Any connection?

Remember Hani Hanjour, 9/11 pilot? His name is back in the blogs due to a former acquaintance being captured. This friend, Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, was present with Hanjour while the latter was studying the principle of flight in Arizona prior to 9/11. He disappeared shortly afterward but recently surfaced in New Zealand and was arrested and later extradicted to Saudi Arabia.

But there were other jihadi buddies loosely associated with Hanjour and Arizona. One was identified as Mubarak al-Duri, whereabouts unknown.

Al Duri, al Duri, where have we heard that name before? Shall we assume any connections to the other slightly better-known al-Douri?

In Tucson, al Duri, a native of Iraq, became acquainted with Wadi al Hage, the report said. Al Hage, a native of Lebanon, is in federal prison for al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.

The story goes on to say:

Mubarak al Duri (who is referred to as Mubarak Douri in the report's text and Mubarak al Duri in a footnote), reportedly bin Laden's principal procurement agent for weapons of mass destruction. Though he is referred to as such, no details on what he did for bin Laden or when he lived here were revealed.

We have this Al-Duri guy--a native of Iraq who has the same surname as the former leader of the Revolutionary Command Council, and was thought to be a WMD procurement agent for bin Laden. What am I missing here?

MORE 6/10/06

Captain Ed has this story and points out that:

Rayed doesn't get much attention in the final 9/11 Commission report; all references to him are found in the extensive footnotes.

Which is very interesting. The same applies to Mubarak al-Duri. Why were these guys relegated to the notes?

As to al-Duri, a deeper dig produced the following morsels:

There was Mubarak al-Duri, an Iraqi native living in Arizona, who officials say worked with bin Laden's firms in Sudan

And this,

The ruling does not say when Al Duri, whom the judge said was "reported to be Osama bin Laden's principal procurement agent for weapons of mass destruction," had lived in Canada.

But she said Al Duri had associated with Toronto-based terror suspect Mohamed Mahjoub after December, 1995, and may have also associated with terrorist Essam Marzouk, who lived in B.C. until 1998.

Mahjoub is one of the five detainees locked up in the Canadian Gitmo.

FREEDOM CARAVAN UPDATE 6/13/06

James Loney finally made it to Ottawa. He continues to speak out about the Canadian Gitmo detainees, one of which is Mohamed Mahjoub. Too bad the former hostage can't tell us what happened to Mahjoub's old associate Mubarak al-Duri.