Submit your comments on this article | |
Afghanistan/South Asia | |
Al-Libbi betrayed by skin disorder | |
2005-05-05 | |
IT did not take long for Pakistani authorities to confirm the identity of the motorcycle riding-militant they had caught after a fierce gunfight in a remote north-western town. His skin gave him away. Alleged al-Qaeda No.3 Abu Faraj al-Libbi looked more like a businessman with his trimmed beard and smart collar and tie when his picture first featured on a Pakistani most wanted poster last year. But a very different face appeared on Wednesday in the first photograph after his capture. Not just the straggly beard and haunted look, but the facial blotching caused by the skin disorder leucoderma, or vitiligo, the condition suffered by pop star Michael Jackson. "It was easy for us to immediately recognise him because he is suffering from this peculiar skin disease and it was not difficult to know that 'yes, we've got al-Libbi", a government minister said on condition of anonymity. Until a year ago the 40-year-old Libyan was a relative unknown. When he first came to prominence in Pakistan during interrogations after two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003, intelligence agencies only knew him as According to Pakistan and US defence officials, he became a senior member of what is left of the al-Qaeda leadership from before the US-led military campaign that removed the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. Al-Libbi is thought to have become bin Laden's
Security officials now hope they can use al-Libbi's network of militants themselves — to track down the rest of the al-Qaeda leadership and possibly bin Laden himself. "He is one of his closest confidants and he should be able to provide new leads about Osama," another security official said on condition of anonymity. | |
Posted by:Dan Darling |
#4 anon: Or one of the guys with an 8th grade education? When guys with 8th grade educations go to developed countries, they think they've died and gone to heaven. Where they used to get paid nothing for doing menial work, they now get paid enough to afford a nice car and an apartment of their own - things that were unthinkable back home. Where blue-collar workers got treated like dirt back in the old country, Western businesses (and their customers) tend to treat menial labor with some amount of respect. It's the educated ones (from better-off families) who suffer culture shock - where their families employed a retinue of domestic help (at dirt-cheap rates) back in the old country, they now have to fend for themselves. Where they were esteemed as educated people from good family backgrounds, their connections and qualifications are worthless in the West. |
Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-05-05 12:54 |
#3 (Hat tip: Instapundit) Look at these ''Before'' and ''After'' pictures of al-Libbi, among others. Too funny! :-D |
Posted by: Dar 2005-05-05 09:24 |
#2 ''Doctor'' Taufeeq. Anybody know his background? Is this one of the western-educated guys who figured he couldn't compete? Or one of the guys with an 8th grade education? |
Posted by: anon 2005-05-05 09:03 |
#1 He shoulda contacted Michael Jackson's doctor. |
Posted by: PlanetDan 2005-05-05 08:59 |