OSAMA BIN LADEN'S U.S. ARMY RECRUIT
Last year, a former U.S. Army sergeant, Egyptian-born Ali Mohamed, admitted involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa that were blamed on Osama bin Laden. Mohamed told a New York court that he helped train members of bin Laden's terrorist organization, al Qaeda. A book originally published abroad, Dollars for Terror, by Swiss television journalist Richard Labeviere, suggests that he was an active agent of U.S. policy and trained bin Laden's agents in the New York area. Labeviere, who conducted a four-year investigation, has concluded that the international Islamic networks linked to bin Laden have been nurtured and encouraged by elements of the U.S. intelligence community, especially during the Clinton years.
LaBeviere's thesis strikes some as too outlandish to accept. But there is evidence that Mohamed was in fact an agent of the U.S. An article by Joseph Neff and John Sullivan in the Raleigh News & Observer on October 24th quotes Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent and director of counterterrorism at the State Department during the elder Bush's administration, as saying "He was an active source for the FBI, a double agent." Johnson said the FBI "did a lousy job of managing him. He was holding out on them. He had critical information years ago and didn't give it up."
But was Mohamed a CIA agent? Neff and Sullivan report, "Mohamed's relationship with the FBI and intelligence services remains wrapped in secrecy. His plea agreement is sealed, as are many of the court documents and much of the testimony. Mohamed was expected to testify - but did not - at the trial at which the four others were convicted. Mohamed and his lawyer have declined all interview requests."
The evidence suggests that the CIA may have been using Mohamed as an agent. Born in Egypt, he became a major in the Egyptian special forces and joined the fundamentalist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad. They report, "About this time, the Egyptian army sent Mohamed to Fort Bragg for special forces training - common for officers from countries the United States regards as friendly. Training beside U.S. Green Berets, he learned how to command elite soldiers on difficult missions such as special reconnaissance, unconventional warfare and counterinsurgency operations. After four months, he received a diploma with a green beret on it. Returning home, he served in the Egyptian army for three more years. In 1984, he left to work as a security expert for Egypt Air - and started to make contact with the CIA."
In 1986, he became a regular soldier in the U.S. Army and was assigned to the U.S. Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg. In 1988, while still on active duty, he took leave to go to Afghanistan and fight the Soviet Union. Around this time he made contact with Osama bin Laden.
He was honorably discharged in 1989 and joined the Army Reserves for another five years. The paper said that documents from court cases show that he traveled on weekends to New Jersey, where he trained other Islamic fundamentalists in surveillance, weapons and explosives.
"This individual approached the CIA to offer information," a U.S. official told The News & Observer, speaking on condition that no further identification be provided. "Some time later, we found out he was talking to known terrorists and had identified himself as a CIA agent. We felt him to be untrustworthy, and we put him on the State Department watch list."
During the time that Mohamed was either on active duty or in the Army Reserves, he was traveling abroad to meet with bin Laden and his operatives, or going to the New Jersey area to train bin Laden's agents there.
Neff and Sullivan say, "Near the end of his tour at Fort Bragg, Mohamed apparently got busier in his work with terrorist groups. Documents from court cases show that he traveled on weekends to New Jersey, where he trained other Islamic fundamentalists in surveillance, weapons and explosives. He continued this training after he was honorably discharged in 1989 with commendations in his file, including one for "patriotism, valor, fidelity and professional excellence."
Robert Anderson, a retired lieutenant colonel who was also at Fort Bragg, told the newspaper that he reported information about Mohamed's radical Islamic views and activities to his superiors but nothing was done. In 1988, Mohamed told Anderson and others that he was using his leave to join the war in Afghanistan against Soviet occupation. The News & Observer points out, "The United States was then secretly supporting the Afghan rebels and supplying them with weapons; but it was highly irregular, if not illegal, for an active-duty U.S. soldier to fight in a foreign war. If the Soviets captured him and learned his identity, it would embarrass the United States and further aggravate international tensions." Anderson said he submitted an intelligence report to his superiors two weeks before Mohamed departed, but it was ignored.
His anti-American activities go all the way back to 1993, when he trained Somali clansmen in the months leading up to a battle that took the lives of 18 U.S. soldiers. He was in the Army Reserves at that time. The FBI-CIA relationship with Mohamed cries out for investigation. What did they know and when did they know it? (30)