Thread FULL!!!__AMERICA AT WAR!__Use New Thread!

Qaeda and Taliban May Ply Pakistan's Porous Frontier

Top 1565. Apr 2, 2002 9:35 AM

» JenL_2 - al Qaeda & Taliban in Pakistan

More on al Qaeda in Pakistan from 4/2 New York Times (just posted to "India-Pakistan" thread):

By DEXTER FILKINS

ASHAKALAY, Afghanistan, April 1 — Along this desolate frontier said to be teeming with Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, the border with Pakistan seems as elusive as the fugitives themselves.

From sunrise to dusk, people cross the imaginary line that cuts through the mountains here: nomads with camels, smugglers with wares, young men with guns.

The Afghan border guards, recently hired by the Americans to look for terrorist suspects, give a lazy wave. Pakistani guards are nowhere to be seen.

An American reporter and photographer crossed the border into an area where foreigners have largely been banned by the Pakistani government. There were no Pakistanis on the border to question them.

"Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters cross back and forth, and we cannot stop them," said Shah Wali, the commander of the Afghan border post here, which opened with American help four weeks ago. "On this side, there are mountains. On that side, there are mountains. What can we do?"

The remote border region, formed where the eastern Afghan province of Khost meets Pakistan, has come under intense scrutiny after persistent reports that Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are regrouping and planning to mount guerrilla attacks from sanctuaries across the border.

In recent days, government officials in Khost, the provincial capital, have cited reports from witnesses that Osama bin Laden and other senior members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are operating in the Khost region on both sides of the border.

American Special Forces have created an army of local Afghans to patrol the border, and the Americans themselves recently came under attack at their base in Khost.

Recent arrests of people suspected of being Al Qaeda members in areas under tribal control on the Pakistani side of the order, carried out by Pakistani authorities, give credence to the reports that large numbers of fugitive fighters have fled to the one place where the Americans cannot, as yet, go and get them.

The rugged frontier that stretches from the Khyber Pass to Quetta is famous for the smuggling routes that weave their way through the area's arid mountains. In the 1980's, the same region gave sanctuary to the mujahedeen fighters, who traveled back and forth across the border to stage attacks on the forces of the Soviet Union.

Frustrated by what appear to be havens for Al Qaeda, American officials have begun hinting that they may reach across the frontier to carry out military strikes. Pakistani officials said that a senior American military commander raised the possibility of joint operations in the country's tribal areas. Pakistani leaders, who have sent 12,000 troops to the border areas, have indicated that if any military action is needed, they will undertake it themselves.

The scene at the Mashakalay crossing suggests how difficult it could be for American forces to crush the Taliban and Al Qaeda without striking across the border.

"There are thousands of Al Qaeda on the other side of the border," said Muhammad Mustafa, the security chief for Khost Province. "They have had lots of meetings. They are trying to regroup. That is what our intelligence has told us. They are going to start guerrilla attacks."

Only three months ago, the Taliban and Al Qaeda were thought to be largely defeated in Khost Province, and most local energy was focused on the struggle that erupted when Padsha Khan Zadran, a longtime local warlord and ally of the Americans, tried to shoot his way into power in Khost and nearby Paktia Province. He failed to gain political office in either place, but established himself and family as the dominant force in the area.

As that was going on, Taliban and Qaeda fighters appear to have been regrouping on both sides of the border. That led to the battle at Shah-i-Kot valley, where American forces attacked what they believed to be a large concentration of Qaeda fighters.

In recent days, Mr. Mustafa, the security chief here, said his intelligence agents reported seeing Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mr. bin Laden's top deputy, and Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Taliban's top military commander, in the Pakistani town of Miram Shah, about 10 miles inside the Pakistani border.

Muhammad Ibrahim, the governor of Khost Province, said local residents had also reported seeing Mr. bin Laden. Other reports have placed fugitive Taliban and Qaeda fighters in the Pakistani tribal village of Qabail and in parts of North and South Waziristan.

The reports are impossible to verify, but the signs of increased activity on and near the border appear unmistakable. Today, a bomb exploded in a bus parked in South Waziristan, killing one person and injuring 12. Local authorities blamed "unknown saboteurs."

The American base in Khost, about 20 miles from the Pakistani border, came under attack on the morning of March 20, and the ensuing firefight lasted more than an hour. While there are indications that the American base may have been caught in the crossfire of a tribal dispute, the police said they had arrested a local Afghan in possession of documents suggesting a link to Al Qaeda. The Afghan and the documents were turned over to the Americans in Khost, who declined a request for an interview.

