| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| More on Ramzi... |
| 2002-09-17 |
| Aside from Mr bin al-Shibh, there is furious speculation about the fate of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a close associate who boasted in an interview last week that he was the military commander of al-Qa'ida and the man who first thought of flying commercial airliners into prominent US buildings. Sure has. Got anything to add? Conflicting, unofficial reports suggest that Mr Mohammed was either taken into custody with Mr bin al-Shibh, or that he was one of two al-Qa'ida suspects who died in a three-hour gun battle with Pakistani police last Wednesday. Or he got away. Thanks for the info... American officials, acknowledging only the capture of Mr bin al-Shibh, have said that the significance of his capture cannot be overstated. Evidence that Mr Mohammed and Mr bin al-Shibh had become central figures in al-Qa'ida emerged in an interview they gave to the Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera in June. In the interview, which was aired last week, they bragged about the two and a half years it took to plan the 11 September attacks, calling it "Holy Tuesday", giving themselves lavish credit and revealing several new details about it. Yep. They did some strutting... One way or another, communications intelligence appears to have been crucial to locating Mr Mohammed and Mr bin al-Shibh. Spanish police found a telephone number for him in April while arresting the suspected financial chief of al-Qa'ida in Spain. Reports over the weekend suggest that the Pakistanis were led to the Karachi compound after the interception of a phone call that had been made by Mr bin al-Shibh. "Hello, Mom? Don't worry I'm okay... Uh... Maybe not!" Details of the police raid remain sketchy and contradictory but, according to the most complete account ÂÂthere were at least three separate raids between last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Mr bin al-Shibh was found asleep and seized without incident. After that, six Arabic-speaking men and one woman were captured, also without any resistance. They caught him in his sleep! He wasn't part of the shootout? Wotta putz. However, as the police began escorting them down a staircase, a man armed with an automatic weapon — possibly Mr Mohammed — lobbed a grenade at them from the doorway of another flat. The police beat a retreat, losing control of some detainees in the chaos. That's when the fit hit the Shan, as they say in Thailand... A furious battle erupted, pitting up to 200 law enforcement officials against the small band of resisters, who barricaded themselves on the roof of the compound. Two suspects were found dead, including the one who had thrown the grenade, and a dozen others were captured. Police searching the grenade-attackers' apartment found the Islamic statement of belief ("There is no God but God, and Allah is the prophet of God") daubed on a wall in human blood. "Allah is God and I am dead." Good riddance. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |