Posted on 03/03/2003 8:41:24 AM PST by Indy Pendance
March 3 — Suspected Sept. 11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is believed to command a global network of al Qaeda terrorists, but in the three days since his arrest he has refused to tell interrogators anything about planned attacks, instead reciting the Koran to himself, U.S. officials told ABCNEWS.
Mohammed was questioned for a third day by U.S. and Pakistani agents today. Analysts said interrogators were seeking details of any planned al Qaeda attacks and leads on the whereabouts of the world's most-wanted man, Osama bin Laden.
Though the arrest of Mohammed in Pakistan on Saturday has been described as the biggest coup yet in the war on terror, he has so far refused to answer any questions, and the computers and cell phones seized during the arrest have not yielded the wealth of information that officials had hoped they would, U.S. officials told ABCNEWS.
Authorities plan to try to get him to open up by using sleep deprivation and psychological disorientation, U.S. officials said.
Mohammed's willingness to talk and the skills and methods of interrogators are expected to be key factors in determining whether the CIA can learn anything useful from the alleged planner of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Captured in a raid in the city of Rawalpindi, he is now believed to be in U.S. custody at a military base in the region. The Pakistani government, however, said Mohammed remained in Pakistani custody, and denied reports that he had been moved out of the country.
A top priority in the questioning is gaining intelligence that could help disrupt attacks being planned or lead to added precautions, American officials said, and the arrest of Mohammed has already prompted a flurry of activity by the FBI targeting possible al Qaeda sympathizers.
That could mean a domestic law enforcement raid to break up a cell ready to strike, or tighter security at areas Mohammed might name as targets subject to imminent attacks. Intelligence about Mohammed's activities led in part to the orange, or "high," alert that lasted most of February, counterterrorism officials said.
Overseas, officials hope it could mean an operation that leads to the capture of bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader.
Possibility of Panic
Such information is just what he is most likely to try to keep secret, or lie about. Still, terrorists who learn of Mohammed's capture may alter their plans, abandon safe houses or make hurried telephone calls — actions that could expose them to detection.
A U.S. intelligence memo dated Feb. 26 warned Mohammed was overseeing plans to have al Qaeda operatives in the United States attack suspension bridges, gas stations and power plants in New York and other major cities, Newsweek reported Sunday.
The only al Qaeda capture that approaches the magnitude of Mohammed's was that of Abu Zubaydah last March. Zubaydah more than once provided information that sent American security officials scurrying to provide warnings to cities and sectors of the economy, knowing all the while that he could be lying.
Zubaydah did provide some information that was later verified through other sources, officials said. That included intelligence that led to the detention of Jose Padilla, the American federal officials allege was plotting to use a radiological weapon on U.S. soil.
‘Equal to the Liberation of Paris’
U.S. officials were elated by Mohammed's capture.
"This is equal to the liberation of Paris in the second World War," said Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on ABC's This Week.
"This is a giant step backward for the al Qaeda," Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Sunday. "Now their operations commander is simply out of operations."
Officials were not releasing details of their plans for Mohammed. Previous high-level al Qaeda captives have not been brought to the United States, where they would have rights not afforded on foreign soil, U.S. officials say. Where they are, however, has not been disclosed.
Picking His Brain
The next step is attempting to get information from Mohammed.
U.S. officials insist they eschew physical, violent torture, although it is unclear if all of America's allies live by a similar code.
Also less clear are to what extent interrogators use certain methods that human rights groups also regard as torture: sleep deprivation, threats of torture and other techniques intended to confuse, frighten or wear down a captive.
"We don't sanction torture but there are psychological and other ways that we can get most of what we need," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Whatever the method, the goal is to get inside a prisoner's head and get him talking, experts say. An interrogator may try to appeal to Mohammed's vanity, his fears, or whatever lever seems to offer the best avenue to getting information that will stop terrorist attacks.
A Terror History Lesson?
As his interrogation moves away from the immediate, Mohammed can provide counterterrorism officials with a deeper understanding of al Qaeda and its history.
Officials believe he can detail how the Sept. 11 attacks were put together, answering long-standing questions about the plot's origins: Who chose the World Trade Center and Pentagon as targets? Who picked Sept. 11 as the date?
American officials say Mohammed, who was born in Kuwait and has both Pakistani citizenship and ancestry, planned and coordinated key aspects of the Sept. 11 operation.
Any information he provides can be cross-checked with that of Ramzi Binalshibh, his former aide who was captured in September. Binalshibh was a part of the cell that included Mohamed Atta, chief among the Sept. 11 hijackers.
In the mid-1990s, Mohammed also worked with his nephew Ramzi Yousef and two others in the Philippines on a number of operations. Yousef is in prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
One plan called for bombing 11 trans-Pacific airliners in flight. A second involved crashing an airplane into CIA headquarters outside of Washington. Officials have suggested these plots — broken up in their infancy with the arrests of Mohammed's associates — were the seeds of Sept. 11.
Mohammed is also believed to have been involved in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
The four plotters were linked to al Qaeda through a financial operative named Khalifa, who is bin Laden's brother-in-law, officials have said. Khalifa is believed to remain at large.
Hopefully with no teeth.
The future of our nation is on the line. The bastard should be on the receiving end of the the most horrific torture yet devised.
Poor analogy. Has anyone seen the French cheering along the Champs Elysee lateley? I think it's more like capturing Hermann Goering.
I am not for medevil means, but my gut tells me he knows so much that he may end up at the Mossaud and they will find out everything.
This means he's singing like a chorus of canaries.
"Disinformation ... is funny,
It makes... a cloudy day sunny..."
Michael
This is all disinformation, geared to maximally disrupt the al quaeda boys as we start a war.
Why would the government leak this? It would seem the better tactic would be to say that the computers and CDs yielded a wealth of new information.
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