In mid-May, a C.I.A. expert on Al Qaeda briefed Pakistani law enforcement officials on the existence of an elusive operative who was said to be eager to attack Americans, according to a Pakistani intelligence official. Nearly two months later, Pakistani officials traced him to the port city of Karachi and then here. On July 13, they made an arrest in the case, picking up Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old computer engineer, when he went to the airport to collect a package from his father. Pakistani officials say the arrest of Mr. Khan led officials to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian operative of Al Qaeda who is accused of involvement in the bombings of American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and who was one of the F.B.I.'s 22 most-wanted terrorists. Mr. Ghailani was arrested July 25 in the small eastern city of Gujrat, where he had slipped in about six weeks earlier, according to the city's police chief, Raja Munawar Hussain.
| "Oh, the hip bone's connected to the thigh bone..." |
The exposure of the two men, one an experienced foreign operative and the other a young Pakistani who is thought to have passed messages for Al Qaeda, illustrates how senior members of the terrorist network, possibly even Osama bin Laden, continue to successfully hide in Pakistan. Both men appear to have been part of what senior Pakistani officials describe as an elaborate and well-equipped underground network the group has established in this country, a critical American ally in fighting terrorism. Statements by Mr. Khan about his travels and activities also appear to confirm long-running suspicions that foreign members of Al Qaeda have been able to safely operate from Pakistan's remote tribal areas for at least the past 18 months.
| The writer surely meant to say "the past three years, and likely well before that..." |
It is not yet clear whether Mr. Ghailani was living in the tribal areas before his move about six weeks ago to Gujrat. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hyat said only that Mr. Ghailani had been successfully hiding in another part of Pakistan "for some time," without providing details.
| Only question I have is whether he was hanging his turban in Quetta or Peshawar... |
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