ISLAMABAD -- Jubilant Pakistani officials say their capture of al Qaeda's No 3 man at his barren hideout will boost the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and United States President George W. Bush has hailed the arrest as a victory that removes a key enemy.
This week's arrest of Bu Farraj al Libbi, allegedly al Qaeda's operational planner and a close confidant of bin Laden, drew praise from US officials as the biggest blow to al Qaeda in more than two years.
Al Libbi also was Pakistan's most wanted man, the main suspect in two 2003 assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf, and is likely to face the death penalty in Pakistan if convicted.
Commandos seized al Libbi and another foreigner on Tuesday after a firefight outside the town of Mardan in Pakistan's northwest, about 50km north of Peshawar,Palistani officials said. The arrests were announced yesterday.
Witnesses said one of the men captured was disguised with a burqa, the all-encompassing garment worn by conservative Islamic women.
Al Libbi, a native of Lbya who is thought to use at least five aliases, was behind only Egyptian Ayman al Zawahiri and bin Laden himself in the terror group's heirarchy, Us counter-terrorism officials said.
Al Libbi is believed responsible for planning attacks in the US.
In Washington, Bush called it a "critical victory" that removes a dangerous enemy who is a direct threat to America and those who love freedom".
The arrest broke a months-long drought in the dragnet for bin Laden and his top lieutenants.
The terror mastermind has evaded a manhunt since September 11, 2001 attacks, appearing periodically on videotapes to warn of more violence.
He is believed to be hiding along thr border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Us officials said the arrest was the most significant since the March 1, 2003, capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's No 3 at the time, and was the result of months close cooperation between Pakistan and the CIA.
AP, REUTERS

Time is slowly running out for these terrorists. :exactly:

Another important figure of al Qaeda killed.

This is a blow that might eventually lead to bin Laden's downful.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/...ling/index.html

BBC says...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4094992.stm

Just yeterday on FOX News (on Cavuto, I believe), there was an author claiming strong evidence that Usama was hidingout in neighboring Iran, of all places.

Concerns of al-Qaida link in Balkans renewed
Madrid attack suspect arrested in 'springboard for Europe-bound terrorism'

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - The arrest in Serbia of a top terrorist fugitive has raised fresh concerns of an al-Qaida presence in the volatile Balkans, where thousands of U.S. and other international troops are stationed as peacekeepers.

Abdelmajid Bouchar, a 22-year-old Moroccan, sought for involvement in last year’s train bombings in the Spanish capital Madrid, that killed nearly 200 people, was caught at the Belgrade railway station in June.

The arrest, revealed earlier this month, revived concerns that the Balkans — with its porous borders, unsophisticated security systems, rampant corruption and organized crime — could serve as a haven for al-Qaida-linked terrorist groups.

Local officials and experts have long warned that the Balkans at least is a major transit route for the terrorists, as well as for organized crime, including human and drug trafficking. They said the two often go hand in hand.

Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic said police believed Bouchar was most likely passing through Serbia. He noted that “Serbia-Montenegro lies on important east-west transit routes.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9114527/

'Bin Laden is trying to obtain medical attention'

[QUOTE]"Osama bin Laden is trying to obtain medical attention," Colonel Don McGraw, director of operations at the Combined Forces Command in Kabul, told a group of British reporters, including one from al-Hayat, it said.

"He (McGraw) refused to say what the al-Qaida leader is suffering from or whether it is the same kidney disease which Pakistani officials said in the past he was suffering from," the newspaper added.[B]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9336523/

France probes alleged plot to shoot down planes
Al-Qaida in Iraq linked suspect tells investigators of missile smuggling plan

PARIS - A suspected close associate of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has told investigators of a plot to shoot down planes in France with missiles, a French judicial official said Friday.

The man, a Jordanian like al-Zarqawi, was arrested in Jordan and questioned by police there following a request in December from France’s leading anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the official said.

The Jordanian told his questioners of an Algerian he had contacts with in 2000, according to a copy of his testimony provided by police in Jordan to Bruguiere.
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Under questioning, the suspect said the Algerian told him he had acquired two missiles from a Chechen, had transported them to Turkey and planned to smuggle them into France to shoot down planes, the official said, without identifying the suspect or the Algerian by name.

