but was never charged or brought to trial, the network says.

From the Unclassified Summary of Evidence of Sami al-Haj’s July 8, 2006, Administrative Review Board, it appears he was held and questioned at Guantanamo for good reasons:

The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. The detainee worked as an executive secretary for Abdul Al-Latif Al-Imran, general manager for the Union Beverage Company (UBC).
2. The Union Beverage Company has been associated with Bosnian/Chechen mujahid.
3. The detainee traveled to Azerbaijan at least eight times to courier money to the Al-Haramayn non-governmental organization (NGO) on behalf of his boss, Abd Al-Latif Omran.
4. Al-Haramayn has been designated under Executive Order 13224 as an organization that has provided support to terrorist organizations.
5. During the winter of 1997, the detainee delivered $7,000 USD to Al-Haramayn.
6. During the winter of 1998, the detainee delivered $13,000 USD to Al-Haramayn.
7. During the summer of 1999, the detainee visited Al-Haramayn’s summer camp, and delivered $13,000 USD to Al-Haramayn.
8. During November 1999, the detainee delivered $12,000 USD to Munir Al-Barguoni for a new factory in Azerbaijan; he also delivered $100,000 USD to Jamal, the Director of Al-Haramayn.
9. The detainee was detained in Azerbaijan for the transport of $220,000 USD. The money was destined for Chechen rebels and not for humanitarian support as the detainee was told.
10. After serving as the Al-Haramayn Director in Baku, Azerbaijan from 1997 to January 2000, Jiman Mohammed Alawi Al Muraai, aka Abu Wafa, took a job operating the Wafa offices in Karachi, Pakistan.
11. Al Wafa has been designated under Executive Order 13224 as an organization that has provided support to terrorist organizations.
12. While working at the Union Beverage Company, the detainee met Mamdouh Mahmoud Salem.
13. Mamdouh Mahmoud Salem Abu Hajir was arrested in Germany in September 1998 and extradited to the United States. He was a senior al Qaeda lieutenant and Bin Laden’s deputy in Sudan.
14. The detainee founded a company on 20 May 1999 in Azerbaijan named “SAMICO Services.”
15. SAMICO documents were found during a raid of locations occupied by suspected extremists affiliated with Muhammad Rabi’a Abdul Halim Sha’ib (an Egyptian extremist).
16. To register a company in Azerbaijan, authorities required that a registree have a registered business in another country.
17. Because the detainee did not have a registered company elsewhere, he used falsified documents to register his company. According to the detainee, the falsified documents showed him as a co-owner of Rumat International.
18. According to a Foreign Government Service, the detainee and Mamduh Muhammad Salim Ahmad, aka Abu Mu’izz, are both affiliated with Rumat International. Ahmed was subsequently arrested on suspicion of participating in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
19. While in Azerbaijan, the detainee came into contact with Ashraf, who ran the juice distribution business for the Union Beverage Company in Azerbaijan.
20. Between 1994-1998, Ashraf Abdulrahim Ayub worked for the Kuwaiti Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS), a non-governmental organization.
21. The Revival of Islamic Heritage Society has been identified under Executive Order 13224 as a terrorist affiliated organization.
22. As of late March 2003, a foreign government was investigating Ashraf for possible ties to terrorism.
23. On 4 January 2000, the detainee attempted to reenter Azerbaijan, but was detained and then deported from the country. The deportation was due to his alleged activities supporting Chechen rebels.

b. Other Relevant Data

1. In March or April 2000, the detainee left the Union Beverage Company and went to work for Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar.
2. The detainee was hired to go to Chechnya to do a story.
3. Around this time, the detainee met with the former President of Chechnya, who was exiled in Doha, Qatar, on at least 15 occasions to learn about Chechnya and to solicit help in gaining access to Chechnya.
4. Following the September 11th attack, the detainee was told by Al-Jazeera to forget Chechnya and go to Afghanistan.
5. The detainee interviewed several Taliban officials during his stay in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
6. The detainee interviewed a man who identified himself as Abu Hafa Al Moritani, a member of al Qaeda.
7. Abu Hafa was one of Usama bin Laden’s personal advisors and a religious recruiter. He was also the leader of the Mauritanian al Qaeda cell.
8. The detainee was stopped in early December 2001 at the border by Pakistani security. According to Pakistan security, the passport the detainee had in his possession did not agree with Pakistani records.
9. The detainee was detained at the Afghanistan/Pakistan border because his name appeared on a border authority watch list.

YouTube still has Al-Jazeera’s full report posted. Note that 39 seconds in, just minutes after arriving at a Khartoum hospital, Sami al-Haj rushes unassisted to his son:

I am sure al-Haj will be quite inventive back working for a leading authority on disinformation in the Middle East.

