U.S. detainee alleged to have been in al Qaeda camp
A U.S. citizen imprisoned in Ethiopia is said to have admitted being in an al Qaeda camp in Somalia and trying to fire a weapon during a clash. But he denied he was an Islamic fighter. BY JONATHAN S. LANDAY <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] WASHINGTON -- http://www.miamiherald.com/578/story/52279.html Amir Mohamed Meshal's father A U.S. citizen imprisoned in Ethiopia reportedly told investigators that he was briefly in an al Qaeda camp in Somalia and had tried to fire a gun during a clash with foreign troops in the south of the war-torn country, but denied he was a fighter or had undergone military training. Amir Mohamed Meshal, 24, of Tinton Falls, N.J., made the statements in early January while he was being held in Kenya for illegally entering the country, according to an account provided to McClatchy Newspapers on condition that the source remain anonymous. His father, Mohamed Meshal, angrily disputed the account, saying that FBI agents who interviewed his son in Kenya had found no grounds on which to charge him, and that four British citizens who had been held with him were freed. ''This was under coercion or under threat,'' he said of the account. ``U.S. officials are orchestrating the whole symphony.'' The case is at the center of an international controversy triggered by the disclosure that Amir Mohamed Meshal -- and scores of other people -- who entered Kenya from Somalia were secretly sent back to Somalia without legal proceedings between Jan. 20 and Feb. 10, then turned over to Ethiopian forces. Ethiopian troops had entered Somalia with U.S. support to help a U.N.-recognized Transitional Federal Government crush the Islamic Courts Council, a coalition of militias accused by the Bush administration of being an al Qaeda front. Amir Mohamed Meshal, who was transferred back to Somalia after being interviewed in Nairobi by FBI agents and a U.S. consular official, has been in a prison in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for more than a month without charges. Ethiopian officials have told U.S. diplomats that a hearing will be held in the next few weeks at which he could be declared a prisoner of war. Samuel Assefa, the Ethiopian ambassador to Washington, said no U.S. official had contacted him about the case, and that the Foreign Ministry in Addis Ababa had no details. The State Department, however, said U.S. officials had been in touch with ''high level'' Ethiopian officials and gained access to the detainee last week. Amir Mohamed Meshal told investigators in Kenya that foreign soldiers captured him carrying an AK-47 assault rifle during a battle in a forest in southern Somalia, according to the account provided to McClatchy News Service. He said he had aimed the weapon at them but it misfired, and he recalled wondering how such a reliable gun could misfire at such an inopportune moment. He admitted to investigators that he had been at an al Qaeda camp west of Mogadishu, but denied that he was a fighter or had undergone training, and had remained there for only a brief period. Asked if he thought he had made a mistake, he replied, ``We messed up.'' (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. 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