"We Syrians know these things"

That was the response given by Mustafa Setmariam Nasar to a fellow jihadist when questioned about his western-like romantic ways with his Spanish born wife.

Nasar, sometimes called the red-headed terrorist was recently the subject of a story by the WaPo's Craig Whitlock, who called Nasar the architect of modern small-group jihad. More here.

But while Whitlock loosely covered the man's background, he curiously left out a thing or two. Regarding his terrorist training background, here's what the story said:

"According to his own written accounts, he fled the country after that, then trained in camps in Jordan and Egypt."

However, this profile was taken from the Jamestown Foundation's site for Global Terrorism Analysis:

Nasar joined the Syrian jihadist movement al-Tali'a al-Muqatila ("The Fighting Vanguard") and deepened his military expertise at the hands of refugee Syrian military officers in Jordan and Egyptian and Iraqi instructors in Baghdad and Cairo. Specializing in explosives engineering and urban guerrilla warfare, Nasar trained recruits in the military camps of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and Baghdad..

Why would they remove Baghdad? Do they know something the Jamestown Foundation doesn't?

The WaPo article does mention an Iraq connection when it says Nasar visited "northern Iraq" after fighting with the Taliban. The geographic descriptor is an attempt to keep him out of Baghdad. Interestingly, while it seems clear he was in Baghdad during the Hussein regime receiving terrorist training in the 80s, there is confusion on whether he entered Iraq the second time after he left Afghanistan in 2001. The US State Department had tied him to al-Zarqawi, but Nasar denies it, saying:

"an honor I was not granted to share in since I had difficulties in getting to Iraq, and because of my isolating myself to devote my time to filling one of the Muslims' most important gaps—the analysis of our past experiences, drawing lessons from them, and examining the nature of the confrontations and battles that await us, since I am one of the few that are left among the mujahideen specializing in this"

Not entirely convincing with his Syrian past and all, especially considering how many jihadis flowed across that border. Perhaps he was lazy as well as romantic. Or perhaps this better explains it:

In public statements and in interviews with Arab media, Nasar said he was happy to work with al-Qaeda but emphasized that he was an independent operator.

Two other notorious superterrorists have displayed similar traits complete with the occasional disagreement with their bearded boss--Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architects of 9/11.

IRAQ NEWS 5/24/06

Tariq Aziz took the witness stand in defense of his former (and current) boss Wednesday. He didn't have anything earth-shattering to say, all in all a fairly predictable testimony to the Butcher. It was just like old times. He appeared a bit sick wearing his hospital gown, but is clearly lucky to be alive based on his doctor's original assessment.

Meanwhile the Iraqi government announced the capture of a wanted man, one Bashar Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, the son of Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti (of course), who was the 6 of diamonds in the deck of cards. His son wasn't a card.

The Treasury Department had flagged him as a receiver of regime funds over a year ago. It's pretty clear the Tikriti clan has had their arms around this insurgency for quite some time. That's actually a good sign, because if Saddam's clan can be rounded up and brought to justice much of the support for the Islamic fighters will dry up.