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| India-Pakistan | ||
| Al Qaida suspect’s whereabouts disputed | ||
| 2003-03-03 | ||
| Pakistani officials reconfirmed Monday that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is in U.S. custody and being interrogated by a team of CIA and FBI agents. "Not only that he is no (longer) in our custody, he is also out of Pakistan," a senior Pakistani security official told United Press International. The "CIA or FBI did not participate in the raid that led to his arrest but took (him into) custody less than six hours after his capture," he added. "For us? Oh, you shouldn't have. Well, yes, you should, but thanks awayway!" On Sunday, Pakistan's Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad told Radio Pakistan that Mohammed was still in Pakistani custody. "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is in the custody of Pakistan's law enforcement agencies and until we have satisfied ourselves, after the interrogation process, of the nature of his activities in Pakistan, there is no question of handing him over to anyone," Ahmad said. His remarks are in contrast with statements made by senior officials at the Interior Ministry, who told United Press International that the CIA had taken Mohammed out of Pakistan, probably to Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan. "We handed him over to the Americans on Saturday who later flew him out of the country," one senior Pakistani official said. "The Americans did not tell us where but we have reason to believe that he has been taken to Bagram." Bagram is nice this time of year. The truncheons are in bloom. Asked to comment on the minister's statement, Pakistan security officials, who did not want to be identified, said "that would be the official position for some time." "And we're sticking to it!" They said that the U.S. and Pakistan governments had agreed not to discuss the suspect's whereabouts until the investigation is complete. "Nobody would know his whereabouts for the next few months," said a senior official. "He is too valuable to be fed to the media for wild speculation," he added. "Being fed to wild dogs piece by piece is another matter" Another senior Pakistani official called the suspect "a mine of information who can tell us all we want to know about al Qaida operatives and can also lead us to other key al Qaida operatives, if not Osama bin Laden himself. If anyone knows where the body is, it's Khalid. "We believe the investigation may take eight months or more," he added. Sucking his brain dry. Mohammed was arrested Saturday in an early morning raid on the residence of a local religious leader in Rawalpindi, which is near Islamabad. The son of religious leader Ahmad Abdul Qudus was also arrested, as was another suspect. Initial reports identified the third suspect as an Arab but Pakistani intelligence officials told UPI on Sunday that he is "a mid-level Somali operative of al Qaida." They did not disclose his name. Mid-level is a step above cannon fodder. On Sunday, Pakistan's military spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence also detained an army major, Adil Qudus, who is related to the Pakistani suspect held with Mohammed. ISI is interrogating the major at a military facility in Kohat, a northwestern city near the border with Afghanistan. It isn't yet clear whether he is linked to al Qaida. A Pakistani newspaper has linked [Khalid Sheikh Mohammad] to the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. It said investigators believed Mohammed was the man who slit Pearl's throat in front of a video camera after the reporter disappeared in Karachi in January 2002 while investigating a story on Islamic extremists. Mohammed narrowly escaped capture in a raid about a week ago in the town of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, said Pakistan's Jang newspaper. During that raid, a Middle Eastern man, possibly of Egyptian origin, was arrested. The unnamed Egyptian, wonder who he really is? Pakistani security officials say that computers and discs seized from the house where Mohammed was hiding had already provided useful information about al Qaida, include possible terrorist attacks the group might have been planning. Pakistani officials said that Mohammed was much senior to Abu Zubaida in the al Qaida hierarchy. Abu Zubaida, another close aide of bin Laden, was arrested last March, also in Pakistan.
See, all those passports are good for something! Mohammed's family originally came from a Pakistani tribal belt in the southern Balochistan province but — like many among Baloch tribes with close ties to Persian Gulf states — later migrated to Kuwait where Mohammed was born and raised. Had Mohammed been determined to be a Pakistani national, the extradition process would have taken longer. Pakistani laws require permission from a court before extraditing a national. Mohammed is the uncle of one of the attackers in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and one of 22 men listed along with al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list. He is considered one of bin Laden's top lieutenants and the U.S. government had offered $25 million for information leading to his arrest. Mohammed was born in Kuwait in the mid-1960s: one of two birth dates listed for him on the FBI terrorist list is March 1, 1964. Bob Baer, a former case officer in the CIA's Directorate of Operations, told UPI Mohammed also has been a member of al Qaida's consultative council and its military committee. Other former CIA officials also credit Mohammed with helping to set up al Qaida's decentralized structure and a two-tiered system to handle agents without exposing upper layers of the organization. "He's the primary brains of the (Sept. 11) plot," one counter-terrorism official told the British Broadcasting Corp. "He planned this whole operation." Sources have also identified him for UPI as the current operations chief for al Qaida.
Another episode of "Family Jihad". Baer also said Mohammed was the one who "gave the order" to kill Pearl a year ago. Baer told UPI that he and Pearl were working on a project about Mohammed when the journalist was kidnapped and killed in Karachi, Pakistan. The newspaper has said Pearl was working on a story about Richard Reid, the so-called shoebomber. The Washington Post reported Sunday Mohammed is also known as Muktar Baluchi and graduated from North Carolina A&T University. A master of languages and disguises, he's known for living lavishly and patronizing dance clubs during a period in the Philippines. A truly religious man. | ||
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 but bagram IS nice this time of year. oh and yes, the truncheons ARE indeed in bloom. you see there's this kinda wharehouse looking building on disney drive sorta by the flightline that.... uh..nevermind. -DS "the horns hold up the halo." |
| Posted by: DeviantSaint 2003-03-03 16:07:58 |
| #1 "Bagram is nice this time of year. The truncheons are in bloom." Gee, thanks Steve for the comment. More spittle to clean of the screen. LOL. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-03-03 14:21:15 |