The same week, Pakistani officials arrested seven suspected Qaeda members as they tried to cross the border, and a group of American Special Forces killed 16 suspected Qaeda members near the Pakistani border.

To help the Afghans seal their border, American soldiers have helped create a 600-man force of local Afghans, assigned to locations across the province. So far, no arrests by that group have been reported. Indeed, local officials say the force, while welcome, does not begin to the supply the manpower needed to watch the border effectively.

"I would say that 60 percent of the border is completely open," said Mr. Ibrahim, the governor of Khost. "We can't afford the cars, the troops, the logistics."

<img src="http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/2002/..." width=184 height=319 align="left">The scene at the Mashakalay border crossing suggests that the governor's appraisal might be overly optimistic. Mr. Wali, the commander at the post, said his men checked the documents of every truck and driver that crossed the border.

But as he spoke, cars and trucks passed through in both directions, some loaded with passengers, other laden with cargo. The vehicles were given a quick glance by the guards and sent on their way. None were searched. When the guards' performance was pointed out by a visitor, Mr. Wali smiled and shrugged.

"Most drivers around here don't have documents; most people don't have any identification at all," he said. "This is not England, France or America."

On the Pakistani side, neither troops nor border guards were visible for more than a mile inside the border.

At the first village, a tiny hamlet called Khalwol, the villagers said they had not seen Pakistani soldiers for more a month. The villagers said Pakistani soldiers had set up checkpoints farther down the road, but the area around Khalwol was surrounded by mountains and trails, offering an array of paths for any enterprising traveler to elude official checkpoints.

"There are lots of ways to cross the border here," said Wali Khan, a villager.

As Mr. Khan spoke, a truck full of men carrying rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns rumbled out of Afghanistan and across the border. The men in the truck said that they were Afghan fighters working for Mr. Zadran, the warlord, and that they were going to Pakistan to visit families there.

"This road is not completely legal," said Raz Muhammad, one of the fighters. "It's a smugglers' trail."

At times, the border itself seems more illusory than real, with even the locals disagreeing on its exact location. Take, for instance, Ghulam Khan, a village located well within the Pakistani border.

"Ghulam Khan is in Afghanistan," Mr. Ibrahim told a visitor.

"Ghulam Khan is in Pakistan," said Momin Khan, a villager in Khalwol.

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

White House confirms arrest of bin Laden aide

Top 1566. Apr 2, 2002 3:51 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Abu Zubayah

Update on Abu Zabayah capture from 4/2 MSNBC.com and Seattle Times:

Capture deals ‘very serious blow’ to al-Qaida;
Pakistan police raid more suspected hideouts

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES

WASHINGTON, April 2 — The White House confirmed Tuesday that “key terrorist recruiter” Abu Zubaydah, a top aide to Osama bin Laden, had been taken into custody, saying his arrest dealt a “very serious blow” to the al-Qaida terrorist network. Intelligence experts believe Zubaydah can provide a treasure trove of information about the terrorist group, possibly including plans for future attacks......

Al-Qaida leader caught; Ressam now key

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter

A man arrested last week in Pakistan is one of Osama bin Laden's top surviving lieutenants, and convicted terrorist Ahmed Ressam is likely to play a key role in his prosecution, federal officials say.

In testimony and debriefings, Ressam, who was arrested in Port Angeles in 1999, has identified the man, Abu Zubaydah, as the "emir" of bin Laden's terrorist-training camps in Afghanistan. Intelligence sources now believe Zubaydah is bin Laden's operations director and top terrorist planner.

Zubaydah, identified by intelligence sources as a force behind the Sept. 11 attacks, was seriously wounded in the stomach and groin by security forces Thursday as he tried to flee a makeshift home and office above a madrassa, or Islamic school, in the industrial city of Faisalabad in eastern Pakistan.

Senior Bush administration officials said yesterday that he's receiving American medical treatment at an undisclosed location, perhaps one of the two U.S. bases in Afghanistan, and that his wounds are not believed to be life-threatening.

The officials said Zubaydah, al-Qaida's third-ranking leader since his predecessor, Mohammed Atef, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan last fall, has acknowledged his identity and has been identified by other prisoners. They said Zubaydah was the main link between bin Laden and the group's terrorist cells around the world.

Ressam may be the only al- Qaida insider who could testify about Zubaydah's role in the camps, a federal source said.

