8 conspirators behind
Kuwaiti terror attack?

A Kuwaiti man who confessed to the murder of an American civilian in Kuwait this week is one of eight suspects being held and interrogated by U.S. military officials for the act of terror, WorldNetDaily has learned.

The Kuwaiti interior ministry has identified one suspect, 25-year-old Sami Mohammed Marzook Obaid al-Mutairi, who reportedly said he “embraced the ideas of al-Qaida” and admitted to “committing the crime” of shooting dead Michael Rene Pouliot and wounding David Caraway, both American civilian contractors for the U.S. military.

The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed Kuwaiti security officer, reported that Mutairi was not working alone, but “had partners, maybe two.”

However, U.S. military sources tell WorldNetDaily that eight suspects are currently being held in the shooting of the two Americans Tuesday.

The weapon used in the attack and ammunition were reportedly found hidden in Mutairi’s workplace. He was arrested by Saudi border guards after attempting to cross into that neighboring country. He was extradited to Kuwait yesterday.

A photo of the crime scene, obtained by WorldNetDaily, shows the attack was very close range.

American Michael Rene Pouliot in his bullet-riddled truck.

The suspect is now in the hands of Kuwait’s state security, which is questioning “no less than 15 suspects,” an official told Agence France-Presse.

Mutairi was one of those interrogated after an Oct. 7 attack in which two Kuwaiti gunmen killed a U.S. Marine and wounded another during war games on Failaka Island, 12 miles east of Kuwait City.

In Tuesday’s highway ambush, bullets sprayed from an AK-47 killed 46-year-old Pouliot as he sat in his vehicle at traffic lights near the major U.S. military base, Camp Doha, 10 miles west of Kuwait City.

Caraway was driving the vehicle and escaped with multiple gunshot wounds.

“I was stopped at a red light. I did not see anyone. We were hit with the first volley of machine-gun fire and at that point I wasn’t able to … I feel great,” Caraway told reporters peppering him with questions outside a Kuwaiti hospital where he was released this morning.

Caraway is now en route to Germany for a reunion with his wife.

Tuesday’s attack was the first to target civilians. Pouliot worked for Tapestry Solutions, a software development company based in San Diego, Calif.

“We don’t want to prejudge things … but we believe such incidents would be within the capabilities of the Iraqi regime or Al-Qaida ideology,” Information Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Fahd al-Sabah was quoted as saying soon after the attack.

The Kuwaiti interior ministry has said that one of the two gunmen in the Failaka shooting – both also killed in the attack – had sworn allegiance to terror chief Osama bin Laden.

In November, a Kuwaiti police officer shot and seriously wounded two U.S. soldiers after stopping them on a highway south of the capital.

The suspect, Khalid Messier al-Shimmari, also fled to Saudi Arabia where he was arrested and subsequently extradited to Kuwait.

Some 8,000 Americans are residents of Kuwait while more than 16,000 U.S. troops are currently based in the emirate as the United States threatens to launch a massive military campaign against neighboring Iraq.

The United States may reduce its diplomatic presence in Kuwait due to heightened security concerns, a senior State Department official said yesterday.

Two options are currently under consideration: an “authorized departure,” which would allow non-essential diplomats and the families of all embassy employees to leave Kuwait at Washington’s expense, and an “ordered departure,” which would require those people to leave the country, a second official said.

Either move would be accompanied by a travel warning alerting U.S. citizens to defer plans to visit Kuwait and urging Americans already in the country to consider leaving, the second official said.

Shortly after the latest attack, the U.S. embassy in Kuwait urged Americans to increase their security awareness because of the continued risk of terrorist attacks by groups linked to al-Qaida.

In Tuesday’s attack, a gunman hiding behind a hedge ambushed the sport utility vehicle carrying the two civilian contractors working for the U.S. military. The attack took place at a stoplight about three miles from the U.S. military’s Camp Doha.

The government erected a billboard Thursday at a major Kuwait City intersection that read: “Much Obliged to America and Our Allies: God Bless You All.”

A second memorial service held on Camp Doha for base workers was closed to the public. The base is on a heightened state of alert and U.S. troops are allowed off base only for critical business, a U.S. official told the Associated Press.

Kuwait’s crown prince and prime minister, Sheik Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, sent letters of condolences to President Bush condemning the “terrorist act,” the state-run Kuwait News Agency said.

Small, oil-rich Kuwait was liberated in 1991 from a seven-month Iraqi occupation by a U.S.-led coalition, and depends on Washington for protection. As U.S. forces pour into the emirate, it could become a launch pad for any war on Iraq.

Pouliot is survived by his wife, Carol, and two daughters. After graduating from Iowa State, Pouliot joined General Dynamics Convair Division in San Diego where he worked on many of the mission planning and guidance systems for unmanned aerial weapons. In the early nineties, he was a founding member of Tapestry Solutions. The company has two primary product lines: Vision XXI and the Joint Deployment Logistics Model.

In a eulogy for Pouliot delivered at Camp Doha yesterday, Wayne Hansom said: “He knew that those who seek to use terror to advance their cause must be stopped. He knew the only hope of peace was to confront those who sponsor or use terror to advance their goals. He knew that inaction or appeasement is not an option. Mike was not the kind of person to sit back and wait for others to solve his problems; he focused all his energies and abilities on problem solving, and doing whatever was necessary. Mike came to Kuwait to make a difference, not to die at the hands of cowards and those who employ or encourage them. He was loved and respected by all who knew him. He is greatly missed and his impact to the individuals he touched will live on forever.”