Passport of 9/11 Plotter Found in Pakistan Al Qaeda Stronghold

"The cold fact is that there were no Iraqis or Afghans on the planes that were hijacked on Sept. 11, yet hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans are dead because of the U.S. invasion" ... Brian Becker, International ANSWER

Perhaps, and yet, from the New York Times:

A suspect in the 9/11 plot whose German passport was found in a mud hut in western Pakistan this week has not been in touch with his family for two years, his mother said in a telephone interview on Friday.

The suspect, Said Bahaji, a German citizen whose father is Moroccan, was the main logistics supporter of the 9/11 attackers, paying their rent and telephone bills, according to the authorities. The Pakistani military said it found his German passport five days ago in the village of Sherwangai in South Waziristan, during a search operation.

Mr. Bahaji was part of the Hamburg cell of Al Qaeda, a tightly knit group of young Arab men who met in Germany in the mid- to late 1990s under the leadership of Mohamed Atta, who eventually became the central planner of the 9/11 attacks.

A Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said that Mr. Bahaji was not in custody, and that the military did not know whether he was dead or alive. He said the passport stamp for Mr. Bahaji’s entry into Pakistan — Sept. 4, 2001 — was too old to shed any light on his current whereabouts.

The Pakistani military is in the second week of a major military operation against militants in their South Waziristan stronghold, and General Abbas said one aim was to flush out foreigners.

German intelligence officials have said they believe that Mr. Bahaji, who is still on the German authorities’ wanted list, has been in Pakistan’s tribal areas since Sept. 11, 2001. The discovery of the passport this week was the first concrete evidence.

Many top Qaeda members are believed to have taken refuge in the area. A Pakistani intelligence official interviewed on Friday said the discovery “proves that our militants have had close associations with Al Qaeda.”

Image Credit: Islamization Watch, "9/11 Suspect's Passport Found in a Mud Hut in Pakistan."