Does an obscure document, hidden among the hundreds of documents released recently from Iraq and Afghanistan, provide evidence linking Al Qaeda operative Ramzi Yousef to the Oklahoma City attack on the MurrahBuilding?
The Arabic-language handwritten document, numbered AFGP-2002-801138, and available at http://www.ctc.usma.edu/aq/AFGP-2002-801138-Orig.pdf , contains a series of pages that were written in what appears to be some sort of daily planner.
The daily planner appears to be a standard daily calendar/agenda book, containing a daily calendar for the year 2000. The dates within the calendar are in English, and have the Islamic dates for each day as well.
The planner appears to be one sold commercially in Pakistan. The early pages of the planner are printed in English, and contain information that would be helpful to non-Urdu speaking persons in Pakistan, including emergency telephone numbers in Karachi, air travel times from Pakistan, and various other reference guides. It's interesting to note that the handwriting in the document is all in Arabic, despite the planner's Pakistani provenance.
A note at the beginning of the document states that the document was obtained from a "Boot Camp - Class of 2000" in Afghanistan. The term "Boot Camp" most likely refers to one of the Al Qaeda training camps operating in Afghanistan in that time period. Dated comments within the document confirm that the document was most likely written in the year 2000. Other notes indicate that the document is very likely a compilation of questions being prepared for use by Osama Bin Laden in the filming of a new videotape.
The document confirms the links between Al Qaeda and Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, convicted in the US for his role in terrorism planning in New York City, and Ramzi Yousef, convicted Al Qaeda operative, calling them "brothers" (see page 122).
In respect to our Brothers who are imprisoned in the United States and other infidel countries, are there attempts or hope to release them such as sheikh 'Omar 'Abd Al-Rahman, Ramzi Yousef and others?
And in a series of questions, apparently forming a set from which Bin Laden can select questions to discuss in a video tape, goes on to implicate Yousef (and indirectly implicate Al Qaeda) in the April 1995 attack on Oklahoma City (see page 192).
We hear about the Oklahoma explosion and that it is the largest explosion in America. Is it the one planned by Ramzi Yousef or not? (Note: This question was circled and marked with two (X) marks.
The document goes on to pose other questions to Bin Laden with regards to "the Americans".
One particularly disturbing question discusses rumors of nuclear weapons and Iraq, implying that Iraq was already in possession of nuclear missiles in the summer of 2000. It's interesting to note the repeated references to Iraq even though the document was found in Afghanistan, but isn't surprising given the fact that many of the "mujahideen" were actually men from the Arab countries, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. (See page 178):
An Iraqi soldier said," America placed missiles with nuclear heads capability in Kuwait aimed on Russia and that what he saw with his own eyes. When Saddam occupied Kuwait he took these missiles along with its transporters and is still in Iraq. The United States is still looking for these missiles but could not find them because Saddam succeeded in hiding it. Is this claim true, and what do you think of it?
Many of the questions are quite ominous, and show that rumors of some sort of large scale attack against the United States was being planned in the summer of 2000.
What is the news about the battalions you are preparing? Do we have a role to play in it or not? We asked our instructors but no one gave an answer in this matter?
Why is there a delay in executing the martyrdom operations against the Americans?
We heard a lot about the (BATTALION) that will be dispatched from Afghanistan, are there news about it, and its destination?
Dear Sheikh, we pledged the legend to you to work and join Jihad movement, we will not let down, we are the soldiers of God. Please explain to us the importance of martyrdom operations against the American infidels?
One question is particularly disturbing:
What are the most famous and important American corporations that handle American interests and where is it located?
Other questions are more indirect - implying that the US of international "troublemaking".
Is it in the American interest to stir trouble in Iran? I read in a study that the United States created a Shiite state in case an eastern and a western Sunnis states clash or not with this Shiite state. The study concluded that Khumeini was delivered to Tahran during the revolution by an American combat aircraft?
As more of these documents are released and examined, it is very likely that we will find not only a wide range of "smoking gun" evidence regarding earlier terror attacks, but we will likely gain insight into the minds of Al Qaeda. Hopefully we will be able to translate this insight into prevention of future terror attacks.
For more translations and news on terrorism, visit http://www.lauramansfield.com
You may email Laura at laura@lauramansfield.com
No comments:
Post a Comment