"This makes Ressam's testimony that much more important," said another federal source, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Zubaydah is a big catch, and it's likely Ressam will play a critical role in any prosecution," be it in a federal court or military tribunal.

Ressam is being held at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac. He has offered extensive information about Zubaydah since he began to cooperate with authorities in June after his conviction in a plot to set off a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport. Ressam was arrested Dec. 14, 1999, coming off a ferry from Victoria, B.C., with the makings of a bomb in the trunk of his rental car.

Ressam was convicted and faced up to 130 years in prison. He has agreed that for a recommendation of leniency, he will testify in any trial where the government calls him as a witness.

Zubaydah, 30, has been sentenced to death in absentia by a military court in Jordan for allegedly leading a plot to attack several Middle Eastern tourist sites, including an Amman, Jordan, hotel frequented by Americans, and Christian holy sites in the country. Those plans are thought to be related to Ressam's planned attack in the U.S.

Raids in Jordan and Ressam's arrest foiled the plots.

Ressam, 36, was to have been sentenced Friday, but prosecutors received a yearlong extension so he could fulfill his agreement to testify. Among the alleged al-Qaida operatives he's expected to testify against are Abu Doha, another alleged bin Laden top operative who awaits extradition to the United States from Britain, and Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker whom Ressam has said he saw training in Afghanistan.

Zubaydah has proved to be a shadowy target for counterterrorists — there are few photos of him and apparently even fewer al-Qaida insiders willing to identify him.

In testimony against co-conspirator Mohktar Haouari in New York last summer, Ressam said that retribution would be swift if he were to cross Zubaydah.

"You would be executed, correct?" defense attorney Dan Ollen asked.

"That's possible, yes," Ressam replied.

Ressam said he was put in touch with Zubaydah by another bin Laden-trained Algerian terrorist living in Montreal. In early 1998, Ressam says, he stayed for about a month at a "safe house" operated by Zubaydah in Peshawar, Pakistan, where Ressam left his belongings and grew a beard before entering Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Ressam says Zubaydah sent him with a guide and a letter of introduction so he could cross the border.

Eleven months later, Zubaydah asked Ressam to send him four Canadian passports to be used by other terrorists "to carry out operations in the U.S.," according to Ressam's testimony.

Ressam said he never was able to get the passports.

Michael Sheehan, a former State Department director of counterterrorism, said in a recent interview that some in the intelligence community until recently had a benign view of Zubaydah as little more than "al-Qaida's travel agent," operating the safe houses in Peshawar.

"I see him as being more sinister," Sheehan said. "There's evidence he's a planner and a manager as well. I think he's a major player."

Information from Knight Ridder Newspapers is included in this report.

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 1567. Apr 2, 2002 4:30 PM

» BPyles - 16 suspected alQaeda arrested

Jen: Just possible Pak is doing better than we had dared hope with respect to rounding up terrorists in their country. Guess it just took time for Musharraf to rid his ISI of the corrupt members.

Notice this article specifies they did it all by themselves! Be nice if some more top names are among them.
-------------------------

-------------------------------------
Dawn, Pakistan, 4-2-01

Police arrest 16 suspected al-Qaeda extremists: ISLAMABAD, April 02: Police said today they had arrested 16 mostly Arab men suspected of having links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group during raids in Lahore. "We have taken into custody 16
foreigners, mostly Arabs. They had come from Afghanistan and they were hiding in Lahore," said Lahore police chief Javed Noor. "There was no resistence. We caught them by surprise. They were hiding in houses in the Township. "These people had been living in Afghanistan, that is for sure. We are interrogating them to find out their identities and their background." The officer denied that US law enforcement agencies were engaged in the raid. (AFP) (Posted @ 11:00 PST)

-- posted by BPyles

Top 1568. Apr 2, 2002 6:08 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: 16 suspected alQaeda arrested

In response to message posted by BPyles:

Yeah Betty - it's pretty amazing really! Musharraf did reshuffle the ISI to put the former militant group handlers into other positions - to get them out of the loop. Then he put his most trusted ISI officers in charge. The fear was that the radicals would go underground...but if they aren't right in there in the decision-making loop maybe they've been emasculated somewhat? Let's hope so. As to whether U.S. law enforcement agencies were involved in the raids .....hmmmm... the U.S. media says "Yes" and the Pak media says "No"....I guess we'll find out eventually! Am just glad that al Qaeda are being arrested and they're not finding safe haven in Pakistan.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Seized Materials May Help Thwart Future Attacks

Top 1569. Apr 3, 2002 9:26 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Abu Zubayah

More on Abu Zabayah capture from 4/3 Washington Post - Love to see those words.... "Thwart Future Attacks"!:

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 3, 2002; Page A14

Documents, computers and other materials seized in raids in Pakistan in which senior al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaida was captured last week could lead to other al Qaeda leaders and disrupt planned future terrorist attacks, according to senior administration officials.

