Osama News

`AQ Khan, Mehmood had met Osama’

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Sunday, 03 April , 2005, 12:24

NEW DELHI, APRIL 3: Pakistani scientists Abdul Qadeer Khan and Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood had held meetings with Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders, exchanged letters with militant organisations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and attended their gatherings and rallies, a media report has alleged.

“When the CIA searched Mehmood’s Umma Tameere-Nau (UTN) office in Kabul, they found large amount of data on construction and maintenance of nuclear weapons from the Kahuta Laboratories. It also found letters exchanged between UTN and Islamist extremist organisations including Lashkar-e-Toiba,” a report in The Friday Times said.

Mehmood, a close confidante of A Q Khan and a former director of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, was arrested on October 23, 2001. UTN was set up for “humanitarian work in Afghanistan”, the report said.

Quoting a journal, `Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’, the article said Khan, Mehmood and other scientists of his organisation “attended Lashkar-e-Toiba gatherings”.

Khan also appeared in the rallies of LeT headed by Hafeez Saeed. The militant outfit, which later changed its name to Jamaat al-Dawaa after being banned, has allegedly equipped al Qaeda with “dirty bombs”, the article said.

Mehmood, who was used to enrich uranium in Pakistan’s Khushab plant, and Khan were also known to have held meetings with top al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden, the newspaper said.

Terror Broker

Bin Laden needed a role in the Iraqi insurgency, and Zarqawi needed outside support. How a deadly deal was made.

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Zarqawi had “a terrifying face,” al-Iraqi recalled later. But the envoy said he knew at once that Zarqawi was exactly what Al Qaeda needed. “There is no –doubt that he is the best man to lead foreign and Iraqi insurgents in Iraq,” al-Iraqi told bin Laden when he got back to the caves, according to Zabihullah’s account. “He deserves our support.” The envoy has made three trips to Iraq since then. Just before the last, in September, a London-based Arabic-language daily quoted Zarqawi as repudiating bin Laden and Al Qaeda: “I have not sworn allegiance to the sheik and I am not working within the framework of his organization.” But after meeting again with al-Iraqi, the Jordanian proclaimed his loyalty to bin Laden and announced a new name for his terrorist group: “Al Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers.” “I’m a loyal soldier and ready to sacrifice myself to the sheik, who is our leader,” he told al-Iraqi.

Bin Laden replied by issuing an audiotape that praised Zarqawi’s exploits and called him the “prince of Al Qaeda in Iraq.” The tape instructed all Qaeda supporters to follow Zarqawi’s orders. Bin Laden had already made his wishes known to Zarqawi via al-Iraqi. “My greatest wish is for you to keep the resistance alive and growing, to increase the number of local insurgents and give the Iraqis more decision-making powers,” Zarqawi was told. “Make it as much of an Iraqi organization as possible.” Bin Laden also urged his prince to widen the war against America: “We have to expand our attacks on the enemy outside Iraq.”

The envoy is proud of his work. “I’m the person who broke the silence and solved the difficulties between Zarqawi and the Al Qaeda leadership,” he told Zabihullah. Donations to Al Qaeda’s coffers had dried up as bin Laden’s top men were killed or captured. Now private money is once again flooding in. Bin Laden himself is looking more confident and relaxed–maybe too relaxed, al-Iraqi said. When he visited the Qaeda leader in November, the envoy noticed fewer checkpoints than previously along the trail. “The sheik has a new mentality and is more healthy,” he told Zabi-hullah. On his last visit to Iraq, the envoy got an offer from Zarqawi: if life got too risky in the mountains along Pakistan’s border, bin Laden would be welcome to take refuge with him among the insurgents in Iraq. The envoy politely declined. At present, the Qaeda leader seems to be doing just fine where he is.