Alleged al-Qaida No. 3 arrested in Pakistan

[Tigermike 3,041]

Alleged al-Qaida No. 3 arrested in Pakistan

Bush hails capture; U.S. officials say Libyan may know bin Laden's whereabouts

Pakistan's Interior Ministry on Wednesday released this undated photo of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the alleged al-Qaida commander now under arrest.

NBC News and news services

Updated: 12:31 p.m. ET May 4, 2005

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The man thought to be al-Qaida's operations commander, and who might know where Osama bin Laden is hiding, has been arrested in Pakistan, the government announced Wednesday.

The arrest of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, a Libyan who is also wanted in two attempts to assassinate Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is seen by U.S. officials as significant because of his alleged control over the daily operations of al-Qaida.

President Bush called the arrest a "critical victory in the war on terrorism."

In Pakistan, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that "this arrest gives us a lot of tips, and I can only say that our security agencies are on the right track" in the search for bin Laden.

U.S. officials tell NBC that al-Libbi might know at least the general whereabouts of bin Laden  because part of his responsibility was to manage the courier networks delivering messages, video and audiotapes.

A government-released photo taken after al-Libbi's arrest shows a disheveled, bearded man with sunken eyes and an apparent a skin condition. In an earlier Pakistani "Most Wanted" poster photo, al-Libbi looked healthy and was dressed in a Western-style suit and tie.

$10 million reward cited

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the U.S. government was offering a $10 million bounty for information leading to al-Libbi’s arrest, though al-Libbi does not appear to be on the FBI’s list of the globe’s most-wanted terrorists.

Sherpao would not speculate on whether the arrest might help lead to the capture of bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, who have eluded a 3½-year dragnet since the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We have no information” about the al-Qaida leaders, he said. “It’s premature to say (whether al-Libbi’s arrest will help track them down), but definitely interrogation is going to take place.”

Sherpao said it was also too early to comment on whether al-Libbi might be turned over to the United States, but he stressed there were important cases pending against him in Pakistan.

Al-Qaida's number 3?

According to U.S. officials, al-Libbi is thought to have become al-Qaida's operations commander after the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in March 2003. Mohammed was later handed over to U.S. custody and his whereabouts are unknown.

The operations commander is thought to be third in line at al-Qaida after bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. Al-Libbi is also alleged to have earlier been Mohammed's deputy and to have had a role in planning the Sept. 11 attacks.

Al-Libbi was arrested earlier this week, Ahmed said, but he would provide no details on where al-Libbi was captured or where he is being held.

But three Pakistani intelligence sources said al-Libbi was one of two foreigners arrested Monday after a firefight on the outskirts of Mardan, 30 miles north of Peshawar, capital of the deeply conservative North West Frontier Province.

11 more arrests

One of the officials said 11 more terror suspects — including three Uzbeks, an Afghan and seven Pakistanis — were arrested before dawn Wednesday in the Bajor tribal region. The official would not say what prompted authorities to launch the raid or whether it was linked to al-Libbi’s capture.

The intelligence officials said authorities were led to al-Libbi’s hideout by a tip that foreigners had been spotted in the area. The suspect was held overnight at a military facility in Mardan, then transferred by helicopter to the capital, Islamabad, the officials said.

Al-Libbi reportedly spent time in South Waziristan, a tribal region along the border with Afghanistan that is considered a likely hideout for bin Laden. But he fled following a series of military operations in the area last year. Authorities had said privately in recent weeks that they believed they were zeroing in on his location.

Al-Libbi is accused of masterminding two bombings against Musharraf in December 2003. The military leader escaped injury but 17 others were killed in one of the attacks.

Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, named the Libyan as the chief suspect in the bombings against him. He was among six suspects identified as Pakistan’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” in a poster campaign last year.

The other suspects were all Pakistanis, linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim militant group believed tied to al-Qaida.

Another suspect killed earlier

One of the suspects, Amjad Hussain Farooqi, was killed in a shootout with security forces in southern Pakistan in September.

Farooqi, a senior member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was accused of plotting the bombings against Musharraf with al-Libbi and of involvement in the kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002.

Pakistan has arrested hundreds of terror suspects since Musharraf ended the country’s support of the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on America.

It has handed over about 700 al-Qaida suspects to the United States, including Mohammed, Sept. 11 planner Ramzi Binalshibh and al-Qaida senior operative Abu Zubaydah.

NBC News producer Robert Windrem and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7732035/?GT1=6542

[Jenny AU-92 0]

The best line in the whole article???

“We have no information” about the al-Qaida leaders, he said. “It’s premature to say (whether al-Libbi’s arrest will help track them down), but definitely interrogation is going to take place.”

Interrogation.

By Pakistan.

Damn.

Bad to be him...

Somebody put the 79 black eyed virgins on standby...

[WarTim 3,456]

Thank you President Bush!

