Posted on 05/07/2005 5:33:01 PM PDT by Gondring
THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.
Al-Libbi’s arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as “a major breakthrough” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
Bush called him a “top general” and “a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al- Qaeda network”. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said he was “a very important figure”. Yet the backslapping in Washington and Islamabad has astonished European terrorism experts, who point out that the Libyan was neither on the FBI’s most wanted list, nor on that of the State Department “rewards for justice” programme.
Another Libyan is on the FBI list — Anas al-Liby, who is wanted over the 1998 East African embassy bombings — and some believe the Americans may have initially confused the two. When The Sunday Times contacted a senior FBI counter-terrorism official for information about the importance of the detained man, he sent material on al-Liby, the wrong man.
“Al-Libbi is just a ‘middle-level’ leader,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, a French intelligence investigator and leading expert on terrorism finance. “Pakistan and US authorities have completely overestimated his role and importance. He was never more than a regional facilitator between Al-Qaeda and local Pakistani Islamic groups.”
According to Brisard, the arrested man lacks the global reach of Al-Qaeda leaders such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden’s number two, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, or Anas al-Liby.
Although British intelligence has evidence of telephone calls between al-Libbi and operatives in the UK, he is not believed to be Al-Qaeda’s commander of operations in Europe, as reported.
The only operations in which he is known to have been involved are two attempts to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, in 2003. Last year he was named Pakistan’s most wanted man with a $350,000 (£185,000) price on his head.
No European or American intelligence expert contacted last week had heard of al-Libbi until a Pakistani intelligence report last year claimed he had taken over as head of operations after Khalid Shaikh Mohammad’s arrest. A former close associate of Bin Laden now living in London laughed: “What I remember of him is he used to make the coffee and do the photocopying.”
What is known is that al-Libbi moved from Libya to Pakistan in the mid-1980s before joining the jihad in Afghanistan. He married a Pakistani woman and is said to specialise in maps and diagrams. He is thought to have joined Bin Laden in Sudan with other Libyan nationals in about 1992 and to have become Al-Qaeda’s co-ordinator with home-grown Pakistani terrorist groups after 9/11.
Some believe al-Libbi’s significance has been cynically hyped by two countries that want to distract attention from their lack of progress in capturing Bin Laden, who has now been on the run for almost four years.
Even a senior FBI official admitted that al-Libbi’s “influence and position have been overstated”. But this weekend the Pakistani government was sticking to the line that al-Libbi was the third most important person in the Al-Qaeda network.
One American official tried to explain the absence of al-Libbi’s name on the wanted list by saying: “We did not want him to know he was wanted.”
Whatever his importance, al-Libbi is the sixth Al-Qaeda figure to have been caught in Pakistan, suggesting that the country is now the organisation’s centre of operations. The interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, conceded that Bin Laden and his deputy might be hiding in a Pakistani city.
“But the capture of al-Libbi will have made them very apprehensive. Whether big fry or small fry, they’re on the run, I can tell you that.”
LMHO! Good one.
Dog.... who says that I buy into this. The way I look at it, another one bites the dust and thats wonderful. At the rate its going al Libbi could possibly be #1 by next week had it not been for his capture.
Wiki is not of interest to me.
I believe some in the media have gotten the two confused. Stating "#3" is disregarding relevant metrics of importance.
That's right. He was far more important now because of the capture of his evident predecessor.
" French intelligence " ...Is it me or do these 2 words NEVER belong together ?
As soon as I saw this, that's what I thought. But, even then it seems clumsy, but maybe there's a reason for that. Oy, I'm getting dizzy with disinfo......
Yes some in the media have gotten the two confused including the people who wrote this article. Bush, Rich, Musharraf are not getting the two confused as this article suggests.
Stating "#3" is disregarding relevant metrics of importance.
He's been regarded as number three by the Pakistanis ever since he took over for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. You may disagree with his number 3 rating, but this guy is not "a middle-ranker derided by one source as among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation" as this article states.
This article is classic textbook propaganda and it's posted here on FreeRepublic for all to see.
BTW, his resume makes him a big fish and it's not reasonable to argue that he is a number three guy. Especially from Pakistan's POV.
He is on Double SECRET probation
Good sarcasm is based on elements of truth. Where does that leave sarcasm based on propaganda?