——

Editor — A hat tip to The Long War Journal

To comment, click here.

Update, 11:35 PM EDT, July 5, 2008: Our thanks goes to See-Dubya at MichelleMalkin.com for the link over.

Al Qaeda made movie of Mosul murder of Muslims by ex-Guantanamo detainee (no lawyers were harmed)

Former “Lion of Guantanamo” detainee Abdullah Salih al Ajmi once wrote that he wanted to take his “lawyer, Miranda,” with him when he went. But he must of lied to the poor girl. Bill Roggio’s excellent Long War Journal report today says when al Ajmi blew himself sky high in Iraq, he murdered 13 Muslims (and apparently none of them had a law degree):

“On the morning of March 23, 2008, an Easter Sunday, a massive blast rocked the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Eight kilometers away at Forward Operating Base Marez, the US Military Transition Team for the 6th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division, prepared for the worst. The blast was so large many thought incoming rounds landed close by inside the base. But a large plume rising in the distance in the northwest made it clear a very large suicide vehicle attack just occurred inside Mosul.”

March 23, 2008, Mosul, Iraq

Before reading the rest of Roggio’s report, there is a shining example of a fool that you must see and hear, one of al Qaeda’s lawyers. On October 5, 2006, Mark Falkoff seemed pleased to be doing the closing act — starting off with al Ajmi’s poetry — of the Guantanamo Bay Bar Association’s “teach in” at Seton Hall University. Why not be pleased? Hundreds of American colleges had promoted the event, classrooms and student lounges had set up special viewings, he was streaming live acoss the Internet, and, undoubtably, sales would spike that evening. In this short Windows Media Video, Falkoff is introduced by Seton Hall law professor Mark Denbeaux:

Mark Falkoff video

Yet ‘My Captive Lawyer, Miranda’ somehow escaped before the book went to print (see list of contents).

Currently streaming across the Internet is the video of al Ajmi blowing himself up. As it is long and just another blah, blah, blah, two booms and some bodies al Qaeda B-movie, I’ll intersperse a non-graphic sequence of his departure (with 13 innocent Muslims in tow) in with excepts from two of Bill Roggio’s reports (with his permission):

July 1, 2008, by Bill Roggio
“In early May of this year, news organizations reported a Kuwaiti carried out suicide attacks in Mosul just weeks prior. The reports were based on information from the US Department of Defense and reports from the family. Abdullah Salih al Ajmi, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay was reported to have conducted a suicide bombing at the Umm Al Rumman police station in Mosul on April 26. Seven policemen were killed and 26 Iraqis were wounded in the attack.

“The report created a stir as Ajmi is the first former detainee confirmed to have conducted a suicide attack against US forces.

“But an al Qaeda in Iraq propaganda tape released on June 23 cast serious doubt on the report that Ajmi was involved in the April 26 attack. The tape, titled “The Islamic State is Meant to Stay,” showed footage of several suicide attacks in Mosul. Towards the end of the tape al Qaeda highlights the attacks of two Kuwaitis, Ajmi and another al Qaeda bomber known as Badr Mishel Gama’an al Harbi.

alajmi001.jpg

al Ajmi is in the left front. al Harbi is in the center, Click to enlarge all photos.

“Ajmi’s image is shown just prior to footage of the attack on Combat Outpost Inman. Video is then shown of the attack from the distance. Images of the aftermath of the attack taken by this journalist were then shown. Al Qaeda in Iraq is clearly stating Ajmi was behind the March 23 attack on Inman.”

alajmi002.jpg

al Ajmi in a Kuwait news report photo after he was released from Guantanamo.

“Nibras Kazimi, an Iraq expert and a Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute who first reported on the tape, confirmed the footage proves Ajmi was behind the March 23 attack in Mosul. “The tape makes it clear that Ajmi performed the Harmat Apartments [the location of Combat Outpost Inman] attack,” Kazimi told The Long War Journal. “Harbi was given credit for the Umm Al Rumman attack on a police station.””

“The reason for the confusion of the identity of the bomber is unclear, but Kazimi speculated the family was in the dark on the exact date of the attack, and a name change may have added to the confusion. The press accounts reported Ajmi’s family said he was killed “weeks prior” but they did not give an exact date.

