Pakistan captures another Al-Queda operative (Aktar)

Reuters ^ | August 7 2004 | uncredited

[plushaye]

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A senior al Qaeda operative who knew Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and was linked to assassination attempts on Pakistan's president has been arrested in Dubai and handed over to Islamabad, Pakistani intelligence sources said Saturday.

Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a leader of the radical Islamic group Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami, was arrested by authorities in Dubai Friday after Pakistan had requested his detention, and handed over to Islamabad Saturday.

The capture was the latest breakthrough in a broadening offensive against terrorist groups in Pakistan that has netted over 20 suspects in recent weeks including computer engineer Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan and top al Qaeda figure Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.

One intelligence source said Khan e-mailed al Qaeda comrades while in custody as part of a sting by security agencies, but his name appeared in U.S. newspapers, which may have compromised the operation, according to experts.

Ghailani had a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head for his alleged role in the 1998 East African U.S. embassy bombings.

Information gleaned from Khan led to the arrest of 12 al Qaeda suspects in Britain earlier this week and the decision by the United States to put New York and Washington on high alert against possible al Qaeda attacks.

British newspapers said that among the 12 arrested was senior al Qaeda figure Abu Musa al-Hindi or Abu Eisa al-Hindi, and that he was believed to be plotting an attack on Heathrow airport.

In a separate development, Pakistani sources said on Saturday that authorities had arrested Fazal-ur Rehman Khalil, head of the banned Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group linked to an insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir (news - web sites), the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda.

His arrest will be seen as a warning to other leaders of banned radical Islamic outfits that have re-emerged under new names. Some are sectarian, but several have links to al Qaeda.

AKHTAR KNEW OSAMA, OMAR

Pakistan's intelligence services used information gleaned from a spate of high-profile arrests of al Qaeda members in recent weeks, including those of Khan and Ghailani, to track down Akhtar, described by a source as "an operational head of al Qaeda in Pakistan."

He was with al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in Afghanistan (news - web sites) at the time of the U.S.-led war against the hard-line Islamic militia late in 2001 and fled first to Saudi Arabia and then to United Arab Emirates.

Akhtar is also allegedly linked to two assassination attempts on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in December and a bid to kill Prime Minister-designate Shaukat Aziz in July.

Radical Islamic groups are angered by Musharraf's decision to back the U.S.-led war on terror.

Pakistan has captured hundreds of al Qaeda suspects since the September 11, 2001 attacks, including the alleged mastermind of the hijacked airliner attacks on New York and Washington, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Many have been handed over to U.S. custody, and the government is considering doing the same with Khan and Ghailani.

Pakistan's crackdown on al Qaeda in recent weeks has raised international hopes of dealing the terror network a telling blow, but security experts warn that it is clearly still active in Pakistan and poses dangers across the globe.

[Helms]

What we really need is Reality TV beamed from Pakky Land and with different gangsta rap music every hour.

[Southack]

One other thing to consider in this time of great Intel victories is also that we've got an Intel failure on our hands, too.

The NY Times and Washington Post/Times/LA Times have penetrated our Intel agencies more thoroughly than the Soviets ever dreamed.

Of course, the penetration is done in a different manner, but make no mistake, the NY Times has U.S. Intel fools volunteering tidbits.

Usually, the arrogant fool convinces himself that he "knows what he's doing" when he gives away classified Intel.

But there's more than 1 such fool, and no doubt they aren't coordinating with each other.

And this presents a problem. 1 agent is giving up compartmentalized secret X to the old gray lady. Another agent is telling the NY Times compartmentalized secret Y.

But now those secrets are no longer compartmentalized. On their own, they may have been safe to disclose, but together, the NY Times may be able to deduce top secret Z.

Here's a hypothetical example of that happening, and why it's a problem:

Agent #1 decides that he wants the NY Times to publish his book when he retires. To curry favor, he gives the NY Times access to the financial transfers being tracked by our Intel.

Meanwhile, Agent #2 decides that a book deal sounds pretty cool, too. So he discloses the travel schedule of al qaeda operatives whom we've been tracking.

But unknown to both Agents, the sum of that knowledge (which neither had access to) permits the NY Times to deduce secret Z: i.e. by looking at the al qaeda operatives and their travels and comparing that to the wire transfers that we're tracking, the NY Times is able to correctly deduce that Country Z is al qaeda's prime state sponsor.

Now, neither agent meant to let such a top secret get disclosed. The information that they disclosed wasn't the "big secret".

But taken together, they let the cat out of the bag...something that the old Soviet Union spent a great deal of resources to penetrate and obtain.

...And that's what our news media has done by default today. Too many agents think that they can give away their little piece of classified data. It's almost harmless, they lie to themselves.

But when one organization has several such pieces of Intel, they can put together entirely more sensitive conclusions.

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

[Grampa Dave]

Now that might be reality tv that I would watch. My wife loves the room makeovers, yard make overs, the kitchen make overs and the redressing of the slobs. I would prefer to watch paint dry.

We never watch any of the other so called Survivor reality shows.

[Grampa Dave]

Any clues or bets to the political party of those two former intel officials. Agents would not do that. These are the Wilson, Plames and that type.

[Southack]

"Any clues or bets to the political party of those two former intel officials. Agents would not do that. These are the Wilson, Plames and that type."

Plame is an Agent, Grampa. Wilson was essentially an Agent when he went to Nigeria on behalf of the CIA. Ditto too for Clarke. Someone set Senator Shelby up pretty hard, too. This is not backyard softball that's being played.

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

[JimBr]

I'm sorry to see that none of you guys know what you're talking about.

I have had close to 10 years experience in Pakistan and have done policy paper writing at a Washington thin-tank on Islamism and South West Asia and the Middle East.

Here's the skinny on Qari Saifullah Akhtar. Qari is his title, meaning he can recite the Koran in Arabic with meaning. He is the current head of a group called Harkat-jihad-i-Islami which was the first Pakistani jihadist group, founded in the 1970s. It has a large following in the Pakistani army and civil bureaucracy.

Some of his people in the ISI were involved in the plot to kill Musharraf in late 2003. But he was whisked away to Dubai with full knowledge of Musharraf after Akhtar promised to lay low and stop targeting Musharraf. This was widely reported in the regional media. If you all are hoping that Akhtar could know where Bin Laden is, it is wishful thinking. Whatever Akhtar knows, the ISI knows better. Akhtar is likley to be released by Musharraf after a few weeks of R&R and apologies, just like the other Pakistani jihadist leaders. If Musharraf is serious, we'll know soon enough - he will hand over Akhtar to us or try him in a Pakistani court. I'm willing to bet that neither happens.

This whole thing smacks of a pre-arranged set up and a subsequent intelligence SNAFU. My contacts across the pond tell me that the Brits are furious that names have been leaked prematurely which has caused many terrorist suspects to scoot in London.

My take on this is that we have been turning the heat on the Paks for a long time and Musharraf decided to pull some rabbits out of the hat to appease us. Take this Ghailani guy. A Black African who has managed to live in crowded Pakistani cities for 6 years and no one saw him until last week? Give me a break.

The barrage of conflicting information seems to me a deliberate Pakistani tactic to both get credit for taking action as well as to set a smokescreen where inquisitive people don't ask too many questions. The Bush admin for its part had no choice but to go on alert, because we have to be prudent post 9/11.

On ths whole this whole episode represents neither a major breakthrough nor is it insignificant in the war on terror. Musharraf has earned enough brownie points for a few more months, until he can pull another Abdul out of a cave.