Mullah Krekar presented as Ansar leader on al-Jazeera
 In his defence here in Norway, Mullah Krekar (picture) and his lawyer Brynjar Meling has insisted that the Islamist is a retired leader for the Kurdish extremist movement Ansar al-Islam. However, no more than five weeks ago, Krekar appeared in a television programme on the Arab satellite network al-Jazeera, being called leader of the group.
Newspaper Aftenposten reported Friday that in the Al-Jazeera program, broadcast December 2, Krekar appeared as a guerrilla leader. Wearing a head covering and military fatigues, he offered no protest or correction when he was identified several times as zaim, or leader, of Ansar al-Islam.
Moreover, Krekar confirmed in the debate program called Al-Ittijah-al-Muakis that Ansar al-Islam was behind a suicide bombing in Northern Iraq on March 22. Three people were killed in the bombing, and that incident plays a key role in Norwegian prosecutors' charges against him.
Krekar also displayed detailed knowledge of the incident, saying that after "the Americans bombed us in our areas... one of our brothers, one of the martyr candidates, fastened explosives to himself and his car and drove into an American position." Before he left, Krekar added, the suicide bomber "gave USD 5,000 that he had to his brothers and exchanged his new shoes with old ones."
Then he left, continued Krekar, "and detonated the explosives, and in that manner hit five Americans and 19 from the PUK and an Australian journalist who was with the American in a military vehicle."
Lawyer Brynjar Meling will have a problem explaining away this evidence, freely given to the world by his client.
Krekar's defense attorney initially refused to comment on the Al-Jazeera broadcast, telling Aftenposten that he was standing by Krekar's claims that he hasn't been the leader of Ansar al-Islam since May 2002.
On Friday morning, however, Meling told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that he would take up the Al-Jazeera interview with his client and was confident he'd be able to explain the contradictory claims.
I earlier predicted Krekar would be released by the city court. The court actually made the right decision, in my opinion, by rejecting the police's request for protective custody for Mullah Krekar, simply because the police had done a ridiculously bad job in presenting evidence against him. It will be interesting to see if this new evidence (or other evidence the police claims) makes the appeal more successful.
It will also be interesting to see what PR defense Meling puts forth to the media now. He has so far had great success spinning all negative evidence against his client as CIA conspiracies (yes, that works well in Norway), and the press has been overwhelmingly pro-Krekar despite his clear expressions of sympathy for terrorism, Bin Laden and the Islamofascist agenda generally.
10:36:31 AM 
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