I just saw a moment of it but Fox News had a guy on Geraldo( broadcast live I believe) saying ...This guy is a big catch and that he had a notebook with lots of info....I have yet to see this article(which says the oposite)picked up anywhere. So at present I believe it is false ...when I hear it on Fox News I will apologize
He is no small fry.
Also, both the US and Pakistan did wait quite awhile before announcing al-Libby's capture, as a simple examination of the chronology of events confirms.
Don't let a biased piece by the far left Sunday Times gets your panties in a bunch.
Aussie take:
Al-Libbi betrayed by skin disorder
By Rana Jawad in Islamabad
May 05, 2005
IT did not take long for Pakistani authorities to confirm the identity of the motorcycle riding-militant they had caught after a fierce gunfight in a remote north-western town. His skin gave him away.
Alleged al-Qaeda No.3 Abu Faraj al-Libbi looked more like a businessman with his trimmed beard and smart collar and tie when his picture first featured on a Pakistani most wanted poster last year.
But a very different face appeared on Wednesday in the first photograph after his capture. Not just the straggly beard and haunted look, but the facial blotching caused by the skin disorder leucoderma, or vitiligo, the condition suffered by pop star Michael Jackson.
"It was easy for us to immediately recognise him because he is suffering from this peculiar skin disease and it was not difficult to know that 'yes, we've got al-Libbi", a government minister said on condition of anonymity.
Until a year ago the 40-year-old Libyan was a relative unknown.
When he first came to prominence in Pakistan during interrogations after two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003, intelligence agencies only knew him as Dr Taufeeq.
But investigators then rounded up a key Pakistani militant, Salahuddin Bhatti, and his grilling disclosed both al-Libbi's origins and his position in the al-Qaeda hierarchy as the operational chief in Pakistan.
They soon realised that he had filled the vacuum left by the capture in March 2003 of key 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Further confirmation emerged when security forces captured the terror network's computer expert Naeem Noor Khan and Tanzanian Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, wanted by the US for bombing two American embassies in East Africa in 1998.
"Both Naeem and Khalfan used to get instructions from him also," a security official who was involved in the initial interrogation of the duo said.
Their arrests in July last year revealed al-Qaeda had planned terror attacks in the US and Britain that led to a worldwide terror alert.
"The information that we had gathered about him was that he had been getting instructions from Osama bin Laden," another security official said.
According to Pakistan and US defence officials, he became a senior member of what is left of the al-Qaeda leadership from before the US-led military campaign that removed the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.
Al-Libbi is thought to have become bin Laden's personal assistant during the 1990s, when he was involved in providing training to militants at the Al-Farooq camp near the Afghan capital Kabul before the war, security officials said.
The connections he developed there also gave him access to the funds and the manpower to mastermind a string of terrorist attacks – and the ability to blend into the background of Pakistan's chaotic cities and towns. He also had a Pakistani wife.
One of his key contacts became Pakistani al-Qaeda militant Amjad Farooqi, who was gunned down by security forces last September.
A recruiter of militants and suicide bombers from the ranks of Pakistan's sectarian Islamic groups and the jihad holy warriors trained in Afghan camps to fight there and in divided Kashmir, Farooqi got al-Libbi the men he needed for his terror plans.
Al-Libbi also used his contacts to evade arrest, moving from one place to the other, living in Lahore with Ghailani then the south-west province of Baluchistan and finally conservative Northwest Frontier Province.
It was there, in the town of Mardan, that security forces captured him as he rode on a motorcycle with another man on Monday.
Security officials now hope they can use al-Libbi's network of militants themselves – to track down the rest of the al-Qaeda leadership and possibly bin Laden himself.
"He is one of his closest confidants and he should be able to provide new leads about Osama," another security official said on condition of anonymity.
AMEN
I'm beginning to wonder if UBL is still alive. We haven't heard from him since the weekend before the election, six months ago.
Wednesday August 18, 2004
Pakistan offers rewards for information on wanted terror suspects
(Updated at 1615 PST)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Wednesday announced rewards totalling 65 million rupees for information on six wanted terror suspects including Al-Qaeda's Libyan planner Abu Faraj Farj.
The government has offered rewards of 20 million rupees each for Abu Faraj alias Dr. Taufeeq and Faisalabad’s Amjad Hussain Farooqi and bounty of 10 million rupees for Mutee-ur-Rehman alias Samad from Multan and five million rupees each for Umer Aqdas alias Sohail from Sheikhupura, Qari Ahsan alias Shahid from Bahawalpur and Mansoor alias Chhota Ibrahim from Karachi.
