Al-Qaida: Dead or captured

--July 13, 2004

Al Qaeda computer expert Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan is quietly captured in Lahore by Pakistani intelligence, a direct result of the arrest of Mussad Aruchi a month earlier.

Noor Khan is in essence a critical communications node between the al Qaeda leadership in the caves of South Waziristan and operatives around the world.  After being captured, he is persuaded to work with Pakistani intelligence, helping to identify critical data on his laptop and more than 1,000 cd-rom’s found in his apartment.  Among the materials found are the reports developed from surveillance of Heathrow Airport in London and US financial institutions in New York, Newark and Washington, DC and emails from Abu Faraj al Libi, the al Qaeda operations chief.   Through the emails and computer data, US intelligence is able to track down a British cell.  But a leak from Pakistani intelligence ends the operation.

--July 25, 2004

Ahmed Ghailani, wanted for his role in the East African embassy bombings in his native Tanzania and Kenya six years earlier, is captured in Gujrat, his whereabouts provided by the cd-rom’s found in Noor Khan’s apartment. 

Ghailani and others in his apartment, including his wife, withstand a 10 hour shootout until they surrender.

Ghailani had become a document falisification expert in the years after the embassy bombings.

--Aug. 3, 2004

Dhiren Barot, aka Issa al Hindi, aka Essa al Britani, is one of 13 people captured in raids across the United Kingdom.  Barot is viewed as the most important terrorist captured since that of Hambali, the Indonesian terrorist chief, a year earlier. 

Barot, a Hindu who converted to Islam, had fought in various Islamic guerilla and terrorist operations, is believed to have relayed orders to al Qaeda cells in Europe and North America and played a key role in recruiting new members to al Qaeda. 

He also is seen as a confidante of both Bin Laden and September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.  The 9-11 Commission report in fact describes him as the man Bin laden sent to the US in 2001 to surveill US financial institutions.   The report notes: “KSM claims, at Bin Ladin’s direction in early 2001, he sent Britani to the United States to case potential economic and “Jewish” targets in New York City.”

--Oct. 20, 2004

Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, known as “al Elektroni”, is captured in Pakistan.  Intelligence officials said they captured a suspected al-Qaida “communications expert of Middle Eastern origin” whom they identified as Abdul Rahman but US officials say that it is indeed Atwah, an Egyptian who is wanted for his role in the East Africa embassy bombings in August 1998.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed confirmed the arrest but would not provide further details on when or where he was captured.

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