Posted on 07/30/2004 7:54:26 PM PDT by ambrose
Bin Laden's network 'crumbling'
Published: 31 July 2004
ISLAMABAD: The network supporting Osama bin Laden was crumbling after the arrest of a top Al Qaeda operative, one of the world's most wanted men, a senior government minister said yesterday.
The Tanzanian-born Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani had a $5 million reward on his head, and is wanted by the United States for his role in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in East Africa.
Investigators are scouring a computer and several discs seized when they captured Ghailani and 13 others after a 14-hour gunbattle with security forces last weekend in the city of Gujarat, 175km southeast of Islamabad, intelligence sources said.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said that he was sure the African would prove a rich source of information on the Al Qaeda network that is supporting fugitive Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al Zawahri.
Both are believed to be hiding out in rugged mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
"Osama bin Laden or Al Zawahri don't work in isolation," Hayat said. "They work through these networks."
The minister said those networks are "obviously in the process of crumbling at this point of time."
"We have certainly gained important and valuable information as a result of these arrests," he said.
Intelligence sources said Ghailani had been flushed out of South Waziristan, a Pashtun tribal region on the border with Afghanistan.
The sources said Ghailani was captured along with his Uzbek wife and two South Africans after his driver led police to his hide-out.
The security forces have also caught his local contact, Ejaz Warraich, a member of Millat-e-Islamia, a group formerly known by the name Sipah-e-Sahaba, a Sunni group whose main targets have been members of Pakistan's Shi'ite Muslim sect. Warraich rented the safe house for Ghailani.
Ghailani, who is in his early 30s and goes by the nicknames "Foopie" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian", was indicted in New York in 1998 for the blasts that blew up the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
He reportedly could not drive a car at the time of the bombings, but Ghailani is probably the most senior Al Qaeda operative caught in Pakistan since the arrest in March 2003 of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Assailants, meanwhile, fired about 23 rockets at paramilitary posts in southwestern Pakistan, police said.
The rockets landed near two Frontier Constabulary troops posts in Sui, a town about 350km southeast of Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province, said Jalal Khoso, a police official.
Khoso said the troops fired in the direction from where they believed the rockets were launched but any casualties among the attackers were not known.
A statement claiming to speak for Al Qaeda vowed yesterday that the terror network would "shed blood all over Europe" following the expiry of a truce offer by its chief Osama bin Laden.
"We will not hesitate to shed blood all over Europe, in Rome and elsewhere, so long as the countries we target revolve in America's orbit," said the statement signed by "Abu Hafs Al Masri Brigades - Al Qaeda".
"From here, from Italy, Britain, Bulgaria and all European countries, we call on our units to mobilise and brace for a battle of a different kind. Get ready to spill blood."
;-)
Last time I read that Gailani had $25mil on his head. Now it's only $5mil. Does it mean that other 20mil has already been stolen.. er.. distributed?
We are all doomed. The War on Terror is a failure, and we'd be much better off electing Kerry so we can turn our national security over to Kofi and Chirac.
Heck, some burger flipper in Ohio just lost his job. Yet another reason to dump Bush.
Crumble Bump
"Foopie"? That's pretty scary. Of course, if you call me "Foopie" I might start blowing up buildings, too.
I've been thinking this means we're getting closer to OBL, or his skeletal remains.
Interesting set up. Some driver. Getting closer.
When I read it first it said, "up to 25 mil."
I wondered at the time what would cause it to be more or less???
"I wondered at the time what would cause it to be more or less???"
More than most other things, money is subject to entropy and tends to dissipate, given half a chance. Here, I believe, we are given an especially good demonstration of this basic principle.
It's all Bush's fault......
"Bin Laden's network 'crumbling' "
Women, children hardest hit.
"From here, from Italy, Britain, Bulgaria and all European countries, we call on our units to mobilise and brace for a battle of a different kind. Get ready to spill blood."
Hmmm...interesting that blood will not be spilled in America. I guess more appeasement and prostration before the enemy is needed by the Europeans.
We get to be last!
They know that if they attack us it only make the "Great Satan" come over and stomp even more on their guts.
Osama respects the strong horse.
"Hey fellers! Wait! I haven't reported for duty yet! C'mon."
We have so far only sent tens of thousands of our strong horses (albeit, our best) to stomp their worthless carcasses into the dirt. We have millions more if necesssary.
Bin Laden's network 'crumbling'
Yes, CNN has been in trouble for some time now...
Know what, that burger flipper is still an AMERICAN. Although I do well, (and maybe you do, too) try not to be so callous about the less fortunate amongst us.
"Sorry, fellas, I have way too many points on my license. I don't dare carry out a suicide attack on the U.S Embassy. My license would be suspended for sure! I'm glad you understand. Thanks! You guys do it this time, and I'll get the next one. Allah Akbar."
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