The Falcon and the Parrot

Alan Howell Parrot

The story below from Alan H. Parrot is extremely interesting and plausible. In the world of intelligence it is always good to learn about an enemies proclivities in this case Osama Bin Laden’s (UBL) love of falconry. Moreover, some key facts below are critical concerning the current accusations flowing from the Obama administration about alleged torture of enemy combatants.

After 9/11 several high-ranking members of Al Qaeda (AQ) fled to Iran including Osama bin Laden’s son, Sa’ad.

Since 9/11 the United States has held direct talks with Iran, and through intermediaries, concerning scores of AQ terrorists that Iran has allowed to seek refuge there. This includes an unspecified number of senior lieutenants, and members of AQ’s management council or Shura Council. The Shura Council would be the equivalent to President Obama’s cabinet or the board of directors of Dupont. Since 2003 the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have unsuccessfully sought the deportation of this AQ group, that included UBL’s son Saad bin Laden.

Much of the information concerning AQ lieutenants in Iran came from AQ detainees interrogated by the U.S. government, including Yemeni AQ senior lieutenant, Waleed Mohammed bin Attash. Attash organized the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole. Information was also gleaned from NSA electronic intelligence intercepts.

The 9/11 Commission’s chairman, Thomas Kean, said, “We believe….that there were a lot more active contacts, frankly, with Iran and with Pakistan than there were with Iraq.”

A previous Commission staff report found that AQ collaborated with Hizbullah and its Iranian sponsors in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers, in Saudi Arabia. Previously, the attack had been attributed only to Hizbullah, with Iranian support. A U.S. indictment of UBL filed in 1998 for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa said AQ “forged alliances….with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hizbullah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the U.S.”

Iranian officials approached the AQ leadership after the bombing of the USS Cole and proposed a collaborative relationship in future attacks on the U.S., but the offer was turned down by UBL, allegedly because he did not want to alienate his supporters in Saudi Arabia.

On January 16, 2009 the United States Treasury Department zeroed-in on four alleged AQ operatives with ties to the organization's operations in Iran. The department issued executive order 13224, freezing the men's assets and prohibiting transactions between them and U.S. citizens. The purpose of such an order is to target the operatives as well as those that support them, and forces Iran to publicly accept responsibility for how it is meeting its international obligations regarding AQ. The four men, including Osama Bin Laden's third oldest son Sa’ad bin Laden, Muhammad Rab'a al-Sayid al-Bahtiyti, Ali Saleh Husain and Mustafa Hamid, were detained by Iranian authorities in 2003 and held under house arrest. It is believed the Iranians released Sa'ad bin Laden in December 2008 and he went to Pakistan. An Italian reporter claimed that Sa’ad bin Laden was in Lebanon.

Now here is where the plot thickens a bit and gets interesting. Alan Howell Parrot has been the director of The Union for the Conservation of Raptors (UCR) for several years. Mr. Parrot has loved falcons since he was a young man. His love of falcons brought him into contact with several wealthy Arabs who hired him for his services. Many rich Arabs love falconry. Parrot appears to be a genuine person and not a scam artist. I will follow up with an article on international falcon smuggling.

Alan Howell Parrot asserts that UBL is in Iran. Mr. Parrot is a Sikh and served as a Falconer for many years for the rulers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and members of Saudi Royal family. In that capacity he was a regular guest in the seasonal Falconry-hunting camps and had access to all participants. Parrot has been offering evidence of UBL's sighting in Iran since November 2004. UBL is a very tall, thin man so I do not think Mr. Parrot is confused. It is possible UBL has a double though. Mr. Parrot has spoken to a great number of U.S. government officials at the Department of Defense, the FBI, Senators and even to the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Gen. Michael V. Hayden. Government officials who asked to remain nameless confirmed Parrot's contact with the government. Still, no one responded.

Parrot's passion to save the falcons led him and his team to UBL. In November 2004 a UCR field operator in Iran happened to meet UBL. Parrot presented the very detailed and convincing evidence to former senior US military officials. Between November 2004 and January 2009 Parrot says he has "diligently reported UCR meetings with UBL in Iran to U.S. government agencies. At no time did the Bush Administration request interviews with any of the UCR field operators who tracked and met UBL in Iran." Parrot provided accounts of UBL's movement and details of six meetings UCR's operators had with UBL in Iran; some were held near Zehedan, in Southern Iran, others in a safe house North of Tehran and in Mashhad. This information was confirmed during a debriefing by an expert interrogator on march 2008.

