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editBoth American intelligence officials, and the mainstream press, have written about al Qaeda having maintained one or more safe houses in Lahore, Pakistan.[1][2][3][4][5] Other groups, alleged to have a commitment to terrorism, or ties to al Qaida, are reported to have maintained safe houses in Lahore.[6]
American intelligence officials asserted that American citizen Jose Padilla and UK resident Binyam Mohammed were trained how to construct and employ radiological "dirty bombs" and an al Qaeda safe house in Lahore.[1] The two men were alleged to have agreed to travel to the USA to set of one or more dirty bombs.
The Los Angeles Times reported on June 16, 2002, that the Lahore safe house where Padilla was trained to employ dirty bombs was raided during the evening of March 28, 2002, the same night as Abu Zubaydah was captured at a safe house in Faisalabad.[4]
According to Thomas Joscelyn, writing in The Weekly Standard, Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi, one of the first ten Guantanamo captives to face charges before a military commission, translated the instructions for preparing a dirty bomb while staying at a Lahore safe house.[7]
Michael Scheuer, the former CIA analyst who had been responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden, wrote that on March 13, 2003:[8]: "Pakistan authorities arrest Moroccan national Yasser al-Jazeri, who, according to U.S. officials, was a 'trusted subordinate of Osama bin Laden.' He was responsible for facilitating communications among al Qaeda leaders and was captured in a 'posh' neighborhood in Lahore."
References
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Pepe Escobar (2002-07-13). "PART 4: Tracking al-Qaeda in Europe". Asia Times. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
Suspected "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla, alias Abdullah al-Muhajir, an American citizen, took a bomb-making course in an al-Qaeda safe house in Lahore and met key al-Qaeda operatives in Karachi last March.
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Joanne Mariner (2008-08-25). "A UK Window into CIA Abuses". Findlaw. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
The military commission charges that have been sworn against Mohamed allege that he attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, and later received training in building remote-controlled explosive detention devices in Pakistan. While living at an Al Qaeda safe house in Lahore, Pakistan, the charges say, Mohamed allegedly agreed to be sent to the United States to conduct terror operations.
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Donna Leinwand, Jack Kelley (2002-06-). "U.S. citizen arrested in 'dirty bomb' plot". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
A Defense Department official said Abu Zubaydah, a top al-Qaeda official in U.S. custody, led U.S. authorities to Al Muhajir — possibly to try to sow fear in the USA by showing that al-Qaeda had recruited an American. Al Muhajir met Zubaydah in Afghanistan last year and then traveled to Pakistan, where he studied how to assemble a radioactive bomb at an al-Qaeda safe house in Lahore, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said. Weeks later, Al Muhajir met with senior al-Qaeda leaders in Karachi.
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Bob Drogin, Josh Meyer, Eric Lichtblau (2002-06-16). "Al Qaeda Gathering Strength in Pakistan". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
U.S. officials say that Padilla, who used the Muslim name Abdullah al Muhajir, studied bomb-making early this year at an Al Qaeda safe house in Lahore, met with senior Al Qaeda officials in March at another safe house in Karachi and traveled elsewhere in the country. Pakistani police arrested Padilla's alleged accomplice in Rawalpindi. Although Padilla's role was not known at the time, U.S. and Pakistani officials raided the Lahore safe house where he had stayed as well as suspected Al Qaeda compounds in several other cities March 28. Abu Zubeida, Al Qaeda's operations chief, and several of his senior aides were captured after a shootout that night at a house in Faisalabad.
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Arnaud de Borchgrave (2002-06-17). "Analysis: Al Qaida's privileged sanctuary". United Press International. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
The extent of bin Laden's network in Pakistan can be gauged from the movements of U.S.-born Jose Padilla, who converted to Islam and adopted the name Abdullah al Muhajir. The suspected "dirty" bomber took a bomb-making course at an al Qaida safe house in Lahore last January, then met with senior al Qaida agents in March in Karachi and moved around Pakistan with impunity.
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Nick Fielding (2005-07-24). "Terror links of the Tottenham Ayatollah: Nick Fielding reveals the influence of a preacher once seen as a mere loudmouth". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
More worrying is the number of ALM members associated with violence abroad. One journalist who visited an ALM safe house in Lahore before the authorities closed it said that recruits from Britain referred to Indians as "subhumans" and were violently opposed to homosexuals and Jews.
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Thomas Joscelyn (2009-03-18). "Gitmo's General: The U.S. can't risk releasing detainee Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
As Gordon Cucullu explains in his book Inside Gitmo: The True Story Behind the Myths of Guantánamo Bay, al Sharbi translated the dirty bomb instructions for Mohamed and Padilla at an al Qaeda safe house in Lahore, Pakistan.
mirror - ^ Michael Scheuer (2004). Imperial hubris: why the West is losing the war on terror. Brassey's. p. 89. ISBN 9781574888492. Retrieved 2010-10-20.