Brian Ross Reports on ‘The Spider Cell’
21 January 2006 10:49 am by Taylor Marsh
Brian Ross Reports on “The Spider Cell”
Last night on “Charlie Rose,” Brian Ross of ABC news
gave a very interesting report on bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and offered some very
interesting insight on Musharraf and Pakistan. Below is a summation of that
interview.
First, the al-Zawahiri tape is “not new” and offers no
new references to anything that's happened recently. It is simply an “old tape being
passed off as new.”
Al-Zawahiri did escape the Pakistan attack last week, is on the
run, with bin Laden obviously alive.
The courier route of these types of tapes used to go from al Qaeda's
production house to Waziristan to the al-Jazeera correspondent in Islamabad,
Pakistan. This correspondent has been under 24 hour watch, so they had to find
a new route. Now, there as many as 25 different couriers that take from 8-12
weeks for these couriers to make their way to al-Jazeera, and they go through
an “intricate path” through Dubai to keep from being detected.
The U.S. believes al-Zawahiri was at the location the drones hit,
which was a high level summit of al Qaeda. There were a series of strikes and
on the third house in the compound, “before it was hit, but after the other
two were hit, people ran from that house, took off and then the strike came.”
Some people got away, al-Zawahiri being one, but his son-in-law and chief bomb
maker weren't so lucky.
As an aside, al-Zawahiri's son-in-law was in charge of making many
of al Qaeda's tapes. Ross says his house was hit a year ago, where we found
a “studio” of sorts for media production, though not as fancy as that
description implies.
Ross says al-Zawahiri “was hurt bad” by this assault. He
lost key people that aid him and help him move around. A man like al-Zawahiri doesn't
make friends easily because he no longer can trust people. He needs the individuals
who have come up through the ranks that are loyal.
Obviously, somebody provided the information that led to the CIA
drone attack. al-Zawahiri has to be wondering, who talked and gave up our position?
A captured al Qaeda operative, al-Libi, discussed meeting al-Zawahiri
at this very place. Evidently, when it gets very cold, al-Zawahiri comes out of
the mountains, traveling a known “circuit,” which al-Libi described.
Methodically, the group tracking these terrorists have gathered information
on their routes and means of travel until they came up with this compound designation.
Here's where I must make a comment. We must note that al-Libi
was the infamous al Qaeda captive who was tortured by the U.S., giving Colin
Powell the erroneous information that led to our embarrassment at the U.N.,
which I've mentioned many times before. It's interesting to note that if Ross
is right, you have to wonder how and when we got this information. Just something
to think about. continuing with Ross' report…
President Musharraf did not employ the Pakistani army after the
news of the recent hit on al-Zawahiri became known. There was absolutely no effort
to get into the area on any type of “hot pursuit.” Simply put, Musharraf
can't order the army in. So, because he can't trust his own army, he's come
up with another angle.
This is where it gets really interesting.
Musharraf has created, inside his own intelligence agency, a minor intelligence
agency. It is called “The Spider Group” made up of “trusted Pakistani
intelligence agents, CIA agents, and a number of wealthy business men who have
funded privately a group that is tracking bin Laden and al-al-Zawahiri.” On a personal note, if this is true and this cell exists – we have no reason to doubt Ross – I could not have been more wrong about President Musharaff's sincere efforts to aid the U.S., which I'm happy to admit. moving on…
The Spider Group is spreading a
lot of money around, developing relationships to try and find out the details
of the comings and goings of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. The Spider Group is
seen to be the key to catching these terrorists.
Al-Zawahiri's operation has obviously been penetrated.
The other fact is that the U.S. keeps picking off al Qaeda's #3
man, which Ross equated to Vietnam tactic of picking off the first lieutenants. It's damaging their organization badly.
In addition, we have evidently pulled some of our teams out of
this area and Afghanistan to go after Zarqawi, who is now seen as “public
enemy #1.” A man who started out as a thug, but now has real power to do great
damage through his actions in Iraq.
Note: Spelling of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi's name has been corrected.
