Posted on 08/03/2004 6:12:53 PM PDT by True Capitalist
Pakistan hands over 1998 bomber to U.S.
By Anwar Iqbal UPI South Asian Affairs Analyst
Published 8/3/2004 7:37 PM
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Pakistan is believed to have handed over a key al-Qaida operative, Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani, to U.S. authorities who have taken him to an undisclosed location, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources told United Press International Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, Pakistan's Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat announced the arrest of two more terror suspects but refused to disclose their identity, saying that authorities were still interrogating them.
But senior Pakistani intelligence officers involved with the investigation identified the two as South Africans Abu Bakar and Zubair Ismail. Both were identified as new al-Qaida recruits and were arrested during a raid on Ghailani's hideout. Bakar is a physician while Ismail's profession is not known.
The two arrived in the central Pakistani city of Lahore in early July.
Intelligence officials also claimed to have arrested two more al-Qaida suspects Juma Ibrahim, a Syrian, and Mohammed Sultan, a Nigerian. They were arrested at the Lahore airport while trying to leave Pakistan, officials said.
They also had a message for al-Qaida operatives outside Pakistan, according to some officials.
Hayat, when asked to comment on these arrests, said, "We have arrested some Africans but cannot give you any more details."
Ghailani -- the alleged mastermind of the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed 224 people -- was arrested in Pakistan last week.
Some sources, however, maintain that he was caught earlier but his arrest was disclosed only after he had been thoroughly "debriefed" by U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials.
Ghailani was apparently handed over to a CIA team on Sunday night and was flown out of the country in an unmarked plane, the sources said.
He was among those suspected al-Qaida operatives who fled to Pakistan's tribal zone when the Taliban government collapsed in neighboring Afghanistan in December 2001.
Ghailani ended up in South Waziristan, a tribal belt bordering Afghanistan's Khowst province where U.S. troops are now conducting a major operation against the Taliban and al-Qaida. In June, Pakistan also launched a major military operation on its side of the border, which still continues. More than 100 Pakistani troops and an unspecified number of terror suspects have so far been killed in this operation.
The operation forced Ghailani and a dozen other al-Qaida operatives to flee South Waziristan. They ended up in Gujrat, a town in central Pakistan where they were later arrested.
Pakistani and U.S. security officials learned about Ghailani from another al-Qaida suspect Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, alias Abu Talha Khan. A computer engineer in his mid-20s, Khan was under observation for sometime and was arrested last month in Lahore. Khan's attempts to contact a travel agent in Lahore to smuggle Ghailani and his family out of the country apparently led investigators to the al-Qaida hideout in Gujrat. His satellite telephone calls were intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies who have listening facilities in Pakistan. After two weeks of interrogation, Khan pointed the investigators to Ghailani's hideout.
U.S. interception facilities in Pakistan also enabled authorities to trace another key al-Qaida member Musab al-Baloshi to an apartment in a lower middle-class neighborhood in Karachi.
Documents and electronic data retrieved from Khan and al-Baloshi, reportedly led U.S. officials this week to warn against a possible al-Qaida attack against financial institutions in the United States.
Al-Baloshi was arrested in Karachi on June 12 in a Pakistani paramilitary operation supervised by the CIA, intelligence sources said. He is a nephew of al-Qaida leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and was arrested from the home of a Pakistani religious leader near Islamabad in March 2003. Like Mohammed, he was born in the Pakistani province of Balochistan but his parents later moved to Kuwait and subsequently to other Persian Gulf states.
Investigators said that al-Baloshi is also a cousin of Ramzi Yusuf, who carried out the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center and is serving a life sentence in the United States.
Pakistani authorities held al-Baloshi for three days before handing him over to the CIA, which flew him out of the country.
Pakistan has so far arrested and transferred to the United States more than 550 al-Qaida suspects. Although last week's arrests led to the declaration of a high security alert in the United States, some U.S. analysts have claimed that the Bush administration was exaggerating the al-Qaida threat. They say that much of the information that resulted from the arrest was compiled before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan Tuesday rejected the suggestion as incorrect. "Anyone who looks at the detail and specificity of this information ... would not make such an irresponsible suggestion," he said
Authorities, meanwhile, in the United States were taking no chances. With armed policemen riding trains in full combat gear and makeshift police-check posts erected at sensitive crossroads, Washington looked ready to face any threat. Police officers carrying automatic weapons patrolled streets around Capitol Hill.
Police also closed a major thoroughfare on Capitol Hill to set up 14 vehicle checkpoints, creating a huge security perimeter around the Hill. Checkpoints were also set up near the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund buildings, five of the two possible targets for an al-Qaida attack. Three other targets are in New York.
Squads of officers from different agencies patrolled streets around the two financial buildings and the areas near the White House and the State Department. Police with bomb-sniffing dogs were also deployed at some metro stations in downtown Washington.
In neighboring Virginia, thousands of police, firefighters, members of the military, state officials and homeland security experts are preparing for a major anti-terrorism drill later this week. Copyright © 2001-2004 United Press International
Get that man an attorney (NOT!)
What does it matter...? Osama bin Laden is still free!
"authorities were still interrogating them." You betcha, Ms Feinstein do you have anything to say about their methods? Atleast they're probably not using the panty or dog leash torture.
"debriefed" means "kicked repeatedly in the balls", right?
What's up with all the action coming out of Pakistan in the past week?
Whatever his status, I would NOT wish to be as "free" as he is at present.
GET STALE READY......... MOUNT THIS BOY'S HEAD
Any bets on how long before Brokaw,Brian Williams, Andrea Mitchell and Jim Miklasewski are trashing our military and holding candlelight vigils for Foopie ?
Maybe Pakistan President Parvez Musharaf (after four plus assassination attempts on his life) has finally decided to stop the half-stepping and is starting to really kick @ss.
The 'Whoopie for Foopie Concert'!!!!!
"We are the Woorrrrrrrrrrlldd,
We are the Childreeeeeeeeeennnnnn...."
Ben Afflicted, Susan Saranwrap, and Billy CrystalNacht, et al....
The LAST thing we need to be doing is admitting any of these terrorists captured outside of the USA have been turned over to us, or are in our custody. (Whether they have or not.) We must be able to maintain denyability when the left-wing do-gooders and other human-rights groups try to descend upon us.
President Clinton said he would bring them to justice, President Bush did it.
Update here!
New cells have no old.......connections.....
Tidy, tidy........
We are living in very dangerous times......
They've just started a new game.....
IMO
Anyone know if Musab al-Baloshi is aka Mosabir Aroochi? Both names are identified as being KSM's nephew.
Howie-no-neck-Dean was on TV again tonight, railing against the Bush admin. about the terrorist threat. It's all politics, timing, baloney. We're in no danger. Careful Kerry, however, is taking no chances. He says there is a danger and praises the little people who toil away to make our lives safe, but blames Bush for putting us in this position. i.e., making terrorists mad. Time for the UN and appeasement. How predictable. How dumb. A few more speeches like that and Kerry will have to fend off tomatoes and lettuce from 'goons' in the audience.
Curious minds wonder what inducement was made to Mushie and the Pakis to get them to move. Whatever it was, it's worth it.
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