Al Qaeda mystery man still in US custody

LA Times/Houston Chronicle:

When Mohamedou Ould Slahi's name appeared on the list released last week of Guantanamo Bay detainees, the Pentagon was officially confirming that one of al-Qaida's most mysterious figures had been in custody since late 2001.

Recently declassified documents show that Slahi has been talking to interrogators the whole time. But the documents also show that the puzzle of a man U.S. terrorism experts believe was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks and the millennium plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport only grows deeper.

Slahi has maintained his innocence and said he's such a valuable intelligence asset that his captors should set him free to live in the United States — with government security.

"Slahi was always a mystery man within the al-Qaida hierarchy," said Roger W. Cressey, a senior White House counterterrorism official from 1999 to 2001 who investigated al-Qaida plots.

"We could never prove he was the one who activated the Montreal (millennium) cell, but he had enough ties and relationship and dealings with known al-Qaida operatives that would lead one to question his claims of innocence."

U.S. officials say they think Slahi was a major conduit between al-Qaida cells in Europe and Canada and its home base in Afghanistan.

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There is more. Even though not much is known about this guy, he has revealed something of the fantasy world that al Qaeda operatives live in, when he suggest he be allowed to live free in the US. That is about as realistic as Moussaoui's belief that George Bush will free him as a good will gesture to Muslims. Their fantasy ideology of establishing a new calphate leads to other fantasies and unrealistic assumptions about how the real world works.