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| Terror Networks |
| Kuwait Interrogates al-Qaida Member |
| 2002-11-17 |
| Authorities were interrogating a Kuwaiti man on Sunday who confessed to being a senior al-Qaida member, having links to the bombing of the USS Cole two years ago, and plotting to blow up a Yemeni hotel frequented by Americans. A Kuwaiti Interior Ministry official identified the man as 21-year-old Mohsen al-Fadhli. The official refused to provide any details about al-Fadhli, other than to confirm newspaper reports surrounding his arrest two weeks ago. Picked him up two weeks ago, huh? Looks like a pattern, grab them, The newspaper said al-Fadhli told police the tanker attacker, al-Qaida's Shihab al-Yemeni, filled his boat with explosives and went out to sea looking for a target. It was "pure coincidence" that he chose the Limburg. Ran into the first thing he saw. Al-Fadhli also confessed he had ties to the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, which killed 17 American sailors, the report said without elaborating. A U.S. Embassy official in Kuwait refused to comment on al-Fadhli's arrest. Al-Fadhli? Never heard of him. Like the Failaka attackers and many other Kuwaitis, al-Fadhli reportedly had fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Al-Fadhli told investigators he was planning to bomb a hotel in the Yemeni capital of San'a frequented by Americans, Al-Watan reported. The plot involved filling a black GMC Suburban with explosives and ramming it into the unidentified hotel, he reportedly told interrogators. Ain't Islamic traditions wonderful? During interrogations, al-Fadhli identified the man who was to be the driver as Osama al-Yemeni, 25. Yemeni officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had no knowledge of a hotel bomb plot. They said Kuwaiti authorities have briefed them on the al-Fadhli investigation. For not making any progress in the war on terror, a whole lot of bad guys are in the slammer |
| Posted by:Steve |