The man who is now leading the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL), the group so brutal that al-Qaeda has disavowed it, was once held prisoner by the United States.
Apparently, Al-Baghdadi was a low-profile prisoner until that moment.
"He was a bad dude," recalled Army Col. Kenneth King, speaking to the Daily Beast, "but he wasn't the worst of the worst."
King was the commanding officer of Camp Bucca, the detention camp in Iraq where Al-Baghdadi was held, and when he heard Al-Baghdadi's words back in 2009, he said he figured the man was saying he knew his captivity had essentially been a joke.
"Like, 'This is no big thing, I'll see you on the block,'" King told the Daily Beast, adding that Al-Baghdadi knew many of his captors at Camp Bucca were from New York.
Now, as the forces of ISIL (also know as ISIS, the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq) have seized large swathes of northern Syria and Iraq and seem poised to assault Baghdad, King said he was surprised that Al-Baghdadi was heading the jihadist group.
ISIS Leader: 'See You in New York'
The Islamist extremist some are now calling the most dangerous man in the world had a few parting words to his captors as he was released from the biggest U.S. detention camp in Iraq in 2009.
"He said, 'I'll see you guys in New York,'" recalls Army Col. Kenneth King, then the commanding officer of Camp Bucca.
King didn't take these words from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as a threat. Al-Baghdadi knew that many of his captors were from New York, reservists with the 306 Military Police Battalion, a unit based on Long Island that includes numerous numerous members of the NYPD and the FDNY. The camp itself was named after FDNY Fire Marshal Ronald Bucca, who was killed at the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
King figured that al-Baghdadi was just saying that he had known all along that it was all essentially a joke, that he had only to wait and he would be freed to go back to what he had been doing.
"Like, 'This is no big thing, I'll see you on the block,'" King says.
King had not imagined that in less that five years he would be seeing news reports that al-Baghdadi was the leader of ISIS, the ultra-extremist army that was sweeping through Iraq toward Baghdad.
Meanwhile...
The mystery surrounding two white flags that appeared on top of the Brooklyn Bridge today deepened as the New York City Police Department admitted they don't know who committed the security breach or how they accomplished it.
White flags, which are symbols of surrender, flew from poles on the stone supports atop the famed bridge that connects Brooklyn and Manhattan over the East River.
"I'm not particularly happy about the event," said NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Police officials said this afternoon that they have surveillance video of a group of four or five individuals walking onto the bridge shortly after 3 a.m.
"Those people will be of particular interest in this investigation," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller, who also oversees intelligence and counter terrorism.
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