Qaeda Operative Arrested in Pakistan

[Emit]

Source: NYT

Qaeda Operative Arrested in Pakistan
By JANE PERLEZ and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: March 7, 2010


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An operative of Al Qaeda believed to be an American was arrested in the sprawling southern city of Karachi in recent days by Pakistani security officials, Pakistani officials said Sunday.

American and Pakistani officials said the man arrested was Abu Yahya Mujahdeen al-Adam, who was described as having been born in Pennsylvania and who was thought to be affiliated with the operations division of Al Qaeda, commanding fighters in Afghanistan.

One American official briefed on the arrest described the operative in custody as fair-skinned and someone who spoke both English and Pashto.

Little else was known about him, American officials said, and it was not immediately clear that American officials were involved in the arrest. There was no confirmation that the arrested man was in fact an American.

Initial reports seemed to have confused him with Adam Gadahn, a California native who has been a Qaeda spokesman and often appears on videos calling for strikes against targets in the United States.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/world/asia/08qaeda.html?hp

[pinniped]

1. This guy was thought to be carrying around his wallet sized diploma....

from the terra-camp.

Of course, I'm just speculating like the article does. No 'true' operative would be carrying around his terra diploma.

[sabrina 1]

2. Wasn't he killed before? Maybe not, but I thought

he died. Will have to look it up. It's hard to keep track of these #1 and #2 'terrorists'.

I remember when Al Zarqawi was being killed almost every month, and then resurrected again. We never did get an answer if he had one leg or two, the guy they finally claimed was Al Zarqawi when they decided they couldn't keep killing him and retain any credibility at all. People may be slow, but they were beginning to wonder about that guy's incredible ability to return from the dead.

And then a U.S. general admitted that the whole Al Zarqawi story was PSYOPS, to put the fear of terrorists into people, they said in Iraq because it's apparently against the law to use PSYOPS on the American people. Anyhow, the whole Al Zarqawi being a major terrorist was a hoax. So, since then, I don't get too excited about reports of the capture or death of a 'terrorist'.

[Robb]

3. You are confused.

[sabrina 1]

5. Yes, I think I said that.

We were all confused, and still are, over the Al Zarqawi and never really found out why he died so many times other than the U.S. general's admission that he was, as suspected, in no way a big Al Queda terrorist. He was a petty thief if anything.

[Robb]

4. The most interesting part of the article is well-buried

...anyone else catch this on Baradar?

A senior Obama administration official in Washington said that Pakistani authorities had Mullah Baradar in custody and still allowed American interrogators to question him regularly.

“He’s talking to us but we’re still in the trust-building phase,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the interrogation results are confidential. “He’s not giving us any actionable intelligence.”

The official said that Pakistani authorities were likely to have more leverage over Mullah Baradar than American officials, because of the longstanding relationship between the Taliban and Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. American officials also assume that the ISI tends to some of Mullah Baradar’s family members.

The officials discounted the likelihood that Pakistani authorities were using harsh interrogation methods on Mullah Baradar. “They know what he knows,” the official said.