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Significant al-Qaida arrest in Pakistan

Posted on Mar 1, 2003 by jason

Considered one of Usama bin Laden's top planners and suspected of having a significant role in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington D.C., Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured today in Pakistan.  A joint operation between Pakistani and US authorities carried out a pre-dawn raid in Rawalpindi (a city near Pakistan's capital of Islamabad).

Sheikh Mohammed was captured along with two other men during the 3:00 AM raid carried out by Pakistani authorities with intelligence support from the CIA and/or FBI.  Although there is some discussion of US authorities having a more direct role in this significant arrest, senior Pakistani officials discount that rumor.

The capture of Mohammed is quite significant and cannot be downplayed.  He has been on the FBI's most-wanted list of terrorist suspects and has enjoyed the prestige of having a $25 million reward posted for information leading to his capture.  After successfully evading a similar attempt to capture him within the last ten days in Quetta (a southwestern town in Pakistan), Mohammed was tracked to Rawalpindi through phone calls and information gained from another man picked up in Quetta.

A Kuwaiti-born Pakistani national, Mohammed has been linked to several terrorist attacks and is suspected of being the primary organizer of the September 11 event.

In addition to the 9/11 attacks, he has been linked to the synagogue bombing last April in Tunisia in which 19 tourists were killed, and he has been charged in connection with plots to bomb trans-Pacific airliners in the Philippines and a plan to crash a plane into CIA headquarters (both of which were disrupted in 1995).

His capture is a significant step in the war on terror, as even Rashid Qureshi, the spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, said that Sheikh Mohammed "is the kingpin of al-Qaida."

The ramifications of such a success are extremely important in light of other significant arrests which have occurred recently.

Senior al-Qaida leader Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni national, was handed over to the US after his capture, and he is an alleged participant in the planning of the September 11 attacks.

Abu Zabaydah, placed highly enough in al-Qaida to be considered bin Laden's field commander, was captured in March 2002 and was turned over to the US as well.  He is believed to be cooperating with US authorities and is likely the source of many of our recent terror warnings.

The continued hunt and capture of al-Qaida members, especially those of great significance such as Binalshibh, Zabaydah, and now Mohammed, are thought to be of such great importance that they may be destabilizing al-Qaida and causing the terrorist network tremendous problems in remaining organized and with being able to plan attacks.  There is no self-deception within the intelligence circles, however, that these arrests, regardless of their importance, mean al-Qaida is not capable of executing a successful attack.

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