Posted on 08/18/2006 9:26:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - ABC News reported on Friday that Pakistani officials have arrested a top al Qaeda commander and that he could provide clues on the whereabouts of Islamic militant cells worldwide and Osama bin Laden.
The television network said Pakistani police arrested Matiur Rehman based on leads in the investigation of a foiled plot to bomb U.S.-bound airplanes from London.
U.S. law enforcement officials have been notified by the Pakistanis that Rehman is in custody, according to ABC.
No independent confirmation of the report was immediately available.
U.S. intelligence officials say they cannot confirm his arrest and remain skeptical of the reports, ABC said.
Rehman is seen as a connection between al Qaeda and Pakistani extremists in major cities worldwide, ABC said.
The noose tightens?
their #3?
An undated photograph of Mati-ur-Rehman, a senior figure from an al-Qaida-linked militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was published in Pakistan newspapers in Karachi August 18, 2004. Two key suspects being hunted in Pakistan were Matiur Rehman and Abdur Rehman, a wealthy British national of Afghan origin, both of whom are said to have al Qaeda pedigrees. REUTERS/Government Handout
I guess the media couldn't keep that a secret, maybe if OBL had not known he was captured, the intel would have been better.
Bump for possible good news.
Officials say Pakistani militant Matiur Rahman (pictured) has emerged as an al Qaeda leader. Also goes by the name of Rashid Rauf. Rahman was arrested in Pakistan for his role in the the plot to blow-up planes leaving Heathrow Airport.
Aug 12, 2006
Go thing the US doesn't have him. The ACLU would be demanding he have constitutional right afforded him.
Had you seen this?
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August 17, 2006
Rehman, Rauf, suspected London Airline Plotters Captured, and the Pakistani Connection
By Bill Roggio
http://counterterrorismblog.org/
Two of the suspected ring leaders of the al-Qaeda London Airline Plot to destroy aircraft en route to the United States have been captured by Pakistani intelligence. Matiur Rehman, who is believed to be a high-ranking leader in al-Qaeda's Pakistan operations, was captured in the Pakistani city of Bahawalpur. Rashid Rauf, who is described as "the planner of the attacks who recruited people to take part in the plot," was also captured in the city of Bahawalpur. His arrest just prior to the announcement of the airline plot is said to have sparked the arrests of al-Qaeda operatives in Britain and Pakistan.
The involvement of Rauf and Rehman highlights the interconnective web of the radical Pakistani terrorist groups. Rehman was a member of Harakat-ul-Jihad-ul-Islami (HUJI) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). As the "keeper of the Jihadi Rolodex," the list of the tens of thousands of jihadis who passed through al-Qaeda's training camps, Rehman is by default affiliated with the hodge-podge of Pakistani terror groups (see my post on Rehman and Pakistani links for more details.)
TIME reports Rauf is the relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader the Pakistani based Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) which conducts terror attacks in Indian Kashmir. Rauf's father in law runs the radical "Darul Uloom Madina, one of Pakistan's biggest and most hard line seminaries, with some 2,000 students, in Bahawalpur." To restate, both Rehman and Rauf were arrested Bahawalpur, which is highly unlikely to be a coincidence. Rauf's father founded Crescent Relief, a Muslim charity that purportedly collected funds for earthquake relief and is now under investigation for funneling money to fund the London plot (See Evan Kolhmann's posts on LeT/JuD and the UK connection to earthquake relief .)
One item of note with TIME's article on Rauf. TIME describes al-Qaeda as "Osama Bin Laden's Afghanistan-based network," however this characterization is inaccurate. Al-Qaeda has largely regrouped in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, particularly in the agencies of North and South Waziristan.
Here's hoping they've had him for about 5 days... and there's no more information left to, ...ah, "retreive".
I hope he has been getting lots of rest..
NOT.
Go ROVE!
Yes, I think this is old news....hmmm?
I thought so too, I thought this was reported as part of the plot unveiling.. that's a week ago already.. I didn't put it in Breaking , btw.
