Pakistan Nabs [Two] 'Al Qaeda Operatives'

CNN ^ | 2/4/03 | Syed Mohsin Naqvi

[Coop]

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Two suspected prominent al Qaeda operatives have been arrested at Lahore Airport and will be handed over to the United States.

The two men, who were about to leave for Dublin on a Qatar Airways flight, were captured by Pakistani authorities on Tuesday after U.S. officials provided information about them, intelligence officials said.

[Lion's Cub]

I believe they also worked together in at least one bombing in Argentina, didn't they?

[Angelus Errare]

Basically, here's the way things work in Pakistan.

Musharraf, the Pakistani military (or the officer corps at least), and the Muttahidah Qaumi Movement (the Pakistani Muslim League which, despite it's name, is more of a nationalist party than anything else) all support the War on Terror as far as the elimination of al-Qaeda goes because they desire a continuation of the Musharraf dictatorship. But while they oppose al-Qaeda's central network, the various Islamic Pakistani groups (all al-Qaeda affiliates) that organize attacks on India are allowed and encouraged to carry out their work. If any one of these groups begins getting at odds with the government, their members get arrested (at least temporarily) until they put their sights back on India.

The ISI, while its directors are now staffed with Musharraf loyalists, has a lot of support for al-Qaeda among the rank and file and an internal purge is really needed to clean up the organization.

As far as the Pakistani people go, up in the northern areas of the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan support for al-Qaeda runs extremely high. The native Islamic party in those provinces that supported the Taliban in 2001, the Muttahidah Majlis-e-Amal, did disturbingly well in the last elections and their ascension in the northern areas of the country has made it difficult for the federal Pakistani soldiers to carry out their orders in the hunt for al-Qaeda. This is why the US continues to support Musharraf, because he's considered a far better alternative for governing a nuclear power than the MMA.

[Angelus Errare]

Al-Qaeda has tried to kill Musharraf on several occasions.

Omar Sheikh, the guy who killed Daniel Pearl and al-Qaeda's top hitman in Pakistan, had a standing order to assassinate Musharraf and his inner circle. The car bomb that was used to blow up the US consulate in Islamabad was originally intended to be used to kill Musharraf.

While the Pakistanis do support terrorism, the general rule is that while al-Qaeda operatives are arrested and extradited (if the Interior Ministry finds them), the Kashmiri terrorist groups get the revolving door jail treatment. And Musharraf is getting paid quite nicely for his willingness to be so accomodating.

[Lion's Cub]

Thanks for your insights.

[RecentConvert]

How big a fish are these two guys? Anyone knows?

Thanks

[Coop]

I knew bits and pieces of that, but your wrap-up is very informative and appreciated.

[Coop]

How big a fish are these two guys?

They've never been mentioned before in my review of open-source publications relating to Al Qaeda, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. They also don't show up on a couple of worksheets provided to me by FReepers.

[Man of the Right]

What the story didn't report is that the Al-Qaeda operatives are senior Pakistan government ministers .

[Coop]

Don't buy the lie, huh? And just what lie might that be? (This should be good...)

[Coop]

Interesting. Do you have a source for that? I did a search on their names - together - and came up with the following (not much, but):

the MQM [Muttahida Qaumi Movement] chief, Altaf Hussain has demanded of the prime Minister and Sindh Chief Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi to order immediate arrest of the killers of Mohammed Ali, MQM worker.

Three staffers of Jang Group, including The News staffer Amjad and two others Abrar Khan and Najeeb were intercepted by armed carjackers near Jamshed Quarters Traffic Section while going in a car (QE-7344) in Jamshed Quarters police limits.

http://www.karachipage.com/news/sep98/092598.txt

Searches of the individual names, combined with "Pakistan," produced multiple hits.

[b4its2late]

Yes, it's good they caught 2. I just hope that they didn't let 25 others slip through......

[piasa]

Castro is sponsoring them now.

[Coop]

There's no pleasing some folks.

[b4its2late]

There's no pleasing some folks.

I guess.........

[Valin]

Very true. While he may be a cast-iron-usda-grade-A sob, he's our cast-iron-usda-grade-A sob. What many here don't seem to understand is the Pakistani government doesn't really control large parts of Pakistan. I'm talking about the "tribal areas" on the border of Afghanistan.

[Valin]

The world is a lot more complicated than many people realize. It would make things so much easier if the world was composed of good guys and bad guys. And the good guys always wore white hats and were pure as the driven snow, the bad guys black and were always pure (adolf hitler) evil. But it just isn't that way.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks for the post, Coop.

The two men, who were about to leave for Dublin on a Qatar Airways flight, were captured by Pakistani authorities on Tuesday after U.S. officials provided information about them, intelligence officials said.

NON-UN-ilateral, ping!

 

 Thanks, Tonkin!

If you want on or off my pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days (most days are good days).

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Feb. post. Sorry, all!

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Who or what is in Dublin for them?

There have been reports for years of the interaction of the Irish, German, Japanese, and Islamic terrorist groups. While they don’t “work” together, they exchange info, arms, etc.