The Jordanian also claimed he persuaded the Algerian to renounce his plan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of French laws limiting the release of information from judicial investigations. She said French officials do not know whether there is any truth to the Jordanian’s claims.

The French newspaper Le Figaro identified the alleged al-Zarqawi associate as Adnan Muhammad Sadik, who uses the alias Abou Atiya, and said he was al-Zarqawi’s representative in the Caucasus.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9851999/

Bin Laden forges tactical alliance between al Qaeda and Hezbollah

By MARIA RESSA

ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs Chief

Intelligence reports, telephone intercepts, court documents as well as books and other open sources document a tactical alliance between the Middle East's two most dangerous terrorist groups, Hezbollah and al Qaeda, which began in the late 1990’s.

According to Rohan Gunaratna, in his book Inside Al-Qaeda:Global Network of Terror, al Qaeda forged ties with Iran and Lebanon as well as Hezbollah to carry out Osama bin Laden’s goal of uniting Shia and Sunni terrorist groups against a common enemy.

That is supported by interviews with intelligence officials conducted by ABS-CBN as well as court documents and telephone intercepts obtained by ABS-CBN.

The primary link, like in most of al Qaeda’s efforts, began on the personal front – with bin Laden, befriending and working closely with Hezbollah’s military chief, Imad Mughniyah, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists.

That relationship grew and led to training sessions conducted by Hezbollah for al Qaeda operatives.

It first became public in 2000 when a former US soldier, who pleaded guilty to conspiring with bin Laden to bomb the US embassies in Africa, alleged that Mughniyah, Hezbollah and bin Laden met in Sudan to plan the 1998 East Africa bombings.

Al Qaeda’s goal is to unite as many Muslim groups as it can into a global Islam versus West war – Samuel Huntington’s "clash of civilizations." The training camps in Afghanistan provided a good foundation for the spread of its radical ideology, military training and bomb-making skills. According to al Qaeda propaganda videotapes and literature seen by ABS-CBN, 9/11 was meant to inspire marginalized Muslims around the world to rally around that cause.

That was followed by numerous open source reporting of al Qaeda’s attempts to unite Muslims around its ideology. Pravda reported that an October 2002 meeting in Bosnia between Islamic extremist groups, including al Qaeda and Hezbollah, aimed to consolidate the fight against the United States. In 2003, The Washington Post reported that US authorities claimed a meeting took place in Lebanon in March 2002 between al Qaeda, HAMAS and Hezbollah.

The cooperation between Shia and Sunni groups did not take place just in the Middle East.

Gunaratna claims that the first signs in Asia were seen in links between "Hezbollah and al Qaeda associate groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which facilitated and supported Hezbollah’s operations in the Asia-Pacific in the late 1990’s." In a telephone interview with ABS-CBN, an MILF member confirmed the working relationship between Hezbollah and the MILF.

Terrorism analyst Rommel Banlaoi, who teaches at the Philippines National Defense College, concurs, saying, "Al Qaeda and Hezbollah worked together in 1999-2000. In fact, there was one Indonesian member of Hezbollah who was arrested [at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport]."

Intelligence documents obtained by ABS-CBN name the Indonesian – Pandu Yudhawinata, who trained in MILF camps and was arrested after police monitored the phone calls of an MILF leader working with Muslim charities.

Many of those charities, intelligence officials tell ABS-CBN, were penetrated and exploited by the Qaeda-Hezbollah alliance.

The MILF denies any operational ties with al Qaeda, but former MILF chief Hashim Salamat admitted in an interview with the BBC that the MILF did receive funding from bin Laden in the late 1980’s.

Another intelligence document obtained by ABS-CBN also links Hezbollah to the Abu Sayyaf, whose members were trained by Qaeda operatives beginning in the late 1980’s.

The document states, "a letter intercepted on 21 January 1995 established the connections between the Abu Sayyaf and the pro-Iranian Shia Hezbollah."

It states the leaders of the two groups trained together in Syria and confirms Hezbollah’s links to al Qaeda.

Hezbollah has repeatedly denied it has links to al Qaeda, saying this is propaganda spread by US intelligence. But the same charge is made by at least two other governments in Southeast Asia – with the links to the MILF and Abu Sayyaf documented by Philippine intelligence.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=47552