Pentagon: Zubaydah Denies al-Qaida Link

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Pentagon: Zubaydah Denies al-Qaida Link

By PAULINE JELINEK
The Associated Press
Monday, April 16, 2007; 8:16 PM

WASHINGTON -- Abu Zubaydah, accused of being a senior al-Qaida
operative, says he has been a U.S enemy since childhood but isn't a
member of the terrorist group or an associate of Osama bin Laden.

Zubaydah also told a military hearing in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that
he had been tortured in U.S. custody and confessed to things he did
not do, according to a Pentagon transcript released Monday.

Zubaydah said that from 1994 to about 2000 he was a facilitator at
guest houses in Pakistan, where he helped Muslims get to Afghanistan's
Khalden training camp for "defensive jihad" _ that is to fight against
forces that invade Muslim lands anywhere. He then helped send the
trained militants on to Bosnia, Chechnya and elsewhere, he said.

-snip-

The Defense Department's redacted 27-page transcript included a
statement read to the hearing by Zubaydah's appointed representative
in addition to lengthy passages that were hard to understand because
Zubaydah spoke in English, acknowledging at one point "I don't know
grammar in English."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601017.html