Terror arrest triggers mad scramble

[Evanauto]

U.S. officials said Sunday that the capture of al-Qaeda military chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the documents found in his midst have set off a frenzied manhunt to track other suspected terrorists in the United States and abroad.

With Mohammed's arrest Saturday in Pakistan came papers and communications equipment that already are helping in the hunt for other al-Qaeda associates, a senior U.S. intelligence officer involved in the probe overseas said.

Believing they had only 24 to 48 hours to act, CIA officials and FBI agents Sunday e-mailed names and information of suspected al-Qaeda operatives, found on documents and computer files in the house where Mohammed was arrested, to their offices overseas. They're hoping operatives will recognize names and use the information to disrupt al-Qaeda cells and arrest suspects.

In particular, officials hope to arrest al-Qaeda members in Kuwait and Qatar, where the U.S. military has bases. There's a "mad scramble going on" to track suspects, the senior intelligence officer said. "We have lots of names and lots of information."

Mohammed, who went to college in the USA in the 1980s, is the highest-ranking leader of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network to be arrested. He is thought to possess an intricate knowledge of al-Qaeda operations. And he has been tied to some of the network's biggest attacks against the United States, including the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors.

Although he has not been charged in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, some intelligence officials believe Mohammed may have been sitting next to bin Laden in Afghanistan when he was told that the hijackers had hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

The intelligence officer said Mohammed has been flown out of Pakistan and taken to one of the overseas interrogation centers that the CIA maintains in Jordan, Uzbekistan and Diego Garcia.

A Pakistani official said National Security Agency intercepts and human intelligence developed by Pakistani authorities led to the raid, which took place at 4 a.m. local time Saturday in a middle-class section of Rawalpindi.

Mohammed's arrest comes at a time when investigators had feared that the interrogations of other top terror leaders in U.S. hands were reaching a point of diminishing returns. It has been six months since the capture of suspected Sept. 11 conspirator Ramzi Bin al-Shibh.

[TheEvilOne]

And war opponents say that focusing on Iraq means we're no longer trying to catch Osama... ladies and gentlemen, the War on Terror continues, and I believe we are winning.

[TheloniousMONK]

At 3/3/03 12:49 AM, TheEvilOne wrote: And war opponents say that focusing on Iraq means we're no longer trying to catch Osama... ladies and gentlemen, the War on Terror continues, and I believe we are winning.

I don't think you CAN win. We're not fighting a single entity, but a vast network consisting of a myriad of devout people. Much too big of a fight to win. All we can do is deter them.

[TheEvilOne]

At 3/3/03 01:19 AM, jazz_mazter wrote: I don't think you CAN win. We're not fighting a single entity, but a vast network consisting of a myriad of devout people. Much too big of a fight to win. All we can do is deter them.

What do you define as a victory? If you are referring to the complete destruction of all terrorist networks, then you're right, that is a little much to ask for. But if we're talking about capturing top operatives in these terror networks, and crippling their ability to hit us again, then in that sense, you can say that we are winning. Maybe it's just deterring them, but it's better than letting them strike again.

[Ted-Easton]

(warning-off topic)
Glad to see you put the symbol in your sig, Evanuato, anyone else in the Politics Crew is free to do so.

[JMHX]

Has anyone else heard about the mad little plan to fly Honolulu Int. airplanes into nuclear submarines in Peal Harbor? Yeah...they're running out of ideas.