Ali Soufan - We Need a Strategy Against Terrorism

• published: 09 Nov 2015
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______________________IMPORTANT_______________________________ Soufan has been described as having had a close working relationship with FBI counter-terrorist agent John P. O'Neill. In 2000, he was made the lead investigator of the USS Cole bombing. _________________________________________________________________ From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Soufan _________________________________________________________________ Born July 8, 1971 (age 44) Lebanon Nationality Lebanese-American Alma mater Mansfield University of Pennsylvania (B.A., International Studies and Political Science) Villanova University (M.A., International Relations) Known for FBI agent Website soufangroup.com _________________________________________________________________ FBI career Soufan was called to Jordan in 1999 to investigate the Jordan Millennium Bombing plot, and discovered a box of documents delivered by Jordanian intelligence officials prior to the investigation, sitting on the floor of the CIA station, which contained maps showing the bomb sites. His find "embarrassed the CIA", according to a 2006 New Yorker profile of him. In 2000, he was made the lead investigator of the USS Cole bombing. When given a transcript of the interrogations of Fahd al-Quso, he noticed a reference to a one-legged Afghan named "Khallad", whom he remembered as a source identified years earlier as Walid bin 'Attash; this helped the FBI to track down Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Following the September 11th attacks, Soufan was one of eight FBI agents who spoke Arabic, and the only one in New York. Colleagues reported that he would sit on the floor with suspects, offer them tea and argue over religion and politics in fluent Arabic, while drawing out information. While investigating the September 11th attacks in Yemen, Soufan received intelligence that the CIA had been withholding for months. According to The New Yorker, "Soufan received the fourth photograph of the Malaysia meeting—the picture of Khallad, the mastermind of the Cole operation. The two plots, Soufan instantly realized, were linked, and if the C.I.A. had not withheld information from him he likely would have drawn the connection months before September 11th." He was tasked with the "intensive interrogation" of Abu Jandal over the course of five days in Yemen, during which time Jandal gave up the names of a number of members of al-Qaeda. It was his questioning of Mohammed al Qahtani, that led to the terrorism charges against Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri in Chicago, whom al Qahtani had mentioned being a relative. In 2005, Soufan approached a Florida doctor called Rafiq Abdus Sabir pretending to be an Islamist militant, and asked him whether he would provide medical treatment to wounded fighters in the Iraq War.[8] When Sabir agreed to provide medical treatment, he was arrested and sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment for supporting terrorism. Soufan has been described as having had a close working relationship with FBI counter-terrorist agent John P. O'Neill. _________________________________________________________________ Role in Guantanamo military commissions Soufan obtained a confession from Salim Hamdan, accused of being a driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. Soufan testified before his military tribunal that Hamdan was a hardened terrorist, with advance knowledge of the September 11th attacks. He also obtained a confession from Ali al-Bahlul, an al Qaeda propagandist and Bin Laden media secretary accused of making a video celebrating the Cole attacks, and testified at his military tribunal as well. Role in Guantanamo military commissions Soufan obtained a confession from Salim Hamdan, accused of being a driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. Soufan testified before his military tribunal that Hamdan was a hardened terrorist, with advance knowledge of the September 11th attacks. He also obtained a confession from Ali al-Bahlul, an al Qaeda propagandist and Bin Laden media secretary accused of making a video celebrating the Cole attacks, and testified at his military tribunal as well. _________________________________________________________________