Posted on 03/04/2003 5:34:53 AM PST by RCW2001
March 4 — By Saeed Ali-Achakzai
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, would not weaken the shadowy al Qaeda network, members of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime said on Tuesday.
Qari Abdul Wali, a military commander in the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime that sheltered al Qaeda, told Reuters the worldwide capability of the organization would remain intact, in spite of Mohammed's arrest.
"The arrest of a few individuals from within al Qaeda's ranks will have no bearing on the organization's functioning," Wali said at a hideout near the southern Afghan town of Spin Boldak.
Wali said al Qaeda would miss Mohammed because he was an "important soldier" but stressed the capture did not mean the organization would scatter.
Pakistani officials said Mohammed was arrested on Saturday in the city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, in what U.S. officials called the biggest catch so far in the war terror launched after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
U.S. officials said on Monday Mohammed was in their custody and they were in a race to get information from him that could foil any plots now in motion to attack American targets.
NO CLOSER TO BIN LADEN
An intelligence officer in the Taliban government until its overthrow in late 2001, Mullah Abdul Samad, said Mohammed's capture would not yield information about the whereabouts of fugitive al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, or the Taliban's one-eyed leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
"Representatives of al Qaeda and the Taliban keep their communications going, but that doesn't mean we are likely to snitch on each other," Samad told Reuters.
Samad, who spoke by telephone from an undisclosed location, said it did not matter for the al Qaeda network if operatives were captured or died as others were trained to replace them.
"In al Qaeda, every mujahid (holy warrior) is no less than Osama bin Laden," Samad said.
The arrest of Mohammed appeared to jump-start an apparently flagging U.S.-led hunt for bin Laden and his top associates, but analysts said the fugitives would probably have moved quickly to new hiding places once they learned of his capture.
CASH OFFERED
Residents in Spin Boldak said U.S. military aircraft scattered pamphlets over southern Afghanistan on Monday night offering cash rewards for help in arresting bin Laden and his number two, Egyptian surgeon Ayman Al Zawahiri.
A pamphlet obtained by Reuters sported two pictures of bin Laden, one of them showing him behind bars with U.S. currency notes pasted in between them.
Washington has offered a $25 million reward for the capture of the leaders of al Qaeda, which is blamed for the deaths of more than 3,000 people in the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and many other bloody incidents worldwide.
"Killer being hunted" the pamphlet read in the local Pashtu and Persian languages, as well as in Arabic.
Samad said he saw Mohammed meeting Taliban officials in the southern town of Kandahar in 1997. He said this was followed by a series of meetings on development projects in Afghanistan.
Samad described Mohammed as a "good-humored man" who took a lot of interest in public sector works and would warmly embrace those he met, no matter how poor they were.
He said areas of Afghanistan Mohammed visited most frequently were Khost, Jalalabad and Kandahar. Attacks on these areas in the past year have been blamed on Taliban or al Qaeda remnants.
Unless, of course, they were infidel Americans, into whose heart he would gladly stick his knife.
That's what this reminds me off.
His words would carry a little more weight if they were not issued from some secret hideout.
The minute he appears on the radar screen he will either die, or join his friends in Cuba.
I don't think they have caught on yet that the rules have changed. In the past, they would commit some act of terror, and then hide out for awhile, and in time it would be safe to come out and go about their business. Not anymore.
Don't get me wrong, I think they are still dangerous, but every time one of them makes an appearance, or issues a statement or commits an act of terror, they become one step closer to their fate.
Typical Reuters. Let's try rephrasing it, shall we?
The arrest of Mohammed demonstrated that the U.S.-led hunt for bin Laden and his top associates has never eased up, even as it has fallen from public view.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.