Top 5 Al Qaeda-linked militants Pakistan has captured

Amid an official US probe into whether the Pakistani military knew of Osama bin Laden's hiding spot and if they shielded him, it could be easy to overlook Pakistan's notable successes against alleged Al Qaeda militants, thousands of whom have been killed or captured by Pakistani forces over the past decade. Here's a look at five of the highest-profile Al Qaeda captures in Pakistan with the help of the local security services.
- Stephen Kurczy, Staff writer

1. Umar Patek

Umar Patek was arrested March 29, 2011, in Abottabad, Pakistan. The Indonesian militant is accused of playing a key role in the 2002 Bali bombings and was long seen as a crucial link between Al Qaeda and its Southeast Asian affiliates such as Jemaah Islamiyah.

Pakistani authorities arrested Mr. Patek based on a tip-off from the CIA, according to The Jakarta Globe. Indonesian authorities welcomed the news, the Monitor reported at the time of his arrest. The member of Jemaah Islamiyah was being protected by a local Al Qaeda operative working undercover in the city’s main post office, a “signal that Al Qaeda may have had other operations in the area,” The New York Times reported. Indeed, it would be just a month before Osama bin Laden was killed in the same city.

It is unknown where Patek is now being detained.


2. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was captured March 1, 2003, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The New Yorker, in the recent profile "The Mastermind," describes the 9/11 coordinator's capture at the hands of Pakistani police: "In the spring of 2003, almost a full decade after Mohammed came to the notice of terrorism investigators, heavily armed Pakistani police crashed in on him in the middle of the night, in a walled compound in Rawalpindi, the home city of Pakistan’s military. His capture likely owed something to the technical capacities of American surveillance, but the big break came by the oldest of means: betrayal. The US had offered a twenty-five-million-dollar reward for Mohammed’s capture, and a cousin tipped off authorities about his location."

US officials were very much involved in the hunt, according to reports. "The hunt for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed involved the entire American intelligence establishment," reported The New York Times.

He is now detained at Guantánamo Bay. Last month, the White House ended attempts to have his case transferred to a civilian federal court in the US.

3. Ramzi bin-al Shibh

Ramzi bin-al Shibh was captured Sept. 11, 2002, in Karachi, Pakistan. President George W. Bush afterward hailed the joint Pakistan-US operation as proof of a "relentless" US effort to "one by one ... hunt the killers down."

One of the first five names on the FBI's list of "Most Wanted Terrorists," the alleged head the 9/11 hijackers cell in Germany wired funds to militants in America, including Marwan al-Shehhi, the hijacker-pilot who crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the World Trade Center. He is now a detainee at Guantánamo Bay.

4. Abu Zubadeh

Abu Zubadeh was captured March 28, 2002, in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Pakistani military intelligence was accompanied by American CIA and FBI personnel during the massive raid on his compound, according to the TIME article, "Anatomy of a Raid."

"Zubaydah and three other Arabs grabbed money and fake Saudi passports and raced up the central staircase to the roof, with the police in hot pursuit. The al-Qaeda men were cornered. Then Zubaydah and his companions pulled off a move that would have impressed any Hollywood stuntman. With a running start, they leaped off the cottage roof, sailed over the barbed-wire fencing and tumbled onto the neighboring villa's roof – a drop of 8 m. They were immediately grabbed by four Pakistani cops waiting for them."

He is now a detainee at Guantánamo Bay. He is alleged to have "managed a network of training camps" and been "involved in every major terrorist operation carried out by Al Qaeda," according to a 2002 legal opinion.

5. Abu Faraj al-Libbi

Abu Faraj al-Libbi was arrested May 2, 2005, in Mardan, Pakistan. At that time he was believed to be Al Qaeda's No. 3 leader. His circumstances of capture may be one of the most bizarre, as it involved cross-dressing Pakistani officers. Wearing the burqa (a body-length robe worn by women in conservative Islamic families), Pakistani intelligence agents ambushed Mr. Libbi while he was riding on the back of a motorbike, according to the BBC. He ran into a house and later surrendered.

He is now a detainee at Guantánamo Bay. It was originally hoped that his arrest, like that of many others, would lead officials to Osama bin Laden. Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said afterward that his security agents has gathered "a lot of tips" from the arrest and were "on the right track" to capturing the Al Qaeda leader.

Source http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2011/0503/Top-5-Al-Qaeda-linked-militants-Pakistan-has-captured/Abu-Faraj-al-Libbi