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2006-04-06 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Saudi al Qaeda operative in Israeli jail
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A Saudi al Qaeda operative captured ten months ago is in an Israeli jail. Saudis want him handed over. Sources in Riyadh report the Saudis seek custody of Abdul Rahman Al-Atwi, 36. If the handover takes place, it will be the first time Israel has ever passed an Islamic terrorist to Saudi Arabia, a country which has no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. DEBKAfiles counter terror sources reveal how the episode developed - up to the point Wednesday, April 5, when Saudi foreign minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal told a news conference in Riyadh that he had asked the UN and Red Cross to obtain his release.
Saudi sources report the al Qaeda operative went on a hunger strike two weeks ago. He was placed in Ramleh prison hospital and is being force-fed. After apprehending him at the Allenby Bridge crossing last year, Israeli security services questioned Al-Atwi repeatedly to find out if he was a lone wolf or a member of a band of Saudi al Qaeda operatives, some of whom may have made it to the West Bank and Israel. Israel allowed American and Egyptian agents access to the prisoner for questioning.
The information emerging from interrogations was that Al-Atwi took the ferry from Saudi Arabia to Egypt and went straight to Cairo, where he rented an apartment in the upper middle class Al-Muhandiseen neighborhood. He appears to have been assigned to carry out an attack in Cairo. He was to await al Qaeda contact-men in the Egyptian capital for further instructions. For some reason, the plan was ditched and he was told to get out.
Egyptian security searchers reached the apartment shortly after his departure. There, they found his cell phone number. A phone call established that he had crossed the Suez Canal at Ismailiya and reached Sinai. The al Qaeda operative eluded an Egyptian security unit detailed to detain him. From Sharm el Sheikh he took a ferry boat to Jordan and disembarked at Aqaba. There, too, he slipped through the fingers of Jordanian security. It is believed that al Qaeda men on the spot secreted him north to the Allenby Bridge crossing, where he was finally captured by Israeli security before he carried out his presumed mission of a terrorist strike against Israel. 
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Posted by Steve 2006-04-06 08:28||
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Posted by trailing wife 2006-04-06 08:57||
2006-04-06 08:57||
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Posted by 3dc 2006-04-06 08:58||
2006-04-06 08:58||
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Posted by ed 2006-04-06 09:10||
2006-04-06 09:10||
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Posted by Captain America 2006-04-06 09:56||
2006-04-06 09:56||
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