Abu Ayyub al-Masri, expert in car bombs (where do they get all those cars?)

The new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian with ties to Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, has a specialty -- car bombs. Ever wonder where the terrorists get all those cars they blow up? Some of them come from right here in the USA, via Muslim/Arab used car dealers. Yep, they get shipped out of places like Florida, head out to places like Qatar, Jordan, Dubai UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and more.

(Image via TimesOnline. With the resume al-Masri has, I would suspect this is an old photo.)

Some of the cars are purchased in other places with money raised in the United States. Now chew on that for a while.

Bill Warner over at W.B.I. Inc. has pictures and links on this very subject. This post is based on Mr. Warner's research:

-- Ziad al-Karbouly was al-Qaida in Iraq's point man for receiving goods stolen by Iraqi insurgents, to supply terrorist operations and for sale inside and outside Iraq.

-- May 23rd 2006.....'Zarqawi aide' captured in IRAQ, Al Qaeda suspect confesses to killing drivers & looting trucks on Jordan TV; Ziyad Karbouli aka Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly was the Iraq Customs Clearing Offical at the Jordan/Iraq border.

-- Ziyad Khalaf Karbouli, described as a local leader of Al Qaeda "in charge of war bounties" in the Iraqi town of Rutba, near the border with Jordan, also confessed to kidnapping a senior Iraqi official and looting trucks (car transporters) heading from Jordan to Iraq.

Also known as Abu Huthaifa, Karbouli exploited his job as a customs clearance official at the Jordan-Iraq border to carry out his crimes. Rutba or Al-Rutbah is on the main supply route to Fullujah and Baghdad where Ziyad Karbouli was the Customs Clearance Official who OK'd the car shipments for Zarqawi.

-- Wassim Mazloum of Toronto, owned two used car lots and was indicted on terrorism charges, assist Iraqi terrorists to kill Americans in Iraq.

-- Saleh al-Qufi, head of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, met with Osama bin Laden and sent cars and money to Zarqawi in Iraq.

In 1994 he opened a car showroom in Madinah whose proceeds enabled him to travel to the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), Germany (Hamburg), and other countries, using his business as a cover-up for
terrorist activities".

Saleh Al-Oufi, who has replaced Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin as the Al-Qaeda leader in the Kingdom,... met with Osama Bin Laden and Taleban leader Mulla Omar shortly before the Sept. 11

-- Tucson, Arizona, KVOA-TV "Every 20 seconds a vehicle is stolen. As many as 200,000 of them leave North America through sea ports and cross international borders annually. Some of those are making it to the Middle East to be sold by terror groups."

Related, "Shawqi Omar was working with Zarqawi"

American officials are working to keep our used automobiles out of the hands of terrorists.
But there are car-theft rings all across the country working against our military in Iraq, and probably other places as well.

It was a car bomb that killed the two CBS camermen recently and seriously injured their reporter. In Zarqawi's last video (you know, with the American tennis shoes and the jammed rifle), his white pickup can be seen in the background. Yes, it's American. It was also blown to smitherines by the two 500 pound bombs last week, along with it's driver.

A Utah man was arrested in April 2006 with ties to Al-Qaeda in Iraq:

The brother of a man suspected of ties to the al-Qaida terrorist group has been arrested in Utah and indicted on charges of loan fraud and money laundering.

The question that federal authorities are trying to answer is whether Sharif Omar funneled some of that money to support terrorist activities. Omar is the brother of Shawqi Omar, who is being investigated for ties to al-Qaida in Iraq. source

The Omars also owned and worked at three used car dealerships, this includes Gus Omar and Shawqi Omar who is being held without charge in a U.S. military prison in Iraq and he worked for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Department of Justice documents here.

Jordanians in the US have been identified as shipping used cars to Iraq. Bilal al-Hiyari was sentenced to prison for shipping used cars to the enemy in Iraq.
Government report here.

Raed Mansour al-Banna, is an Iraq suicide car bomber from Salt Jordan via Rancho Cucamonga California, USA. He chose to be one of the suicide bombers driving the car.

Albanna, 32, had a fondness for American women, the grunge sound of Nirvana and Harley-Davidson motorcycles and the bad-boy image ... A hand chained to a steering wheel revealed fingerprints that identified him as the bomber. It was the only body part that remained.

We have al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in Muslim communities right here in the United States. "Scott Redd, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in a written statement to the Senate that the emergence of home-grown terrorist groups is posing "real challenges" for U.S. authorities."

