http://homelandsecurityus.com/OBL IN CUSTODY
22 January 2004; 1905 EST: UPDATE: We are aware of the denials issued
by the United States Department of State and the reports of US
denials carried by various news outlets such as Reuters that Osama
bin Laden has not been captured. We became aware of the initial rumor
of his capture at the time it began circulating earlier today, and we
were fully aware of the official denial. We do have verifiable
intelligence, however, of "unusual movements and activities" of
special US forces in certain areas where bin Laden and al Zawahiri
have reportedly been seen - however we will NOT disclose this
information to avoid compromising the safety, welfare and special
operations of our men and women of the military. According to two
highly placed and credible human sources within the intelligence
community, these
movements are indeed related to a "HVT" (High Value
Target) within al Qaeda. Our sources are firm in their assertions
that there is a "significant advancement" in the ongoing war on
terror.
Within the last six months, we could have issued reports that
Osama bin Laden was captured by the Saudi's, by our own military task
force, and even held by an opposing faction in Iran. As we were NOT
able to verify this intelligence through credible human sources, that
information never saw the light of day. This report, although denied
by the US Department of State, appears to have much more validity
than originally expected. Whether Osama bin Laden is the "HVT" and
whether he is in custody remains to be seen.
We are following this matter closely and will report our
findings as they are confirmed.
---------------------------------------------------
Two al-Qaeda men may be handed over to US
By Azfar-ul-Ashfaque
01/20/04
KARACHI: Some two of the five al-Qaeda men, held from a Gulistan-e-
Jauhar apartment in a raid on Sunday, are likely to be handed over to
the US within the next two or three days, The News has learnt
reliably.
"Out of the five arrested foreigners, two Arabs are very important
and after completing our investigations, we will hand them over to
the country, which wants their custody," a senior Islamabad-based
government official said on condition of anonymity.
Without naming the country, he said: "So far we have not found any
evidence, regarding involvement of these foreigners in any subversive
activities here. If any of them is involved in any terrorist activity
here, we will deal with him as per the law of the land. Otherwise, we
will hand them over to the custody of the country, where they were
required."
He disclosed that so far only Pakistani
security officials were
interrogating the arrested men. "But they (the FBI agents) are also
aware of the investigations and maybe they also join investigations
with us," he added.
Declining to give the identities of any of the arrested men,
including two Arabs, the official said: "Investigations are going on
and at this stage I cannot disclose their identities. But we suspect
that one of the five men may be on FBI's most-wanted list."
Sources
said the women and children, who were also taken into custody, would
be sent back to the country of their origin.
It is learnt that the arrested men were being interrogated by a joint
interrogation team at an undisclosed location for ascertaining their
links with local militants. However, an intelligence official told
The News that one of the five arrested men was a close associate of
Waleed al-Attash, the mastermind of USS Cole bombing and he had
avoided arrest from a Korangi house, last
year.
He said the arrested persons were also in contact with a senior al-
Qaeda leader. Without naming the leader, the official said: "We
believe that he is in Karachi and we are tightening the noose around
him."
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jan2004-daily/20-01-2004/main/main17.htm
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Jan 20, 2004
Bin Laden: Back In Karachi?
Rumours are rife that Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, his Egyptian No.2, have fled to Karachi from the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan following a new anti-Al Qaeda drive. 
B. RAMAN
It is learnt that some of the madrasas of Karachi, which are known to be close to the Taliban and Al Qaeda and which had in the past provided sanctuaries to the dregs of these two terrorist organisations, are rife with rumours that Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, his Egyptian No.2, have fled to Karachi from the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan following a new anti-Al Qaeda drive launched by the Pakistani security agencies in the South Waziristan area of the FATA and raids on a number of madrasas of Balochistan and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) to verify the background of foreigners studying there.
It may be recalled that bin Laden had taken shelter in the Binori madrasa of Karachi where he allegedly underwent medical treatment for a shrapnel injury in the beginning of 2002. After August 2002, there were no more reports of his presence in Karachi. Well-informed sources had claimed that after the arrest of Ramzi Binalshib, an important operative of Al Qaeda, in Karachi in September 2002, Khalid Sheiklh Mohammad (KSM), said to be the then operational chief of Al Qaeda, and bin Laden went back to the border areas -- KSM to Quetta and bin Laden to the FATA.
Fearing betrayal by the Shias (Hazaras) of Quetta, KSM moved to Rawalpindi where he was given shelter by a women's wing leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI). He was ultimately arrested there by the Pakistani agencies in March last and handed over to the USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which airlifted him out of the country.
During his interrogation by the Pakistani authorities before handing him over to the FBI, KSM was reported to have claimed that bin Laden was alive and in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and that he had met him. Thereafter, the Pakistani and US security forces undertook a hunt for bin Laden and his son, but without success.
Since August,2002, a number of recorded messages attributed to bin Laden and al-Zawahiri were being disseminated by the Al Jazeera TV channel, but there were no human intelligence reports of either of them being sighted anywhere.
