AQ refreshed by one man?

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to Circling the Lion's Den for picking up this German news story:

Interesting article in Spiegel Online that says former al-Qaeda military chief Saif al-Adel, who has spent the last nine years under house arrest in Iran, is now in Waziristan. The article claims that al-Adel, who is Egyptian, was freed by the Iranians in exchange for unnamed Iranian prisoners kidnapped by al-Qaeda.

Link:http://circlingthelionsden.blogspot....-chief-in.html and the German report:http://www.spiegel.de/international/...725181,00.html

The later is written by a journalist who I respect, although the basis of the report is a well-known defector from LIFG (Libyan AQ aligned group) and his still current networking.

This sentence is enough:

With his help, the weakened terror network could reorganize itself.

I do recall reading years ago that Iran had detained a number of AQ suspects, al-Adel was allegedly released earlier in 2010 - in a swop for Iranian prisoners. One wonders how he feels about the Iranian regime.

Makes the current increase in drone attacks more interesting.

[bourbon]

I do recall reading years ago that Iran had detained a number of AQ suspects, al-Adel was allegedly released earlier in 2010 - in a swop for Iranian prisoners.

The Iranian’s bagged at least 200 Arab AQ, including Saif al-Adel and Saad bin Laden. Then in 2003 they reportedly wanted to trade them to us for some MEK guys we had in Iraq. The neoconservatives rejected the offer. Unbelievable....treasonous, if you ask me.

[bourbon]

This guy has some history: Egyptian Special Forces officer, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Afghanistan, Ali Mohamed, training with Hezbollah, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan again....

Background material:
CTC Harmony Profile (PDF)
History Commons

[ODB]

If we allowed them to jump from country to country for training and combat? Might make a helluva experienced, well rounded force. Unfortunately, would be difficult to control.

Not suprising on the Iranian front, sounds about right. They are quite cunning and not afraid to step on some toes to adavance their agenda. Iran is pulling some pretty good tricks out of the bag.