Al Qaeda arrest tips officials on US targets
KARACHI -- The arrest of a senior Al Qaeda operative in June and his subsequent interrogation enabled US and Pakistani intelligence agents to gather documents, e-mail addresses, and cellphone text messages that gave them their first clues about the network's plan to strike targets in New York and Washington, D.C., according to Pakistani intelligence officials.
The Al Qaeda operative, Musaad Aruchi, was arrested in Karachi on June 12 by Pakistani paramilitary forces in an operation supervised by the CIA, officials said. According to a senior Pakistani intelligence official involved in the early interrogation of the suspect, "Aruchi was sure that Al Qaeda would hit New York or Washington pretty soon.
"He had with him street maps of New York City without the front cover and addresses of some other important buildings," the official said. "There were some data CDs also recovered from him."
Pakistani officials said Aruchi's capture led to other important arrests, including last week's raid in the city of Gujrat that netted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
"The Americans always thought that Aruchi was a big catch because of his connection with other active Al Qaeda operatives, particularly those planning to target the US," another Pakistani intelligence official said.
Officials described Aruchi as a nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammad, chief planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, who was arrested in March 2003in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Officials said Aruchi is also a cousin of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who planned and carried out the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center and is serving a life sentence in the United States.
CIA telephone and Internet intercepts enabled investigators to trace Aruchi to an apartment building, other officials said.
One official said Aruchi's casual talk during his brief time in Pakistani custody provided hints that the Al Qaeda operative was in touch with people planning another terrorist strike in the United States.
Intelligence gathered from Aruchi also led to two important arrests last month, a Pakistani official said.
Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a Pakistani, was arrested in the city of Lahore on July 13. A Pakistani official familiar with Khan's interrogation said,We can't categorize him as a key player, but he was definitely a foot soldier."And information obtained from Khan, when compared to the extensive debriefing of Aruchi, led US and Pakistani officials to Ghailani, the Tanzanian whose arrest last week has been described as a major breakthrough by Pakistani and US officials.
"The timing of [Ghailani's] arrest is superb. He was definitely working on something big," said a Pakistani official familiar with his initial interrogation in Pakistan.
As Pakistani officials prepared Sunday night for Ghailani's apparently imminent handover to US authorities, they said they were sure that computer disks found in his possession might reveal some of Al Qaeda's plans about important operatives.
The officials said two suspects arrested with Ghailani, earlier thought to be insignificant, provided information showing Ghailani was expecting important news from the United States. Under procedures agreed to by the US and Pakistani governments, agents from the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency have been allowed to eavesdrop and conduct wiretaps on terrorism suspects in Pakistan, a Cabinet minister said on the condition of anonymity.
The Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence service, has designated special units to collect counterterrorism intelligence through hundreds of new agents and state-of-the art surveillance equipment provided by the US government.
Pakistani police and intelligence officials said a raid is always conducted by local law enforcement under the supervision of senior ISI officials, many of whom have taken training courses with the FBI and CIA.