Telephone numbers and names found in the raids at more than a dozen homes are being sent around the world for investigation, one official said. The residences served as "safe houses" for at least 20 al Qaeda members from outside Pakistan, along with 40 Pakistanis who may have been part of the Taliban or al Qaeda.

Similar materials obtained during earlier operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan helped intelligence analysts zero in on the safe houses targeted in the raids last Thursday, another official said.

"Exploitation of the new materials has just begun, but we expect it will pay us extra dividends," one senior analyst said.

Abu Zubaida, 30, the one-time recruiter and, more recently, the operations field commander for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, was described yesterday by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as "a very senior al Qaeda official who has been intimately involved in a range of activities for the al Qaeda." White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the administration considered his capture as "a very serious blow to al Qaeda."

"This is one of the bigger fish," said a senior intelligence official, who called Abu Zubaida "one of the hardest of the hard core." Even if Abu Zubaida never talks, the official said, the materials found in the raids will help in the ongoing worldwide investigation of the bin Laden network -- and in the goal of capturing bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman Zawahiri.

Intelligence experts see another benefit from the capture based on the way in which the bin Laden network is being forced to operate. With the death last November of the network's military operations chief, Muhammad Atef, in a U.S. bombing raid, Abu Zubaida had moved up to play "a unique role," one senior official said. With both bin Laden and Zawahiri forced by U.S. military pressure to stay on the run between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Abu Zubaida "had to pass on plans for future operations, with much of it existing in his head."

"Rolling him up," this official said, referring to Abu Zubaida's capture, "may be the end of that operation or at least until an alternative path can be found to get it done."

Another positive part of the raid, a senior official said, was the capture of several of his subordinates. "They, too, can be useful," he said, indicating the aides may be more prone to talk than Abu Zubaida.

Abu Zubaida was shot three times as he tried to escape the compound in Faisalabad where he and seven or eight other Arab men were staying. Fleischer told reporters the Saudi-born Palestinian "is currently receiving medical attention" and "for security reasons, we are not going to discuss his location."

Both security and the diplomatic sensitivities of Pakistani officials who worked with the CIA and FBI in the weeks leading up to the raids have caused administration officials to shy away from saying exactly where Abu Zubaida and the three or four subordinates seized with him are being held.

One official said yesterday that Pakistan holds the prisoners and is making them available to U.S. interrogators. Reports from Pakistan on Monday said that Abu Zubaida and some others taken in the raids had been turned over to U.S. officials and eventually would be transported to the detention facility at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A report from Lahore, Pakistan, yesterday said all the detainees were still being held in that city.

Pakistani police said yesterday that 16 more al Qaeda members had been picked up in Lahore based on interrogations of the Pakistanis arrested last Thursday, but a senior administration official said yesterday he could not confirm those reports.

Abu Zubaida allegedly served in the 1990s as a recruiter and coordinator for Muslims who came from around the world to train at bin Laden's terrorist camps in Afghanistan. He was one of several gatekeepers, interviewing new arrivals when they appeared in Pakistan at an al Qaeda safe house and then determining which of the several training camps they would be sent to.

Later he allegedly arranged for the trained terrorists to return to their home countries or take up residence elsewhere and await orders. Court testimony described him as involved in a thwarted plan to bomb hotels in Jordan during millennial celebrations and plans to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

In France, a man accused in a plot by al Qaeda to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris told a French judge he had been briefed by Abu Zubaida in bin Laden's home. After Atef's death he moved up to take a more active role in al Qaeda field operations.

As Rumsfeld put it yesterday when asked about the potential questioning of Abu Zubaida, "There is no question that having an opportunity to visit with him is helpful."

Yeah! - Good Job done by all! - U.S. Special Forces, CIA and Pakistani Police - but it's not time to become complacent....

"Rolling him up," this official said, referring to Abu Zubaida's capture, "may be the end of that operation or at least until an alternative path can be found to get it done."

