A second American Taliban may be at Guantanamo
( 2002-04-04 09:55 ) (7 )

A Louisiana-born man was captured with the Taliban forces in Afghanistan at the end of last year, and US officials are now trying to decide what to do with him.

Yaser Esam Hamdi, who has been held for several months at the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was born to Saudi parents in Louisiana, sources said. Therefore, Hamdi, 22, has dual US and Saudi citizenship unless he has renounced his US citizenship.

US officials say Hamdi was swept up near Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, in the fighting last fall and has been claiming US citizenship for months, but there was no proof until this week when authorities found a birth certificate stating Hamdi was born in Baton Rouge, La., on Nov. 17, 1979.

Hamdi is apparently the second US citizen found among the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters captured during the US-led campaign in Afghanistan. Sources said that Hamdi will likely be tried in civilian court, just like John Walker Lindh, the other American captured with enemy fighters.

Lindh, 21, faces 10 charges of conspiring to murder US nationals, providing support and services to foreign terrorist organizations including al Qaeda and using firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence. Three of the charges carry a maximum life sentence; the other seven have prison terms of up to 90 years.

Rumsfeld Denies Torture Talk

In Washington on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld defended the way the US handling the case of a prisoner said to be a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle. He said US intelligence officials will try to get everything out of captured top al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah that he knows, but denied reports that the man would be tortured to make him talk.

"We are responsible for him," Rumsfeld said. "He is receiving medical care. And we intend to get every single thing out of him to try to prevent terrorist acts in the future.

"He will be properly interrogated by proper people who know how to do those things ... we will be responsible for that interrogation. Not we the Department of Defense, we the United States of America," he said.

Officials said that Zubaydah, who was captured lsat Thursday in a roundup of some 60 suspected al Qaeda members in Pakistan, is still being held in that country and that he is not expected to be transferred to the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, right away.

They also said they did not want Zubaydah to have contact with other prisoners and hope to keep him in "extreme isolation" as part of a psychological warfare effort to get him to reveal information.

Rumsfeld vehemently denied what intelligence said - that officials are considering sending Zubaydah to Egypt or Jordan for interrogation, where law enforcement officers can employ more aggressive interrogation techniques that US law enforcement agencies are forbidden to use.

"That is what I saw on television. And that is wrong and irresponsible. I saw a report that referred to a word [torture] I don't even want to use," Rumsfeld said.

"That's wrong, and it's not correct, and the implication of it is enormously unhelpful," he went on. "And it struck me that coming down here and trying to set the record straight with the faint hope that it might not be belabored excessively would be appropriate. And believe me, reports to that effect are wrong, inaccurate, not happening and will not happen."

While the capture of Zubaydah, described by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer as "a key terrorist recruiter and operational planner and member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle," may be a coup for the US-led anti-terror campaign, it does not mean that the threat presented by al Qaeda has appreciably diminished.

"We believe the threat of terrorism is high still," FBI Director Robert Mueller said. "Their ability to carry out terrorist acts has been hampered around the world ... nonetheless there is ability there ... so we still have to be alert."

‘A Tactical Pause'

Meanwhile, a British military intelligence officer said today that the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters still on the loose in Afghanistan may change their tactics, but they are not likely to give up their fight against the coalition troops in that country.

"The threat to Westerners here is very real," Maj. Tony De Reya, an intelligence officer with the Royal Marines, said after the arrival of roughly 100 British commandos at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul.

He described the Taliban and al Qaeda as being in a "tactical pause," but said that there is no doubt they are planning more attacks in a "variety of terrorist styles."

He said the threats range from limited conventional attacks with small arms and more sophisticated weapons or attacks on individual targets with mines, grenades and improvised bombs. Even such small-scale operations as ambushes, assassinations and kidnappings are possible, he said.

De Reya confirmed the string of reports over the last two weeks that al Qaeda and Taliban loyalists are regrouping in eastern Afghanistan. British military officials told Reuters that the troops would not have been sent to Afghanistan if there was not a serious threat in the country.

"We've got an idea on groupings, we've got an idea on sizes," he said. "There are large groupings of al Qaeda-Taliban in certain areas of operation."

As many as 700 British commandos are expected to be in Afghanistan by mid-April. They will train for about two weeks as they adjust to the high altitude and the weather conditions before they see any combat, officials said.

Highest-Ranking Capture

Zubaydah, a 30-year-old Palestinian who was born in Saudi Arabia, is the highest-ranking member of al Qaeda captured since the US-led coalition began its military campaign in Afghanistan on Oct. 7. He was among about 60 people captured during the raids, and is recovering from gunshot wounds to his leg and groin believed to have been sustained when he tried to escape and was shot by Pakistani authorities.

He allegedly took over the day-to-day operation of al Qaeda after it became too dangerous for bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahri, to be openly involved with the terror network. Officials also believe Zubaydah was also allegedly organizing a new round of attacks at the time of his capture.

"He probably has more secrets than any other person except Osama," military analyst Anthony Cordesman said. "If we can get him to talk, we may find out where the next operations are coming from."

The bin Laden lieutenant is facing a death sentence in Jordan and is allegedly al Qaeda's chief operations officer, with links to the Sept. 11 attacks, the bombing of the USS Cole and the plot to attack Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebration.

"Abu Zubaydah has the mailing addresses and the telephone numbers of the sleeping cells throughout the world," said Middle East expert Fawaz Gerges.

US officials also uncovered intelligence that showed Zubaydah was trying to reconstruct al Qaeda's network and planning more attacks in the United States and against American facilities overseas, sources said.

There are three other senior al Qaeda leaders who are known to be in custody: Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi, also known as "Riyadh the facilitator," Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi and Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi. Al-Sharqawi is believed to have coordinated logistics for al Qaeda attacks, and al-Libi and al-Iraqi were camp commanders, officials say.

Mohammed Atef, another top bin Laden deputy and military commander, was killed by a US airstrike on his home in November.

In other developments:

The US government should "seriously" consider the claims of Afghans who lost family members to American bombs, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said Wednesday during a visit to the war-torn country. There has been no definitive count of how many innocent civilians lost their lives to bombs that missed their intended targets, with estimates ranging from several hundred to the thousands. Some Afghan officials and non-governmental organizations have said the US should consider compensation.

In what interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai called one of the most important events since the collapse of the Taliban, 600 soldiers in Afghanistan's new army have graduated from their training with the international peacekeeping force. The men, representing every region and ethnic group in the country, were given a six-week crash course in crowd control, patrolling and emergency first aid. Karzai said that eventually the country should have an army of 100,000 people, as well as a border patrol and a police force. In Geneva, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah asked a group of donor nations to provide US$422 million to help restore security.

The former king of Afghanistan will be back in the country "very soon" Karzai said, but refused to confirm a statement by the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan that Zahir Shah would return on April 16. "Very soon is the date," Karzai said. Shah has lived in Rome since he was deposed in a bloodless coup by a cousin in 1973. He has postponed his return several times since Karzai, a strong supporter, took power last December. He was expected to return late last month, but at the last minute postponed his arrival again, saying he was concerned about security.