All six Al-Qaeda suspects believed to have played a role in two December attempts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf.
The Libyan, Abu Faraj Al Libbi alias Dr Taufeeq, ranks number three in Al-Qaeda's new generation of operatives, after Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri, officials said.
"Faraj heads the international operational wing of Al-Qaeda, with the help of an Egyptian accomplice Abu Hamza Rabia," an official said.
A US Central Intelligence Agency list of most wanted terror suspects offers a bounty of five million dollars for Rabia and Faraj.
from time to time there would be deliberately misleading information regarding the status of captured enemies, type and location of operations, and many other things.
This is true for police investigations as well. Jumping to conclusions or putting too much faith in ANYTHING you read is a big mistake!
(AFP) 18 August 2004
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Wednesday announced rewards totalling 1.1 million dollars for information on six wanted terror suspects including Al Qaeda’s Libyan planner Abu Faraj Farj, described by Pakistani intelligence as the new number three in Osama bin Laden’s network.
The government placed photos of the six on the front pages of major newspapers, offering rewards of 20 million rupees (345,000 dollars) each for Faraj and Pakistani militant Amjad Hussain Farooqi.
Bounties of 10 million to five million rupees (172,000 to 86,000 dollars) each were offered for four other Pakistani suspects.
All six are Al Qaeda suspects believed to have played a role in two December attempts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf.
The Libyan, listed in the advertisement as Abu Faraj Al Libbi alias Dr Taufeeq, ranks number three in Al Qaeda’s new generation of operatives, replacing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who was captured in March 2003, according to a senior Pakistani security official.
“This Libyan ranks third in the current Al Qaeda hierarchy after Osama bin Laden and his (Egyptian) deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri,” the official told AFP.
“Faraj heads the international operational wing of Al Qaeda, with the help of an Egyptian accomplice Abu Hamza Rabia,” he said.
“Faraj is the man who has been masterminding and organising terror strikes in Pakistan and we looking for him desperately.”
He said both men were believed to be still hiding somewhere inside Pakistan and their capture would “deal a telling blow to the network.”
A US Central Intelligence Agency list of most wanted terror suspects offers a bounty of five million dollars for both Rabia and Faraj, the Pakistani official said.
Rabia is ranked number eight in Al Qaeda’s hierarcy, according to the official. He could not say who held the rankings in between Faraj and Rabia.
Both men were believed to be still hiding somewhere in Pakistan, another senior security official said.
Faraj, alleged by Musharraf to be the mastermind of the December 13 and 25 attempts to kill him, has also been described as a personal assistant of bin Laden.
Farooqi, 30, was alleged to be the chief planner of the Musharraf assassination attempts.
Musharraf has said Al Qaeda operates in a three-tier system of mastermind, planner and executor, normally recruiting local militants for the latter two roles.
Farooqi has also been indicted over the January 2002 kidnap-murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl’s murder, but has never been found.
Security officials say Farooqi is an important link between Al Qaeda and fighters from dozens of local Islamic militant groups.
He is an “extremely intelligent and elusive terrorist operative,” an intelligence official who has interrogated detained accomplices of Farooqi told AFP.
Farooqi recruited the trio of unidentified men who slit Pearl’s throat as a video-camera filmed, the official said.
A former Taleban fighter and commander, Farooqi is from the remote rural town of Toba Tek Singh in central Pakistan’s Punjab province, and an activist of militant organisation Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami.
Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat has said the high-profile Al Qaeda crackdown underway since mid-July has so far netted 63 foreign and local suspects, among them some key operatives of Al Qaeda.
Information gleaned from detainees including key operatives led to the uncovering of fresh terror plots in Britain, Pakistan and the United States, new terror alerts in US cities and the arrests of 12 Al Qaeda suspects in Britain, including major operative Abu Eisa al-Hindi.
"He was also reportedly very agitated, and not expecting to be taken at all."
Another good point why this guy isn't the big honcho muckty muck we all assumed he was.
**They had the President come out to praise this.**
Yes, he (Bush) praised the capture. I don't think is his fault though. More like the fault of intelligence. Now it does not look good on him.
"and it would be tough to speak out and say, "the Pakistanis are wrong...this guy isn't that important"..."
Maybe the Pakistanis want this guy to make it look like a big catch so they can get some concessions from us?
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