Abdul Hadi al Iraqi
Encyclopedia
The Newsweek article claimed that al Iraqi brokered a 2005 reconciliation between Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

 and Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. Newsweek asserted that bin Laden had failed to anticipate the strength of the Iraqi's anti-occupation resistance, and that he dispatched al Iraqi to take charge of establishing an al-Qaeda presence in the resistance. Newsweek asserted that Zarqawi had left a bad impression on his fellow veterans of the struggle to evict the Soviet invaders, and that bin Laden didn't trust him. However, al Iraqi recommended that al Qaeda would be better served by naming Zarqawi the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a popular name for the Iraqi division of the international Salafi jihadi militant organization al-Qaeda. It is recognized as a part of the greater Iraqi insurgency....

 than by trying to compete with him for volunteers and establish a parallel effort — explaining the reconciliation.

It was reported in January 2002 that someone with the same pseudonyms Abdul-Hadi al-Iraqi and Abu Abdullah had been captured in Afghanistan. That person was also described as a training camp commander. But despite these coincidences, the two suspects are now known to be distinct people.

Despite the report that Abdul-Hadi spoke several regional languages, several of the charges against Abdul Zahir
Abdul Zahir (Guantanamo detainee 753)
Abdul Zahir is a citizen of Afghanistan currently held in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.Charges were leveled against Zahir on January 20, 2006, by the Guantanamo military commissions....

 stem from him serving as a translator for Abdul-Hadi.

A captured letter dated 13 June 2002, and thought to be from Saif al-Adel
Saif al-Adel
Saif al-Adel is an Egyptian explosives expert and a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda.Adel is under indictment for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa...

, mentions an Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi who is quite senior in al-Qaeda and is at large (probably in Afghanistan) at the time of that writing. The US DoD
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 statement says that Abdul-Hadi "during 2002-04, was in charge of cross-border attacks in Afghanistan" and that prior to his capture he "was trying to return to his native country, Iraq, to manage al-Qai`da's affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against Western targets".

Capture

On 27 April 2007 it was reported that Abdul Hadi Al-Iraqi was in custody in Guantanamo Bay.
He was previously held by the CIA. The BBC reported that US sources told them Al-Iraqi was arrested "late last year".

On September 6, 2006 US President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 officially confirmed that the CIA maintained a secret network of offshore interrogation camps, when he announced that fourteen "high value detainees" had been transferred to Guantanamo.

Bush claimed that the transfer of these fourteen men had emptied the CIA's secret interrogation camps.
Critics pointed out that Bush had not announced the closure of the camps.
The date of Al-Iraqi's capture has not been made known.
It is not clear whether Al-Iraqi entered the CIA's network of secret interrogation camps before or after Bush's announcement.

Habeas corpus petition

Al Iraqi has had a writ of habeas corpus filed on his behalf.


External links

  • Myopic Pentagon keeps filling Guantánamo Andy Worthington
    Andy Worthington
    Andy Worthington is a British historian, journalist, and film director.He has published three books, and been published in numerous publications.In 2009 Worthington was the co-director of a documentary about the Guantanamo detainees....

    , September 20, 2007
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