Interrogators grill al-Qaida chief on bin Laden
Interrogators questioning al-Qaida’s reputed number-three, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, have been repeating the same two questions over and over again: “Where is bin Laden?” and “What were your plans?” a senior Pakistani intelligence official said today.
Al-Libbi remained silent for hours after his capture this week before finally confessing his identity to his interrogators, whose findings were passed on to US officials, a second intelligence official said.
“Only two questions are being asked, over and over, and in different shifts: ’Where is bin Laden?’ and ’What were your plans?'" said the first official. No intelligence or government official would speak about the questioning of al-Libbi on the record.
Al-Libbi was arrested on Monday after a gunbattle with security forces in north-western Pakistan. US President George Bush hailed the capture as a victory that removes a key enemy, and jubilant Pakistani officials said it would boost the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
The Libyan terror suspect, allegedly a close confidant of bin Laden, was Pakistan’s most-wanted man, accused of masterminding two 2003 assassination attempts against President General Pervez Musharraf that left 17 other people dead.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid confirmed today that al-Libbi was still in Pakistan’s custody and that he was being questioned, but declined to give details.
Two days after al-Libbi’s arrest, security forces raided two homes in the north-western tribal region of Bajor and arrested 11 terror suspects – three Uzbeks, an Afghan and seven Pakistanis.
Another intelligence official said some al Qaida-linked militants have also been arrested in another tribal region during the past week, but refused to give details.
Meanwhile, security officials said a junior air force technician, Mushtaq Ahmad, who was convicted and sentenced to death last year for involvement in the 2003 attacks on Musharraf has been recaptured after escaping custody in November. It wasn’t clear where he was caught or when.
The attacks were allegedly masterminded by al-Libbi, but a number of military personnel have also been implicated.
Al-Libbi, who is thought to use at least five aliases, ranked below only Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri and bin Laden himself in the terror group’s hierarchy, US counterterrorism officials said.
Commandos seized al-Libbi along with another suspect on Monday. The arrests were announced yesterday but the other suspect was not identified.
Witnesses said that armed Pakistani agents – some disguised in burqas, the all-encompassing garment worn by women in conservative Islamic families - ambushed two men as they rode a motorbike across a dusty graveyard on the outskirts of Mardan amid an exchange of gunfire.
The unidentified suspect was arrested there, but al-Libbi fled to a nearby private guest house, where he tried to hide.
“I am a jihadi. Police are after me!” witness Bakht Munir quoted him as saying in the local Pashto language before the Libyan was tracked down by the commandos, who smoked him out of the guest house with tear gas and then led him away.
The arrest broke a months-long drought in the hunt for bin Laden and his top lieutenants. The terror mastermind has evaded a manhunt since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US, appearing periodically on videotapes to warn of more violence.
He is believed to be hiding along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Ahmed, the Pakistani information minister, said no decision had been made on whether al-Libbi would be handed to the US or tried in Pakistan – where he is likely to face the death penalty if he is convicted in the December 2003 bombings against Musharraf.
“At this stage, our prime concern is to fully investigate him,” Ahmed said.
US officials said the arrest was the most significant since the March 1, 2003, capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al-Qaida’s number-three at the time, also in Pakistan. They said it was the result of months of close co-operation between Pakistan and the CIA.
