Regards, Ivan
Posted on 09/14/2002 10:32:29 PM PDT by MadIvan
A CARELESS telephone call appears to have sealed the fate of one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Ramzi Binalshibh, who boasted in an interview published last week in The Sunday Times how he had masterminded the September 11 attacks, was tracked to a shabby fourth-floor apartment in Karachi by a trace on his satellite phone.
Binalshibh, a 30-year-old Yemeni who visited London while planning the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was seized in a raid in the Pakistani port after a gun battle with local police, who were assisted by FBI and CIA agents.
Up to nine other suspects, including one other possible senior Al-Qaeda figure, were yesterday reportedly being questioned by Pakistani intelligence officials. The round-up is potentially the biggest breakthrough in the hunt for the plotters of the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people in America.
Otto Schily, Germany’s interior minister, said yesterday he would immediately seek Binalshibh’s extradition; a warrant was issued in Germany for his arrest two weeks after the September 11 attacks last year. Binalshibh was part of a terrorist cell in Hamburg where he shared an apartment with Mohammed Atta, the terrorist leader, and two other hijackers. He fled Germany shortly before September 11.
One American report claimed Binalshibh was already in US custody last night and being transferred from Pakistan to an airbase in Afghanistan. Another report said American officials knew before the raid on the Karachi apartment that Binalshibh was inside, having picked up his call on the satellite phone several days earlier.
The National Security Agency, America’s electronic eavesdropping centre, can scan telephone traffic searching for matching voice prints. Binalshibh’s voice was broadcast for the first time earlier this month on Al-Jazeera TV, the Qatari television station, when he and another Al-Qaeda ringleader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, bragged about being the masterminds behind September 11. The $25m reward offered by the American government for Binalshibh’s capture may also have contributed to his arrest.
Pakistani police skirmished for three hours with Al-Qaeda suspects in the streets and rooftops of Karachi last Wednesday, the first anniversary of September 11. A number of Yemenis, an Egyptian and a Saudi were captured but there was confusion over their identity. It emerged only late on Friday that Binalshibh, one of the FBI’s “most wanted”, was among them.
The operation was a victory for western security and intelligence services, which have been criticised because so many leaders of the Al-Qaeda network remain at large. It was also a much-needed coup for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), which has long been pilloried for protecting Al-Qaeda suspects.
Police announced after the raid that five men had been captured, but President Pervez Musharraf said later in a television interview that 10 people had been taken into custody.
One report from Pakistan said one of two Yemenis killed in the Karachi gun battle was wanted in connection with the murder of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped in January.
Binalshibh described in the interview published last week in The Sunday Times how he planned and executed the terrorist hijackings with the approval of Osama Bin Laden. He spoke of his pride in the slaughter on what he called “Holy Tuesday”.
Binalshibh is believed to have been destined to be the “20th hijacker”. He was refused a visa to enter the United States and remained in Germany to help organise the attacks, wiring money to the other hijackers.
Binalshibh’s replacement was Zacarias Moussaoui, a French-born extremist who lived in Brixton, south London, and studied at South Bank University.
Binalshibh travelled to London in December 2000, apparently to visit Moussaoui, and to provide money for his trip for terrorist training in Pakistan. Moussaoui was arrested in America a few weeks before the September 11 attacks for suspected immigration offences. Until now he was the only suspect held for the terrorist hijackings. Moussaoui’s mother, Aicha al-Wafi, said yesterday she believed he was innocent and feared he would not get a fair trial.
British intelligence sources admitted they had failed to detect two important suspects. “It is regrettable that Moussaoui and Binalshibh were in London and we knew nothing about it,” said a source.
There may yet be follow-up arrests from the Pakistani operation, leading to the capture of other Al-Qaeda suspects. Pakistani sources said Jose Padilla, a terrorist suspect arrested after arriving in the United States with the supposed intention of exploding a “dirty bomb” in an American city, had stayed in the same Karachi apartment, which is believed to have been used as a safe house for Al-Qaeda members.
Regards, Ivan
Not so far as I am aware. There is no "Mohammed Philby". ;)
Regards, Ivan
The National Security Agency, America’s electronic eavesdropping centre, can scan telephone traffic searching for matching voice prints. Binalshibh’s voice was broadcast for the first time earlier this month on Al-Jazeera TV, the Qatari television station, when he and another Al-Qaeda ringleader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, bragged about being the masterminds behind September 11. The $25m reward offered by the American government for Binalshibh’s capture may also have contributed to his arrest.
WOW...read that slowly :) and then read it again....
Yeah... lesseee... This time I'm reading, "Damn... Allah didn't tell me to use a voice scrambler!"
I stand corrected. ;)
Regards, Ivan
Why? Muslims revere Moses as a prophet of Allah; Jesus too for that matter.
This sentence caught my eye....you heard anything of who this might be ....
Up to nine other suspects, including one other possible senior Al-Qaeda figure,
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