Posted on 03/10/2003 4:37:03 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A top Osama bin Laden aide arrested this month has given information helping investigators close in on the al Qaeda leader and told them he met bin Laden in December, Pakistan's intelligence agency said.
The powerful military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) said on Monday Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's arrest in the city of Rawalpindi on March 1 indicated the hunt for the world's most wanted man was moving forward.
An intelligence source said another al Qaeda suspect who had been arrested in the northwestern city of Peshawar as part of sweeps since Saturday was believed to have had contact with bin Laden.
"Progressively we are moving (in the hunt for bin Laden)," a senior intelligence official said at the first news conference that the ISI has held for foreign journalists in its history.
The official said the ISI was not sure whether to believe Mohammed, suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the United States, when he said he had met bin Laden because he had refused to say where the meeting took place.
"He confirmed he met (bin Laden) in December," the official said. "I don't believe him unless he tells us the locations and gives us witnesses."
In another glimpse into the hunt for bin Laden, the intelligence source said the man arrested in Peshawar had received a telephone call that was traced by a team monitoring satellite and mobile phone conversations of suspected terrorists.
"We think he was in contact with Osama bin Laden," said the source, but added that it was unclear if a conversation with the al Qaeda leader had been among those monitored.
The man, one of 10 al Qaeda suspects arrested in Peshawar since Saturday, was identified only as Masood and reported to be either an Afghan or an Egyptian.
The ISI showed journalists a grainy video purporting to show the night-time raid on the house where they say Mohammed was seized together with Saudi national Ahmed al-Hawsawi, an alleged key financier of the September 11 attacks.
The video did not show Mohammed's face -- just his back and neck before his head was hooded -- nor any sign of the struggle which officials say took place.
ONE PAKISTANI AGENT WOUNDED
Officials say Mohammed shot one Pakistani intelligence agent in the foot with an AK-47 assault rifle during the raid.
Most journalists at the briefing said the video looked like a reconstruction, which will not dampen rumors that Mohammed might have been seized in a previous raid in another place, as relatives of the house owners have said.
The video showed an investigator donning plastic gloves to remove a computer from the house, and collecting compact discs, documents and a walkie-talkie in resealable clear plastic bags.
Officials said they had already gleaned useful information from the documents and from interrogating Mohammed for three days alongside U.S. agents before handing him over to U.S. custody.
"In the first two days he didn't say a word except to confirm he was KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed)," the intelligence official at the briefing said.
"On the third day he started giving information, confirming his association with different people inside Pakistan and outside Pakistan. He started giving leads."
Mohammed had some handwritten notes which he said were written by bin Laden, the official said. "But how can we be sure if we haven't seen (bin Laden's) writing?"
Officials said another al Qaeda suspect arrested by Pakistani authorities had said he met bin Laden last September but that he was taken to the meeting blindfolded.
Closer questioning of that suspect produced "indications" bin Laden might still be hiding in Afghanistan, which served as al Qaeda's base before the September 11 attacks, the officials said.
They said they were unsure whether to believe him either.
ISI, usually an intensely secretive organization, said it had called the unprecedented news conference to counter "flak" from Western media that it was not doing enough to cooperate in the U.S.-led war on terror.
It said it had arrested 442 foreign al Qaeda suspects since September 11, 2001, and handed 346 of them over to U.S. custody.
While the vast majority were seized trying to flee Afghanistan in the rugged border area, authorities have since netted several people suspected to have played a key role in al Qaeda, including Mohammed.
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