Hassan Ghul | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Mustafa Hajji Muhammad Khan (birth name), The Gatekeeper |
| Born | 1976 or 1977[1] |
| Died | 1 October 2012 |
| Allegiance |  Al-Qaeda |
| Branch | Al-Qaeda central |
| Known for | Being the courier to high ranking commander in Al-Qaeda |
Hassan Ghul (Arabic:حسان غول), born Mustafa Hajji Muhammad Khan (1976/1977 – 1 October 2012),[3] was aPakistani[4][5] member ofal-Qaeda who revealed thekunya ofOsama bin Laden's messenger, which eventually led toOperation Neptune Spear and the death of Osama Bin Laden. Ghul was an ethnicPashtun whose family was from Waziristan.[6][7][8] He was designated by theAl-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee of theSecurity Council in 2012.[9]
Captured byKurdishPeshmerga forces inIraqi Kurdistan and turned over to American intelligence in early 2004, Ghul was said to have served as anywhere from a courier who delivered messages for al-Qaeda members to a high-ranking associate of eitherOsama bin Laden,Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, orKhalid Sheikh Mohammed.
He was held at aCIAblack site for two years. It was during this time of detainment in early 2004, but before he was subjected totorture, that Ghul listed al-Kuwaiti as a close associate of bin Laden.[10] CIA records show that Ghul was not the first source of the name "al-Kuwaiti," which was also provided in 2002 by another detainee,Abu Zubair al-Ha'ili, who was being held by a foreign government.[11]
In 2006, Ghul was transferred to the custody of Pakistan'sInter-Services Intelligence, which released him in 2007.[4][12] Ghul was killed by a CIA drone strike inNorth Waziristan in October 2012.[13]
Ghul was born in either 1976 or 1977 in either Medina,Saudi Arabia or the village of Sangrar,Sindh, Pakistan.[14] Ghul was mentioned in the9/11 Commission report, where he was stated to have led three people, includingMushabib al-Hamlan, to a guesthouse run byAbu Zubaydah.[15]
He was captured on January 23, 2004[16] by Kurdish security forces at a border crossing to Iran nearKalar after they confirmed Hassan's identity with a photograph emailed toCIA officials.[17] There are contradicting claims that he was caught entering Iraq to bring al-Zarqawi money and bomb schematics[18] or that he was caught leaving Iran bringing al-Zarqawi's progress report onsuicide bombings into Iraq.[19]
Ghul was carrying aUSB flash drive and twoCDs, one allegedly including a 17-page progress report believed to have been written by al-Zarqawi, claiming responsibility for suicide attacks in Iraq. US Intelligence officials have contradicted the accepted story, stating that the progress report was instead found in an abandonedsafehouse inBaghdad.[20][21] In addition, the US military provided the media with "photocopies of the original handwritten Arabic letter" which were then translated, muddying the claim that it had been a computer document.[22] A notebook in his satchel also revealed a number of names and phone numbers of suspected associates.[17]
Kurdish forces immediately turned Ghul over to the American military, and he was interrogated while still in the country.[20]
Following his capture,Fox News reported that he had been an al-Qaeda member since the very beginning of the group, at least ten years earlier, and was widely known as "The Gatekeeper" in terrorist circles, although no corroboration or other sources have supported these claims.[23] There have been similarly unreferenced suggestions in the media that Ghul played a role in the1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa.[24][23]
Three days after his capture, Ghul was mentioned in a speech by PresidentGeorge W. Bush:
Just yesterday – not yesterday – just last week, we made further progress in making America more secure when a fellow named Hassan Ghul was captured in Iraq. Hassan Ghul was a – reported directly to Khalid Shaik Muhammad, who was the mastermind of the September the 11th attacks. He was a killer. He was moving money and messages around South Asia and the Middle East to other al-Qaeda leaders. He was a part of this network of haters that we're dismantling.Our intelligence officers did a good job. He was captured in Iraq where he was helping al-Qaeda to put pressure on our troops. There is one less enemy we have to worry about with the capture of Hassan Ghul.[25]
Six days after his capture, U.S. Lieutenant GeneralRicardo Sanchez referred to Ghul stating "the capture of Ghul is pretty strong proof that al-Qaida is trying to gain a foothold [in Iraq] to continue their murderous campaigns."[26]CIA DirectorGeorge Tenet mentioned Ghul in his testimony to theSenate Select Committee on Intelligence as an al-Qaeda member who would "never again threaten the American people", after allegedly being "sent to case Iraq for an expanded al-Qaeda presence there."[27] ColumnistWilliam Safire claimed it was a "smoking gun" that proved a link betweenIraq and al-Qaeda.[28]
Ghul then became aghost detainee, his very existence was unacknowledged. In June 2007, he was one of 39 people cited in a joint release byHRW,Cageprisoners,Center for Constitutional Rights and theNew York University School of Law as prisoners who have not been accounted for, and are likely held in secretCIA Black sites.
In 2006, two and a half years after his capture, Ghul was transferred to a secret Pakistani prison system, where he was held alongside British suspectRangzieb Ahmed.[12] The two spoke to each other, and Ghul told him that he was held at asecret CIA location for two and a half years and had also passed through Morocco. He was again transferred to an unknown location in January 2007.[12] Ghul was released by the Pakistanis in 2007. He was thought to have rejoined militants and returned to the battlefield. For some time his whereabouts were unknown,[29][30] but Ghul was eventually killed by a US drone strike on October 1, 2012.[13] TheNational Security Agency (NSA) deployed an arsenal of cyber-espionage tools, secretly seizing control of laptops, siphoning audio files and other messages, and tracking radio transmissions to find Ghul. After intercepting an e-mail from Ghul's wife, the NSA was able to locate Ghul and handed over the information to the Central Intelligence Agency which employed a drone to kill Ghul.[13]