Falconry is a 2,000-year-old tradition among Arabs, especially princes and sheikhs. Falconry is hugely popular in the Middle East. In fact, when I served in Iraq some of my Middle Eastern translators raised pigeons for falconry. The pigeons can also be quite expensive. The founder of the Saudi kingdom, Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, was known as "the Falcon of the Peninsula" (Al Saqr al Jazira). Saudi Prince Fahd bin Sultan described Falconry as the Arabs' "form of golf, a place to relax and conduct business.''

Hunters gather several times a year in well-equipped hunting camps in the Arabian deserts, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, among other places, to hunt with falcons that cost $100,000 and in some cases more than $2 million. Not surprisingly, the illegal trade in falcons is valued at more than $300 million annually. UBL is a known as an avid Falconer.

Former White House counter terrorism advisor Richard Clarke told the 9/11 Commission that in 1999 the U.S. "planned to bomb a Falconry camp in Pakistan when UBL was present." That raid, however, "was scrubbed because a minister from the United Arab Emirates was a member of the hunting party."

Parrot is an avid Falconer and conservationist who, in 1974, when he was just 18 years old, began his career training hunting falcons for the Shah of Iran. He excelled in his work and was retained by wealthy Arabs in Kuwait and the Gulf States who flew him regularly from Ithaca, NY to the Middle East. He was attending Cornell University but he left school after 3 years in favor of trapping and training falcons for UAE president and Abu Dhabi's ruler Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayyan. From 1981 to 1991 he continued to work for Zayed, who hosted him in his many palaces, where Parrot met and befriended many of the ruler's guests. Sheikh Zayed's recommendation opened doors to employment with other Arab leaders. Parrot also worked for Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.

Parrot was a civilian undercover agent in "Operation Falcon," conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), to stop the multi-million dollar international smuggling of North American falcons to the Middle East. That operation resulted in the arrest of over 300 falcon smugglers the world over.

Parrot also helped stop Prince Bandar, the former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., from smuggling falcons from the U.S. on board a Royal Saudi Airlines charted plane. Bandar paid his $150,000 fine to the Department of Justice, from his Washington DC Riggs Bank account. It was the same account which Bandar's wife used to pay two of the 9/11 hijackers.

For his work in Operation Falcon, Parrot received two letters of commendation from the Canadian government. Together with his dedicated team of falcon lovers, Parrot continued to collect evidence on falcon smuggling throughout Central Asia, Russia, China, and the Middle East. In 2001 he established The Union for the Conservation of Raptors (UCR), a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. Its mandate pertains "to the conservation and sustainable management of raptors, with specialized expertise on Middle East falconry practices and smuggling cartels with operational linkage to AQ."Over the years, Parrot witnessed how the Secretariat for the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) violated its own mandate to protect the birds by licensing illegal trade in sport-falcons to Arab rulers and sheikhs. This led to the creation of 'five star' tented cities erected throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, and Afghanistan, like the royal falconry camp that served as AQ's de-facto 'Board room,' referenced in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Parrot was encouraged by president-elect Barack Obama's statement on January 14, 2009 that his "preference obviously would be to capture or kill Bin Laden."Parrot sent a letter to the Rewards for Justice program at the State Department detailing his efforts to track UBL and providing information of UBL's whereabouts. Parrot also noted that he had discussed the matter with Iranian officials and that "a negotiated and political (i.e. not-military) solution is available" with the Iranian leadership. The letter was sent on January 20, 2009 but Parrot has yet to hear from Washington. Parrot claimed that he has negotiated with Iranian officials the transfer of UBL from Iran "to the custody of the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud al Faisal, whom I know personally," he said.

So what is the bottom line here for the Obama Administration? Waleed bin Attash is one clear cut case where enhanced interrogation techniques produced actionable intelligence. Furthermore, President Obama's witch hunt concerning enhanced interrogation techniques is bogus. Mr. President I would be water boarded and listen to blasting rock n roll music rather than have my entire family blown up by you in Pakistan. Somehow enhanced interrogation (water boarding etc.) doesn't equal a hell-fire missile striking me and my family. It is like asking a Jew in Nazi Germany do you want to be deported to Sweden or do you want to be gassed? The Obama administration has fired several missiles at AQ and Taliban types in Pakistan since Obama took office.