We might have chopped off the right arm of the evil monster... but as we know....that's not a fatal blow .......it'll bud another right arm or maybe two right arms someplace else where and when it's least expected.....we must remain ever-vigilant!....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 1570. Apr 3, 2002 8:54 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: The New Arsenal

More from the Defense Spending Report in WSJ:

<img src="http://www.suite101.com/files/mysites/je..." width=204 height=228 align="left"> The Ripple Effect

Economists have long debated whether military spending boosts the economy. They're still debating it

By ANNE MARIE SQUEO

When Lockheed Martin Corp., the nation's largest military contractor, planned its supplier conference last November, officials expected weak attendance due to post-Sept. 11 travel fears. But 650 people -- more than expected -- traveled to the Hyatt Regency Hotel at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas to hear the company describe potential business opportunities, including its recently won Joint Strike Fighter contract, a potentially $200 billion-plus program.

The suppliers weren't just eager for more work. For some, their survival depends on the Bush administration's push to ramp up the nation's weapons-procurement program. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks further depressed already declining demand for new commercial jetliners. Hundreds of small manufacturers around the country started cutting jobs to prepare for an extended drop in business.

A fatter military budget "is really going to be a savior for a lot of the small businesses," says William Lewandowski, vice president of supplier management at the Aerospace Industries Association in Washington, D.C, an industry trade group. "The bulk of these aerospace guys will use the defense increases to get through this time while keeping their eye on the commercial market, which is where the biggest sales tend to be long term."

The Bush administration is seeking congressional approval for increases over the next five years that will boost the Pentagon budget more than 48% by fiscal 2007 to $470 billion from $329 billion in fiscal 2001. Of the $398 billion being sought for fiscal 2003, which begins in October, the administration expects to spend more than $120 billion on new weapons and research and development, and most of that money will find its way into the coffers of military contractors and their suppliers.

Costs and Benefits

The debate about whether military spending benefits the overall economy has raged for decades. Critics of defense spending say money allotted for social-service programs and civil-works projects produce more economic growth than the manufacture of products whose intent is to destroy. Defense spending is money that "is being withdrawn from somewhere," says Gary Becker, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, "possibly meaning less spent on health care, high-tech and building roads."

Proponents of military spending, meanwhile, say that the types of products the Pentagon is buying nowadays actually might have beneficial effects for the economy. Huge amounts of money are earmarked for things like wireless communications for soldiers, technologies that may eventually yield commercial benefits. What's more, they argue, the political backing needed for defense spending has resulted in a wide national dispersion of defense contractors. Even after the post-Cold War consolidation within the industry, the big contractors continue to operate facilities and rely on suppliers in many states to garner political support for their programs.

Lockheed, based in Bethesda, Md., has suppliers in 46 states for its expensive and often-controversial F-22 fighter-jet program. So when the company recently received a $2.68 billion contract to build 13 of the supersonic Air Force jets, the money was parceled out within days to the program's suppliers operating in New Hampshire, California, Vermont, West Virginia and Georgia, among other states.

"Most industrial sectors, such as autos and computers, are concentrated in particular geographic areas," says Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a defense-industry think tank in Washington, D.C., citing Detroit and California's Silicon Valley. "And a substantial part of the money spent on consumer products ends up offshore. Defense spending, though, for the most part, stays right here in the U.S."

Setting Up Shop Nearby

Over the years, many top-tier defense companies, including Lockheed and Chicago-based Boeing Co., have reduced the numbers of parts made in-house in an effort to reduce their work forces and focus on higher-end integration jobs that yield more profits. And that has boosted suppliers, ranging from mom-and-pop operations to billion-dollar companies, which specialize in making a few parts used in a wide variety of vehicles, such as airplanes or tanks.

The small suppliers often set up shop around facilities operated by major manufacturers like Boeing or Lockheed. In the aerospace industry, clusters of suppliers based themselves near Boeing's main jet-making facilities near Seattle and Wichita. Among military contractors, there are several highly concentrated areas including central Florida, Dallas-Fort Worth, Southern California and the Washington, D.C., area.

In Florida, where Lockheed's Orlando operation has long been one of the state's largest employers, the increased military spending "is a nice offset to problems at Disney World," says Mark Vitner, vice president and senior economist at Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C. In general, though, he sees defense dollars having a meaningful impact on only a handful of areas, almost all of them in the Sunbelt.

But perhaps the most telling measure of economic impact is job creation. Despite the Bush administration's talk about spending more on homeland-security equipment as well as weapons procurement, most major contractors say it will still take a while before they see an influx of new orders -- and enough to offset the loss of commercial business. Plus, the December approval of the fiscal 2002 budget, three months late, delayed a number of contracts from being awarded for this year.

