The Great Escape

This one doesn't star Steve McQueen. It stars al-Qaida operative Omar al-Farouq, a Kuwaiti born to Iraqi parents who'd been jihading in Indonesia until his capture in 2002. He was among four Muj that broke out of the detention facility at Bagram airbase in Afghan in July. Although the breakout itself was publicized, the US didn't bother to tell anyone al-Farouq was included, including Indonesia. This seems to have upset the Indonesians.

Anyway, who is this guy? He was allegedly in a position of power of AQ's South Asian district, known locally as Jemaah Islamiyah (notice their goal is an Muslim theocracy in the region). He trained in the camps in Afghan in the early 90s, and was sent to southeast Asia in the mid 90s. The Breitbart story indicates he was taking pilot training while there, but never made it.

Funny, there were two other notorious Kuwaitis who'd displayed an interest in aviation--Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Both also had ties in the far east and were in the area in the mid 90s.

The region has some claim to fame in terrorist circles. The most famous pre-9/11 terrorist meeting happened in 2000 in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, where investigators believe two of the 19 hijackers attended. Some also believe a local Iraqi airport greeter named Ahmad Shakir was involved:

Then there is the interesting case of Ahmad Hikmat Shakir — an Iraqi VIP facilitator who worked at the international airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Citing "a foreign government service," page 340 of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on pre-Iraq-War intelligence indicates that, "Shakir claimed he got this job through Ra'ad al-Mudaris, an Iraqi Embassy employee" in Malaysia. On January 5, 2000, Shakir greeted Khalid al Midhar and Nawaz al Hamzi at Kuala Lampur’s airport. He then escorted them to a local hotel where these September 11 hijackers met with 9/11 conspirators Ramzi bin al Shibh and Tawfiz al Atash. Five days later, according to The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes, Shakir disappeared.

There has been some disagreement on this, just like there was disagreement about Mohammed Atta's reasons for going to Prague. Let's just remember, according to Harry Reid, Iraq was never a threat to anyone and Bush lied.

Anyhow, if the guy was top-level dangerous, one has to wonder why he wasn't kept at one of the super secret 'gulags' the CIA has been running (by the way, we know about these thanks to a leak. Wonder if the leaker will be prosecuted?). If we did let him escape, I only hope it was planned as a stunt to see if he'd lead them to bigger fish. Let's hope so, because otherwise it's downright hard to believe the level of incompetence.