How Recently Were Abu Musab al-Zarqawi & Family in Afghanistan?

By Andrew Cochran

A highly respected terrorism analyst in Washington sent me information on the possible presence of the al-Zarqawi clan in Afghanistan since the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, and I asked Evan Kohlmann to comment on it. I invite other comments. First, the information from the terrorism analyst:

"In June 2004 the Pakistani military raided a house in the Shakai valley (see photo at end of post) in South Waziristan. In a secret basement inside one of the buildings, the Pakis found computer and video equipment, as well as a trove of documents. One of these was the passport of one of Abu Musab al Zarqawi's brothers, who was supposed to have stayed in the house. It was later established (through the interrogation of Uzbeks who had been arrested in the house) that the house was Al Qaeda's command and control center in South Waziristan, and even that Ayman al Zawahiri had stayed there multiple times after November 2001. A lot of propaganda videos were cut and printed on CD-Roms there also, then distributed throughout Pakistan and the Gulf to raise money. Al Qaeda even had a name for this "production company": "Ummat Studios". You can see its logo on a lot of propaganda stuff that I have with me here."

Evan Kohlmann comments: "From the waning days of the Soviet-Afghan jihad in the 1980s, the nascent Al-Qaida movement constructed a network of mujahideen frontier guesthouses strung along the Afghan-Pakistani border. When recruits would arrive seeking to join the mujahideen, they would first register and deposit their documents at the guesthouse "for safekeeping" before entering training and combat on the Afghan battlefields. From that moment on, the fighters adopted new insurgent identities. If recruits were killed before they would return to the guesthouses, their documents could be recycled in order "to help brothers in need." Collections of such documents can date years, if not decades back. Thus, even assuming it is true that the Pakistanis did seize a passport of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's brother in this South Waziristan village, this doesn't necessarily mean it has any recent significance.

We already know that Zarqawi and his kin have traveled at various times in the past through Pakistan seeking training at mujahideen camps in Afghanistan. If a brother of the notorious "Shaykh of the Slaughterers" Zarqawi was traveling through Pakistan looking for jihad these days, he would almost certainly have to rely on a false passport. Imagine David Hasselhoff's brother trying to sneak unnoticed through Germany.

The one part of this that definitely rings true is the last bit: a number of important recent jihad videos produced in Pakistan feature the logo of "Ummat Studios", which appears to be an active and well-connected local propaganda outfit. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that the purpose of these videos was to encourage wealthy Arabian Gulf financiers to make donations -- that was always a central purpose of producing this type of media, from Bosnia to Iraq."

Terrorism analyst's photo of Waziristan house (click to enlarge):

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