The work that has materialized, say company executives, was already in the pipeline. As a result, big and small military contractors are delaying capital expenditures and hiring decisions until there's more concrete evidence the funding is on its way.

Not Hiring Yet

Vought Aircraft Industries Inc. fired 1,200 employees, or about 20% of its work force, last fall and closed a manufacturing facility amid the decline in commercial-aerospace manufacturing. The Dallas-based company makes parts for almost all of Boeing's commercial jetliners, as well as Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.'s business jets. The company also works on several military aircraft, including Boeing's C-17 cargo plane and Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

That's good news for Vought, given that the U.S. government has expressed a desire to step up purchases of both of these aircraft and others that Vought works on. But right now, there are no hard orders.

"We're looking to use military work to fill in the gap," says Judy Northrup, vice president of materials at Vought. "But we haven't seen enough work to hire anyone back. That'll probably take another 18 months to two years."

Ms. Northrup and other suppliers say it's the comeback of commercial work they're really looking forward to. Work on jetliners, they say, often lasts for decades and doesn't suffer the funding swings that big military programs often go through as administrations in Washington come and go. Industry analysts are now expecting the commercial market to bottom out and start to grow again sometime next year.

--Ms. Squeo is a staff reporter in the Wall Street Journal's New York Bureau.

Subscribe to WSJ Online @ http://www.wsj.com

.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 1571. Apr 3, 2002 9:20 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Abu Zubaydah

Update on Abu Zubaydah capture from 4/3 MSNBC.com:

Rumsfeld promises no torture of suspect

U.S. to control Zubaydah’s questioning

MSNBC

The United States will control the interrogation of a top aide to Osama bin Laden who was captured in Pakistan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday, angrily denying reports that U.S. officials were considering sending the man to another country so he could be tortured to learn what he knows.

OTHER DEFENSE OFFICIALS told NBC News on condition of anonymity that the man, Abu Zubaydah, had already been taken from Pakistan to another country, which they would not identify. Rumsfeld would not confirm that, and he and other officials stressed that if he were moved, it would be solely for security reasons.

U.S. officials said they hoped that the arrest of Zubaydah, whom they described as a key recruiter for al-Qaida and a member of bin Laden’s “inner circle,” would provide a treasure trove of information about the terrorist group, possibly including plans for future attacks.

“There is no question but that the overriding important issue is intelligence gathering,” Rumsfeld told reporters Wednesday at a news briefing at the Pentagon.

NO TORTURE, RUMSFELD SAYS

NBC News reported Tuesday that U.S. officials were considering sending some captured al-Qaida members to third countries so what they knew about future terrorist attacks could be learned in secret interrogations under the potential threat of torture.

Egypt was mentioned as a particularly likely destination, and Egyptian officials said they would like to have Zubaydah in their custody. Sources told NBC News late Wednesday that another al-Qaida official — Ibn Al-Shayk al Libi, a trainer in al-Qaida terrorist camps whom U.S. forces seized near Kandahar in January — has already been turned over to Egyptian authorities, who had a warrant for his arrest.

Rumsfeld rebuffed several attempts by reporters to clarify who would interrogate Zubaydah if he were transported to a third country, but he eventually declared in frustration that the United States would not allow Zubaydah to be tortured.

“Believe me, reports to that effect are wrong, inaccurate, not happening and will not happen,” he said. “... We will be responsible for that interrogation — not we, the Department of Defense, [but] we the United States of America.”

Rumsfeld repeated his earlier comments that Zubaydah, who was shot three times during the raid in which he was captured last week, had not suffered life-threatening injuries and was receiving appropriate medical care.

Other defense officials, speaking to NBC News on condition of anonymity, painted a less promising picture. They told NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski on Wednesday that Zubaydah was in serious condition and that before he could be questioned, the immediate priority was to keep him alive.

VITAL INFORMATION SOURCE

U.S. officials said this week that they believed Zubaydah could identify names, faces and locations of al-Qaida operatives the world over and might also know where bin Laden was hiding.

Pakistani authorities, in concert with the CIA and the FBI, captured Zubaydah in an early morning raid last Thursday at a compound in Faisalabad, far from the Afghan border, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters Tuesday.

Zubaydah, 31, is a Palestinian who was born in Saudi Arabia. He is also known as Zain al-Abidin Muhahhad Husain.

