Posted on 11/21/2002 11:59:10 AM PST by Angelus Errare
WASHINGTON (AP) - Al-Qaida leader Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the network's chief of operations in the Persian Gulf, has been captured, senior U.S. government officials said Thursday.
Al-Nashiri, a suspected mastermind of the USS Cole (news - web sites) bombing in October 2000, was captured in an undisclosed foreign country earlier this month and is in U.S. custody, officials said.
He is the highest-ranking al-Qaida operative captured since the CIA (news - web sites), FBI (news - web sites) and Pakistani authorities captured bin Laden's operations chief, Abu Zubaydah, in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in March.
U.S. officials had recently said a senior al-Qaida leader had been caught, but they had declined to identify him. On Sunday, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the leader was providing information to his interrogators.
Al-Nashiri is suspected in a number of other al-Qaida terrorist plots, including the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings. One of the suicide bombers in the attack on the Nairobi embassy, known only as Azzam, is believed to have been his cousin. Al-Nashiri is said to be either Saudi or Yemeni.
He has also traveled under a number of other names, including Umar Mohammed al-Harazi and Abu Bilal al-Makki. U.S. officials believe he was in Ghazni, Afghanistan (news - web sites), around the time the war began in October 2001. He is thought to have moved to Pakistan when the Taliban fell, and he may have gone to Yemen in recent months. Some tribesmen in Yemen, however, said he had gone to Malaysia.
In the Cole attack, U.S. officials have said al-Nashiri gave telephone orders to the bombers from the United Arab Emirates. He then fled to Afghanistan.
In addition to the Cole attack, officials say he has been involved with a number of plots targeting the U.S. Navy (news - web sites) in the past three years.
He is thought to be behind a nearly identical attempt to bomb another destroyer, the USS The Sullivans, nine months before the Cole attack, at Aden. That attack failed when the suicide boat, overloaded with explosives, sank.
Most recently, he has been tied to a failed al-Qaida plot to bomb U.S. and British warships crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, U.S. officials have said. In June, three Saudis were arrested in Morocco in connection with that plot.
He is also suspected of being behind plans to bomb the 5th Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain, a plot revealed in January by another top al-Qaida operative captured by Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan.
The 5th Fleet has responsibility for the Persian Gulf and provides ships for the operations of U.S. Central Command, which is running the war effort in Afghanistan. It also supports the enforcement of the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, the U.N. economic embargo against Iraq and the monitoring of sea traffic from the Arabian Sea to the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.
The capture of al-Nashiri is the latest reported success in the U.S. effort to capture or kill top al-Qaida chiefs. On Nov. 3, a CIA Predator drone fired a missile at a car carrying several suspected al-Qaida operatives, killing six, including al-Qaida's top Yemen operative, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, who is also suspected of involvement in the Cole plot.
Looks like my own score card needs to be updated:
SHURA MAJLIS
These are the first-tier guys and the actual members of al-Qaeda's board of directors. Any one of them is a possible successor to Osama bin Laden.
Name: Osama bin Laden Function: Emir-General Status: Unknown, possibly killed at Tora Bora in December 2001
Name: Ayman al-Zawahiri Function: Second-in-Command/Gamaa al-Islamiyyah Emir-General Status: At Large
Name: Mohammed Atef Function: Supreme Military Commander Status: Dead
Name: Abu Zubaydah Function: Global Operations Chief Status: Apprehended
Name: Rifa Ahmed Taha Function: Egyptian Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Status: At Large
Name: Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri Function: Middle East Operations Chief Status: Apprehended
Name: Abu Musab Zarqawi Function: Former Southeast Asian Operations Chief, currently Global Operations Chief Status: At Large
Name: Abu Zubair al-Haili Function: North African Operations Chief Status: Apprehended
Name: Tawfiq Attash Khallad Function: South Asian Operations Chief Status: At Large
Name: Abu Mohammed al-Masri Function: East African Operations Chief Status: At Large
Name: Zaid Khayr Function: Unknown Status: At Large
Name: Mohammed Salah Function: Senior Explosive Expert, Central African Operations Chief Status: Dead
Name: Tariq Anwar al-Sayyid Ahmad Function: Balkans Operations Chief Status: Dead
Name: Saif al-Adel Function: Former second-in-command of al-Qaeda's military, currently Supreme Military Commander Status: At Large
Name: Amin al-Haq Function: Shura Majlis Security Chief Status: At Large
Name: Abu Hafs the Mauritanian (aka "Mr. Mauritania") Function: Theologian Status: Formerly believed dead, now believed to be at large
TERRORIST TRAINING CAMP COMMANDERS
These are the guys who supervise the training, indoctrination, and assignment of al-Qaeda operatives worldwide. They also seperate all recruits into four categories: mujahideen (foot soldiers), shahideen (suicide bombers), takfiri (sleepers), and ansar (support personnel). Each category has its own version of the "Afghan Guide to Jihad," al-Qaeda's training manual (all four versions combined are roughly 3,000 pages in length) that provides instruction to recruits for just about any situation imaginable.
