Revealed: Al-Qaida terrorist held in Israel for three years

Samer Abed a-Latif al-Barak, who is known to be of Palestinian origin, reportedly biological weapons expert.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Samer Al-Barak (photo credit: Screenshot Channel 10)
Samer Al-Barak
(photo credit: Screenshot Channel 10)
An al-Qaida terrorist with roots in global jihad has been held for the past three years under administrative detention, it emerged on Sunday.
The terrorist, named as Samer Abed a-Latif al-Barak and of Palestinian origin, has been held in Israel since 2010. The defense establishment is requesting a six month extension of his detention, which will expire in the coming days.
Barak was apparently jailed previously in Jordan and in the United States.
A Justice Ministry spokesman issued what it called an initial statement, confirming that it had submitted a response on Sunday to the High Court regarding a petition over an administrative detention case. The details from the ministry identify Barak as a member of al-Qaida, with a great deal of experience in non-conventional weapons, in particular biological weapons.
The release of the prisoner, the state says, would be a point of no return for the establishment of a significant global jihad infrastructure in the region.
The response identifies the prisoner as a resident of the region, who was born in 1974. It says that the man left the region in 1997 to study microbiology in Pakistan.
He then purportedly went to Afghanistan in 1998 for military training, and even apparently persuaded others from the region to do the same. This was, the state says, with the intention of returning to the region to train others.
The state’s response claims that the man was recruited by al-Qaida in 2001, by the organization’s current leader, Dr. Ayman al- Zawahiri.
Furthermore, the state says, the man was involved in planning terrorist attacks against Israelis and Jews in Jordan throughout 2001. He agreed to train Palestinian terrorists in the production of poisons, in order to carry out attacks against Israelis.
The response says the Americans arrested the man for his activities for al-Qaida, questioned and detained him, and in 2003 handed him over to the Jordanian authorities, who held him until 2008. Israel arrested him in 2010.