In October 2003, the Pakistani security agencies did a combing operation in the South Waziristan area for the Al Qaeda dregs, including bin Laden. Despite the media hype surrounding it, it was a big flop.
A similar operation has been launched by them in the same area since the beginning of this month, again without significant results so far. In the meanwhile,there is again some uncorroborated chatter coming out of Karachi that when the Pakistani forces conducted their combing operations of October, bin Laden, Al Zawahiri and some others from Al Qaeda were, in fact, present there, but managed to escape from there and moved back to Karachi.
During 2003, Karachi continued to witness sectarian (anti-Shia) terrorist incidents, but was free of terrorist incidents attributable to Al Qaeda and its associates in the International Islamic Front (IIF). However, there were indicators of the continued presence of Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda pockets in Karachi. Among these were :
The arrest on January 9 last year of two Al Qaeda suspects of Arab origin from the house of a JEI leader of Karachi.
The arrest in April of Khalid bin Attash, one of the suspects in the case relating to the attack on the US naval ship USS Cole off Aden in October,2000
The arrest in September of Gungun, the brother of Hambali, said to be the operational chief of Jemaah Islamiya (JI) of South-east Asia, and about a dozen other Indonesian and Malaysian students from two madrasas of Karachi, one of them run by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), which is now co-ordinating the activities of the IIF.
Following the terrorist incidents directed against Western nationals and interests in Karachi during 2002, the Pakistani authorities had organised a drive against the Pakistani components of the IIF such as the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the HUM Al-Almi and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) operating out of Karachi and managed to decimate their local presence, by arresting some and having others killed in so-called encounters. This led to a pause in the activities of Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda elements in Karachi.
Another reason for the pause was the prominent position given to the Muttahida Qaumi Mouvement (MQM),a Mohajir organisation, led by Altaf Hussain, living in exile in London since 1992, in the new coalition Government formed in Sindh after the elections of October,2002. The Governor of Sindh is from the MQM and the Adviser to the Home Ministry, which co-ordinates counter-terrorism operations, is also from the MQM.
Unlike the Governments of the NWFP and Balochistan, which are dominated by the pro-bin Laden and pro-Taliban fundamentalist parties, the Government of Sindh under the influence of the MQM has been taking a strong anti-Al Qaeda and anti-IIF line and has been co-operating with the federal Government in Islamabad in its hunt for the dregs of Al Qaeda and the IIF.
However, since the beginning of this year, there are indications of this pause being broken. Among such indications are:
The incident at the reading room of the Pakistan Bible Society on January 15. An unidentified individual threw a firecracker into the room injuring one of the staff. When the police and para-military officials rushed there to investigate, a car with explosives parked nearby exploded, injuring 16 persons. The LEJ, which had carried out similar anti-Christian attacks in 2002, is suspected.
The reported discovery and seizure by the police of a large quantity of explosives and weapons and anti-aircraft ammunition along with a copy of a training manual for jihadi fighters from an abandoned house of Karachi on January 18 during their investigation of the explosion outside the reading room. One Shamin Ahmed Shami , detained by the police in connection with the investigation, is believed to have led them to the house where the explosives and weapons were found. While some reports describe him as a member of the LEJ, others say he is actually a member of the HUM (al-Aalmi).
The arrest the same day (January 18) from another area of Karachi of two Egyptians (some reports describe them as Yemenis) and three Afghans, described as suspected members of Al Qaeda. They are presently under interrogation by the Police and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in order to establish their identity and links, if any, with Al Qaeda. Eleven hand grenades, four handguns, ammunition and maps of Afghanistan and Pakistan were seized from them.
Some reports have given the name of one of the Arabs as Fazal Mohammad Abdullah al-Misri, while others have given it as Amir Hussain Abdullah al-Misri. Pakistani police officials have described him as an Egyptian explosives expert. Could he be identical with and, if not, associated with Midhat Mursi alias Al Khabab, who has been projected in the past as in charge of the chemical and biological weapon testing facility of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan? The answer to this is not clear.
According to the local residents, the arrested Al Qaeda suspects had been living in a flat in this area since October last year and were adopting a low profile. The house had been hired from its owner by an Arabic teacher in a Karachi madrasa in his name and placed at the disposal of the suspects. They also claim that the Pakistani security forces came there looking for a more important Al Qaeda leader (name not known to them), but he managed to escape.
The US agencies have intensified the hunt for bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and other Al Qaeda dregs in Pakistan. They seem to believe that if they could capture or kill them, this would help them in improving the security situation in Afghanistan as well as Iraq.
Presuming that the rumours of the presence of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri in Karachi are correct, they might find it difficult to escape this time since the MQM is determined to have them captured or killed. Unless, of course, the ISI, with its past links with Al Qaeda, comes to their rescue again.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040120&fname=raman&sid=2
