Associated Press
The Pakistani Interior Ministry today released this photograph of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, a suspected leader of Al Qaeda.
Posted on 05/04/2005 3:30:08 PM PDT by neverdem
ISLAMABAD, May 4 - Pakistani authorities said today that they had arrested a senior Al Qaeda operative suspected of orchestrating two assassination attempts against the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Abu Faraj al-Libbi, described by some counterterrorism officials as the third-most senior leader in the Al Qaeda terrorist network, was arrested on Tuesday, the Pakistani information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said this afternoon. A native of Libya, Mr. Libbi was captured during a raid in South Waziristan, the tribal redoubt of Al Qaeda fighters and their Islamist sympathizers, Mr. Ahmed said.
"This is a big catch," Mr. Ahmed said in a telephone interview. "We were looking for him for a very long time."
Nevertheless, there were conflicting reports on exactly when and how Mr. Libbi was apprehended. A Reuters report quoted the Pakistani interior minister, Aftab Sherpao, as saying Mr. Libbi had been arrested a few days ago. Mr. Ahmed , however, maintained that the arrest came only Tuesday, contending that Pakistani authorities could not have concealed the capture of such a senior figure for more than a day.
In Washington, President Bush said today during a speech on Social Security that the capture of Mr. Libbi had removed "a direct threat" to the United States.
"Today's report of the capture of a top Al Qaeda operative, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, represents a critical victory in the war on terror," Mr. Bush said. "Now al-Libbi was a top general for bin Laden. He was a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al Qaeda network. His arrest removed a dangerous enemy who was a direct threat to America."Pakistan has said it believes that Mr. Libbi succeeded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as head of Al Qaeda operations in the country; Mr. Mohammed was arrested in March 2003 in the nearby garrison town of Rawlapindi.
An American counterterrorism official described the arrest of Mr. Libbi as the most important blow to Al Qaeda since the arrest of Mr. Mohammed more than two years ago.
The official described Mr. Libbi as having risen to become the third most important figure in the Al Qaeda leadership, after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. The official said that Mr. Libbi had assumed some of Mr. Mohammed's leadership role after his arrest, and had played a key role in directing Al Qaeda operations including planning for attacks against the United States homeland.
Other members of the Al Qaeda leadership have been better known, but some of them have been in Iran for more than a year, where their role has been constrained, the official said.
The American official said that human intelligence had "played a critical role" in Mr. Libbi's arrest, and described his apprehension as "just another example of U.S. intelligence working with Pakistan in the global war on terror." But the official would not be more precise about the role the Central Intelligence Agency or others might have played in the arrest.
However, there were conflicting opinions among intelligence officials based in Europe and the Middle East about the importance of Mr. Libbi to the Qaeda organization.
Three officials said they were surprised to hear senior officials in the United States and Pakistan characterize Mr. Libbi as a highly ranked Qaeda commander, saying that they believe there may be some confusion with Abu Al-Liby, a Libyan-born senior Qaeda commander who was indicted for an "operational role" in the August 1998 bombings of two American embassies in east Africa.
One of the intelligence officials, based in the Middle East, said: "I am quite sure there must be a mistake. We don't have information that his man is or was the No. 3 man of Al Qaeda. This man was important for operations in Pakistan, but he is not the No. 3 man in the organization."
However, a senior counter terrorism official based in Europe, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Libbi had become an important operational commander of Al Qaeda who authorities believed was attempting to engineer attacks in Europe and the United States. Mr. Libbi had worked directly with Mr. Mohammed, the official said, assuming many of Mr. Mohammed's responsibilities in Pakistan after his arrest in March 2003. "He's someone we have been watching closely for a while now, and his arrest is an important development," the official said.
The official said counter terrorism officials believe that Mr. Libbi may be one of the few senior Qaeda leaders who knows the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Mr. Libbi is the chief suspect in two separate incidents in December of 2003, both in Rawalpindi. In the first, a bomb ripped through a bridge just moments after Mr. Musharraf's motorcade had passed through; no one was hurt. In the second, two suicide bombers descended upon the president's car with two vehicles stuffed with explosives; nearly 17 people, mostly police officers, were killed.
Mr. Libbi's alleged accomplice in the incidents was a well-known Pakistani militant named Amjad Hussain Farooqi, also implicated in the murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl; Mr. Farooqi was killed last September in a shootout with security forces in southern Pakistan.
Two Pakistani soldiers have been convicted in connection with the assassination attempts; one of them, sentenced to death, managed to escape from a military prison last November.
Pakistan had offered a reward of roughly $340,000 for information leading to the arrest of Mr. Libbi.
General Musharraf's alliance with the United States-led war on terror has made him a ripe target of Islamist militants who once counted Pakistan as an ally.
Douglas Jehl contributed reporting from Washington for this article, and Don Van Natta contributed reporting from London.
Associated Press
The Pakistani Interior Ministry today released this photograph of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, a suspected leader of Al Qaeda.
Bad news for democrats. The media will try to bury this in one day...and now back to the runaway bimbo.
I keep hearing he is the third most important person in Al-Qaeda in the media, but the media seems to be forgetting Abu Musab, who really is al-Qaeda's biggest operational commander and the biggest symbol of al-Qaeda next to Bin Laden.
I guess the media still doesn't want to admit Iraqi is part of the War on Terror.
Are those birthmarks? It doesn't look like he was beaten. If so it certainly is a disadvantage for a terrorist operative to be so marked.
Bummer, another one survives his arrest.
Why would you want him dead, it is so much better that the Pakistanis can have fun with him and get into to lead to even bigger fish.
The first sentence says ...a senior Al Qaeda operative suspected of orchestrating...
They can't make up their minds?
And I note the paper never actually comes right out and refers to the guy as a terrorist. Sheesh.
He looks like a sorry ****.
Maybe it's vitiligo in a native from Libya. It's hard to say without a medical history.
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