Posted on 05/07/2005 5:33:01 PM PDT by Gondring
THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.
Al-Libbi’s arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as “a major breakthrough” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
Bush called him a “top general” and “a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al- Qaeda network”. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said he was “a very important figure”. Yet the backslapping in Washington and Islamabad has astonished European terrorism experts, who point out that the Libyan was neither on the FBI’s most wanted list, nor on that of the State Department “rewards for justice” programme.
Another Libyan is on the FBI list — Anas al-Liby, who is wanted over the 1998 East African embassy bombings — and some believe the Americans may have initially confused the two. When The Sunday Times contacted a senior FBI counter-terrorism official for information about the importance of the detained man, he sent material on al-Liby, the wrong man.
“Al-Libbi is just a ‘middle-level’ leader,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, a French intelligence investigator and leading expert on terrorism finance. “Pakistan and US authorities have completely overestimated his role and importance. He was never more than a regional facilitator between Al-Qaeda and local Pakistani Islamic groups.”
According to Brisard, the arrested man lacks the global reach of Al-Qaeda leaders such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden’s number two, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, or Anas al-Liby.
Although British intelligence has evidence of telephone calls between al-Libbi and operatives in the UK, he is not believed to be Al-Qaeda’s commander of operations in Europe, as reported.
The only operations in which he is known to have been involved are two attempts to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, in 2003. Last year he was named Pakistan’s most wanted man with a $350,000 (£185,000) price on his head.
No European or American intelligence expert contacted last week had heard of al-Libbi until a Pakistani intelligence report last year claimed he had taken over as head of operations after Khalid Shaikh Mohammad’s arrest. A former close associate of Bin Laden now living in London laughed: “What I remember of him is he used to make the coffee and do the photocopying.”
What is known is that al-Libbi moved from Libya to Pakistan in the mid-1980s before joining the jihad in Afghanistan. He married a Pakistani woman and is said to specialise in maps and diagrams. He is thought to have joined Bin Laden in Sudan with other Libyan nationals in about 1992 and to have become Al-Qaeda’s co-ordinator with home-grown Pakistani terrorist groups after 9/11.
Some believe al-Libbi’s significance has been cynically hyped by two countries that want to distract attention from their lack of progress in capturing Bin Laden, who has now been on the run for almost four years.
Even a senior FBI official admitted that al-Libbi’s “influence and position have been overstated”. But this weekend the Pakistani government was sticking to the line that al-Libbi was the third most important person in the Al-Qaeda network.
One American official tried to explain the absence of al-Libbi’s name on the wanted list by saying: “We did not want him to know he was wanted.”
Whatever his importance, al-Libbi is the sixth Al-Qaeda figure to have been caught in Pakistan, suggesting that the country is now the organisation’s centre of operations. The interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, conceded that Bin Laden and his deputy might be hiding in a Pakistani city.
“But the capture of al-Libbi will have made them very apprehensive. Whether big fry or small fry, they’re on the run, I can tell you that.”
Perhaps it was the fact that USF and I had both figured this out days before much of the rest of the world...? Ever condider that? Why does posting a story mean a person has to agree with it? Why would hiding a goof be a good thing to do? If it's a real error, let's own up and move on, not cover it up in a--again--Clintonesque fashion.
This is a nice victory...we got someone who is a slimeball and might also have information... but the fact is, it shows how difficult this WoT is... and how easily the governments and media mix things up.
My God Man. He is an AQ operative! He is captured. What is the difference if he was qualified to receive a Xmas bonus?
Because it goes to our credibility, the progress or lack thereof, and the competence of those conducting the WoT. I think President Bush maintained credibility, in my eyes, by not whooping this up as much as others...it was a victory, but he didn't overplay it, IMHO.
Here are the real details regarding the Abu Bakar trial and how it got screwed up.
The way things are going, soon ANY person will be a higher up in the terrorist movement.
Ah yes...involving Fred Burks, not to be confused with our very own Fred Nerks!
Pep rallies are needed to rally the masses. I don't see this as a egg in face. What one tribe thinks of the others ranking is pure politics.
Are you French?
LOL ...I had to read your post a few times,
somehow in the long run using suicide as a weapon doesnt seem like a great military stategy
Well, next time, why don't we put the person on our most wanted list if we want the political gain.
Or just admit that we screwed up and got a lesser fish than was claimed, but a fish nonetheless.
Which is probably why I got kicked out of French class for making a poster of History of the French Flag that included the white flag and the German flag at various times. :-)
" . . . you know frankly, going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind." --Jed Babbin
Exactly. Otherwise, this is a goofup of 16-words-in-the-2003-SOTU-Address proportions. And the media is, of course, always at the ready to assist in publicizing supposed Intelligence errors.
If Mohammad Shehzad Islamabad of the Times says it's a goofup, then I sure as heck trust it's a goofup.
I posted to you earlier, but I was looking for the article again, and the link is not working.
Did the article mention a notebook, or do you have another link for the story which includes that aspect?
Oh, a quote from an unnamed source. And it's the punch line of the entire article.
I'll be sure to give it the appropriate consideration.
>>>> Well, next time, why don't we put the person on our most wanted list if we want the political gain.
Cause WE might not want THEM to know what WE know? ie surveilance?
>>> Or just admit that we screwed up and got a lesser fish than was claimed, but a fish nonetheless.
An AQ Operative was captured. That is not being disputed. His rank is. Most likely from tribal infighting of who now is in charge. A fish is a fish. I say lets have fish and chips!
You bring the vinegar. I'll bring the kraut.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.