Posted on 03/01/2003 2:49:41 PM PST by HAL9000
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush celebrated a major success in the fight against terrorism Saturday with the arrest of the al-Qaida operative suspected of planning the Sept. 11 attacks."That's fantastic!" the president said early Saturday when his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, delivered the news of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's capture in Pakistan.
Mohammed was arrested early Saturday in a raid conducted jointly by American and Pakistani officials. It was unclear whether Mohammed had been taken into U.S. custody or where he was being held.
It was midnight Friday when CIA Director George Tenet first called Rice, who was staying at Camp David with the president and first lady, to say that authorities were "pretty certain" they had Mohammed and two others, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.
The confirmation came first thing Saturday and Rice called from her cabin to Bush's at the Maryland mountain retreat.
"It's hard to overstate how significant this is," Fleischer said. "It's a wonderful blow to inflict on al-Qaida."
Fleischer described Mohammed as a "savvy operational planner" of the terrorist network and a nuts-and-bolts leader. Bush, portrayed as "pumped up" by a senior aide, characterized Mohammed as a "whale" of a get in the hunt for terrorists.
A White House statement accused Mohammed of masterminding the attacks on Washington and New York and of being "centrally involved" in al-Qaida plotting since then for attacks inside the United States.
"This is a great success today, but the war on terrorism goes on tomorrow," said U.S. Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson. "There's still a lot of work to do."
Fleischer said it is too early for decisions about how Mohammed's case might be handled and whether he might be the first defendant Bush designates for trial before a military tribunal. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the prospect of holding someone accountable for the Sept. 11 attacks was tantalizing, but that the president's priority was first to get as much information from Mohammed as possible about the continuing threat.
Officials would not comment on where Mohammed would be interrogated or whether he was to be brought to the United States.
Hey, they updated that picture already too ! They have it labeled "located" now ...
I concur with Grams, sheamanski......just remember that God is watching, God is waiting, God will take care of this. God put GW into office, not the Supremes. If God put GW where he is, which, to us, was by no little effort, it's not much more effort for Him to keep GW there and continue to guide GW.....do you not think that GW seeks His will? Remember David and Goliath......it seemed impossible, unlikely, ridiculous, but the giant dropped dead and David, the little guy, was victorious with his little sling shot and pebble. And David was loved by the people. So is GW. The fringies won't love anybody but another fringie, so they're irrelevant, really, in the scheme of things. They are nothing but blowhards. (To be watched, yes; to be ignored, no; but to take seriously? Never.)
That's the pic they showed on FOX, with the "located" across the face.
LOL! That's almost exactly what my boss said to me when the atrocity happened. I have spent hours and hours arguing with him prior to September 11th but that made me shut-up.
Do you work at The New York Times?
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