Regards, Ivan
Posted on 08/08/2004 10:20:17 PM PDT by MadIvan
A LEADING al-Qaeda operative who once ran a training camp in Afghanistan has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates and handed over to Pakistani officials.
Qari Saifullah Akhtar is now in custody, marking the latest in a string of breakthroughs against the al-Qaeda network, according to Pakistan’s information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
Akhtar allegedly ran an al-Qaeda training camp in Rishkhor, Afghanistan, where terrorists learned kidnapping and assassination techniques, as well as traditional combat skills used by Taleban fighters in their war to win control of the country before they were ousted in 2001.
"We can confirm that we have Qari Saifullah," Ahmed said.
About 3,500 men passed through the Rishkhor camp, a sprawling complex of shattered barracks and dusty training fields about ten miles south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Osama bin Laden and the Taleban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, are both believed to have visited the camp.
It was deserted in the hours ahead of the United States bombing campaign in October 2001, and Akhtar escaped. It is now used as a base by Afghan soldiers.
Mr Ahmed said Akhtar had been arrested in Dubai and handed over to Pakistan, but did not specify when. An intelligence official said he was being held in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.
Meanwhile, a series of witnesses have given accounts of six senior al-Qaeda fugitives in Africa buying up diamonds before the 11 September attacks on the US, according to a confidential report by United Nations-backed prosecutors.
The first-person accounts detailed by the prosecutors add to long-standing claims that al-Qaeda laundered millions of dollars in terrorism funds through Liberian diamonds before launching its deadliest offensive.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Picture of Michael Moore is needed here. At least in spirit.
How many training camps - and camp leaders - were there? From the numbers (few thousand recruits per camp, total recruits# in the range of 20-30 thousand) it would appear that there were maybe a dozen or fewer of these camp leaders. I'm just trying to figure how important this latest catch is.
It's pretty important, from what I've been reading about this guy he was one of the more serious organizers.
Woooooooooooooooooo...hooooooooooooooo...exciting news! :-)
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