These terrorist cells are not appearing at St. Bridget's Catholic Church, Beth Israel Synagogue, or the local Hindu orBuddhist temples. They are being found in mosques and other Muslim groups. They are generally composed of young Muslim men. So lets look at those most likely to be terrorists, and do so openly and unapologetically. Rhymes with Right

That's the ever politicaly incorrect 'racial profiling'. Hey, if the description fits, USE IT! It's just logical folks. Since when is it wrong to do the logical thing? Just because it's Muslims/Arabs we are talking about, that shouldn't keep us from investigating?

Next time you see a car blown up in Iraq, you can wonder if it was purchased or stolen right here in the USA.

For more information on US cars, US terrorists, with maps, pictures, links go here and here.

As always, you can read Good News From Iraq at The Lone Voice

Comments

[Jeff Davis]

The enemy within.

[Bill Warner]

Arabic names are usually all over the place as reported by different News Outlets, this looks like the real deal from Cairo !

Youssef al-Dardeeri, an Islamist from one of the Upper Egyptian provinces
Arabic.

Zarqawi’s successor English
http://www.arabist.net/archives/category/egypt/

Neither the name Ayyoub al-Masri nor Abu Hamza al-Muhajer rang a bell. But after having a look at Zarqawi’s alleged successor’s photo, Islamist lawyer Montasser al-Zayat suggested to Al-Hayat, that the new head of the militant network in Iraq might be a man by the name Youssef al-Dardeeri, an Islamist from one of the Upper Egyptian provinces, who lived for sometime in el-Zawya el-Hamra neighborhood in Cairo.

Dardeeri’s name, according to Zayat, was not mentioned in any of the terror cases in Egypt, as he left for Afghanistan sometime in the 1980s, before the outbreak of the 1992 Islamist insurgency in the Nile Valley.

The new Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq did not belong to any of the Egyptian groups in Afghanistan (Islamic Jihad and Gama3a Islamiya), and assumed a neutral position towards them, according to Zayat, contrary to the US army claims that Abu Ayyoub was linked to Zawahiri’s Islamic Jihad since 1982.

Zarqawi, said Zayat, preferred working with independents who had no affiliation with the other established militant groups at the time.

Dardeeri fled together with Zarqawi following the US occupation of Afghanistan, to Iran, and then to Iraq.

Bill Warner

www.wbipi.com

[FrauBudgie]

Uhhh ... puts a whole new spin on "Gone in 60 Seconds!"

[Always On Watch]

Number-three guys in Al-Qaeda typically don't keep their jobs for too long.

But others always step forward for the position.

[Debbie]

Well, Mr Blifil, you rais an interesting point on the explosives. Some of them probably did come from stashes hidden all across Iraq. Some were shipped in from surrounding countries. The this particular report was on the cars. I didn't get into the explosives, that would be for another report.

Were there mistakes made in this war, yes there were.

As for the term "al-Qaeds in Iraq", you can argue whether it's appropriate or not. The group goes by many names, some accepted by outsiders, others not.

But they ARE al-Qaeda, and they ARE in Iraq, therefore it seems the title "al-Qaeda in Iraq" is a fitting one.

Yes there are photos of many license plates that were taken from cars, many from the USA, A.C.

If you follow the last two links at the bottom of the post, you can read more but you can see all the photos.

Thanks to both of you for stopping by and commenting. Perhaps I should do a post on the explosives. The fact that Saddam HAD all those explosives, buried, along with buried fighter jets, etc. Who knows what else he has buried in somneone's backyard under a rose bush. Or what he shipped out to Syria or other countries before the war.

[A.C.]

There was a car captured by American forces in a garage in Faluja that was being rigged with explosives that I believe had American licence plates or was in some way deemed to be stolen from the US.

[Mr Blifil]

I note you don't inquire as to where they derived their explosives. Perhaps from the enormous caches that were left unguarded by our troops after the fall of Baghdad? You see, a car from overseas is not as dangerous as the bomb used to blow it up.

Also Zarqawi was in custody twice and released before he became public enemy number one. But I suppose that's just part of GWB's genius, to let him free so he could first do damage, thereby providing the administration with a nice bogeyman. Never mind the decades upon decades of hostilities between the Shia and the Sunnis. Yeah it was Zarqawi who was really stirring the drink.

As for "Al Qaeda in Iraq," this is a title that Bin Laden himself has not embraced, it's a sign of Zarqawi's megalomania, and you should refrain from use of the name.