Hassan Ghul

Allegedly an al-Qaeda agent, Hassan Ghul ( _ar. حسان غول) has also been identified as a member of Ansar al-Islamcite web
url=http://www.tkb.org/KeyLeader.jsp?memID=6287
title=Leader's profile: Hassan Ghul
publisher=Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism
accessdateJune 10
accessyear=2007] . His nationality has been reported as Yemeni,cite news
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1136499,00.html
title=Nine killed in bomb attack on Iraq police
author=Jason Burke
date= February 1, 2004
publisher=The Observer
accessdate=2007-06-10] cite news
url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-03-16-iraq-anniversary_x.htm
date=March 16 2004
title=Success on war goals open to interpretation
author=Barbara Slavin
publisher=USA Today
accessdate=2007-06-10] Pakistanicite news
url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0205/p06s02-woiq.html
date=February 5, 2004
publisher=Christian Science Monitor
title='Kurdish Sept. 11' boosts resolve
author=Dan Murphy
accessdate=2007-06-10] or Egyptian.cite news
title=AIM Report: Breaking America's Resolve
date=May 19, 2004
publisher=Accuracy in Media
url=http://www.aim.org/aim_report/A1560_0_4_0_C/
accessdateJune 10
accessyear=2007] cite web
url=http://www.juancole.com/2004/01/who-is-hasan-ghul-kurdish-peshmergas.html
date= January 30, 2004
publisher=Informed Comment
title=Who is Hasan Ghul?
accessdateJune 10
accessyear=2007]

Ghul has been stated to have been as lowly as a "courier" who ran packages and delivered letters for al-Qaeda memberscite news
title=Truck bomb kills at least 50 in Iraq
url=http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/02/10/sprj.nirq.main/index.html
date=February 10 2004
publisher=USA Today
accessdate=2007-06-10] , to holding such high ranks as "top lieutenant", "second-in-command" or "trusted emissary" of everyone from Osama bin Ladencite news
title=Terror Suspect's Ambitions Worry U.S. Officials: Zarqawi May Be Looking Beyond Iraq
author=Walter Pincus
publisher=Washington Post
date= March 3, 2004
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24354-2004Mar2
accessdate=2007-06-10] to Khalid Sheikh Mohammedcite web
publisher=Coalition Provisional Authority
title=Coalition Provisional Authority briefing with Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez
url=http://www.cpa-iraq.org/transcripts/20040129_Jan29_Sanchez.html
author=Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez
date= January 29, 2004
accessdateJune 10
accessyear=2007] to Abu Musab al-Zarqawicite web
date=February 23, 2004
title=Rummy Points To Al Qaeda In Iraq Carnage
publisher=Global Security
author=James Gordon Meek
url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040223-iraq-alqaeda.htm
accessdateJune 10
accessyear=2007]

Ghul was first mentioned in the 9/11 Commission, where he was stated to have led three people, including Mushabib al-Hamlan, to a waypoint controlled by Abu Zubaydah. [http://911.gnu-designs.com/Notes_7.html 911 Commission: Notes to Chapter 7] , "911 Commission"]

He was captured on January 23 2004cite web
url=http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/30/usdom12109_txt.htm
title=List of “Ghost Prisoners” Possibly in CIA Custody
publisher=Human Rights Watch
accessdateJune 10
accessyear=2007] by Kurdish police forces, possibly associated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistancite web
url=http://www.defenddemocracy.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=226125
title=Backgrounder: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
date=May 20 2004
publisher=Defend Democracy
accessdateJune 10
accessyear=2007] , at a checkpoint near Kalar, at the Iranian border after police sent a fax to American CIA officials to confirm his photograph. There are contradicting claims that he was caught "entering" Iraq to bring al-Zarqawi money and bomb schematicscite news
url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4100629/
title=Al-Qaida captive in Iraq talking: U.S. intelligence: Ghul was likely bearing money, plans for bombings
author=Andrea Mitchell
publisher=NBC News
date=January 29, 2004
accessdate=2007-06-10] or that he was caught "leaving" Iraq bringing al-Zarqawi's progress report on successful suicide bombings into Iran.

