Suskind misled - Khan is not Kahn it is another Khan - Confused - Peter Clarke definitely is

The Guradian suggests today that the Khan ( a not uncommon name in folks from the Asian sub-continent) of Dan Coleman, Suskind's source and the man who led the FBI's investigation into al-Qaida, could have confused Mohammad Sidique Khan with Mohammed Ajmal Khan, jailed in the UK this year for terrorist offences. (pic is Ajmal ... he ceratianly hoesn't look like Siddique)

Mohammed Ajmal Khan, (with alleged co-conspirators Frzana Khan and Palvinder Singh ) from Coventry, was jailed for nine years after admitting directing a terrorist organisation, including providing weapons and funds to the Lashkar-i-Toiba, which is fighting for Muslim control over the disputed Kashmir region on the India-Pakistan border. His contact in the US was Ali Asad Chandia, 29, a teacher at an Islamic school in College Park, Md., was convicted on three of four counts, including providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiracy to do the same.

Mr Justice Fulford, at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London, when sentencing Khan called on the Government to urgently consider introducing greater sentencing powers: the maximum sentence for the charge is 14 years imprisonment, which had to be reduced because of Khan's guilty plea.

He said that Khan had not only trained in Pakistan and "travelled widely in furtherance of your terrorist aims", but had available a significant source of funds from an "unidentified but undeniably terrorist-related source." - of course some peop;e might call him a Freedom Fighter.

Ajmal Khan could fit the profile of the man identified in Suskind's book as the London suicide bomber, Siddique Khan:

1. His communications across the Atlantic were intercepted by the US National Security Agency, GCHQ's American equivalent.

2. Ajmal Khan was linked in a US terrorist trial to Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who was found guilty of terrorist offences in Virginia last year. In his book, Suskind says the man who contacted Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was Sid(d)ique Khan. (read about him, his rendition from Saudi (where he "confessed" ) to the US, illegal searches of his parent's house etc etc., http://www.counterpunch.org/cassel03082005.html)

3. Ajmal Khan had visited the US and talked about blowing up synagogues.

4. There is no evidence whatever that Sidique Khan flew to the US and that the FBI or the CIA kept tabs on him, as the book claims.

British counter-intelligence officials ( oh yeah those mysterious sources again) believe Suskind was misled and characterised it as a case of mistaken identity.

Mr Suskind said last night he was not a victim of mistaken identity. He said: "There is no doubt from the many sources that I interviewed in the US for my book, there is no doubt this incident involved Mohammad Sid(d)ique Khan"..

Sounds awfully to me that the Suskind book is a crock of shit. Anyway you can now see extracts courtesy of Time magazine here

If you were puzling about the book's title it is explained ... " then Cheney defined it: "If there's a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping al-Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response. It's not about our analysis ... It's about our response." Suskind writes, "So, now spoken, it stood: a standard of action that would frame events and responses from the Administration for years to come."

This book reeks , it reads like a cheap novelette with totally unbelievable dialogue that would keep a keen reader of the Nastional Enquirer happy or a Joan Collins fan. The first draft of history ? Forgeddit.

Then they went to see Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Bandar greeted the delegation arriving at his palatial home in northern Virginia, Tenet and his small band of deputies. They hugged. Tenet is a hugger. He and Bandar have passed countless hours together, trust building, a Tenet specialty.

After brief cordialities, Tenet got down to business. He leaned forward. A concerned look crossed his wide mug. "Bad news," Tenet said. "Bin Laden has changed his focus. Now it's you. It's Saudi Arabia."

Bandar was grim. "Scotch?"

He got some. And they drank Johnnie Walker Blue Label as Tenet delivered the bad news. He described the intelligence.

"Can we see the cable?" Bandar asked.

"Can't," Tenet said. "But I'll tell you everything you need to know."

But ultimately ... disappointment in Samarra, Suskind quotes a CIA operative as questioning whether it was an accident that the Saudis had killed the shadowy kingpin Al Ayeri who could expose a cell planning a chemical weapons attack inside the U.S. "The Saudis just shrugged," the source tells Suskind. "They said their people got a little overzealous."

He gets paid to write this crap ?