Chris Hedges recently interviewed author Seth Harp about his new book, “The Fort Bragg  Cartel.” In the interview Harp makes some amazing claims about an American soldier named Ali Muhammad. Here’s an excerpt:

HEDGES:”Before we go into the drug dealing, I want you to talk about Ali Muhammad. This is a fascinating story. I’ll let you tell it.”

[…]

HARP: “Sure. Um … So when it came to 9/11 and telling the story of 9/11 in a way that I hope could be fresh, I focused on a role of a Fort Bragg soldier whose name was Ali Muhammad. He was actually born in Egypt and was a special forces soldier in Egypt but came over to … Fort Bragg, which is the home to the JFK special warfare center school, which often hosts or sponsors foreign military officers. They’re from countries that are allied with the United States such as Egypt.

“There they often become assets of either the CIA or just assets of the national security institutions in general. Ali Muhammad was one of those people. It’s a question of how deeply we want to get into it because this guy’s career was quite extensive. But in short, he was some kind of operative in the CIA’s war in Afghanistan against the Russian occupiers in the 1980s. He was deeply involved in that. Most likely as an asset of the CIA. We know that he had been approached by the CIA. We know that he was monitored by them and that he was receiving money from obscure sources. He also became a US citizen and actually joined the army and was stationed at Fort Bragg as a uniformed American soldier, which I think is important to point out because subsequently he became a close associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri who of course was the co-founder of al-Qaeda with Osama bin Laden.

“Ali Muhammad, this American soldier, then went on to personally train Osama bin Laden and all of Osama bin Laden’s core security detail in special operations warfare tactics, specifically using manuals that he took from Fort Bragg, and trained them in all sorts of things, you know, surveillance and ambushes, including in how to hijack airplanes. He specifically taught the core leaders of al-Qaeda how to hijack airplanes using box cutters. It was that specific because we have a copy of the training manual … or the FBI has a copy of the training manual … that Ali Muhammad used to train these guys. 

“Now Ali Muhammad was was reeled in somehow to the United States after the Kenya and Tanzania bombings in 1998. So he had was brought back to the United States and he was sort of kind of arrested, sort of kind of indicted and prosecuted more or less in these closed doors anonymized federal court proceedings that no one witnessed. And then after that, before he was actually sentenced, he was just disappeared into the bowels of the US government. and nothing has ever been heard from him since. 

“Which is crazy because in the sort of canonical accounts that you hear about 9/11 and the deep causes behind 9/11, why this event befell our country, it’s often acknowledged the role of the CIA’s war in Afghanistan in creating the conditions that led to the rise of al-Qaeda. But if you read mainstream Pulitzer Prizewinning reporters who have written the most extensive accounts of of 9/11, what they will always say is that there was no direct contact between Osama bin Laden and anyone in the CIA.

“And to date, there has never been any evidence of direct contact between the agency and Osama bin Laden. But what that omits is the fact that there was a direct extensive um and uh long-lasting relationship between Osama bin Laden and an active duty member of the US Army special forces. So I think that’s a really significant omission especially because this guy is still in US custody somewhere.”

HEDGES: “He lived in Osama bin Laden’s house in Pakistan, right? In Peshawar, right?”

See full interview with Seth Harp here.

Related:

Democracy Now interview with Harp.

Harp’s Book: