WINNING THE WoT:

Top al-Qaeda figure surrenders under Saudi amnesty (Barbara Slavin, 7/13/04, USA TODAY)

A longtime member of al-Qaeda, who may have knowledge about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, arrived in Saudi Arabia Tuesday after turning himself in to Saudi diplomats in Iran.

Saudi officials and terrorism experts say Khaled al-Harby is not believed to have much information about ongoing operations by the terrorist group but could help track down bin Laden and other fugitives. Al-Harby, who is disabled, contacted the Saudi Embassy in Tehran last month from an undisclosed location along the Afghan-Iranian border, taking advantage of a month-long Saudi offer of amnesty.

"He could be potentially significant," says Kenneth Katzman, an expert on al-Qaeda at the Congressional Research Service in Washington. "He's the only operative who we know actually saw bin Laden during the Afghan war. He may be in a position to know where bin Laden has been and be in touch with people familiar with exfiltration routes from Afghanistan."

Al-Harby appeared on a videotape in December 2001 sitting alongside bin Laden in a hideout believed to be in the Afghan city of Kandahar. Al-Harby brags on the tape that he was smuggled into Afghanistan by a member of Saudi Arabia's religious police and tells bin Laden that several prominent Saudi clerics had praised the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

A question for John Kerry: if we aren't winning why are they surrendering?

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 14, 2004 12:05 AM