New Al Qaeda Leader Is U.S. Prison Escapee
Email An al Qaeda figure who escaped from a U.S. military prison 18 months ago has re-emerged as a field commander leading attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, ABC News has learned. Abu Yahya al Libi was one of four al Qaeda figures who escaped from the prison at the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan in July 2005. An al Qaeda propaganda tape posted on the Internet this week identifies him as sheikh, a commander of an al Qaeda unit operating in Afghanistan. Watch excerpts from the al Qaeda propaganda video.
"It is a double embarrassment that he has now come back as one of the field commanders," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism director. The re-emergence of the al Qaeda escapee comes as al Qaeda itself is reforming and re-establishing bases in the mountainous border region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage. President Bush today implicitly conceded the terror group was making a comeback, planning a spring offensive against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. "We can expect fierce fighting to continue," the President said in a speech today. "Our strategy is not to be on the defense but to go on the offense. This spring there is going to be a new offensive in Afghanistan, and it’s going to be a NATO offensive." U.S. officials worry not only about the destabilization of Afghanistan but about the ability of al Qaeda to plan new attacks in the U.S. and Europe. "There are indications that from that central al Qaeda headquarters inside Pakistan on the Afghan border, orders are going to cells in places like the United Kingdom," said ABC News consultant Clarke. "So once again, al Qaeda central has a headquarters, and through covert means, through couriers, it is communicating its intentions, its orders to cells around the world," Clarke said.
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How long are we going to sit back and let Al Qeada further organize for a major attack against our interests and our people in the states. We should be shaking their pillars. Lets take out the Taliban and any tribes in Pakistan that get in our way to shutting the mouth piece of Al Qaeda (Zawahri) and put him in hell where he belongs, That’s why we went there in the first place. Bin Laden is probably dead or deathly sick or we would’ve heard from his big mouth by now. Wake up people, Al Qaeda is at war with us and will use any means available to them upto and including nuclear warfare. Are we going to wait until they have that capability? They dont have it now but they soon will. All they have to do is take control over a nation like Pakistan or Iran to have it or get their hands on some radioactive material for a radioactive bomb. Lets get off our @$$ and start kicking some.
Thanks to Bush the conquerer Al Qaeda has become more popular by us going into Iraq. He should’ve listened to Mubarak of Egypt warning him that that would happen but that’s another story
Posted by: Jack, Peoria | February 15, 2007, 6:00 pm 6:00 pm
Jack,
We don’t have enough troops, money or materiel to kick ass in either Afghanistan or Iraq. We’ve squandered our window of opportunity, billions of dollars and our brave troops’ lives and limbs only to make a bad situation much, much worse.
How soon we forget that the USSR’s Afghan war was more responsible for the collapse of the Communist bloc than any other factor.
This will not end well.
AF
Posted by: Anacher Forester | February 15, 2007, 11:31 pm 11:31 pm
He’s a moron…we elected him..2 more years he’s toast…praise the lord…voted for kerry…and now mccain
Posted by: Bush Backer | February 16, 2007, 12:48 am 12:48 am
Unfortunately, this may or may not be a problem, but Al-Qaeda HQ appears to be in Pakistan, a country with a nuclear weapon, instead of the defenseless Afghanistan.
Posted by: go | February 16, 2007, 2:25 am 2:25 am
If in fact Al-Qaeda is in Pakistan as all information suggests, Nato and U.S. forces should be allowed to wipe them out once and for all without restrictions from any of the Governments that have publicly stated to be allies in the war on terror, especially the Government in Pakistan.
If the Pakistan leaders are truely a part of the war on terror I would think they should have no issue’s with an offensive against Al-Qaeda within their borders. As the old saying goes…”Your either part of the solution or your part of the problem”… So, which is it Pakistan? Stop the hidden agenda’s and let the people there do the job they have been sent to do, or get off your tails and get it done yourself. Tribal leaders against it? Guess they are just part of the problem and allies to the enemy.
Posted by: Timothy | February 17, 2007, 4:05 pm 4:05 pm
Abu Yahya Al-Libi (a.k.a Abulbakar Mohammed Hassan) has been posting pieces to the Internet since October 2005. November 2005 he was featured in Tora Bora magazine (by jihadists).
In December 2005, the Al Ekhlass network claimed readers could submit questions and they would be forwarded to him – and he was portrayed then as a military leader of al Qaeda.
Al-Libi has been shown in numerous videos (both as Sahab and Labbayik productions) since 2005 addressing troops – he explained on tape how he and three others escaped Bahram air base; April 2006 he commented in an audio post about Hamas (saying it was straying from Islamic roots and would fail because it is not Islamic enough); May 2006 saw an interview with al-Libi where he called for attacks against European countries; in Oct 2006 he called for followers to obtain nuclear technology; in Nov 2006 he commented on the ‘martyrdom’ of Faruq Al ‘Iraqi.
Posted by: Sucram | February 18, 2007, 9:28 pm 9:28 pm