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Pakistan looking for 3 suspects in airline plot ^
| Posted by new yorker 77 On News/Activism ^ 08/17/2006 4:08:07 PM PDT · 1 reply · 23+ views The AP via The CBC ^ | August 17, 2006 |
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| Pakistan: al-Qaida approved bomb plot ^ |
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| Posted by new yorker 77 On News/Activism ^ 08/17/2006 4:05:05 PM PDT · 4 replies · 63+ views The AP via Yahoo! News ^ | August 17, 2006 | MUNIR AHMAD |
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| Posted by John Lenin On Bloggers & Personal ^ 08/16/2006 9:53:49 PM PDT · 5 replies · 146+ views Counterterrorismblog ^ | August 16, 2006 10:00 AM | Jeffrey Imm |
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| Top al Qaeda Man In Pakistan Nabbed ^ |
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| Posted by Republican Red On News/Activism ^ 08/17/2006 9:02:48 AM PDT · 32 replies · 894+ views ABC ^ | 8/17/06 | Gretchen Peters and Habibullah Khan |
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| AL QAEDA SANCTIONED PLOT (AL ZAWAHIRI) ^ |
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| Posted by areafiftyone On News/Activism ^ 08/17/2006 5:53:48 AM PDT · 15 replies · 569+ views SKY News ^ | 8/17/06 |
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| Pakistan says al-Qaida link to plot found ... number three identified as main planner ^ |
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| Posted by aculeus On News/Activism ^ 08/16/2006 6:39:25 PM PDT · 19 replies · 481+ views The Guardian (UK) ^ | August 17, 2006 | by Duncan Campbell in Islamabad |
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| 'Jet terror plot was to mark 9/11 anniversary' ^ |
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| Posted by HAL9000 On News/Activism ^ 08/16/2006 5:55:51 PM PDT · 17 replies · 658+ views Daily Mail (UK) ^ | BEN TAYLOR and STEPHEN WRIGHT |
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I hear ya..
If I was any more relaxed, I'd be snoring like my wife and cat. ;-)
| Posted by aculeus On News/Activism ^ 08/15/2006 7:31:10 PM PDT · 18 replies · 387+ views The Guardian (UK) ^ | August 16, 2006 | Duncan Campbell in Islamabad and Randeep Ramesh in Lahore |
| Posted by blam On News/Activism ^ 08/14/2006 6:29:00 PM PDT · 2 replies · 94+ views The Guardian (UK) ^ | 8-15-2006 | Duncan Campbell - Randeep Ramesh - Vikram Dodd |
| Posted by knighthawk On News/Activism ^ 08/13/2006 8:19:25 AM PDT · 3 replies · 65+ views The Daily Telegraph ^ | August 13, 2006 | Cam Simpson |
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Flashback: New Al Qaeda Leader Planning Attack Against U.S. (Matiur Rehman captured 10 days ago!) ^
| Posted by jimbo123 On News/Activism ^ 08/12/2006 8:05:32 PM PDT · 23 replies · 728+ views ABC News ^ | 3/2/2006 | Brian Ross |
Bush's fault
Here is a link:
Flashback: New Al Qaeda Leader Planning Attack Against U.S. (Matiur Rehman captured 10 days ago!)
Hey Ernest, I was just getting ready to log off when I saw this thread. I'll bookmark it here so I can check what's going on in the morning. I'll pray that they've captured someone who will be VERY helpful....whether they want to be or not. ;)
Matiur Rehman, the London Airline Plot and the Road from Pakistan and Talibanistan
By Bill Roggio
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Matiur Rehman, image from ABC News |
Like the 7/7 London Tubes bombing in 2005, the London Airline Plot to destroy over 10 airplanes transiting from London to the United States is being traced back to Pakistan. Pakistan's Daily Times reports seed money was sent to Pakistan under the guise of earthquake relief and diverted to fund the airline attack. "Muslim Charity of UK remitted... a huge amount of money under the head of “earthquake relief” to the accounts of three individuals in three different banks — Saudi Pak Bank, Standard Chartered and Habib Bank Ltd." According to B. Rahman of the South Asia Analysis Group, many of the plotters also traveled to Pakistan for training, also under the guise of supporting the earthquake relief effort:
According to sources in the Pakistani Police, some of the 18 persons of Pakistani origin detained by the British Police in connection with the investigation had traveled to Pakistan after the earth-quake of October, 2005, to work as humanitarian volunteers in the relief camps run by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), the mother organization of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), in the POK and in the Balakote area of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). These sources say that during their stay in the relief camps, they were taken by the Jundullah, a Pakistani jihadi terrorist organization which is close to Al Qaeda, to its training camps in the Waziristan area of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan for training. They later returned to the humanitarian relief camps of the JUD.
