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Alqaeda harbored { August 28 2002 }

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   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4231-2002Aug27.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4231-2002Aug27.html

Al Qaeda Deputies Harbored by Iran
Pair Are Plotting Attacks, Sources Say

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 28, 2002; Page A01


JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 27 -- Two figures who have assumed critical roles in the al Qaeda hierarchy in recent months, including one reported dead by the Pentagon, are being sheltered in Iran along with dozens of other al Qaeda fighters in hotels and guesthouses in the border cities of Mashhad and Zabol, according to Arab intelligence sources.

The two -- Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian on the FBI's most-wanted list, and Mahfouz Ould Walid, also known as Abu Hafs the Mauritanian, whom U.S. officials reported had been killed near the eastern Afghan city of Khost in January -- are directly involved in planning al Qaeda terrorist operations, according to the intelligence sources, who are outside Saudi Arabia and did not want their names or countries disclosed.

With Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman Zawahiri, in hiding, the sources said, and with the death of the former military chief, Muhammad Atef, the two have assumed operational control of al Qaeda's military committee, which directs attacks, and its ideological or religious committee, which issues fatwas, or statements, to justify those attacks.

The idea of the transfer of power arose after the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, when it became apparent to al Qaeda that the United States might attack Afghanistan and capture or kill some of its senior leaders, the sources said. The need to put the transfer into practice became even more apparent in March with the capture in Pakistan of Abu Zubaida, a Palestinian and senior al Qaeda planner.

The sources also said that one of bin Laden's sons, Saad, who is in his early twenties, is being groomed as his father's successor because of the symbolism offered by the idea of a dynasty. And while the sources said that Saad has not assumed a formal position, he has increasingly been communicating with operatives worldwide in order to burnish his standing with them.

"[Saad] has authority, but Zawahiri is still number two," said a senior Arab intelligence officer.

Dozens of other al Qaeda fighters, and possibly more, are also staying in a cluster of hotels in Mashhad, in northeastern Iran near the borders with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, and in guesthouses in Zabol, about 400 miles south on the Iranian-Afghan border, the sources said.

The report from these sources supported the Bush administration's long-standing assertion that Iran -- or at least hard-liners in the conservative clerical line of authority that controls the army and intelligence services -- is harboring al Qaeda fighters.

A spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations denied that al-Adel and Walid are in Iran and added, "Iran's policy is not to permit such people to enter Iran."

Nevertheless, the sources said al-Adel and Walid meet regularly with lieutenants in Mashhad and Zabol, and that Iran has also been used as a way station to other countries for al Qaeda fighters who have fled Afghanistan since the Taliban was defeated in November.

The sources said Iran's transfer of 16 al Qaeda operatives to Saudi Arabia in June, along with small deportations to other countries, were a pretense used to rebutt the Bush administration's charges and encourage the idea that it was cooperating in the U.S.-led war on terrorism. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud Faisal, cited the June handover as an instance of such cooperation in an interview this month.

Officials in Arab countries said that captured al Qaeda operatives have said in interrogations that their Iranian hosts had told some of them they had to leave after Bush included Iran in an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea in his State of the Union address. But crucial al Qaeda figures were allowed to stay, they said, and some of those who left were provided with false papers or had their passports cleaned of incriminating stamps.

Still others, or their wives and children, were turned over to their home governments in a display of solidarity with the United States and its allies.

In one case, the wife of a prominent al Qaeda figure was sent home and told officials when she arrived that her husband was still in Iran, another intelligence officer said.

"There is an Iranian role in hosting al Qaeda and sponsoring the movement of al Qaeda," said the senior Arab intelligence officer. The officer said Iran's reformist government, which may have qualms about aiding al Qaeda, is powerless to prevent the military and the intelligence service from assisting fugitives from Afghanistan.

Iran's motives are not entirely clear. Its seemingly contradictory actions may be explained by tensions between reformers and conservatives within the government, Arab officials said. Moreover, the hard-line conservatives, in sheltering al Qaeda, do not appear to be acting out of any innate sympathy for bin Laden's group, the sources said.

Some elements in the Iranian system seem to believe that they can use al Qaeda for their own unstated purposes, a source said. One intelligence officer noted that a number of captured al Qaeda operatives said the Iranians told them before their departure that they may be called on at some point to assist Iran. But they were not told how.

The two most important figures said to remain in Iran are al-Adel and Walid.

Al-Adel was the head of al Qaeda's security committee, a position he apparently still holds. He has been indicted in the United States for murder, conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and the destruction of buildings and property of the United States, all in connection with the embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.

Walid, a longtime bin Laden lieutenant, is from the North African nation of Mauritania and has played a role in developing the doctrine to justify al Qaeda attacks. He now has assumed control of al Qaeda's religious committee and, because he is in Iran with al-Adel, is also participating in military planning, the sources said.

Pentagon officials said Jan. 8 that Walid had been killed in Afghanistan. But the sources said that assertion was incorrect, and added that reliable information from Iran indicates that he is increasingly important to al Qaeda's future.

They also said al Qaeda is now working on the assumption that its e-mail and phone communications are being monitored. The group is becoming increasingly sophisticated in using electronic communications to send messages and deceive intelligence agencies, and is also relying on human couriers, often women.

Under al-Adel, two other key operatives are rising in the organization's military structure, the sources said. And through them, al Qaeda, traditionally a small, hard-core group, is building alliances with other Islamic extremists who can act as proxies.

Among them is Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a Pakistani born in Kuwait who is also known as "The Brain," has been described as the logistics expert behind the Sept. 11 attacks. He is now said to be operating out of Pakistan. He has been linked by a phone intercept with the incendiary attack on a historic synagogue in Tunisia in April that killed 14 German tourists, six Tunisians and a Frenchman, according to German officials.

Mohammed is also reported to have visited Germany in 1999, but a Western intelligence official said the report was based on information from only one source, although he described the source as "normally reliable."

Mullah Bilal, or Bilal bin Marwan, a Saudi accused of helping plan the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000, was also behind a plan to attack U.S. and British naval ships in the Strait of Gibraltar this year, according to Moroccan officials. The sources said he, like Mohammed, has become critical to the group's current functioning and is also working out of Pakistan.

The sources said al Qaeda has also planned attacks elsewhere in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf this year, including another plan by Bilal to attack U.S. ships in Bahrain. Al Qaeda also planned to kill Americans on the streets of Saudi Arabia, the intelligence officers said. The group had discussed putting silencers on guns to be used in the attacks. The operations were thwarted by intelligence and law enforcement agencies, the sources said.

Based on interrogation of suspects and other intelligence, one official said al Qaeda saw a real opening to damage U.S.-Saudi relations because of rifts between the two countries since Sept. 11. And he said an atrocity on Saudi soil remains a major al Qaeda goal because of the expectation that the recrimination that could follow would rupture relations between the countries.

The official, from a country other than Saudi Arabia, said that while the Saudi authorities had been "passive" toward al Qaeda financing and recruitment in the past, they have seriously stepped up their efforts against the organization and have broken up al Qaeda plots.




© 2002 The Washington Post Company


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