 07-13-2004, 09:30 PM | #1 |
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5430560 Quote: Bin Laden associate turns self in to Saudis
Al-Harby seen on video
in which al-Qaida leader praised 9/11 attack
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A confidant of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden surrendered to Saudi diplomats in Iran and was flown to the kingdom Tuesday, a potentially valuable asset in the war on terrorism because of his closeness to bin Laden.
The man, Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harby, also known as Abu Suleiman al-Makky, was shown on Saudi TV being pushed in a wheelchair through the Riyadh airport. He is the most important figure to surface under a Saudi amnesty promising to spare the lives of militants who turn themselves in.
“Thank God, thank God. ... I called the embassy, and we were very well-received,” al-Harby told Saudi TV in the airport terminal. “I have come obeying God and obeying the [kingdom’s] rulers.”
Television showed al-Harby, bearded and using a wheelchair, being carried off a plane on arrival in the kingdom with his family. It did not say when he surrendered or returned to Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi security source said al-Harby, a Sunni Muslim cleric, was the man who was seen talking with bin Laden in a videotape in which the two praised the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities. The videotape was first released by the CIA in December 2001.
“He is big in the sense that he is one of the Saudis that were close to bin Laden,” the security source said, adding that al-Harby had not been involved in recent attacks in Saudi Arabia claimed by al-Qaida.
A senior U.S. official who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity described al-Harby as “part of the bin Laden posse, a confidant and sounding board, but not an operational player.” He is not likely to have current information about al-Qaida plans, the source added.
Al-Zawahiri’s brother-in-law?
In the so-called “Dinner Party Tape,” bin Laden describes planning for the Sept. 11 attacks, noting among other things that the final order was given the “Thursday before,” meaning Sept. 6. The tape, the first in which bin Laden takes responsibility for the attacks, was made the previous month in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Al-Harby, who is said to be a brother-in-law of Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s second in command, is disabled, apparently from injuries he suffered when Muslims resisted the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He also fought with Muslims in Bosnia against the Serbs.
The Saudi Interior Ministry said al-Harby contacted the Saudi Embassy in Tehran from the Iranian-Afghan border, where he was stranded. It was not disclosed what al-Harby was wanted for, and his name does not appear on the list of the kingdom’s 26 most-wanted militants.
He was accompanied by a woman dressed in black and a teenage boy, whom a Saudi security official identified as his wife and son.
Iran said al-Harby was repatriated at his own request. “Mr. Khaled al-Harby ... following Saudi Arabia’s announcement of an amnesty, entered our country illegally from a neighboring country and asked to be handed over to his own country,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
| I hope he remembered his coupon:  |
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