Posted on 11/15/2002 11:05:10 AM PST by B-bone
U.S. Captures Senior Al Qaeda Leader, Sources Say
1 hour, 8 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the top two-dozen al Qaeda leaders sought by the United States in its war on terrorism was captured recently and is in American custody, U.S. government sources said on Friday.
The sources declined to name the operative for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s network who was caught in the past week or so. But it was not top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri, operational leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, nor bin Laden's son Saad.
U.S. authorities have become increasingly concerned this week that al Qaeda was planning fresh attacks.
The FBI (news - web sites) said that in selecting its next targets, the network may favor "spectacular attacks" that result in mass casualties and severe damage to the U.S. economy.
Contributing to that concern was an audio tape broadcast earlier this week on the al-Jazeera television channel in Qatar believed to be of bin Laden praising recent attacks and making fresh threats.
The United States blamed bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America that killed about 3,000 people.
Senior al Qaeda leaders in U.S. custody include Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi Binalshibh, who were being interrogated at an undisclosed location overseas.
"There have been a number of -- numerous senior leaders of al Qaeda that have either been eliminated, incarcerated or detained someplace," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said without elaborating.
President Bush (news - web sites) earlier this week, in response to a question about the audio tape, said, "We'll chase these people down one at a time. It doesn't matter how long it takes, we'll find them and bring them to justice."
Officials called the arrest of this "big fish" a significant intelligence victory, comparable to the capture of Al Qaeda chief of operations Abu Zubaydah, who has provided a wealth of information about the terror network since being taken into custody.
A member of the Semantics Police heard from...
al Qaeda members sought by the U.S. government. They did say he was not Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or the terrorist group's operational leader, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
LOL...or pieces of...err...compost.
These are the same scum bags who would have come to the defense of the Japanese Navy at Pearl Harbor. What scum bags.
Do you really have these names all in your head? Wow!
My hope would be that the administration has one or two of these dudes on ice at all times just waiting for Little Tommy Daschel (Minority Leader to be), to pop off again. Each time he does, they trot out a new capture and he looks stupider, and stupider, and stupider..........
Is there a website listing the bigwigs in Al Qaeda? Preferably one with photos and big red "X" marks over the ones that have been captured or killed. At fbi.gov they have the "22 Most Wanted Terrorists" page but it doesn't list several of the "big fish" that have been caught so far.
Thanks.
He was the Taliban 'top-dog', not AQ.
Please don't flame, but 911 (from the terrorists perspective) was more of an attack on our economy than on innocent civilians. Bin Laden doesn't value life and freedom as we do, but he understands our robust and diverse culture is directly tied to our economic strength.
Killing people leaves an emotional scar on Americans, but taking out key infrastructure leaves a permanent (WTC) and terribly expensive scar on our nation. I look for future attacks to be aimed at economic assets like bridges, tunnels, water supplies, etc. I hope I'm wrong. (Dog: I've been offline all day)
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