Posted on 11/15/2002 11:05:10 AM PST by B-bone
U.S. Captures Senior Al Qaeda Leader, Sources Say
1 hour, 8 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the top two-dozen al Qaeda leaders sought by the United States in its war on terrorism was captured recently and is in American custody, U.S. government sources said on Friday.
The sources declined to name the operative for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s network who was caught in the past week or so. But it was not top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri, operational leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, nor bin Laden's son Saad.
U.S. authorities have become increasingly concerned this week that al Qaeda was planning fresh attacks.
The FBI (news - web sites) said that in selecting its next targets, the network may favor "spectacular attacks" that result in mass casualties and severe damage to the U.S. economy.
Contributing to that concern was an audio tape broadcast earlier this week on the al-Jazeera television channel in Qatar believed to be of bin Laden praising recent attacks and making fresh threats.
The United States blamed bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America that killed about 3,000 people.
Senior al Qaeda leaders in U.S. custody include Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi Binalshibh, who were being interrogated at an undisclosed location overseas.
"There have been a number of -- numerous senior leaders of al Qaeda that have either been eliminated, incarcerated or detained someplace," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said without elaborating.
President Bush (news - web sites) earlier this week, in response to a question about the audio tape, said, "We'll chase these people down one at a time. It doesn't matter how long it takes, we'll find them and bring them to justice."
I'm sure that this was timed to respond to Daschle's remarks, but it also shows that the administration is aware of who's doing what, to one degree or another. They were probably observing the guy in order to gather as much intelligence as possible, but when Daschle started barking about questionable progress, the administration decided that enough was enough and nabbed the guy.
-PJ
Isn't it amazing how uniformly bad his timing is? What is this...the fourth (or fifth) time he's opened his mouth about the war and had the US military put his foot in it for him?
The Dasshole really ought to invest in an oral butt-plug.
Oh yeah. And dead on!
It's like....you're in a bad, armed, tense, dramatic,deadly situation, and you have to choose between tommy daschle or President Bush to stand beside you-'Who ya gonna call'? No contest.
However---Lott, the logical choice to Daschle above-doesn't exactly bring to mind strength and resolve, either. Too bad.
Oh yeah. Dittos. Your entire post is actually worth repeating-I could not agree more. The issue is safety-and no amount of liberal blathering will convince joe six-pack that the liberals have cajones. The evident fact that they are driven by greed and not concern for the security of our nation is evident in the long eight yr reign of terror and assault upon our constitution by the clintons-that no pandering now will overcome it!
Besides-we are here to make sure their sordid legacy is NEVER FORGOTTEN. It brought in 9/11, without a doubt. And no one is going to forget that horrific day.
At times like that, I would just love to be a fly on Daschle's wall, just to watch him have a "hissy fit" as we say here in my neck of the woods. :-D
Of course, we got to see that a few weeks back .... "Outrageous -- just outrageous!"
It was on MSNBC's website long before you posted.
The latest audio tape notwithstanding, I remain of the opinion that Osama bin Laden is not anything other than a smear under a rock. If the tape is as poor quality as it seems to be, and was provided to al-Propaganda over a Third World phone line, it just doesn't contain the information to definitively validate it (rather like a low-res fax image of a signature that might or might not be forged).
Oh, and remember that in Reuters-speak, he's a "dissident" (they find the T-word unsuited to polite conversation).
Piffle. If you have somebody on your side who is doing stupid things that made your job harder, you take him to the woodshed to 'splain that he oughta cut it out PDQ.
Liberal delusion and ignorant utterances are not deserving of the death penalty, IMO. But if the fundamenazis must pick a target, it sounds as though "Hollywood" would meet their stated requirements.
<sarcasm Good thing Gov. Davis is on the job and on full alert.... /sarcasm
And, unlike other campaigns around the country, Simon's inept campaign did not make an issue of homeland security, or security here in target-rich California. After all, if the Islamidiot who was caught at the Canadian border in 2000 had succeeded in blowing up LAX, we could easily have had a few hundred or a few thousand dead here. But what's that stacked up against all the non-issues "discussed" in the late, unlamented Davis-Simon race here in the Golden State.
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