al Qa’idah town, Yemen
(common spelling: al Qaeda)
On 26 September 1997 I was taken to a clandestine meeting in a secluded base in Yemen.
In 2009 I telephoned British Counter Terrorism Command (CTC), aka SO15 and described the location of my 1997 meeting with people I suspected were linked to al Qaeda as being a 10 or 20-minute drive north of Taiz and 5 or 10-minute drive further cross country after turning right off the main road.
In April 2015 I repeated this location description -as being a 10 or 20-minute drive north of Taiz and 5 or 10-minute drive further cross country after turning right off the main road - to British Counter Terrorism Command (CTC), aka SO15.
In September 2015 Newsweek magazine report reported:
"The town [of al Qaidah] has no connection with the Al Qaeda terrorist organizations”
Author: journalist Lauren Walker
9 May 2017 My first documented description of my 1997 meeting location - sent to the British Counter Terrorism Command (CTC), aka SO15. I describe the location as within ½-hours drive north of Taiz city, and a short drive from the main road
On 1 November 2017 I found my al Qaeda meeting location on google maps - as I zoomed out I saw the name of the town - al Qaidah. This is a meeting that I have long suspected may have been with al Qaeda, and had said so to SO15 in my 2009 telephone call.
2 November 2017 I emailed a detailed description of my 1997 meeting location to the British Counter Terrorism Command (CTC), aka SO15
In a December 2017 New York Times interview with 9/11 trial defense attorney Ms. Alka Pradan, reporter Jeffrey Stern again claimed that the town of al Qaidah had no connection to the terror group al Qaeda.
My approximate route to al Askeriya from the main road is marked by the red dashed line in the image below. The second image with a green route arrow marks the entrance to the al Askariya base and the yellow star marks the building I visited briefly on 26 September 1997.
