US$7 million, and an apology: Meet Omar Khadr, Canada’s newest millionaire and Gitmo alumnus.
American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
By Fausta
By Fausta
In spite of the federal government denials that Islamic militants may have tried to cross the Mexican border to conduct operations in the U.S., a Judicial Watch investigation reveals that al-Qaeda terrorist Adnan G. El Shukrijumah (also spelled Shukijumah in Spanish-language reports), whose mom still lives in Miramar, FL, hid in a Mexican border city across Douglas, Arizona in 2004.
El Shukrijumah was connected to Mohammed Atta, and both were with another man at the Miami immigration office on May 2, 2001,
Adnan G. el Shukrijumah, an al-Qaida terrorist leader once based in South Florida, hid in northern Mexico with two other Arab militants in a border city across from Douglas, Arizona, in 2004, newly released State Department cables say.
One of the cables noted that the information about Shukrijumah, killed in Pakistan in 2014, came from a trusted confidential source who had a relative involved in migrant smuggling.
This matters because
In the case of the Shukrijumah cables, they suggest that the federal government was wrong to deny that Islamic militants may have tried to cross the porous Mexican border to conduct operations in the United States.
The Shukrijumah case has attracted wide attention since the 9/11 Commission in 2004 published a report quoting an immigration officer as saying that she was “75 percent sure” she saw the Miramar resident with hijack leader Mohamed Atta and another man at the immigration office in Miami on May 2, 2001 — four months before the plane attacks. Atta piloted the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center twin towers in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. The second man with Atta, the commission report said, was possibly Ziad Jarrah, the pilot who crashed his plane into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers rebelled and tried to storm the cockpit to recover control of the aircraft.
The possible presence of Shukrijumah with the 9/11 pilots stirred speculation that the terror leaders received assistance from U.S.-based militants while they plotted the attacks.
Read the whole thing.
Related:
The Miami Herald article reports that Shrukrijumah’s mother has said her son left for Trinidad in January 2001. Here is a report on Jihad in Trinidad.
By Fausta
Read my update on Gitmo alumnus Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, Jihad by any other name is still the same
By Fausta
Today’s Capt. Louis Renault moment
comes from Argentina via Uruguay:
Syrian Jihad Ahmad Diyab, one of the six Gitmo alumni released to Uruguay last month, went to Argentina (link in Spanish), to request that that country issue asylum to other Gitmo alumni,
“I’ll never forget my comrades there, and that’s why I came here to fight.”
Diyab’s mother is Argentinian.
Here’s his interview, in Spanish, where he claimed he was just a regular guy living with his family until the Americans dragged him out of his home and sent him to Gitmo,
Thomas Joscelyn shows otherwise:
The four Syrians transferred — Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Husein Shaaban, Abd al Hadi Omar Mahmoud Faraj, and Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab — were all allegedly members of the so-called “Syrian Group.” The JTF-GTMO files describe the “Syrian Group” as “comprised of dismantled terrorist cells that escaped Syrian authorities and fled to Afghanistan (AF) in 2000.”
Part of the reporting in the JTF-GTMO files on the so-called “Syrian Group” came from the Syrian government, which was opposed to this particular group of jihadists but also eventually allied with al Qaeda in the fight against American forces in Iraq. Ultimately, in a form of blowback, that one-time alliance would fracture.
There are two forms of lying to non-believers that are permitted under certain circumstances, taqiyya and kitman. These circumstances are typically those that advance the cause Islam – in some cases by gaining the trust of non-believers in order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat them.
This report says that Diyab also goes by the name of Abu Wael Dihab; in it an Uruguayan official asserts that “none of the former detainees has expressed the intention of leaving nor made any efforts to,” even when Diyab stated in an interview that he had no desire to return to Uruguay. None of the six have accepted any employment offers, all dropped out of state-provided Spanish lessons.
The Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas, or DAIA (Delegation of Israelite Argentinian Associations) is worried about the possibility of a new Islamist attack in Argentina, following the theft of a TOW 2 missile and 130 FAL rifles from the armed forces.
