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India-Pakistan
Roggio: Pakistan Detained Abu Sufyan al-Yemeni
2009-05-24
Pakistani commandos detained a high level leader in al Qaeda's paramilitary army during a raid last February after prodding from the US.

Commandos from the Special Services Group stormed an al Qaeda safe house in the southwestern city of Quetta on Feb. 24 and captured Abu Sufyan al-Yemeni, the chief logistical and facilitation officer for the Shadow Army, or the Lashkar al Zil.
Sacrificial 'lamb' in return for $x billion in foreign aid.

The raid was conducted after the CIA provided intelligence on Abu Sufyan's location. He is currently in the custody of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, The New York Times reported.
One wonders if the ISI would even say 'pretty please' during interrogation; certainly no waterboarding was occurring.
The US is now relying on foreign governments to detain and interrogate al Qaeda suspects in the wake of the controversy over the treatment and legal status of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other US facilities.

Abu Sufyan kept in close contact with al Qaeda cells worldwide and facilitated in the movement of terrorist operatives into Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal areas. He was "a conduit for communications between Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and cells in East Africa, Iran, Yemen and elsewhere" and “helped arrange travel and training for Qaeda operatives from various parts of the Muslim world to the Pakistani tribal areas," the Times reported.

A Pakistani official said Abu Sufyan was one of "the top 20 Qaeda operatives" wanted by both the CIA and the ISI. But US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal disagreed.

"He is important, but I wouldn't place him in my list of top 20," a senior US military intelligence official who closely tracks al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Afghan and Pakistani theaters said.

"Abu Sufyan is a senior staffer in the Shadow Army and we've learned plenty about its structure and operations, but he's not a top 20 al Qaeda leader," another official told The Long War Journal.

I wonder if he had a cell phone or computer. And if that might have something to do with the uptick in Predator hits.
Posted by:Glenmore

#1  Quetta? Did you knock next door for "Osama"?
Posted by: Frank G   2009-05-24 21:15  

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