“”I think the confusion arose when al Ajmi’s family received word that their son had been ‘martyred’ in an attack in Mosul, Kazimi said. “The family did not specify the date of the attack, maybe they didn’t know themselves and people assumed that it was the April 26 attack that they were talking about.””

alajmi003.jpg

“Ajmi also “changed his pseudonym from Abu Hajer al Muhajir to Abu Juhaiman al-Kuwaiti, while the pseudonym of the April 26 attacker was Abu Umar al Kuwaiti.,” Kazimi said. “So, the military folks could have heard that some ‘Kuwaiti’ was behind the April 26 and added this to what al Ajmi’s family had said, and erroneously reached the concluded that al Ajmi performed the April 26 attack.” The blast at Combat Outpost Inman was so large that the bomber’s remains were never recovered, so a DNA test was never performed.”

alajmi004.jpg

“US military’s summary of evidence memo used at his hearing at Guantanamo Bay states Ajmi admitted to being a Taliban operative who went to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban. Ajmi admitted to going absent without leave from the Kuwaiti military after he was denied permission to travel to Afghanistan. Ajmi “wanted to participate in the jihad in Afghanistan.”

“Upon his arrival in Afghanistan, Ajmi was “issued an AK-47, ammunition and hand grenades by the Taliban” and fought against the US-backed Northern Alliance in the Bagram region. As the Taliban suffered defeats, Ajmi “retreated to the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan and was later captured as he attempted to escape to Pakistan.” The battle of Tora Bora was the last stand for al Qaeda and the Taliban. The terrorists covered the retreat of the senior leadership cadre, including Osama bin Laden.

“The US military determined that Ajmi was “committed to Jihad” due to his past statements, his behavior while in detention, and his activities in Afghanistan. The US military said Ajmi was “a continued threat to the United States and its allies.”

“Ajmi told his captors at Guantanamo that before his case went to trial, he wanted it to be known that “he now is a Jihadist, an enemy combatant, and that he will kill as many Americans as he possibly can.” Ajmi was “constantly in trouble” due to his “aggressive and non-compliant” behavior while in detention, the military said.”

alajmi005.jpg

“Ajmi’s lawyers and supporters claim he was driven to jihad after his detention and “torture,” which has never been proven. But his supporters never answer the question as to how purported mistreatment at a US military prison justified Ajmi’s decision to carry out a suicide truck bomb attack against fellow Muslims in Iraq. Nor have they addressed Ajmi’s admission of fighting alongside the Taliban at critical battle of Tora Bora. Instead, the word of a known suicide bomber and avowed jihadist is taken at face value while the US military is blamed for the actions of a known terrorist.”

alajmi006.jpg

March 23, 2008, by Bill Roggio
“MOSUL, IRAQ: Al Qaeda in Iraq pulled off a highly successful suicide truck bombing today in western Mosul. Thirteen Iraqi soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Iraqi Army division were killed and 42 were wounded after a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives and detonated it in the center of Combat Outpost Inman. Three officers and nine enlisted soldiers were among those killed. Eight other soldiers suffered serious injuries and were evacuated to Forward Operating Marez for medical treatment.

“The devastation of the attack was visible immediately upon entering the combat outpost. An al Qaeda suicide bomber drove an armored dump truck with an estimated 10,000 pounds of explosives through the gate and detonated it directly in the middle of the compound.

“The ambulance blocking the gate lay on its side. The façades of three buildings that served as the command post and barracks for the Iraqi battalion based there were shattered. Humvees, fuel trucks, ambulances, and even a Mine Resistant Ambush Vehicle, were shattered or heavily damaged. A massive crater sat between the three buildings. The Iraqi soldiers were laying out their dead and treating their wounded in the wreckage.

“Thirteen Iraqi soldiers were killed and 43 wounded in the attack. Civilians in buildings adjacent to the outpost were also wounded. Windows in buildings thousands of feet away were shattered from the resultant pressure wave.

“The blast destroyed the façades of the three buildings, including the building housing the battalion headquarters. Twelve of the Iraqi soldiers were killed on the spot, and the thirteenth later died of wounds in the hospital. Vehicles inside the outpost were destroyed or heavily damaged in the massive blast. Two ambulances were on fire, while a diesel fuel truck was twisted and lying on its side.

“Iraqi and US forces sent reinforcements to the scene to secure the area. US tanks, Bradleys, and armored Humvees surrounded the scene as Iraqi soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division entered the outpost to conduct recovery operations. Wounded soldiers were treated by Iraqi and US medics. Twenty-eight Iraqi soldiers were evacuated to the medical facility at Forward Operating Marez.

While it comes as no surprise that al Qaeda lifts copyrighted photographs to use in their propaganda, it angers many to see and hear al Qaeda’s American lawyers foolishly using the enemy’s propaganda to help set them free.

By the way, none of the defense lawyers al Ajmi saw or spoke with while in United States custody were women.