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Jehad.net says Al-Shaiba was not arrested
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KARACHI,
September 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A key suspect in the
September 11 attacks on the United States is expected to be
transferred to U.S. custody later Sunday, September 15, before being
flown out of Pakistan, an intelligence officer said.
Ramzi
bin Al-Shaiba, described by President George W. Bush as “one of the
planners and organizers” of last year’s attacks, was among several
others arrested last week in this southern city, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
Another
suspected leading Al-Qaeda figure seized in Karachi was also expected
to be handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the
intelligence officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Pakistani
intelligence agencies in close coordination with the FBI have been
interrogating both men. The identity of the second suspect has not
been disclosed.
The
officer said the interrogation of Bin Al-Shaiba “is in the final
phase and he can be extradited to the U.S. any time.”
Intelligence
officials said the Arabs detained in last week’s raids were being
held at a military facility near Karachi international airport.
The
bodies of two militants killed in a shootout Wednesday were still in a
mortuary under tight guard.
Sources
said Pakistani authorities have delayed releasing the names and
nationalities of the detained Arabs because they were still
double-checking some identities with the FBI.
The
interior ministry says a total of 12 people were held but officials
have identified only Bin Al-Shaiba, a Yemeni.
His
arrest was seen as the biggest coup against the Al-Qaeda terror
network since the capture of Osama bin Laden’s key lieutenant, Abu
Zubaydah, in Pakistan in March.
Pakistani
officials working closely with the FBI mounted at least two raids last
week, culminating with a raid on an apartment block Wednesday,
September 11, which triggered off a fierce three-hour shootout.
Sources
said FBI help in tracing a satellite phone call led to the
breakthrough.
”Thanks to the efforts of our folks and people in Pakistan, we
captured one of the planners and organizers of the September 11 attack
that murdered thousands of people, including Italians,” Bush said
Saturday, September 14,l after talks at the Camp David presidential
retreat with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
FBI
director Robert Mueller said last year that Bin Al-Shaiba was to have
been one of the hijackers of a plane which crashed into a field in
Pennsylvania after passengers attacked the air pirates.
He
had enrolled in a flying school but was refused entry to the United
States four times, Mueller said. Bin Al-Shaiba was also a roommate of
Mohammed Atta, the hijackers’ ringleader, when an Al-Qaeda cell was
active in the German city of Hamburg, U.S. officials have said.
Germany
could seek his extradition over the Hamburg connection, Interior
Minister Otto Schily said Saturday.
“We
obviously have an interest in seeing him extradited to Germany, but we
have to reach an agreement with the other countries,” Schily said.
Germany
issued an international warrant for Bin Al-Shaiba’s arrest in
September last year.
On
Sunday, the Washington Post reported that Al-Shaiba was
arrested without a struggle.
According
to the Post, Pakistani police officers at the scene said one of
the people killed in the firefight was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a
Pakistani national born in Kuwait known as ‘Sheikh’, who has been
described as one of the top planners of the September 11 attacks.
Mohammed
and Bin Al-Shaiba gave a recent interview to Qatar’s Al-Jazeera
television network boasting of their role planning the September 11
bombing and describing the elation of Al-Qaeda members who watched the
destruction of the World Trade Center on television.
Meanwhile,
the Islamic website Jehad.net said that Al-Shaiba and Sheikh were not
arrested and that they were somewhere safe. They said that news
reports on their arrest is an American lie.
“This
comic play has really hurt the credibility of Al-Jazeera satellite
channel and its aim was to mislead the public opinion and to depress
the Muslims,” said the site.
“The
two episodes of ‘Top Secret’ prepared by Yusri Foda where he
claimed he met with Al-Shaiba and Sheikh did not really happen. He
made it up to gain popularity. Foda was only handed over two tapes,
one broadcast by Al-Jazeera which has the second will of one of the
September 11 heroes Abu Al-Abas Al-Omary and the other audio tape
which has the voice of Al-Shaiba,” Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid who writes
for the site said.
They
said that the tapes were in the possession of Al-Jazeera for a long
time, but that the channel delayed the broadcast of the tapes for the
anniversary of September 11 and to prepare the viewers for the
“drama presented by Foda and which ended by announcing the fact that
Al-Shaiba was arrested.”
On
Saturday, September 14, a U.S. court in Buffalo, New York state,
charged five people with supporting Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda
network, reported AFP.
The
five Arab Americans were arraigned Saturday by a U.S. federal judge on
charges of giving support and resources to Al-Qaeda, justice officials
said.
The
court arraigned Faysal Galab, aged 26, Sahim Alwan, 30, Yahya Goba,
24, Shafel Mosed, 25, and Yasein Taher, 25, following their arrest
Friday in nearby Lackawanna. All are U.S.-born.
The
attorney for western New York state Michael Battle said they were
charged with “knowingly providing and attempting to provide material
support and resources to the foreign terrorist organization Al-Qaeda
and conspiracy to do so.”
Authorities
said the five were part of a “terrorist cell” and had trained in
the use of weapons at the Al-Farooq camp outside Kandahar in
Afghanistan.
