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 Ramzi
Yousef, Oklahoma City, and Al Qaeda
Linked in Documents?
[by Laura Mansfield] 4/4/06
Does an obscure
document, hidden among the hundreds of documents released recently
from Iraq and Afghanistan, provide evidence linking Al Qaeda
operative Ramzi Yousef to the Oklahoma City attack on the MurrahBuilding?
The Arabic-language
handwritten document, numbered AFGP-2002-801138, and available
at http://www.ctc.usma.edu/aq/AFGP-2002-801138-Orig.pdf ,
contains a series of pages that were written in what appears
to be some sort of daily planner.
The daily
planner appears to be a standard daily calendar/agenda book,
containing a daily calendar for the year 2000. The dates within
the calendar are in English, and have the Islamic dates for
each day as well.
Contributor
Laura
Mansfield
Laura Mansfield is a writer and commentator on issues regarding the Middle
East, Islam, and Radical Islamic Terrorism.
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The planner
appears to be one sold commercially in Pakistan. The early
pages of the planner are printed in English, and contain information
that would be helpful to non-Urdu speaking persons in Pakistan,
including emergency telephone numbers in Karachi, air travel
times from Pakistan, and various other reference guides. It's
interesting to note that the handwriting in the document is
all in Arabic, despite the planner's Pakistani provenance.
A note at
the beginning of the document states that the document was
obtained from a "Boot Camp - Class of 2000" in Afghanistan.
The term "Boot Camp" most likely refers to one of the Al Qaeda
training camps operating in Afghanistan in that time period.
Dated comments within the document confirm that the document
was most likely written in the year 2000. Other notes indicate
that the document is very likely a compilation of questions
being prepared for use by Osama Bin Laden in the filming of
a new videotape.
The document
confirms the links between Al Qaeda and Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman,
convicted in the US for his role in terrorism planning in New
York City, and Ramzi Yousef, convicted Al Qaeda operative,
calling them "brothers" (see page 122).
In respect
to our Brothers who are imprisoned in the United States
and other infidel countries, are there attempts or hope
to release them such as sheikh 'Omar 'Abd Al-Rahman, Ramzi
Yousef and others?
And in a
series of questions, apparently forming a set from which Bin
Laden can select questions to discuss in a video tape, goes
on to implicate Yousef (and indirectly implicate Al Qaeda)
in the April 1995 attack on Oklahoma City (see page 192).
We hear
about the Oklahoma explosion and that it is the largest
explosion in America. Is it the one planned by Ramzi Yousef
or not? (Note: This question was circled and marked with
two (X) marks.
The document
goes on to pose other questions to Bin Laden with regards to "the
Americans".
One particularly
disturbing question discusses rumors of nuclear weapons and
Iraq, implying that Iraq was already in possession of nuclear
missiles in the summer of 2000. It's interesting to note the
repeated references to Iraq even though the document was found
in Afghanistan, but isn't surprising given the fact that many
of the "mujahideen" were actually men from the Arab countries,
including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. (See
page 178):
An Iraqi
soldier said," America placed missiles with nuclear heads
capability in Kuwait aimed on Russia and that what he saw
with his own eyes. When Saddam occupied Kuwait he took
these missiles along with its transporters and is still
in Iraq. The United States is still looking for these missiles
but could not find them because Saddam succeeded in hiding
it. Is this claim true, and what do you think of it?
Many of the
questions are quite ominous, and show that rumors of some sort
of large scale attack against the United States was being planned
in the summer of 2000.
What
is the news about the battalions you are preparing? Do
we have a role to play in it or not? We asked our instructors
but no one gave an answer in this matter?
Why
is there a delay in executing the martyrdom operations
against the Americans?
We heard
a lot about the (BATTALION) that will be dispatched from
Afghanistan, are there news about it, and its destination?
Dear
Sheikh, we pledged the legend to you to work and join Jihad
movement, we will not let down, we are the soldiers of
God. Please explain to us the importance of martyrdom operations
against the American infidels?
One question
is particularly disturbing:
What
are the most famous and important American corporations
that handle American interests and where is it located?
Other questions
are more indirect - implying that the US of international "troublemaking".
Is it
in the American interest to stir trouble in Iran? I read
in a study that the United States created a Shiite state
in case an eastern and a western Sunnis states clash or
not with this Shiite state. The study concluded that Khumeini
was delivered to Tahran during the revolution by an American
combat aircraft?
As more of
these documents are released and examined, it is very likely
that we will find not only a wide range of "smoking gun" evidence
regarding earlier terror attacks, but we will likely gain insight
into the minds of Al Qaeda. Hopefully we will be able to translate
this insight into prevention of future terror attacks.
Note: Special
thanks to Freeper Peach for pointing out this document to me. ONE
copyright
2006 Laura Mansfield
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