Harkat informant called 'insane' (Canadian terror)

[NorthernSun]

Suspected Ottawa terrorist Mohamed Harkat was freed on bail yesterday as evidence emerged that a former "high-ranking" al-Qaeda informant who triggered his arrest was, in fact, a relatively minor and "certifiably insane" operative.

What's more, Abu Zubaydah only revealed his information, including now questionable details about supposed al-Qaeda plots against the United States, while being tortured by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=5531c205-5287-4f4f-8ece-45d504955a92

Another Bushco setup

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is unbearable! Yet, completely believable, isn't it?

From the article:

Yet even before Mr. Harkat's December 2002 arrest and detention on a government-issued security certificate, there were serious doubts within the FBI and CIA about Mr. Zubaydah's credibility, according to the book.

Their apprehensions and that "the United States would torture a mentally disturbed man and leap, screaming, at every word he uttered," were ignored by senior White House officials who wanted to publicly trumpet Mr. Zubaydah's March 2002 capture in Pakistan as a major coup for the "war on terror," writes Mr. Suskind.
(snip)

A few days after the capture, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer described Mr. Zubaydah as a "key terrorist recruiter and operational planner and member of Osama Bin Laden's inner circle."
(snip)

In a speech two weeks after the capture, U.S. President George W. Bush -- who, according to the book, had by then been briefed on Mr. Zubaydah's apparent mental instability and non-operational role in al-Qaeda -- revealed the arrest. "The other day we hauled in a guy named Abu Zubaydah," he told Republican Party contributors. "He's one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction to the United States. He's not plotting and planning anymore. He's where he belongs."

Senior FBI and CIA officials cringed, according to Mr. Suskind. Mr. Zubaydah, meanwhile, was increasingly referred to in news reports as "chief of operations" for al-Qaeda, "a top al-Qaeda lieutenant", "number three" to Osama bin Laden and even his potential heir.
(snip)

"According to sources, (Mr. Zubaydah) was water-hooded, a technique in which a captive's face is covered with a towel as water is poured atop, creating the sensation of drowning," says the book. "He was beaten. He was repeatedly threatened, and made certain of his impending death. His medication was withheld. He was bombarded with deafening, continuing noise and harsh lights."

Under his duress, Mr. Suskind writes, Mr. Zubaydah told his captors that U.S. shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, public water systems, nuclear plants, apartment buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty were being targeted by al-Qaeda. He also revealed the name of Jose Padilla. Days later, Mr. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Chicago on suspicion he planned to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S.
(snip)

Thank goodness we can get stories like this from other sources, at least! It's great this story was written.

[daleo]

3. Amazing stuff

It reads like an article from The Onion, but unfortunately it is not parody.

[daleo]

2. The London arrests were similar

According to an article last week, the informant who triggered those arrests had an IQ of 69.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Amazing! I missed that information then. Thanks for mentioning it. n/t

[daleo]

6. It was in the Daily Mirror

Ex-waiter Mohammed Abu Bakr Mansha, 22, was a childhood pal of the two brothers arrested in the dawn swoop by police two weeks ago.
...
Soon afterwards, friends of brothers Abul Kahar, 23, and Abul Koyair, 20, visited him at top-security Belmarsh, South-East London.

And, the Sunday Mirror has learned, that meeting sparked a surveillance operation on the men by the security services. According to a friend of the brothers, they laughed at constantly being followed. Our source said: "It was so obvious we treated it as a joke."
...
Mansha - serving six years for possessing an old address of a British Army war hero, which police suspected was part of a terror plot - is appealing against his sentence. His trial revealed him to be educationally subnormal with an IQ of 69 - compared to the average of 100. In the US that would make his court evidence unreliable.

------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know how well this link will work - it's pretty long

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17249190&method=full&siteid=62484&headline=exclusive--was-m15-trigger-for-bungled-terror-swoop---a-prisoner-with-i-q--of-69-name_page.html

[tanyev]

7. Meanwhile, somebody somewhere is really planning a viable terror

attack and the Bush administration is completely oblivious.

[saigon68]

5. Ass Clowns at Work

[IndianaGreen]

8. They made a big production of his arrest in Pakistan

in fact, the video of his capture is shown from time to time on cable news shows.

U.S. intelligence located Abu Zubaydah in 2002 by tracing his phone calls. He was captured March 28, 2002, in a two story apartment in Faisalabad, Pakistan. He was shot three times in a firefight, including a wound to the groin and a wound to the thigh, but survived. While in U.S. custody, he has given a great deal of information about the 9/11 attack plot, detail that led to the indictments of over one hundred people, including Mohamed Harkat. Critics however have claimed that several of the interrogations may have bordered on torture to pressure Abu Zubaydah into fingering other suspects.

Abu Zubayda is held within the CIA prison system, where many have claimed that he is subjected to torture. His statements under interrogation have provided a very large amount of the information used around the world as 'definitive', and he is the sole person to make many of the claims.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Zubaydah

[struggle4progress]

9. Story's probably drowned out by Ooga-booga & call for tougher laws

Lax security makes Canada a terror target: expert
Updated Thu. Jun. 22 2006 11:31 PM ET
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060622/canada_terrorism_060622/20060622?hub=TopStories

British expert predicts Canada ripe for terror attack
Melissa Leong, CanWest News Service; National Post
Published: Thursday, June 22, 2006
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=ab3fb4e5-ec30-4fb4-b8c5-2c1b24204509&k=15157

Foreign spies target Canada's natural resource sector, CSIS says
18:04 on June 22, 2006, EST
http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=23&id=62259

Proposal to broaden terrorism laws
By Arthur Weinreb, Associate Editor,
Thursday, June 22, 2006
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/weinreb062206.htm

[NorthernSun]

10. The North American Patriot Act

It's interesting how these cold-warriors seem to love the methods of the old USSR.

[daleo]

11. I find that interesting too

There must be some principle at work - in the process of defeating your enemy you become your enemy, or something like that.

If I recall correctly Norman Mailer made that point in The Naked and the Dead regarding the defeat of fascism/militarism by the west in WWII.

[Posteritatis]

12. "relatively minor and certifiably insane"

That'll hurt buddy at his next interview. :D