U.S. officials told NBC News that Zubaydah was one of two or three surviving al-Qaida leaders capable of succeeding bin Laden if he is killed. President Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, has singled him out as a target in the U.S. war on terror, calling him a “very dangerous man.”

The officials cautioned, however, that Zubaydah’s arrest did not end the threat from al-Qaida. Cells are still operating, they said, and the group has several other leaders capable of organizing them.

Since the fall of the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, Zubaydah and former Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani have been driving an attempt to reconstitute al-Qaida in Pakistan. An increase in money transfers and e-mail communications suggested that they were commanding an al-Qaida faction that was planning new attacks against U.S. interests, U.S. officials have said.

“There is unambiguous information that Abu Zubaydah has knowledge of plans for future terrorist attacks against the United States and its allies,” a U.S. official said. “He’s been active in trying to get people to conduct future attacks.”

By MSNBC.com’s Alex Johnson. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski, in Washington, contributed to this report.

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

US task: Get inside head of captured bin Laden aide

Top 1572. Apr 3, 2002 9:53 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Abu Zubaydah

More on Abu Zubaydah capture from 4/4 Christian Science Monitor....hmmm - Rumsfeld says no torture.....but....

By Ann Scott Tyson
Special correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

A pivotal player in Al Qaeda's multinational operations, Abu Zubaydah is one of the few people likely to know about impending terrorist plots against Americans. But as a hard-core militant trained in secrecy and ways to resist interrogation, he is also likely to do everything possible to thwart US investigators who urgently seek to get inside his head.

The Palestinian operative captured last week in Pakistan, considered Osama bin Laden's No. 2 or No. 3 lieutenant, is believed to have been active in directing Al Qaeda cells, scattered around the globe, to plot embassy bombings and other terrorist acts since Sept. 11.

Yet Mr. Zubaydah is also probably skilled in sophisticated methods of resisting interrogation – skills that US officials say are common among the hundreds of Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees held by the US military.

"These guys have all been trained to resist interrogation," says one Pentagon official, referring to detainees held at US camps in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Al Qaeda operatives use multiple aliases to obscure their true identities. They're known to carefully compartmentalize information, and may have gained access to KGB, CIA or other foreign intelligence manuals on secret operations.

Moreover, they are likely to have "a whole memorized agenda" of "useless information" for deceiving interrogators, says Robert Baer, a former CIA officer who spent much of his 21-year intelligence career in the Middle East.

"Once someone sticks to a simple story, it is hard to break them down psychologically unless you use some sort of threat," says Mr. Baer.

Tools for breaking down such resistance range from the relatively benign – bright lights and sleep deprivation – to the far more controversial – truth serums and torture, a method the US rejects but one that friendly countries routinely use, according to US law enforcement and intelligence experts.

"Are we going to engage in some form of forced interrogation, such as inflicting pain or torture? I don't see it happening at all in an authorized way," says William H. Webster, a former FBI and CIA director. "More subtle things would be the application of sodium pentothal [truth serum]," he said.

"This is intrusive, but less intrusive than inflicting pain, and if it is done it would be done on some higher authority," he says.

Such drugs may be justified to gather information quickly that "would save lives or prevent some catastrophic consequence," he says.

Other attorneys agree. "I think we have to consider and use some kind of drug compulsion," says Jed Babbin, former deputy undersecretary of defense. "We have to get what this man knows and use it to protect ourselves."

Still, information obtained using truth serum has a legal drawback: It is not likely to be accepted as evidence against Zubaydah or other alleged terrorists in trials, say attorneys including Webster, who advised the Pentagon in drafting the newly unveiled rules for military tribunals.

Terrorism experts believe the biggest benefits from netting Zubaydah and other senior Al Qaeda members will come from disrupting the network, rather than from "actionable intelligence" gained in interrogations. That would be "icing on the cake,' says Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at the Rand Corporation in Washington. "Abu Zubaydah is a critically important apprehension" that will have "an enormous disruptive effect" on Al Qaeda, he says.

Acting during the 1990s as a "talent spotter" in charge of vetting many of the thousands of militants trained at Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and assigning them to cells around the world, Zubaydah later rose to a position "at the nexus of Al Qaeda operations," says Hoffman.

He was linked to plots to attack sites in Los Angeles and Jordan in December 1999, for which Jordan has sentenced him. Investigations also turned up connections between Zubaydah and plotters of foiled terrorist strikes on US embassies in Paris and Sarajevo last year.

