Pakistan shares al-Qaida intel with U.S.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan has shared with the United States initial results of its interrogation of reputed al-Qaida No. 3 Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who stayed silent for hours after his capture this week before confessing his identity, an intelligence official said Thursday.

Earlier, U.S. officials told NBC News that so far al-Libbi, thought to be al-Qaida's operations commander, has been talking, but “nothing he has said so far is fascinating.”

Despite the immediate lack of actionable intelligence, President Bush hailed the arrest as a victory that removes a key enemy, and jubilant Pakistani officials said the capture will boost the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday that al-Libbi was still in Pakistan’s custody and that he was being questioned. He declined to give details.

FREE VIDEO Arrested May 4: NBC's Robert Windrem discusses the capture of al-Qaida suspect Abu Farraj al-Libbi in Pakistan. MSNBC

However, an intelligence official who is familiar with the investigation said that al-Libbi was being questioned by Pakistani counterterrorism experts and security officials. He said U.S. officials were not present at the interrogation, but Pakistan had shared with them its preliminary findings.

He said that al-Libbi initially refused to speak.

“He remained silent for hours, but he had to admit that he is al-Qaida. He had no other option because our people had very solid evidence to prove his identity,” said the Pakistani official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Anatomy of a takedown
U.S. officials said that al-Libbi's arrest resulted from years of painstaking detective work, penetrating the al-Qaida terrorist network and tracking him as he moved from remote tribal regions to finally, on Monday night, a cemetery on the outskirts of Mardan, a town 30 miles north of Peshawar, capital of the deeply conservative North West Frontier Province.

The actual arrest was a daring takedown by Pakistani special forces, operating with the help of American intelligence, which was monitoring his movements.

U.S. and Pakistani officials told NBC News that al-Libbi and another man riding a motorbike were being followed by Pakistani intelligence agents, one disguised as a woman in a burqa.

As they rode through the cemetery, witnesses said, Pakistani special forces opened fire. Al-Libbi jumped off the bike, ran through the cemetery, scaled a wall and hid in a nearby house.

The soldiers evacuated the residents and tossed in tear-gas canisters. Al-Libbi fell unconscious and was arrested. He was easy to identify because of a disfiguring skin disease.

Al-Libbi, a Libyan who was also wanted for two attempts to assassinate Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is seen by U.S. officials as significant because of his reputed control over al-Qaida's daily operations.

Suspect could provide leads
As al-Qaida's reputed third in command, al-Libbi could provide new leads to Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Both have eluded a 3½-year dragnet since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

And he could give details about the attempts to kill Musharraf, as well as information on future terrorist plots, including attacks by insurgents in Iraq.

“He has real-time operational knowledge of current al-Qaida plans, and he's probably a conduit for al-Qaida's contact with the (Abu Musab al-Zarqawi) group inside Iraq," said Roger Cressey, an NBC News analyst and a former U.S. counterterrorism official.

“It's going to impact the ability from a command and control perspective for al-Qaida to do certain things,” said James Pavitt, a former CIA official.

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