Name: Sheikh Ibn al-Liby Function: Terrorist Training Camp Commander Status: Apprehended
Name: Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi Function: Terrorist Training Camp Commander Status: Apprehended
THE FINANCIAL COMMITTEE
This is the committee that oversees al-Qaeda's legitimate and illegitimate businesses, charities, drug smuggling, ect.
Name: Sheikh Saeed (Mustafa Ahmed al-Hisawi?) Function: Head of the Financial Committee Status: At Large
Name: Mohammed Jamal Khalifa Function: Financier and envoy to the Saudi Bin Laden Group Status: At Large
Name: Abu Jafar al-Jaziri Function: Financier Status: Dead
Name: Abu Salah al-Yemeni Function: Financier Status: Dead
Name: Abdul Rahim Riyadh Function: Financier Status: Apprehended
Name: Ahmed Saeed al-Kadr Function: Financier Status: At Large
Name: Hamza al-Qatari Function: Financier Status: Dead
MEDIA COMMITTEE
This the group that manages and updates the websites, oversees the E-Jihad, and is responsible for all statements by the al-Qaeda leadership. Not a lot of declassified info on this one.
Name: Suleiman Abu Ghaith Function: Spokesman Status: At Large
Name: Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri Function: Spokesman/Recruiter Status: At Large
Name: Sheikh Omar al-Bakri Function: Spokesman Status: At Large
Name: Sheikh Abu Qatada al-Philisteeni Function: Spokesman Status: Apprehended
WMD COMMITTEE
Al-Qaeda employs a number of Muslim scientists of various nationalities to assist it in procuring as well as manufacturing the necessary materials to create chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons.
Name: Midhat Mursi Function: Top scientist for nuclear weapons research Status: At Large
Name: Abu Khabab Function: Biological and chemical weapons expert Status: At Large
Name: Assadalah Abdul Rahman Function: Weapons of Mass Destruction Chief Status: At Large
Name: Abu Bashir al-Yemeni Function: Unknown Status: At Large
MILITARY COMMITTEE
These are the definite guys to watch out for. Most have a great deal of combat experience either from serving in Arab militaries or else from fighting in Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, or the Philippines.
Name: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Function: Martyrdom Battalion Commander-in-Chief Status: At Large
Name: Abd al-Aziz al-Jamal Function: Unknown Status: At Large
Name: Bilal bin Marwan Function: Arabian Sea Commander-in-Chief Status: At Large
Name: Saqar al-Jadawi Function: Unknown Status: At Large
Name: Mohammed Omar Abdel Rahman Function: Military Commander Status: At Large
Name: Ahmed Omar Abdel Rahman Function: Military Commander Status: Apprehended
Name: Abu Walid Function: Military Commander Status: At Large
Name: Abdel Hari al-Iraqi Function: Afghanistan Commander-in-Chief Status: At Large
Name: Abu Leith al-Lybi Function: Algeria/Libya Commander-in-Chief Status: At Large
Name: Shamil Basayev Function: Chechnya Commander-in-Chief Status: At Large
Name: Amir ibn al-Khattab Function: Dagestan Commander-in-Chief Status: Dead
Name: Hanbali Function: Indonesia Commander-in-Chief Status: At Large
I've heard GW keeps a scorecard by his bedside and checks them off one by one.
If you have a ping list for these threads you can add me.
D'OH!
That means we are batting .333
OOOHRAA
Thirwat Salah Shirhata
al-Zawahiri's top aide
at large?
Tawfiq bin Atash
Top Leiutenant
at large?
Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan
Top Leiutenant
at large?
Riduan Isamuddin
Top Leiutenant-Southeast Asia
at large?
The following operatives were involved with the terrorist acts and are at large (I think):
Khobar Towers Bombings
Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser
Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Mughassil
Ali Saed Bin Ali El-Hoorie
Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub
African Embassy Bombings
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah
Ali Atwa
Anas al-Liby
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed
Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil
Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan
Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam
1985 Airliner Hijacking
Hasan Izz-Al-Din
Imad Fayez Mugniyah
1993 World Trade Center Bombing
Abdul Rahman Yasin
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