As the evidence of the Pakistani connection mounts, reports indicate Pakistani terrorist and al-Qaeda member Matiur Rehman is one of the prime suspects in the London Airline Plot. While Rehman is widely being described as an al-Qaeda bomb expert, he is intimately associated to the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, the multiple assassination plots on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Aziz and the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi in March of 2006.
ABC News' Alexis Debat has done the lion's share of the investigation of Matiur Rehman over the past six months. Just one day prior to the uncovering of the London Airline Plot, Mr. Debat described Rehman as "The Man Who Is Planning the Next Attack on America." In March, Mr. Debat explained Rehman and Amjad Farooqi's role as the liaisons between al-Qaeda and the Pakistani jihadi community. Rehman and Farooqi (who was killed by Pakistani police in September of 2004) maintain what is known as the "Rolodex of Jihad," the list of everyone who has passed through al-Qaeda run training camps in Pakistan:
The chief liaison between al Qaeda and this community of Pakistani militants, according to Pakistani military sources, was a 25-year-old Harakat ul Ansar militant named Amjad Farooqi, who, along with his young deputy Matiur Rehman, compiled a massive log listing the name, affiliation, skills set and contact information of every Pakistani militant trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan. This "Rolodex of Jihad," as it is sometimes referred to in the Western intelligence community, was to serve as a database for recruiting volunteers for future terrorist operations in South Asia and the West.After its uncomfortable retreat in Pakistan in late 2001, al Qaeda was forced to rely on this vast community of Pakistani militants for its survival and the continuity of its activities. With the help of millions of dollars of bin Laden's money, and in close cooperation with al Qaeda's operations chief -- and 9/11 mastermind -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (also a Pakistani), the two "archivists" of the al Qaeda-Pakistani nexus, Amjad Farooqi and Matiur Rehman, drew heavily on their "directory" to lay out an extensive and clandestine logistical infrastructure for al Qaeda's senior leadership on the run in Pakistan, as well as conduct several "joint operations" such as the assassination of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
With the help of these militants, whose organizations were officially "banned" (but never seriously dismantled) by the Pakistani government in 2001 and 2002, such high-profile targets of the American-Pakistani "war on terror" as Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (all involved in the planning of 9/11) were able to navigate clandestinely throughout Pakistan's urban areas for several months before being arrested (always as the result of an American intelligence operation).
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Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas |
Upon the death of Farooqi, Rehman took over the "Rolodex of Jihad." Farooqi was preceded by Abu Faraj al-Libbi (captured) and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (captured), both of whom were considered al-Qaeda's military commander. Rehman is now the most wanted terrorist in Pakistan (no small feat in a country ripe with terrorists), and is believed to be in charge of al-Qaeda's Pakistani organization. Rehman is also believed to be the new chief of al-Qaeda's military committee, as Saif al-Adel's day-to-day command of the organization may be compromised by his stay in Iran.
The Pakistan connection highlights the inherent dangers in leaving the western regions of Pakistan outside of the control of the central government. The Federally Administered Tribal Agencies of North and South Waziristan in the North West Frontier Province are derisively known as Talibanistan, as the Taliban and al-Qaeda openly rule in these regions and the Pakistani government has ben forced to negotiate with the Taliban. The agencies of Dera Ismal Khan, Tank, Khyber and Peshawar are slipping under the control of the Taliban. Bajaur province is believed to be al-Qaeda and the Taliban's command, control and staging area for fighters entering northeastern Pakistan, and numerous senior al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed in this province. The city of Quetta in Baluchistan is the staging area for the Taliban moving into Kandahar and Helmand provinces.
