Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi
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Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi is a Libyan paramilitary trainer for Al Qaeda.
He led the Al Khaldan training camp in Afghanistan, the facility where Zacarias Moussaoui and Ahmed Ressam trained.
He is a close associate of Abu Zubaydah.
He was on the September 26, 2002 list of terrorists released by the U.S. government following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack. The list detailed individuals and organizations whose assets were to be immediately frozen.
He was captured by Pakistani officials at the end of 2001 or beginning of 2002 as he attempted to flee Afghanistan following the collapse of the Taliban ensuing the 2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan.
He was then turned over to U.S. officials and held at a detention center at the Kandahar airport. In the second week of January 2002, he was flown to the USS Bataan in the northern Arabian Sea, the ship which is being used to hold eight other important prisoners, including John Walker Lindh.
His capture was first reported by NBC News in the evening of January 4, 2002.
Al-Libi has been identified as the source of misinformation regarding the connection between Iraq and al Qaeda that the Bush Administration used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Specifically, he told interrogators that Iraq provided training to al Qaeda in the area of weapons of mass destruction. In Cincinnati in October 2002, Bush informed the public:
- "Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases."
Libi has since recanted on the claim, and while U.S. officials caution that they do not know which of his stories is correct, his recantation is backed up by evidence from the interrogation of other top al Qaeda officials. Some speculate that Libi deliberately misled interrogators in order to draw the U.S. into an attack on Iraq, which al Qaeda believes will lead to a global jihad.
External links and references
U.S. Captures a Top Trainer for Al Qaeda, The New York Times, January 5, 2002 (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/06/international/asia/06DETA.html)