American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
The comings and goings of Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmad Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Diyab, Gitmo alumnus and former forger “supporting European, North African, and Levant extremists” by “facilitating their international travels.”
Read my post, Jihad gets around.
Let’s hope Gitmo alumnus Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmad Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, a.k.a. Jihad Diyab has a frequent-flyer card by now.
The last time we looked, he was on his way back from Venezuela, where he had turned up at Uruguay’s consulate in Caracas and asked for assistance to fly to Turkey or some other country. His family is in Turkey, and refuse to go to Uruguay.
Turkey doesn’t want him.
Back then I posted,
A known terrorist, who supposedly needs crutches to get around, goes missing for several weeks, to eventually turn up some 4,600 miles away from Montevideo (a little under the distance from New York to Moscow), in Venezuela, of all places, just so he can petition the Uruguayan consulate – which he could do in Montevideo – to “ask for assistance to fly to Turkey or some other country to be reunited with his family.”
After his return, he went on an extended hunger strike, following which he was flown to South Africa (I assume at Uruguayan taxpayers’ expense).
As it turns out, South Africa doesn’t want him either:
Former Guantanamo detainee Jihad Diyab is returning to Uruguay this weekend after being denied entry to South Africa, according to Christian Mirza, a former refugee mediator for the Uruguayan government.
As you may recall, the former member of the “Syrian Group”, which was “comprised of dismantled terrorist cells that escaped Syrian authorities and fled to Afghanistan (AF) in 2000,” was released by the Obama administration from Guantanamo and sent to Uruguay. He went to Argentina last February, and declared himself “ready to fight“, just the thing when you want to make yourself welcome to a foreign country and your first name is Jihad.
After that, Diyab tried to enter Brazil three times but was turned away at the border. Authorities lost track of him, he turned up in Venezuela, was returned to Uruguay where he went on hunger strike, and now this.
Anyone running a pool on where he’ll turn up next?
Authorities in seven countries spent the last month or two trying to locate Gitmo alumnus Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmad Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, who went missing from Uruguay.
For brevity’s sake, let’s call him Diyab.
The former member of the “Syrian Group”, which was “comprised of dismantled terrorist cells that escaped Syrian authorities and fled to Afghanistan (AF) in 2000,” was released by the Obama administration from Guantanamo and sent to Uruguay. He went to Argentina last February, and declared himself “ready to fight“,
After that, Diyab tried to enter Brazil three times but was turned away at the border. Then authorities lost track of him, until now.
And he’s in Venezuela:
Former Gitmo Detainee Shows Up in Venezuela. Abu Wa’el Dhiab unexpectedly left his home in Uruguay, raising concerns (emphasis added)
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee who unexpectedly disappeared from Uruguay last month showed up in Venezuela on Tuesday, saying he wanted help traveling to Turkey, Uruguay’s Foreign Ministry said.
Abu Wa’el Dhiab, who was transferred by the Obama administration to Montevideo, Uruguay, in 2014, appeared at Uruguay’s consulate in Caracas and asked for assistance to fly to Turkey or some other country to be reunited with his family.
“He made it clear he has no interest in returning to Uruguay, but that he needs our country’s help,” the ministry said late Wednesday, adding that Venezuelan authorities were aware of the situation.
A spokesman for the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry in Caracas had said earlier that the office had no information about the former detainee’s arrival.
. . .
Mr. Dhiab’s travel plans may raise additional concern, given Turkey’s porous border with Syria and its use as an entry point for volunteers looking to join Islamic State.
How did he get there? He supposedly needs crutches to walk.
Who helped him along the way? Who’s bankrolling him?
Where is he staying? With whom? Doing what?
UPDATE:
The more I think about it, the worse this story looks.
A known terrorist, who supposedly needs crutches to get around, goes missing for several weeks, to eventually turn up some 4,600 miles away from Montevideo (a little under the distance from New York to Moscow), in Venezuela, of all places, just so he can petition the Uruguayan consulate – which he could do in Montevideo – to “ask for assistance to fly to Turkey or some other country to be reunited with his family.”
This simply does not pass the smell test.
Linked to by Gates of Vienna. Thank you!
Live podcast 8PM Eastern: “Olympics in Brazil, US-Mexico…” hosted by Silvio Canto Jr https://t.co/J9Px2UtslT
— Fausta (@Fausta) July 27, 2016
Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmad Diyab, a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, is still missing.
The forner Gitmo detainee was released to Uruguay last year, and visited Argentina last February, where he declared he was “ready to fight“,
He had tried to enter Brazil three times but was turned away at the border.
He may have succeeded in entering Brazil through other means, but the Brazilians don’t know for sure:
Brazil’s security is being heightened ahead of the Summer Olympic Games set to begin in less than a month. Antiterrorism measures are being put in place, including cooperation with other nations’ intelligence agencies, said Sergio Westphalen Etchegoyen, a minister in charge of institutional security.