The Taliban use the al-Qaeda camps to train arm and stage fighters into Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda is using the camps to train their international cadres and recruits for terror missions against the world. The destruction of al-Qaeda's safe haven in Afghanistan during Taliban rule has been essentially been negated by the rise of Talibanistan in western Pakistan.
Thanks, I knew this was not new news.. We'll what develops if they got a hold of the Rolodex.
I'm checking out, later.
G'nite
March 2, 2006
ABC News
Pakistani officials told ABC News that they believe they have indications that a new terrorist attack against the United States is being planned there. They told ABC News that while their intelligence does not give any specific details as to a target or time, it does indicate that an emerging al Qaeda figure is making plans.
Image: Officials say Pakistani militant Matiur Rehman (pictured) has emerged as an al Qaeda leader. (ABC News)
Pakistani military officials say Matiur Rehman, 29, a Pakistani militant, is behind the new plans for an attack against the United States. Pakistan has posted a 10-million rupee (about $166,000) award for his capture.
"He is probably Pakistan's most wanted right now," says Alexis Debat, a former adviser in the French defense ministry and now an ABC News consultant. "He is extremely dangerous because of his role as the crucial interface between the brains of al Qaeda and its muscle, which is mainly composed these days of Pakistani militants."
Pakistani officials suspect the attack outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi today is connected to Rehman, who has had a base of operations in Karachi. A suicide bomber rammed a car into a vehicle carrying an American diplomat, killing at least four people. President Bush is expected to visit Islamabad, about 1,000 miles north of Karachi, later this week.
Pakistani officials said Rehman helped train thousands of fellow Pakistani militants at al Qaeda training camps during the late 1990s.
As pressure from the United States and its allies against al Qaeda's leadership has intensified, there is increasing evidence that the terrorist network has relied on Pakistani-based militants to provide logistical support and execute operations.
"Certain Pakistani groups have definitely been acting as if they were subcontractors for al Qaeda by virtue of carrying out certain terrorist attacks on behalf of al Qaeda, or in other cases, simply sustaining the terrorist network that al Qaeda built up," said Husain Haqqani, a Boston Univeristy professor and author of the book "Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military."
Last year the London bombings were carried out by a small group of Pakistanis, all of whom were British citizens. They became terrorists after visiting Pakistan. Pakistani military officials said they now fear that those training operations have set the model for other al Qaeda attacks in the West.
"The Pakistani militant groups that provided [the London bombers] that training clearly did that with the understanding that these people would be acting not in Kashmir, not in Afghanistan but in London," said Haqqani. "And that could only mean that al Qaeda was taking the lead that these people were doing something that would, if not be at the behest of al Qaeda would definitely benefit al Qaeda's world view."
While Pakistani President Musharraf has moved against some al Qaeda locations where foreign fighters have been discovered, he has been criticized for failing to act strongly enough against Pakistanis connected to al Qaeda and other militant groups.
"The government of Pakistan has been selective in its crackdown," said Haqqani. "In the process, there are many individuals and groups that have been acting on their own, and frankly, until all of them are treated as people who need to be eliminated, al Qaeda and al Qaeda linked groups will continue to survive."
ABC News' Maddy Sauer contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1676096&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
A very nice catch to take this guy down!
Pakistan ‘key’ to bomb plot ("Key person" Rashid Rauf tied to al-Qaeda)
just keep him out of US hands, far away from the judicial system the aclu.
lol yeah
Would love to see an updated Deck of Cards / Scoreboard !!
My understanding now is that Rauf was captured by the Pakis and was tortured and gave up Rehman. When Rehman was captured, the order to go ahead with the London plot was given and the raids began.
Bottom line is that torture works.
P.S. Rehman is now being tortured to give up Bin Laden and Zawahiri.
Seems fair to me....
Thanks for the link.
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