The Black Banners_ 9_11 and the War Against Al-Qaeda - Ali H. Soufan [263]
Salim Hamdan (alias Saqr al-Jadawi): Al-Qaeda member who joined the organization as part of the Northern Group in 1996. He is the brother-in-law of Abu Jandal, and served as bin Laden’s driver and confidant. I interrogated him at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with George Crouch, and gained his confession and cooperation. Without our knowledge, or that of assistant U.S. attorney David Kelley, who was prosecuting the case, Hamdan was labeled an enemy combatant by the Bush administration and barred from cooperating with us anymore. I served as the main witness in his eventual trial. He was convicted, but because of the mishandling of the case by the Bush administration (the enemy combatant label), he was sentenced to only five and a half years in prison. Based on time served, he was released after only a few months in prison. Today he is free in Yemen.
Mustafa al-Hawsawi: Al-Qaeda financial operative who worked with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s nephew Ammar al-Baluchi in helping to coordinate the 9/11 hijackers’ travel and money. He is being held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
John Helgerson: Inspector general of the CIA who investigated the agency’s coercive interrogation program after receiving complaints from CIA professionals unhappy with what was being done, and whose report was very critical of the program.
Edmund Hull: Barbara Bodine’s replacement as ambassador to Yemen; served there from 2001 to 2004.
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Liby: An independent terrorist who worked closely with al-Qaeda, he was the internal emir of the Khaldan training camp—Abu Zubaydah’s partner. After his capture he was interrogated by George Crouch and another FBI colleague, and provided actionable intelligence. He was taken away from the FBI and rendered by the CIA to another country, where he was tortured and forced to admit to false connections between al-Qaeda and Saddam. His “confession” was used by Bush administration officials to build its case for war with Iraq. He was later transferred to Libya, where he was put in prison and died under suspicious circumstances.
Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi: One of al-Qaeda’s military commanders. A member of the shura council, after 9/11 he was appointed commander of all the Arabs in Afghanistan. In April 2007 it was reported that he had been arrested. The exact date of the arrest is unclear. He is being held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Kenneth Karas: We worked together when he was an assistant U.S. attorney from the Southern District of New York, gaining the conviction in the UK of members of the al-Qaeda–Egyptian Islamic Jihad cell in London. He is a federal judge.
[70 words redacted]
David Kelley: We worked closely together on many operations while he was an assistant U.S. attorney from the Southern District of New York, including during the USS Cole investigation and while building a case against Salim Hamdan. He later became the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York but still continued to personally oversee the USS Cole case.
Khallad (alias of Walid bin Attash; other aliases: “Silver,” Saleh Saeed Mohammed, Sa’eed bin Saleh bin Yousaf, Tawfiq Muhammad Salih bin Rashid, and Saleh bin Saeed bin Yousef): Senior al-Qaeda operative from a family of al-Qaeda members, including older brother Muhannad and younger brothers al-Bara, [1 word redacted], and Moaz. He joined al-Qaeda with the Northern Group, lost a leg in 1997—at Murad Beg, where his brother Muhannad was killed—and rose up through the organization to become a key bin Laden aide. He helped plan major attacks, including the bombing of the USS Cole and 9/11. The failure of the CIA to share information that the FBI requested during the Cole investigation prevented