WP: Al Qaeda Detainee's Mysterious Release (UBL's bodyguard)

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/29/AR2006012901044.html

Al Qaeda Detainee's Mysterious Release
Moroccan Spoke Of Aiding Bin Laden During 2001 Escape

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 30, 2006; Page A01

RABAT, Morocco -- For more than a decade, Osama bin Laden had few soldiers more devoted than Abdallah Tabarak. A former Moroccan transit worker, Tabarak served as a bodyguard for the al Qaeda leader, worked on his farm in Sudan and helped run a gemstone smuggling racket in Afghanistan, court records here show.

During the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, when al Qaeda leaders were pinned down by U.S. forces, Tabarak sacrificed himself to engineer their escape. He headed toward the Pakistani border while making calls on Osama bin Laden's satellite phone as bin Laden and the others fled in the other direction.

Tabarak was captured and taken to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was classified as such a high-value prisoner that the Pentagon repeatedly denied requests by the International Committee of the Red Cross to see him. Then, after spending almost three years at the base, he was suddenly released.

Today, the al Qaeda loyalist known locally as the "emir" of Guantanamo walks the streets of his old neighborhood near Casablanca, more or less a free man. In a decision that neither the Pentagon nor Moroccan officials will explain publicly, Tabarak was transferred to Morocco in August 2004 and released from police custody four months later.

[MakeItSo]

1. He probably has pictures of himself shaking hands with Bush and Abramoff

Just kidding. Sort of.

[mirandapriestly]

30. That's funny and probably close to the truth nt

[joemurphy]

2. Bet he turns up dead fairly soon. n/t

[Cocoa]

3. if he does

he'll suddenly become "Al Qaeda's #3"

[Rex]

4. Boosh's buddy OBL want him back.

Boosh asked the BFEE to make a few phone calls and here we are. 3 years for being the right hand man of OBL...what no trial? :eyes:

The stench from this one is HUGH.

[punpirate]

5. The most logical explanation...

... would be that the interrogators believed they had turned him, and then sent him out as a rabbit, hoping he would lead them to bin Laden. Is he now a double agent, a triple agent, or just ignored by bin Laden as a security risk?

Or is he not at all the person described?

More questions than answers....

[bbinacan]

6. I agree with your analysis.

[Canuckistanian]

7. A courier?

Ferrying messages back and forth quietly?

[punpirate]

11. Perhaps...

... but that would undoubtedly suggest that, as a Moroccan, he was being used by more than one intelligence entity (the first would be the US in conjunction with the Moroccans, while the likely second entity would be Pakistan ISI because they're much closer to bin Laden and the old mujahideen, which does sort of complicate that theory).

Dunno, but it's as likely a possibility as others. However, the intimation from the language of the report is that he's sort of free to come and go, probably meaning that he's being watched all the time by Moroccan intelligence and others. Kind of hard to serve as a courier under those circumstances. If he's being watched, then it's more likely that he's being used as bait, and that could play out in many different ways, depending upon his ultimate loyalties.

Cheers.

[geomon666]

8. That's not logical at all.

You don't let a captured agent return into the fold after being released for no damn reason. I'm surprised Qaeda agents don't kill him right there in the street.

[punpirate]

9. As I said...

... that's one possibility. You're ignoring the others. If he convinced his interrogators that they'd turned him and agreed to work with them, but convinced bin Laden or others that he did so to get out and aid al-Qaeda, then they wouldn't kill him--they'd use him, yes?

And, as far as we know, he's been walking around for four months and he's not dead yet, is he...?

There are other possibilities, of course. What are yours, since you think mine are not logical at all?

Cheers.

[geomon666]

16. He'd (OBL) have to be incredibly stupid to do that.

And I don't think he's incredibly stupid. Besides that, I don't think they really need him any more.

[pushycat]

19. Was the man chipped and then let go, to follow him?

[daleo]

20. Those are all good questions

And the truth must lie in there somewhere.

Another possibility - Maybe he was traded for someone on the U.S. side that we will never be told was ever captured.

[punpirate]

35. Ah, yet another possibility...

... we rarely hear of exchanges these days now that the cold war is "over." Another reasonable hypothesis.

[Lori Price CLG]

10. Yes, Rove has Bush bin Laden's next assignment ready...

...to be carried out, so that the Patriot Act can be extended and the illegal NSA domestic spying can be 'justified.'

