Stonewalled: Al Qaeda 'Commander' Probe

ALSO: -- • Italy Busts Terror Cells• 'Don't Assume' Saddam Is Alive

Terrorist Stonewalls Hunt for 'Field Commander'

By Vic Walter

April 3 — An imprisoned terrorist from South Florida is refusing to provide information in the worldwide manhunt for a suspected al Qaeda operative, sources told ABCNEWS.

On March 20, ABCNEWS featured an exclusive story on Imran Mandhai, who was convicted last year of plotting terrorist attacks in areas of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Miami.

During an undercover FBI investigation of Mandhai in early 2001, federal agents discovered a connection between Mandhai and Adnan El Shukrijumah, sources said.

El Shukrijumah, who is from Saudi Arabia, is wanted by authorities in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States. He has been described to ABCNEWS as an al Qaeda "field commander" on the level of Mohamed Atta, the lead Sept. 11 hijacker.

In undercover tape recordings, Mandhai is heard discussing his relationship with El Shukrijumah during the time both men lived in neighboring South Florida communities.

FBI agents were unable to implicate El Shukrijumah in the Florida terror plot, and shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks he disappeared.

Authorities now want to interview Mandhai about his knowledge of El Shukrijumah, but so far, sources said, Mandhai, who is serving nearly 12 years in an Alabama federal prison, is not willing to answer any questions. Mandhai was convicted of a conspiracy to bomb South Florida power plants, the National Guard, Jewish businesses and Mount Rushmore.

Sources also tell ABCNEWS that following the Sept. 11 attacks Mandhai was given a lie-detector test.

During the polygraph exam, Mandhai was asked if he personally knew anyone who was involved in the attacks.

Sources said he failed that test question when he answered no, and when told that the polygraph had indicated he lied about his answer Mandhai told authorities he was actually thinking of El Shukrijumah in response to the question.

Authorities have not linked El Shukrijumah to the Sept. 11 attacks, but the search for him has intensified since the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected al Qaeda commander and mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mandhai's attorney, Leonard Fenn, acknowledged he had information that his client had failed the lie-detector question, but declined to comment further.

Suspected Terrorists Arrested in Italy

By Risa Molitz

April 3 — Italian investigators have broken up a terrorist cell based in Milan that was charged with recruiting "martyrs" for al Qaeda-linked training camps in northern Iraq, Italian authorities said.

Earlier this week Italian antiterrorism police arrested Ayashi Radi Abd El Samie Abou El Yazid of Egypt, Ciise Maxamed Cabdullaah of Somalia, and Mohammed Tahir Hammid and Mohamed Amin Mostafa, both of Iraq, in the northern cities of Milan and Parma.

On Tuesday police arrested Mourad Trabelsi, the imam of the mosque in Cremona, and Ben Mouldi Kamel Hamraoui, a Tunisian who also worked at the same mosque.

According to Italian news reports, investigators are still searching for a seventh suspect, Abu Ali, who they presume may have traveled to northern Iraq to join up with Ansar al-Islam, the Muslim extremist group that the United States has linked to al Qaeda and Baghdad.

Milan police confirmed they believe the suspects have ties to suspected al Qaeda poison expert Abu Mussab al Zarqawi and to Ansar al-Islam, which the United States has accused of producing chemical weapons at facilities located in northern Iraq. Since the beginning of the war on Iraq, the facilities have been destroyed and U.S. special forces troops have recovered chemical weapons manuals there.

Antiterrorism police said they found evidence of a recruiting network based in the north of Italy. Volunteers, recruited in Italy, would be sent for training at terrorist camps in the Sulaimaniah region in northern Iraq where Ansar operated what U.S. officials described as a massive facility.

Departing from Italy, the volunteers, known as mujahideen, would travel through Turkey or Syria, with the majority of recruits transported through Syria. Members of the terrorist cell also assisted in the procurement of false documents and raised funds for the terrorist network, a police statement said.

All six men have been charged with association with international terrorist groups, falsification of documents, and aiding in illegal immigration.

According to a report in Tuesday's Corriere della Sera newspaper, the arrests concluded an investigation that has been under way for more than a year.

The men had been under surveillance and their phones had been tapped for months. Investigators believe that recruits and funds were sent from Italy to Mullah Fouad, who is allegedly responsible for al Zarqawi's Syrian base. At least 40 combatants are believed to have departed from Italy in recent months, headed for the Ansar camps in northern Iraq.

Police had been listening to their telephone conversations up until a few days ago, as they discussed plans to travel to Iraq, eager to leave Europe and ready to die as martyrs while fighting against British and American coalition forces, authorities said.

The investigators intercepted conversations, including phone calls made from satellite phones, in which the men discussed the reorganization of al Qaeda after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the arrival of new combatants. "Everything is going according to plan," one of the suspected cell members is recorded as saying, the newspaper reported.

Although investigators say they have dismantled the cell, the investigation remains open, the ANSA news agency reported.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 50 suspected terrorists have been arrested in Italy, many of whom have been convicted under newly enacted antiterrorism legislation that allows prosecutors to charge individuals with association to international terrorist organizations.

Is Saddam Alive?

By Pierre Thomas

U.S. intelligence officials cannot say definitively Saddam is dead or alive, but they give the following guidance: There have been no intercepts of Saddam Hussein communicating, by voice, with anyone, since the March 19 "decapitation" attack on a Baghdad compound where he was believed to be spending the night.

Videotapes of Saddam that were released after the start of the war have fallen under intense scrutiny by the CIA. Intelligence analysts told ABCNEWS they believe the tapes showing Saddam were recorded before the war, and all the video segments appear to be shot on the same day. But sources cautioned there was no way to know for certain when the segments were recorded.

If Saddam Hussein was at the Dora Farm — the Baghdad location that was hit at the time of the bombing — he would have had an extraordinarily difficult time surviving.

The military dropped at least two 2,000-pound, deep-penetrating bombs on the site and hit it with more than two dozen cruise missiles. Again, the U.S. government does not know for certain, but one source told ABCNEWS, "Don't assume he's alive."

Time will tell.

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