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| India-Pakistan |
| Key 911 Suspect Surrenders After Shoot Out In Karachi |
| 2002-09-14 |
| Yemeni national Ramzi Binalshibh is now reported to be undergoing interrogation by the Pakistani police. "It's a very sensitive issue," said one US official, quoted by Reuters news agency. Mr Binalshibh, 30, was detained on Wednesday - the first anniversary of the 11 September attacks - when the flat where he was staying was raided by Pakistani police commandos, supported by US intelligence officers. An anniversary present? For us? Oh, thank you! You shouldn't have... Well, maybe you should have, but we appreciate it anyway. The operation was planned after a satellite phone call from the flat was intercepted, Pakistani security sources said. Blabbermouths... Police surrounded the building, which housed a number of suspected al-Qaeda militants. When the police stormed the flat, a gunfight broke out, which spilled out on to nearby rooftops. Two suspects were killed, and the remaining five surrendered, including Mr Binalshibh. Six police officers were injured, two of them critically. US officials said that no Americans were wounded during the operation, which led to the recovery of heavy weapons and various items of communications equipment from the building. So our guys were on site... The BBC correspondent in Islamabad, Susannah Price, said the arrests are a major coup, both for the Pakistani authorities and the American investigators. At the same time, they demonstrate that members of al-Qaeda are present, not just in remote areas on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, but in Karachi - Pakistan's largest city. It's my contention that Karachi's the GHQ of one of the successor organizations of al-Qaeda. Ramzi and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad were two of the leaders of same. It's probably the coordinating center for Harkatul Mujaheddin al-Alaami, the Lashkar e-Jhangvi, and other allied thugs bunches like Jaish e-Mohammad... Mr Binalshibh challenged the US authorities to find him in a pre-recorded interview broadcast by the Arab TV network al-Jazeera on Thursday. I love it when they thumb their noses one week and the next week they're in the calaboose... And a week later they're singing. Together with another al-Qaeda suspect, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he explained how the group operated and how the 11 September attacks were planned. They said in the interview that Osama Bin Laden had been involved in planning the attacks, and that Mr Binashibh had been the co-ordinator of what was referred to as "Holy Tuesday". Go ahead. Talk your way out of that... "No, no! You misunderstood me! I didn't say it was me that wanted to drive the plane into the buildings! You took my statements out of context! I was talking about... ummm... something else." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |