Angling for Bin Laden
In the face of growing public sympathy with Iraq, the Pakistani authorities step up their search for renegade Al-Qa'eda elements, reports Iffat Idris from Islamabad
In the past few weeks, Pakistan's government has been subjected to intense pressure from a Washington keen to secure its support for a second United Nations resolution to pave the way for military action against Iraq. Islamabad is extremely reluctant to support such a resolution -- not so much out of sympathy with Iraq as fear of public opinion at home, which is strongly anti-war. One of the main arguments being used by Pakistan to get Washington off its back is that it already provides support for the US in its war against terror.
In the early stages of the anti- terror campaign, Pakistan helped the United States with its offensive in Afghanistan, providing vital airspace and logistical support. Since then, the main focus has been on "mopping up", or capturing Al- Qa'eda (and senior Taliban) fighters who fled from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Despite a slow start, Pakistani intelligence and security agencies have made some headway in this hunt. Successes in recent weeks have raised hopes that they will soon net the most prized catch of all, Osama Bin Laden.
The first of a series of big Al- Qa'eda fish was caught in March last year. Abu-Zubaydah was picked up in the Punjabi city of Faisalabad. Then in September police in Karachi arrested Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, another senior Al-Qa'eda figure. On 1 March, Khalid Sheikh Mohamed was picked up in the northern city of Rawalpindi. The list goes on, with numerous "lesser fish" such as Sheikh Ahmed Salim, a Kenyan financier close to Bin Laden, and Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, son of blind cleric Sheikh Abdel-Rahman, currently imprisoned in the United States.
Worthy of note in relation to all of these breakthroughs is the fact that almost all were achieved as a result of US-Pakistani cooperation. Since 9/11 Pakistan has been host to numerous FBI and other US intelligence and security officials. US intelligence monitoring, too, has been keeping a particular eye on Pakistan. The constant hope is that Al-Qa'eda members will slip up and make a phone call that can be picked up by satellites and subsequently lead to their location being revealed.
This is the manner in which Abu-Zubaydah and Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh were caught. US satellites picked up a call made by Abu-Zubaydah on a satellite telephone, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials informed the Pakistanis, who rushed to a house in Faisalabad and subsequently caught the Palestinian. The same sequence of events was repeated in the case of Al-Shibh.
Events leading up to Khalid Sheikh Mohamed's arrest remain somewhat unclear. According to one version, police in Quetta discovered Mohamed Abdel-Rahman. They trailed him for a few days, and traced phone calls which led to his arrest. Some of the calls were to a house in Nisar Road in Rawalpindi. Surveillance and phone monitoring of that house led police to uncover Khalid Sheikh Mohamed.
According to another version, a low-ranking Al-Qa'eda member revealed Sheikh's whereabouts in return for a $25-million reward offered by the Americans for information leading to his capture. The informant apparently demanded and received an extra £2 million to relocate with his family to England. In yet another version, FBI officials allegedly managed to "persuade" an Al-Qa'eda operative captured in Quetta to reveal the whereabouts of Sheikh.
Regardless of how Sheikh was arrested, the Americans now have a senior Al-Qa'eda figure who is in a position to reveal all kinds of useful information regarding the organisation, its future plans and, most crucially, the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. Note, however, that although the Pakistanis have a leading role to play in the events leading up to the capture of Al-Qa'eda figures, the interrogation of the detainees is definitely US territory. In all cases, arrested Al-Qa'eda members were quickly handed over to US agents.
On the question of the whereabouts of Bin Laden, Pakistani officials say that, during his five- day custody, Sheikh revealed he met the Al- Qa'eda leader in December. While officials are not ruling out the claim, they add that without names and places it is difficult to read too much into it. The Americans will be hoping to get more out of Sheikh during interrogation. Officials have ruled out torture, but have said questioning will be "robust". The Americans are also working their way through the vast collection of tapes, letters, computer files and other material that was picked up when Sheikh Mohamed was arrested. FBI officials say the haul, "enough to fill a small jet", has already provided important new leads.
The arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohamed has revitalised efforts to find Osama Bin Laden. Fears that the elusive head of Al- Qa'eda would never be caught have given way to confidence that the net is closing in and that it is simply a matter of time until he too is caught. According to Dominic Simpson, a security consultant specialising in the Middle East, "the search for Bin Laden is narrowing down. The Pakistanis have made real progress on the ground, and it may be that will culminate in the capture or killing of Bin Laden."
The geographical focus of the hunt has also shifted. In the past efforts were concentrated on the south-eastern section of Afghanistan as well as Pakistan's northern tribal belt. But the capture of Sheikh Mohamed -- in conjunction with a later operation in Balochistan on 9 March in which nine Al-Qa'eda members were killed -- has led to concentration of efforts in the south-western region where Pakistan borders Afghanistan and Iran. There were rumours that two of Bin Laden's sons had been captured in that operation, but the Americans have so far denied this. Nonetheless, Pakistani and US troops (including special operations forces) are sweeping the area. The Americans have also air-dropped a lot of leaflets over the region, offering a reward of $25 million for information leading to the capture of Osama Bin Laden.
On Friday 14 March Pakistani police in Lahore caught another senior Al-Qa'eda figure, a Moroccan called Yasser Al-Jazeeri -- apparently as a result of a tip-off from Khalid Sheikh Mohamed. But the man they really want is Osama Bin Laden. Capturing Bin Laden would be a huge achievement for the Pakistan government -- enough to assuage the Americans should Pakistan refuse to provide support in the UN Security Council. But even without Bin Laden, the Pakistanis will be trumpeting their successes against Al-Qa'eda. President Musharraf will be hoping that the White House is satisfied with the cooperation already provided by Pakistan, as well as hoping it will not ask for more.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 20 - 26 March 2003 (Issue No. 630)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/630/int2.htm