“An individual like this one is among our top priorities,” he said during a news conference, declining to detail what is being done to find him.
Thomas Joscelyn has more on the missing man:
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.”
Several South American countries are looking for the multi-named Abu/Ahmed/Ahmad.
Good luck with that.
The Olympics are four weeks away.
Federal prosecutor Germán Moldes will try to reactivate the investigation against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner next week
Accusations fly that
Prosecutor Viviana Fein is conducting the investigation into the death of Alberto Nisman “with an evident interest” of only showing that the AMIA special prosecutor committed “suicide.”
Meanwhile, Venezuelan defectors from Hugo Chavez inner circle are talking.
BOLIVIA
Bolivian Mob Tries to Bury Alive Teacher Accused of Raping Girl
CHILE
Flood torrents devastate Peru and Chile
Two dead as flash flooding hits Chile Atacama desert region
COLOMBIA
Colombian Government, FARC Agree to Begin Land-Mine Removal
New IG Report: DEA Agents in Columbia Partied With Hookers Hired By the Drug Cartels
CUBA
Obama’s Cuba Folly Unfolds
ECUADOR
EL SALVADOR
Half Million People March Against Violence in El Salvador
FALKLAND ISLANDS
Britain to boost Falklands Islands defences
JAMAICA
Jamaican Prime Minister Rebukes Gay-Rights Protestors At New York Townhall
MEXICO
39 Central American Migrants Rescued in Mexico from Human Traffickers
PANAMA
Panama Canal sets sights on new $17 billion expansion project
As it enters the final stretch of a massive expansion, the Panama Canal Authority is setting its sights on an even more ambitious project worth up to $17 billion that would allow it to handle the world’s biggest ships.
Workers are now installing giant, 22-story lock gates to accommodate larger “Post-Panamax” ships through the Canal, one of the world’s busiest maritime routes.
The project involves building a third set of locks on the Canal. It is being headed by Italy’s Salini Impregilo and Spain’s Sacyr, and should open on April 1, 2016.
PARAGUAY
Paraguay Farmers March in Asuncion to Demand President’s Resignation
PERU
Floods in Chile and landslides in Peru after heaviest rain in 80 years
PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Prepares for Luxury Shopping Amid Recession
Puerto Rico Mayor Gets 5 Years for Bribery
URUGUAY
Uruguay will no longer grant asylum to Guantanamo prisoners
The new Uruguayan government says it will no longer grant asylum to prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.
In December, Uruguay gave sanctuary to six Arab men who had been held at the US base in Cuba for 12 years.
Opinion polls said most Uruguayans rejected the decision taken by outgoing President Jose Mujica.
Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa also said Uruguay would stop taking refugees from the Syrian conflict.
Does that mean they’ll kick Syrians Jihad Abu Wael Dhiab, Ali Husain Shaaban, Ahmed Adnan Ajuri, and Abdelhadi Faraj, Palestinian Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, and Tunisian Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi out of the country?
VENEZUELA
“Normalization” update: Venezuelan Castro puppet seeks to humiliate U.S. at the Summit of the Americas but Maduro Says “Venezuela Is Ready” for Dialogue with U.S. Of course. In his spare time, he indulged in vandalism,
The week’s posts and podcast:
Cuba {heart} Iran: Love-terror
How a German trial relates to the #Nisman case
Ecuador: Chinese loans, social media censorship
Today’s Colombian hookers update
Venezuela-Iran’s Aeroterror: Airplanes full of drugs & money
Podcast: US-Latin America: Cuba-Venezuela, elections in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina & more
Barrio 18 in El Salvador: A View from the Inside
The #Nisman Case and the Whitewashing of Iran
About that “Cuban side or the white side”
Read my update on Gitmo alumnus Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, Jihad by any other name is still the same
As Capt. Louis Renault may exclaim, while contemplating the terrorist networks at work,
Uruguayan journalist Nora Fernández Espino, currently working with the Fundación de Ayuda Humanitaria (IHH), which owns the Mavi Marmara, one of the Free Gaza flotilla vessels, took time from her busy schedule last month to escort Gitmo alumnus and “Syrian Group” member Jihad Ahmad Diyab (a.k.a. Abu Wael Dihab, a.k.a. Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab – could we call him Jihad?) to Argentina.
Imagine that!
You may recall that Jihad took the opportunity to say he was “ready to fight“, but not to take a job or learn Spanish.
Our friends at HACER (link in Spanish) also point out that Fernández Espino, while having no visible means of funding, is the proprietress of various corporations and bars in Uruguay and Argentina. The photo in the article was taken during one of her frequent trips to Gaza:
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).
Argentina’s