[CCTAU 3,335]

The best line in the whole article???

“We have no information” about the al-Qaida leaders, he said. “It’s premature to say (whether al-Libbi’s arrest will help track them down), but definitely interrogation is going to take place.”

Interrogation.

By Pakistan.

Damn.

Bad to be him...

Somebody put the 79 black eyed virgins on standby...

158471[/snapback]

That's what I was thinking. I sure hope they interrogate him and not us. If its us and we bring him a pizza with pork on it, the ACLU will sue for his release due to cruel and unjust treatment.

[AURaptor 1,125]

That is one seriously stange looking dude.

[TexasTiger 12,964]

Captured Al-Qaeda kingpin is case of ‘mistaken identity’

Christina Lamb and Mohammad Shehzad Islamabad

THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.

Al-Libbi’s arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as “a major breakthrough” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

Bush called him a “top general” and “a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al- Qaeda network”. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said he was “a very important figure”. Yet the backslapping in Washington and Islamabad has astonished European terrorism experts, who point out that the Libyan was neither on the FBI’s most wanted list, nor on that of the State Department “rewards for justice” programme.

Another Libyan is on the FBI list — Anas al-Liby, who is wanted over the 1998 East African embassy bombings — and some believe the Americans may have initially confused the two. When The Sunday Times contacted a senior FBI counter-terrorism official for information about the importance of the detained man, he sent material on al-Liby, the wrong man.

“Al-Libbi is just a ‘middle-level’ leader,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, a French intelligence investigator and leading expert on terrorism finance. “Pakistan and US authorities have completely overestimated his role and importance. He was never more than a regional facilitator between Al-Qaeda and local Pakistani Islamic groups.”

According to Brisard, the arrested man lacks the global reach of Al-Qaeda leaders such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden’s number two, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, or Anas al-Liby. ..

No European or American intelligence expert contacted last week had heard of al-Libbi until a Pakistani intelligence report last year claimed he had taken over as head of operations after Khalid Shaikh Mohammad’s arrest. A former close associate of Bin Laden now living in London laughed: “What I remember of him is he used to make the coffee and do the photocopying.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1602568,00.html

This is rumor, and I can't substantiate it, but I've heard he is known to make the coffee a little weak.

[Auburn85 432]

spoken like the media.... always trying to water down something positive

[AUloggerhead 2,241]

Captured Al-Qaeda kingpin is case of ‘mistaken identity’

Christina Lamb and Mohammad Shehzad Islamabad

THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.

Al-Libbi’s arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as “a major breakthrough” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

Bush called him a “top general” and “a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al- Qaeda network”. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said he was “a very important figure”. Yet the backslapping in Washington and Islamabad has astonished European terrorism experts, who point out that the Libyan was neither on the FBI’s most wanted list, nor on that of the State Department “rewards for justice” programme.

Another Libyan is on the FBI list — Anas al-Liby, who is wanted over the 1998 East African embassy bombings — and some believe the Americans may have initially confused the two. When The Sunday Times contacted a senior FBI counter-terrorism official for information about the importance of the detained man, he sent material on al-Liby, the wrong man.

“Al-Libbi is just a ‘middle-level’ leader,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, a French intelligence investigator and leading expert on terrorism finance. “Pakistan and US authorities have completely overestimated his role and importance. He was never more than a regional facilitator between Al-Qaeda and local Pakistani Islamic groups.”

According to Brisard, the arrested man lacks the global reach of Al-Qaeda leaders such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden’s number two, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, or Anas al-Liby. ..

No European or American intelligence expert contacted last week had heard of al-Libbi until a Pakistani intelligence report last year claimed he had taken over as head of operations after Khalid Shaikh Mohammad’s arrest. A former close associate of Bin Laden now living in London laughed: “What I remember of him is he used to make the coffee and do the photocopying.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1602568,00.html

This is rumor, and I can't substantiate it, but I've heard he is known to make the coffee a little weak.

158884[/snapback]

From your linked article:

... Whatever his importance, al-Libbi is the sixth Al-Qaeda figure to have been caught in Pakistan, suggesting that the country is now the organisation’s centre of operations. The interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, conceded that Bin Laden and his deputy might be hiding in a Pakistani city.

“But the capture of al-Libbi will have made them very apprehensive. Whether big fry or small fry, they’re on the run, I can tell you that.”

O.K. So maybe he's not the #3 AQ man, and he wasn't on the FBI's top 10 list. These kind of underlings can often provide valuable info on the ones that are on the list. The noose is tightening still, which is a good sign.

[TexasTiger 12,964]

O.K. So maybe he's not the #3 AQ man, and he wasn't on the FBI's top 10 list. These kind of underlings can often provide valuable info on the ones that are on the list. The noose is tightening still, which is a good sign.

Great. I welcome good news. There's no need to dress it up, though.