Terror
Chief Captured
In the war
against terror, it’s been a race against time as governments work
to prevent terror attacks. Saturday, CIA and Pakistani agents
staged a joint pre-dawn raid near Islamabad, Pakistan. Khalid
Shaikh Mohammed, a senior operative in the al Qaeda network, was
captured and whisked away to an undisclosed location outside of
the U.S. The suspected mastermind of the terror attacks that killed
more than 3,000 people from the U.S., Britain, Spain, Russia,
Japan, Italy, Australia and over 70 other nations on September
11, 2001 is currently being interrogated.
U.S. counterterrorism
officials are working to gain intelligence through questioning
and items confiscated during the raid that could help disrupt
attacks being planned or lead to added precautions. It is believed
that recent plans being drawn up led back to Khalid and were in
part responsible for the terror alert being raised to the color
orange, meaning "High" risk. Abdul Qudoos, was also
arrested in the Saturday raids by agents in Pakistan due to his
suspected involvement with al Qaeda.
"Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the chief operating
officer of Al Qaeda. The effect that his capture will have on
Al Qaeda as an organization is devastating. And the effect that
it has on the safety of the American people and our allies cannot
be overstated," said a U.S. counter-terrorism official.
Statement
by the Press Secretary
Detention of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
The United States commends Pakistani and U.S.
authorities on the completion of a successful joint operation
which resulted in the detention of several Al Qaida operatives,
including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is one of Usama Bin Laden’s
most senior and significant lieutenants, a key Al Qaida planner
and the mastermind of the September 11th attacks. He is known
to have been centrally involved in plotting by Al Qaida terrorists
since September 11th, 2001–including plots to launch attacks
within the United States.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is on the FBI’s list of
most wanted terrorists, and has been under U.S. indictment since
1996 for the Manila air conspiracy, a plot to bomb a series of
U.S. civilian airliners.
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Officials
suspect that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was involved in last year’s
kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl,
and may have even carried out Pearl’s execution.
It has been
reported that Mohammed plotted with his nephew Ramzi Yousef, on
a number of operations in the Philippines. Yousef is currently
imprisoned for his participation in the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing.
Officials have been silent on where Mohammed is
being held. However, it’s clear that information gathering is
of top priority in order to halt planned terror operations.