Lori Price

[951-Riverside]

12. Tabarak could be an innocent guy and they had to make up a story

... to save face.


I'm always skeptical whenever I hear/read about OBL & "The Base".

[daleo]

21. Like they would care?

"Oh no, we have imprisoned an innocent man! What should we do?"

"Just keep quiet about it. They have no legal rights anyway."

[oblivious]

13. More proof of how idiotic this whole Al-qaeda myth is.

Six months before his release, he was of such "military importance" that he was one of only 4 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay the Red Cross was not allowed to see.

I note that his daughter is married to "top al Qaeda operations commander, Abu Feraj Libi" -- the one whom European intelligence officials identified as a coffee boy.

[Straight Shooter]

14. This is so bizarre, I don't even know where to begin.

Wouldn't Osama's bodyguard have some sort of participation in the attacks of September 11, 2001, if only to serve in the role of protecting Osama at all costs until the attacks were executed? That makes him an accessory, correct? It's impossible to believe that he wasn't aware of the impending attacks. He did nothing to stop them. During the Tora Bora fiasco he played a pivotal role in helping Osama to escape. Another act of aiding and abetting, right? Then he became a high value prisoner. Now he is walking around free.

As I said, bizarre.

[htuttle]

15. It's hard to see how he'd be less culpable than Moussaoui

All they have Moussaoui on is intent -- he was in prison a few months before 9/11, so he couldn't have had a direct hand in anything. If the official story about 9/11 is true, it does seem like this person is far more responsible for 9/11 than Moussaoui is.

I suppose, since the FBI never did charge bin Laden with the 9/11 attacks, they don't have much to go on?

[Straight Shooter]

17. Good point about Moussaoui.

Although the FBI didn't charge OBL, Fitzgerald did. ;)

[htuttle]

18. Fitz indicted him for the 1993 WTC bombing

To the best of my knowledge, Moussaoui is the only person ever actually charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden still hasn't been -- as I suggested previously, I don't think they have much of a case in actuality.

[Straight Shooter]

25. I tried to research this, but the Internet is too bloated.

For some reason, I thought Fitz had also charged OBL for the September 11 attacks. :shrug:

[htuttle]

26. Here's his 'FBI Most Wanted' page

http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/laden.htm

From the page:

MURDER OF U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES; CONSPIRACY TO MURDER U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES; ATTACK ON A FEDERAL FACILITY RESULTING IN DEATH

(snip)

USAMA BIN LADEN IS WANTED IN CONNECTION WITH THE AUGUST 7, 1998, BOMBINGS OF THE UNITED STATES EMBASSIES IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA, AND NAIROBI, KENYA. THESE ATTACKS KILLED OVER 200 PEOPLE. IN ADDITION, BIN LADEN IS A SUSPECT IN OTHER TERRORIST ATTACKS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

There's no mention of 9/11 anywhere on the page, other than being included in 'other terrorist attacks throughoutthe world'.

It says the notice was revised in November 2001, after the 9/11 attacks. :shrug:

[Straight Shooter]

27. I guess if he's on the list, then he's on the list.

Thanks for the link, and the update. :thumbsup:

[Carni]

31. BIN FORGOTTEN WAS BORN IN 1957???

No way-- the guy looks over 60 in most photos WTF?

[Auntie Bush]

36. Maybe OBL didn't do it...so he isn't being charged. Maybe * MIHOP

[AngryAmish]

22. Judas goat?

[Whoa_Nelly]

23. Maybe they gave him a frontal lobotomy

:shrug:

[snooper2]

24. If he really is a "terrorist"

I would have put him to sleep, put a chip under his skin, and see where he leads us...

Just my thought....

[DeepModem Mom]

28. Whoa, page one! This is VERY strange.

Like someone upthread, I don't even know where to begin....

[MakeItSo]

29. welcome to 2006 in America

Everything 99 percent of the American public assumes to be true is a complete and total lie.

[lovuian]

32. Nothing like releasing a Terrorist right at the time Bush's

Polls are down!!! I feel there is a storm a brewin!!!

[lovuian]

33. Pentagon is responsible for this going against the law of

America!!!

[lovuian]

34. OSAMA IS BUSH= MaBus

It sure looks like it here!!!

[cyberpj]

37. I'd say he's bait at this point - They need Osama BAD for PR for 2006.