US officials say that Zubaydah emerged as one of the top two or three Al Qaeda leaders after the presumed death of bin Laden's military chief, Muhammad Atef, in US bombing raids in Afghanistan.

As a key implementer in charge of Al Qaeda operations, his capture marks "a very serious blow" to the network, says White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

While Zubaydah may not talk, useful leads on terrorist plots may come from phone numbers and names gleaned from documents and computers found during raids on the Pakistan safe houses where he stayed. Zubaydah, wounded by gunfire in the US–Pakistani raid, is being treated in an undisclosed location.

Moreover, the capture of such a high-ranking individual is likely to prove demoralizing to Al Qaeda, especially by highlighting closer US–Pakistan intelligence cooperation. "It will be a major blow to their morale," says Stanley Bedlington, a former CIA counterterrorism official.

President Pervez Musharraf has moved to purge Pakistan's intelligence service of Al Qaeda sympathizers who may have protected members of the terrorist group who fled to Pakistan's tribal border areas from Afghanistan during the US campaign, say former CIA and State Department officials.

"This [capture] should mean that Musharraf is moving to control, discipline, and root out Islamist sympathizers within his apparatus," says Thomas Simons, a former US ambassador to Pakistan.

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 1573. Apr 4, 2002 7:21 AM

» BPyles - 23 suspected alQaeda arrested

By Pakistan in the NW Frontier Province. Have read that that is a place than even Pak police will not enter...looks like things changing in Pak.
--------------------------
Guardian Unlimited 4-4-02
Pakistan Arrests Suspected Al-qaida

Thursday April 4, 2002 4:00 PM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Authorities arrested 23 men
suspected of links to al-Qaida in late-night raids in two cities as
they continued to track down terrorists seeking refuge in
Pakistan, police said Thursday.

In a raid in the North West Frontier Province, Pakistani
authorities arrested 21 men belonging to the outlawed Islamic
militant group Harkat-ul Mujahedeen, police official Ilyas Khan
said by phone.

The men were picked up Wednesday night and were sent to an
interrogation center in Mansehra, 180 miles northwest of
Peshawar, Khan said.

Police also seized weapons and terrorist-training manuals from
the militants' safe-house, Khan said.

In a raid in the eastern Punjab provincial capital of Lahore, also
Wednesday night, two Tunisian men suspected of belonging to
al-Qaida were arrested near a known safe-house, said a police
official, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said the men
were now under interrogation, but would not provide details.

In the last week, authorities have arrested some 100 people in
Pakistan for suspected links with al-Qaida, and police sources
say those taken into custody have provided information that has
led to further arrests.

One of those arrested, Abu Zubaydah, was a key lieutenant of
Osama bin Laden and is now in American custody. Officials will
not say where he is being held, citing security reasons.

In addition, police and intelligence agencies in Lahore are
convinced that one of the 16 al-Qaida suspects they arrested
Monday, Abdul Hadi, had ``access'' to the terrorist organization's
leadership, according to police sources.

Hadi, a Libyan, is still being interrogated by Lahore authorities,
said a senior police official.

The others arrested in the same raid included Saudis, Syrians,
Egyptians, Afghans and Pakistanis. One of the Pakistanis,
identified as Riaz Ismail, provided the al-Qaida cell with food,
U.S. dollars and equipment and manuals for manufacturing
homemade bombs, intelligence officials said.

The militant group Harkat-ul Mujahedeen, formerly called the
Ansar Movement, was founded to fight the Indian army in
disputed Kashmir and maintained close ties to al-Qaida for
years.

During the U.S.-led offensive in Afghanistan, hundreds of
members joined with the Taliban and al-Qaida to fight coalition
troops.

Pakistan's intelligence agencies believe some of the Harkat-ul
Mujahedeen are still hiding inside Afghanistan, while others are
regrouping in Pakistan to renew their attack on the coalition
forces, Pakistani intelligence officials said on condition of
anonymity.

Harkat ul-Mujahedeen is one of several groups believed to have
teamed up with radical Islamic groups Jaish-e-Mohammed,
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Sipah-e-Sahaba to try and destabilize
the government of President Pervez Musharraf because of his
support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

All were banned by Musharraf on Jan. 12.

The leading suspect in the kidnap-slaying of American journalist
Daniel Pearl, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, is believed by police
to have strong ties to Jaish-e-Mohammed, while others still
being sought include activists from Harkat ul-Mujahedeen.

-- posted by BPyles