Posted on 09/13/2002 10:15:29 PM PDT by HAL9000
APNewsAlert
Sep 14, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- KARACHI, Pakistan - Senior army officer on condition of anonymity confirms arrested al-Qaida suspects still in Pakistan.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
KARACHI, Pakistan, Sep 14, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Suspected al-Qaida members, possibly including Sept. 11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh, were still in Pakistani custody Saturday at a well-guarded safe house in Karachi, an army officer said.
Pakistani officials refused to confirm the identities of the men they captured in a four-hour shootout on Wednesday - the anniversary of the attacks in the United States - or to say whether one of the world's most wanted men was among them.
Two militants also were killed, but officials have not released their identities.
A senior army officer said he visited the interrogation center where at least some of the captives were being held after midnight Saturday, and saw two of them. He did not say who they were.
Security was intense at the safe house, he said. Visitors were being stripped of their mobile phones or any other means of communication as they entered.
Police said after the raid five men had been captured, but President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said in a television interview that 10 people had been taken into custody in the raid.
U.S. officials in Washington said Binalshibh, the former roommate of hijacker Mohammed Atta who was believed to be among the main planners of last year's attacks, was captured in the joint operation by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officers.
However, reporters who witnessed most of the pitched battle in a middle-class residential district on Wednesday saw no foreigners among the Pakistani police and security agents.
Musharraf, who was in the United States to attend the U.N. General Assembly debate, told CNN on Friday that one Egyptian, one Saudi and eight Yemenis were arrested in connection with the raid.
There was no immediate clarification of the discrepency.
Binalshibh, 30, was born in Yemen. A correspondent for the Gulf-based Al-Jazeera satellite station claimed to have interviewed him and another top suspect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, in Karachi three months ago. The interviewed was broadcast this week.
"It was a good operation," Musharraf said, giving credit to the Inter Service Intelligence, Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, for uncovering the al-Qaida safe house. "I'm told maybe there is an important person also involved."
Meanwhile, police officials said nine more suspects were rounded up Friday from two separate places in Karachi and they may be linked to those captured Wednesday. No further information on them was immediately available.
The raid Wednesday was the latest in a concerted manhunt by Pakistani authorities of al-Qaida members who were driven out of Afghanistan by a U.S.-led military coalition last year which toppled the Taliban regime.
The Interior Ministry said earlier this week more than 400 al-Qaida suspects had been turned captured on Pakistani territory. Many were turned over to U.S. authorities.
Accounts of Wednesday's raid by Pakistani police indicate that the security agents were unprepared for heavy resistance when they showed up at the apartment building in Karachi's affluent Defense district.
Police officials said a small group of Pakistani intelligence officers and policemen had the building under surveillance from the early hours of Wednesday, but waited until midmorning to begin the operation.
Initially they captured two of the people living in the five-story building, but retreated when the others in the apartment fired on them with rifles and threw hand grenades. It was only then that scores of police reinforcements were summoned, said officers involved in the operation.
The militants battled from the windows of the top floor apartment, then took up positions on the roof to have clearer shots at police in the street. Police snipers on neighboring rooftops pinned down the militants, and called on them to surrender during a lull in gunfire.
Reporters saw only two men brought out of the building, their arms bound behind them and blindfolded with rags that entirely covered their faces. It was not clear how the others were captured or when they were evacuated from the area.
Police said seven Pakistanis were wounded in the battle, including two intelligence agents.
The captives were taken to the fortified headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in central Karachi. Some officials indicated that they were later moved to a well-guarded facility of the Inter Services Intelligence in a military area.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
That sounds like a Cheshire Cat grin to me. I know the assumption is that he's referring to Binalshibh, but I wonder if that Eqyptian could be Al-Zawahiri?
I know we got Atef, but I can't remember if Al-Zawahiri is dead.
I also love that Bush wasn't going around thumping his chest about this throughout the week like the Sinkmeister would have been. Bush lets those who do the work take the credit.
There seems to be another contradiction....whether or not they really have him at all.
....And THEN there're Pakistani interrogation techniques.
I don't know if we ever would announce that we had Al-Zawhari or OBL.
Wouldn't be prudent.
15 Men Held in Italy Face Terror Charges Based on U.S. Tip
They're a fugly bunch. Not sure why all 15 weren't pictured.
Does he keep the top Al Queda brass in a big hotel, letting Bin Laden or the U.S. bid for them?
According to the article on Zawahiri in this past week's New Yorker, his status, including whether or not he is alive, is unknown.
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