Pak's Khan and Mehmood met Osama: Report
Press Trust Of India
Posted online: Sunday, April 03, 2005 at 1331 hours IST
Updated: Sunday, April 03, 2005 at 1335 hours IST
New Delhi, April 3: Pakistani scientists Abdul Qadeer Khan and Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood had held meetings with Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders, exchanged letters with militant organisations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and attended their gatherings and rallies, a media report said.
"When the CIA searched Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood's UTN (Umma Tameere-Nau) office in Kabul, they found large amounts of data on the construction and maintenance of nuclear weapons from the Kahuta laboratories. It also found letters exchanged between the UTN and islamist extremist organisations including Lashkar-e-Toiba", a report in Pakistani weekly said.
Mehmood, a close confidante of A.Q. Khan and a former Director of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, was arrested on October 23, 2001, at the headquarters of the UTN which he had set up for 'humanitarian work in Afghanistan, it said.
Quoting the famed journal Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the article said Khan and Mehmood and other scientists of his organisation 'attended Lashkar-e-Toiba gatherings'.
Khan also appeared in the rallies of the LeT headed by Hafeez Saeed. The militant outfit, which later changed its name to Jamaat al-Dawaa after being banned, "is alleged to have helped in equipping Al Qaeda with 'dirty bombs', the article said.
Mehmood, who was used to enrich uranium in Pakistan's Khushab plant, and Khan were also known to have held meetings with top Al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden, the paper said.
The Friday Times said Mehmood "may have been a genius but he was crazy in his religious zeal" and had a firm belief that plutonium enrichment in Pakistan "should not be kept secret and should be passed around to islamic countries to challenge Israel and the West. He also had expert knowledge of the global nuclear black market".
After his arrest, Mehmood had denied he had ever met bin Laden. However, after months of questioning "he admitted to having met Osama, Al Zawhiri and other Al Qaeda members repeatedly, including on the day Al Qaeda struck in New York" (9/11).
The weekly said, "this time he (Mehmood) disclosed that he discussed the bombing of an American city with nuclear weapons. He told the CIA that Osama had obtained fissile material from the islamic movement of Uzbekistan of Tahir Yuldashev, recently said to be in hiding in South Waziristan. Mehmood said he had passed on information on nuclear technology to Osama, but had not discussed creating a Hiroshima-like nuclear blast in America".
When he was thereafter subjected to a lie detector test, he failed it", the weekly said.
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=44314
Note: This is from an Indian newspaper
This is important
Back on Osama's trail
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD Both Pakistani and US intelligence believe that they are hot on the heels of Osama bin Laden, after his trail went cold months ago.
"Both the US and concerned Pakistani authorities are positive that in the coming days we shall be around Osama bin Laden," a senior Pakistani official told Asia Times Online in an exclusive interview, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The potential breakthrough in the hunt for bin Laden follows the arrest of al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi in Pakistan last week, and an important lead he divulged during interrogation. Abu Faraj was interrogated by various agencies, including Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Britain's MI6 and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This is according to the Pakistani official, who was assigned by Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf - the target of two assassination attempts allegedly masterminded by Abu Faraj - to coordinate and oversee investigations involving recent al-Qaeda detainees in Pakistan.
"The arrest of al-Libbi has only one significance for Pakistan, and that is that he was involved in assassination plots on Musharraf. Apparently there is no way that we will get Osama bin Laden through al-Libbi. MI6 also interrogated al-Libbi separately, and they are also of this opinion, that al-Libbi is little more than a foot soldier and no way eligible to be named as an operational chief. However, US interrogators have a different opinion and they call al-Libbi the catch of the year," the official said.
"Nevertheless," said the official, "the arrest cannot be down-played as insignificant. During interrogation, al-Libbi pointed [out] Bajur Agency, a tribal area situated in North West Frontier Province, where we found an al-Qaeda sanctuary and arrested many important operatives, including an Uzbek."
Despite repeated questioning from Asia Times Online, the official refused to say whether the Uzbek was the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Tahir Yaldevish, who has been widely reported to have been seen in Pakistan's tribal areas. "This is a state secret," the official said.
"Neither will I tell you his name nor give you any hint, but it is true that there is big 'head money' on him, and as a result of interrogations so far we are quite sure that through him we will be getting Osama bin Laden, or at least we will be around his sanctuary and be able to track his area of rotation. At present, we are completely in the dark."
The official believes that a breakthrough will come soon, but this carries problems. "After that [bin Laden's apprehension] a new debate will start on whether Osama should be arrested in Pakistan's tribal areas or not," said the official.
"I am not part of any strategic community, but my political acumen suggests that in the present drive we will find Osama bin Laden in our tribal areas, and I am sure we will soon ... we should try to push him to the other side of the border and then let US troops arrest him. He should not be arrested by or in Pakistan. Because if that happens, I tell you that the Pakistan army will lose its honor among the masses forever, and at the same time there would be retaliation against the government beyond our comprehension, and in that process anything is possible, real terrorism, bloodshed and even revolution," he continued.
Recalling his experience in dealing with the interrogation of the Uzbek, the official maintained that it had been "truly incredible".
"You can differ in ideologies, but it is difficult not to be impressed by conviction. We are politicians - compromise, retreat and lies are part of our business, but believe me, I passed one hour with that Uzbek and I admitted to myself some guilt - his unbreakable conviction for his cause was the reason.
"He was blindfolded, and when an interrogator served him a glass of water, he said, 'Make sure that it is [served] with the right hand, and not the left hand.' [as per Muslim custom] He gave a full lecture on their cause, and said that he had no regrets that he had joined al-Qaeda. He even recognized me from my voice, as he said that he had often heard me on television, and advised that I should take care as soon everybody 'would be accountable before Allah'.
"I am the person who is monitoring things very closely, and I see the arrest of bin Laden not very far away, this is the same opinion of the US authorities following al-Libbi's arrest. But whether it will bury extremism once and for all, or spark it, is a different debate," the Pakistani functionary commented.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GE14Df04.html