Allegedly an al-Qaeda agent, Hassan Ghul (Arabic: حسان غول) has also been identified as a member of Ansar al-Islam.[1] His nationality has been reported as Yemeni,[2][3] Pakistani[3][4] or Egyptian.[5][6]
Captured by Kurdish Military and turned over to American forces in 2004, Ghul was stated to have been as lowly as a "courier" who ran packages and delivered letters for al-Qaeda members. Ghul held such high ranks as "top lieutenant", "second-in-command" or "trusted emissary" of everyone from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to Osama bin Laden to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
He was held at a CIA black site for two years, before being turned over to a Pakistani prison system.[7] It was during this time of detainment by the CIA that Ghul surrendered the nickname al-Kuwaiti as a key piece of intelligence. The name al-Kuwaiti was questionable but the information supplied by Ghul gave intelligence operatives some interesting insight and raised speculation as to why no captured enemy combatant ever revealed the real name of Osama bin Laden's courier. The questions surrounding al-Kuwaiti are still unanswered, however, intelligence agents intercepted a satellite phone call [8] made by Osama bin Laden's bodyguard in 2010 which led to the surveillance of a courier that in turn led intelligence operatives to Osama bin Laden's compound.[9]
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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.[10]
He was captured on January 23, 2004[11] by Kurdish police forces, possibly associated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,[12] 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 schematics[13] or that he was caught leaving Iraq bringing al-Zarqawi's progress report on successful suicide bombings into Iran.[5]
Ghul was carrying a USB 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.[14][15] 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.[16] A notebook in his satchel also revealed a number of names and phone numbers of suspected associates.[17]
Kurdish forces immediately turned Ghul over to the American military, and he was interrogated while still in the country.[14][18] Although he may have been cooperative with the military interrogation, his questioning revealed little.[19]
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.[20] There have been similarly unreferenced suggestions in the media that Ghul played a role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa.[18][20]
Three days after his capture, Ghul was mentioned in a speech by President George W. Bush:
Just yesterday -- not yesterday -- just last week, we made further progress in making America more secure when a fellow named Hassan Ghul was captured in Iraq. Hassan Ghul was a -- reported directly to Khalid Shaik Muhammad, who was the mastermind of the September the 11th attacks. He was a killer. He was moving money and messages around South Asia and the Middle East to other al Qaeda leaders. He was a part of this network of haters that we're dismantling.
Our intelligence officers did a good job. He was captured in Iraq where he was helping al Qaeda to put pressure on our troops. There is one less enemy we have to worry about with the capture of Hassan Ghul.
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"[21] 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"[22] Columnist William Safire claimed it was a "smoking gun" that proved a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda.[23]
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.[24]
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.[24] They also published a piece speculating that the 2004 Irbil bombings may have been retribution for the Kurdish role in capturing Ghul.[25]
In 2006, two and a half years after his capture, Ghul was transferred to a secret Pakistani prison system, where he was held alongside British suspect Rangzieb Ahmed.[7] The two spoke to each other, and Ghul told him that he was held at a secret CIA location for 2 1/2 years and had also passed through Morocco.[26] He was again transferred to an unknown location in January 2007.[7]
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