Intel Community Monitors Egypt Prison Breakouts
Eli Lake reports:
The U.S. intelligence community is closely monitoring the state of Egypt's highest security prisons, trying to track dozens of senior members of al Qaeda, the Islamic Group and Egyptian Islamic Jihad to find out whether any have escaped and where they have gone.
"Yes, we are monitoring this," Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told The Washington Times on Thursday when asked about reports of breakouts from Egyptian prisons since the Jan. 25 uprisings began in Cairo and Alexandria.
After Pakistan, Egypt holds the largest number of senior al Qaedaleaders, according to two U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity.
The jailbreaks occurred in the first days after the unrest after police left their posts guarding some prisons. Several news reports suggested that the Interior Ministry deliberately allowed the jails to empty in order to justify a crackdown later on.
U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence officials say they are concerned about the fates of prisoners such as Shawky Salama Mostafa andMohammed Hassan Mahmoud, two suspected leaders of Egyptian Islamic Jihad captured by U.S. forces in 1998 in Albania but sent toEgypt for trial. Human Rights Watch and other groups report the two men were tortured in Egyptian jails.
U.S. intelligence officials are also trying to locate Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman, the son of the "Blind Sheik," Omar Abdel-Rahman, the mastermind of the failed 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003 but was eventually sent to Egypt.
Senior Egyptian officials have warned that senior jihadists may have escaped from prison in the midst of the popular uprising. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Vice President Omar Suleiman said al Qaedaoperatives and other terrorists are among those who have escaped.
"This is a serious matter. We must use every bit of strength to bring them back to prison," he said.