Ghul was carrying a Flash drive and two CDs, one allegedly including a 17-page progress report believed to have been written by al-Zarqawi, claiming responsibility for suicide attacks in Iraq. US Intelligence officials have contradicted the accepted story, stating that the progress report was instead found in an abandoned safehouse in Baghdad.cite news
title=Emerging face of al-Qaeda's man in Iraq
date=February 11, 2004
url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/10/1076388370281.html
publisher=Sydney Morning Herald
accessdate=2007-06-11] cite news
title=U.S. Says Files Seek Qaeda Aid In Iraq Conflict
date=February 9, 2004
author=Dexter Filkins
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20A12F73D5E0C7A8CDDAB0894DC404482
publisher=New York Times
accessdate=2007-06-11] In addition, the US military provided the media with "photocopies of the original handwritten Arabic letter" which were then translated, muddying the claim that it had been a computer document.cite news
url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-06-15-raid-blueprint_x.htm
title=Iraqi leaders: Memo details al-Qaeda plans
date=June 15 2006
author=Cesar Soriano
publisher=USA Today
accessdate=2007-06-11] A notebook in his satchel also revealed a number of names and phone numbers of suspected associates.cite news
publisher=Time (magazine)
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040223-590685,00.html
title=Fields of Jihad
date= February 23, 2004
author=Brian Bennett, Vivienne Walt
accessdate=2007-06-11]

Kurdish forces immediately turned Ghul over to the American military, and he was interrogated while still in the country.cite news
title=U.S., Iraqis capture al Qaeda 'facilitator'
author=Bill Gertz
publisher=Washington Times
url=http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040123-115833-3850r.htm
date=January 24 2004
accessdate=2007-06-11] Although he may have been cooperative with the military interrogation, his questioning revealed little. [cite web
accessdate=June 12
accessyear=2007
url=http://www.gcsp.ch/E/meetings/Issues_Institutions/Mid-East_Med/Seminars/RAND/2004/Dodge.pdf
title=Iraq after Brahimi: sovereignty, democracy or chaos?
author=Toby Dodge
format=PDF]

tatements about his capture

Following his capture, FOX News reported that he had been an al-Qaeda member since the very beginning of the group, at least ten years earlier, and was widely known as "The Gatekeeper" "in terrorist circles", although no corroboration or other sources have supported these claims.cite news
url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,109338,00.html
title=Suspected Al Qaeda Operatives Nabbed in Iraq
publisher=Fox News
date= January 24, 2004
accessdate=2007-06-11] There have been similarly unreferenced suggestions in the media that Ghul played a role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa.

Three days after his capture, Ghul was mentioned in a speech by President George W. Bush:

Six days after his capture, General Ricardo Sanchez referred to Ghul stating "The capture of Ghul is pretty strong proof that al-Qaida is trying to gain a foothold [in Iraq] to continue their murderous campaigns"cite news
publisher=New York Times
date=January 29, 2004
url=http://nucnews.net/nucnews/2004nn/0401nn/040129nn.htm#325
title=U.S. Commander Says Qaeda Working in Iraq"'
accessdate=2007-06-11] CIA Director George Tenet mentioned Ghul in his testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as an al-Qaeda member who would "never again threaten the American people", after allegedly being "sent to case Iraq for an expanded al-QA`ida presence there" [https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/2004/dci_speech_02142004.html Testimony of Director of Central Intelligence George J. TenetBefore the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence] ] Columnist William Safire claimed it was a "smoking gun" that proved a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. [Safire, William, New York Times Editorial, " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E4DF123AF932A25751C0A9629C8B63 Found: A Smoking Gun] , February 11 2004]

Since then, Ghul has been a ghost detainee, his very existence unacknowledged. In June 2007, he was one of 39 people cited in a joint release by HRW, Cageprisoners, Center for Constitutional Rights and the New York University School of Law as prisoners who have not been accounted for, and are likely held in secret CIA Black sites.

Some, including Hani al-Sibai, have suggested that "Hassan Ghul" never really existed as the US administration and military have made it appear, and it was simply a random name on a passport.cite news
url=http://www.juancole.com/2004/01/who-is-hasan-ghul-kurdish-peshmergas.html
date=January 30 2004
title=Who is Hasan Ghul?
author=Juan Cole
publisher=Informed Comment]

The Al-Hayat newspaper also published a piece, trying to determine who the US was claiming to have captured - quoting an Egyptian expert on al-Zawahiri's grop, that the only known member named Hassan was dead, having been killed in Afghanistan. They also published a piece speculating that the 2004 Irbil bombings may have been retribution for the Kurdish role in capturing Ghul. [http://www.juancolebeta2.com/archives/2004/02/were_the_irbil_bombings_reveng.html]

References