June 18, 2002

Here's a report (via Rantburg)

Here's a report (via Rantburg) claiming that Egyptian authorities "foiled an attempt by Al Qaida to forge cooperation between Islamic insurgents in Egypt and the United States." The al Qaeda agent? Jose Padilla.

Arab diplomatic sources said the attempt was conducted by Jose Padilla, a suspected Al Qaida agent arrested in Islamabad and now in U.S. custody. The sources said Egyptian officials have relayed to Washington information that Padilla tried to negotiate a cooperation accord with the Jihad organization.

Padilla, the sources said, was believed to have been an envoy of Jihad leader Ayman Zawahari, the chief deputy of Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden. Zawahari has been seeking to renew the Islamic insurgency against the Egyptian regime.

The London-based Al Hayat daily reported on Thursday that Padilla arrived in Cairo in March to meet Jihad representatives. The newspaper said Egyptian authorities were informed of the meeting and forced Padilla to leave the country.


None of these "sources" seem very reliable, and the report does get a rather important detail wrong (i.e., the city in which Padilla was arrested.) Moreover, I suppose the Egyptian government might have very good reasons for puffing up its counter-terrorist activities and connecting its enemies to America's current jihadi of note. But, for what it's worth, the Padilla presented here is no "small fry." As Fred Pruitt puts it:
That would seem to promote Padilla/al-Muhajir out of the "cog" category and into greater things — maybe even into the lower rungs of the Big Shot category. The fact that he screwed it up is beside the point...

Many of the early reports on Padilla mentioned, somewhat vaguely, that US intelligence were checking up on whether he had had contacts with Egyptian supporters of al Qaeda during his most recent visit to Cairo just before his final trip from Zurich to Chicago. I suppose what's most interesting here, once again, is the notion of "Islamic insurgents in the United States" with whom the Egyptian jihadis could forge an alliance. Anyway, the Ayman Zawahari-Padilla connection may be far-fetched, but the story is something to watch regardless.

Posted by Dr. Frank at June 18, 2002 07:44 AM | TrackBack