Pakistani police arrest two suspected Arab al-Qaida men from Peshawar

Goodie. Abdullah is going to get used to feel of sodium pentathol in his veins.

Outstanding! Why isn't this bit of FBI news capturing all the headlines?

I bet the Red Cross rushes in to make sure he is comfy.

Did you see the new Star Wars movie? There was a line in there that reminded me of Arabs when Aniken killed a tribe who killed his mother. I think the line went something like, "I slaughtered all of them. There nothing but filthy animals."

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An update:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Local police aided by FBI agents nabbed a man Wednesday believed to be an important member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, the latest in a government crackdown on Islamic militants that has raised the ire of several Pakistan-based extremist groups.

Abu Abdullah, 35, an Algerian who was in charge of Islamic schools in eastern Afghanistan during the Taliban's tenure, was taken into custody along with another Algerian during a raid in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who threw his support behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism last fall, took a strong line against Islamic extremists in January, banning five of the most violent groups. Two -- Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed -- operate in the disputed region of Kashmir, the flashpoint of contention between Pakistan and India.

The militants have reacted angrily to Musharraf's crackdown and his vow in a nationally televised speech Monday that ``Pakistan will never allow the export of terrorism anywhere in the world.''

Worried militant commanders held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss what they consider Musharraf's abandonment of their cause.

The militants, fighting to wrest all of predominantly Muslim Kashmir from India, complained they have been prevented from sneaking into Indian-controlled areas.

``We have been stabbed in the back and abandoned by Pakistan in the same way it disassociated itself from the Taliban,'' Commander Mohammed Musa, spokesman for Jaish-e-Mohammed, told The Associated Press by telephone. ``It's betrayal of millions of Kashmiris and nothing else.''

Abu Sayyaf, a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, said his group was ``disappointed in what the government has done during the last two weeks.''

A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that a senior Lashkar-e-Tayyaba leader, Riaz Ismail, was arrested in March while sheltering three al-Qaida fighters in the eastern Punjab capital of Lahore. The al-Qaida fighters were turned over to the United States, and Ismail remains in Pakistani custody, he said.

The U.S. military has said they believe most al-Qaida and Taliban are hiding in Pakistan's rugged tribal regions in northwest Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan.

Musharraf has walked a fine line as he tries to appease U.S. demands for a crackdown on the extremist groups, while not angering citizens who have long backed Pakistan's support for an independent Kashmir.

India and Pakistan have moved more than 1 million troops onto either side of the Line of Control that divides the disputed region, and the two nuclear-armed neighbors have exchanged deadly mortar fire and ever more fiery rhetoric in recent weeks. Tension has escalated since a December attack on the Indian parliament. India blamed Pakistan-based militant groups and Pakistan's spy agency. Pakistan has denied the charges.

India's defense minister on Tuesday said that al-Qaida and Taliban fighters had moved to Kashmir to take part in the fighting. American, Afghan and Pakistani officials say they have no evidence of a large al-Qaida presence there.

Pakistani intelligence officials say leaders of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed have helped al-Qaida by providing safe houses in other parts of Pakistan, and they acknowledge that a small number of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters may be hiding in Pakistan's part of Kashmir.

But the Pakistani officials say they couldn't remain there long because they would stand out as foreigners. They insist any al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are being sought and would be arrested immediately if spotted by police or troops guarding the borders.

Abdullah, the al-Qaida fighter arrested Wednesday in Peshawar, fled to Pakistan when the U.S.-led coalition began airstrikes in Afghanistan, officials said. An unidentified al-Qaida fighter also was arrested at Abdullah's house.

It was the second raid in as many days in Peshawar. On Tuesday, nine Arab men were taken into custody on suspicion of al-Qaida links. On March 28, police and FBI agents arrested bin Laden's top lieutenant, Abu Zubaydah, in the southern city of Faisalabad. Zubaydah is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.

A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that a senior Lashkar-e-Tayyaba leader, Riaz Ismail, was arrested in March while sheltering three al-Qaida fighters in the eastern Punjab capital of Lahore. The al-Qaida fighters were turned over to the United States, and Ismail remains in Pakistani custody, he said.

Good stuff! Thanks for the update.

The only way that Musharraf will be safe is if he gets them all. That includes the members of his intelligence agency and members of the military. They are going to have to identify them all and then make the arrests in one fell swoop.

Sounds good: one fell swoop for the insiders. Here's hoping Bush can help Musharraf by getting India to show some restraint.

thanks for the update.

Oops. I mean thank you for the update.

Because everyone is out to ruin Pakistan and the FBI's crediablity and this story helps neither.

All good to hear. I like the nutjob's comment that "It's betrayal of millions of Kashmiris". Earth to nutjobs - when you declare war on the greatest powers in the world, they are going to *bid* against your silly, juvenile appeals to sentiment. With both carrots and sticks. And they can and will bid higher, in both categories. Which is why great powers, and not silly sentiments, run the political world.