"Omar al-Faruq and three other captives picked locks, cut through barbed wire and negotiated a minefield to break out of the high-security Bagram Air Base prison, 50km north of Kabul in Afghanistan, in July." This can explain Omar al-Faruq's "great escape.": Omar Al-Faruq Recruited by The CIA: "Former State Intelligence Coordinating Board (BAKIN) chief A.C. Manulang has said that Kuwaitd citizen Omar Al-Faruq, a terrorist suspect who was arrested in Bogor, West Java, on June 5, 2002 and handed over to the US three days later, is a CIA-recruited agent. Al Faruq was assigned to infiltrate Islamic radical groups and recruit local agents within these groups."
Escapee a terror chief
Mark Dunn 04nov05
A TOP-RANKING al-Qaida leader linked to the 2002 Bali bombings has escaped from a US military prison, it was revealed yesterday.
Omar al-Faruq and three other captives picked locks, cut through barbed wire and negotiated a minefield to break out of the high-security Bagram Air Base prison, 50km north of Kabul in Afghanistan, in July.
US authorities at the time acknowledged the escape but failed to name al-Faruq, identifying him by an alias he had previously used.
The Kuwaiti, once al-Qaida's most senior operative in South-East Asia, was captured by Indonesian authorities in June 2002 and turned over to the US for interrogation.
Al-Faruq, 34, told the CIA of planned attacks against Westerners in Indonesia.
His information allegedly led the CIA to warn its agents of potential bombings, including in Bali, weeks before the 2002 blasts.
The US refused to makeal-Faruq – or fellow terrorist Hambali – available to Indonesian authorities as a witness in the trial of alleged Jemaah Islamiah leader Abu Bakar Bashir, despite information given by them leading to Bashir's arrest.
Al-Faruq also told authorities he helped al-Qaida transfer $140,000 to JI for future attacks.
Indonesian officials were yesterday furious the US failed to tell them of al-Faruq's disappearance.
"We know nothing about the escape of Omar al-Faruq," the Indonesian Security Ministry's Maj-Gen Ansyaad Mbai said.
"He is a dangerous terrorist for us, his escape will increase the threat of terrorism in Indonesia."
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock's office would not say whether Australia had been previously told of al-Faruq's escape.
"We don't discuss information exchanges between our liaison partners," Mr Ruddock's spokeswoman said.
US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales said if foreign partners had not been told, it showed there was a serious communication problem and would be investigated.
Al-Faruq's escape was revealed under questioning by lawyers seeking access to him as part of a defence case in a Texas military trial of a US soldier charged with abusing prisoners at Bagram.
Days after their escape, the Taliban claimed the four men had made it to a guerilla camp and a video was later released to Arabic television station Al-Arabiya featuring the escapees.
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden sent al-Faruq to South-East Asia in 1998 to expand operations in the region and link with JI.
He was involved in up to 30 bombings against churches in Indonesia in 2000 and two assassination bids on president Megawati Sukarnoputri.
After his arrest, al-Faruq was interrogated at Bagram where human rights groups claimed he was subjected to stress and duress techniques and sleep deprivation.
Analysts believe al-Faruq, if not still hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan, may have joined terrorists in Iraq, given his parents were Iraqi.
They said the possibility he had moved back to South-East Asia was slim.
Link
Comments by BlackJade: This can explain Omar al-Faruq's "great escape." Omar Al-Faruq Recruited by The CIA:
"Former State Intelligence Coordinating Board (BAKIN) chief A.C. Manulang has said that Kuwaitd citizen Omar Al-Faruq, a terrorist suspect who was arrested in Bogor, West Java, on June 5, 2002 and handed over to the US three days later, is a CIA-recruited agent. Al Faruq was assigned to infiltrate Islamic radical groups and recruit local agents within these groups."
This came out in the 9-11 lawsuit: Burnett v. al Baraka:"The United States Treasury Department Press Release following the March 11, 2002, designation of al-Haramain’s Bosnian and Somalian offices, stated the following about its connection to the terrorist group al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya: "The Bosnia office of al-Haramain is linked to al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an Egyptian terrorist group. Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was designated on November 2, 2001 and it is a signatory to Osama bin Laden's Fatwah dated February 23, 1998, targeting Americans and their allies."
...... In the United States, al-Haramain has three business entities in Ashland, Oregon: al-Haramain Foundation, al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, and al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc. All three of these separately filed businesses are at the same address and under the same management. These three businesses are one and the same as al Haramain’s headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The President and Vice-President of the United States branch, Aqeel al-Aqeel and Mansour al-Kadi, are the Secretary General and Deputy General, respectively, of the Riyadh office. The al-Haramain branch in Ashland, Oregon, is specifically linked to al Qaeda operations... Al-Haramain has been implicated as providing funds for the bombing of a night club in Bali in 2002. Al-Haramain continues in its illicit pattern of conduct in sponsoring acts of international terrorism..... During an interrogation conducted by United States authorities at the United States air force base in Baghram, Afghanistan, on May 23, 2002, Umar Faruq [Omar al-Faruq], senior al Qaeda representative in Southern Asia, confessed that al-Haramain was the main financial mechanism for funding terrorists operations in the region,... Furthermore, during a custodial interview on September 9, 2002, Umar Faruq stated that terrorist operations of Jemaah Islamiya (founded by Abu Bakar Bashir), an Islamic extremist group closely associated with al Qaeda were funded by donations channeled through al Haramain Islamic Foundation..."
Omar al-Faruq's role as a leader of Jemaah Islamiya and his involvement with Al Haramain certainly tend to substantiate this report on his work for the CIA. The "spiritual leader" of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya in Brooklyn just happened to be Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. The CIA had arranged for his visa. THE CIA AND THE SHEIK: "According to a very high-ranking Egyptian official, when the sheikh moved to Brooklyn in May 1990, he worked closely with the CIA, helping to channel a steady flow of money, men, and guns to mujahedeen bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan" to fight the Soviets. According to Al Qaeda Recruited U.S. Servicemen: Testimony Links Plot To Saudi Gov't, it came out in the Rahman trial that Rahman's followers received funds from the Saudi embassy in Washington for a Bosnia "jihad" recruitment program. Al Haramain's branch in Ashland, Oregon was also conveniently collecting for the KOSOVO RELIEF FUND during the Kosovo war in April 1999. "Reports" were posted by the Al Haramain branch in Albania, which echoed the propaganda that we heard from the Pentagon & the US State Dept. at this time. Those Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) training camps in Albania were "run by Osama bin Laden, and various other foreign mujahedeen" and also by the "CIA and British intelligence." And "the CIA seems to have provided monetary support."
Jemaah Islamiya itself was created by operatives from the CIA's "mujahideen" operations, who grafted themselves to local and community groups, which is the pattern in the history of these Al Qaeda cells. There is also a clear 9-11 connection to Jemaah Islamiya. Jemaah Islamiya leader Hambali was in on the "Bojinka" plots. Hambali "met [Ramzi] Yousef and Khan in Afghanistan where they fought with the mujahedeen to drive out Soviet occupation troops and the Soviet-installed communist government." Those Bojinka plots were found in the computer files of Ramzi Youssef, the "mastermind" of the 1993 WTC attack. One of the Bojinka plots was for "several planes flying to the United States to be hijacked and flown into civilian targets. Among targets mentioned was the World Trade Center in New York."