(On a lighter vein, separted at birth? Christian Bale).
By Fausta
While the world looks at the terrorist holding people hostage in Sydney,
Mujica didn’t say “send Uruguay more Giltmo alumni,” though.
Last week I was asking under what country’s passports would the six terrorists travel. It looks like there’s an answer (emphasis added):
Approved for release from a military hospital and given Uruguayan identity documents, the men moved into a small-three bedroom house in Montevideo provided by a labor confederation. “These men have gone through an extremely difficult situation,” said Fernando Pereira, a union official, “so we’re going to give them psychological support and care.”
Empathy, indeed.
Mr. Mujica’s government has signaled that it wants to help the Obama administration in its goal of closing the detention center, which cannot take place until countries take in prisoners the U.S. have cleared for transfers.
…
So far in Latin America and the Caribbean, 12 former inmates have been resettled, including two in El Salvador in 2012 and four in Bermuda in 2009. The six who came to Montevideo—four Syrians, a Palestinian and a Tunisian—are the first detainees to be resettled in South America.
What could possibly go wrong?
By Fausta
Before Greenpeace:
After Greenpeace:
It’s time to put the Greenpeace vandals out of business
BOLIVIA
Bolivia’s YPFB Hit by Corruption, Sexual-Harassment Scandal
BRAZIL
Survivors Recall Genocide of Amazon Tribe in Brazil, the Waimiri-Atroari.
CHILE
Chile Not Facing an Economic Crisis, Bachelet Says
Construction in Chile of world’s largest telescope approved
COLOMBIA
Colombian Government, Rebels Resume Peace Talks
‘Al Capone’ Justice for Fidel Castro
The AP’s Latest Attack: On Cuba’s Independent Rappers
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Abortion stalls Dominican Republic Penal Code vote
EL SALVADOR
El Salvador President to Cuba for Checkup after Falling Ill in Mexico, since that worked so well for Hugo Chávez.
IMMIGRATION
Adding Insult to Injury: Obama Paying for Illegal Amnesty with Fees Paid by Legal Immigrants
Sheriffs: Obama’s Amnesty Creates ‘Insurgence of Heroin,’ ‘Saloon-Door’ Border Mentality
JAMAICA
Jamaica Approached To Sell PetroCaribe Debt
LATIN AMERICA
Neocolonialism update: Iran expanding its presence in Latrine America
PANAMA
Panama: Cuba to Attend First-ever Americas Summit
PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico tops list of 25 best Caribbean islands list
URUGUAY
Former Guantanamo Prisoners Leave Hospital in Uruguay
VENEZUELA
The Precise Instant Everything Went to Hell
UK: Journalist’s flat burgled, family threatened
VenEconomy: Drug Trafficking – The Other Pest of the Venezuelan Revolution
US Congress passes sanctions against Venezuelan human rights abusers
The week’s posts:
White privilege, indeed
Mexico: Gulf Cartel run from Texas
Venezuela: Default by September 2015?
Colombia: FARC using al-Qaeda for European drug trade
At Da Tech Guy Blog:
U.S. releases 6 al-Qaeda detainees to Uruguay
Time to put Greenpeace vandals out of business
By Fausta
Following up on yesterday’s post, my post, U.S. releases 6 al-Qaeda detainees to Uruguay
Four were members of the “Syrian Group;” all are connected to Abu Zubaydah; only one was deemed as “medium risk,” the other five were “high risk.”
The four Syrians are Ali Husein Shaaban, Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Abd al Hadi Faraj and Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab; from the West Bank, Mohammed Abdullah Tahamuttan; from Tunisia, Abdul Bin Mohammed Bin Abess Ourgy.
And as soon as they got to Uruguay, they were given rights to come and go as they please.
By Fausta
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, their feds, have averted a potential bomb plot on a passenger train over the Niagara River
One police source said there were several scenarios being looked at during the year the suspects were tracked, including the train plot.
One of the plots uncovered by the RCMP and other agencies was a planned bombing of a passenger train on the bridge that connects Canada and the United States at Niagara Falls, a police source says.
Ed Morrissey has more.