From the NYT early this AM>>>>Terror Detainee Is Seen as Leader in Plot by Al Qaeda <<<
By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: August 6, 2004
Terror Detainee Is Seen as Leader in Plot by Al Qaeda
By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: August 6, 2004
ASHINGTON, Aug. 5 - A terrorist suspect now in custody in Britain directed the surveillance of financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington during 2000 and 2001 and prepared the detailed reports about them that have prompted fears of an attack, senior government officials said on Thursday.
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The suspect, known as Abu Issa al-Hindi, was described by the officials as by far the most important Qaeda figure detained as part of an American-led effort to unravel the tangle of clues uncovered with the discovery in Pakistan of computer files containing the surveillance reports.
Mr. Hindi was described by a senior government official as "a key Al Qaeda operative in Great Britain,'' and was said to have been under surveillance by British authorities even before the computer files were discovered last week. The information drawn from those files served as "a catalytic event'' that provided the basis for his arrest on Tuesday, after the Central Intelligence Agency relayed information to its British counterparts.
A senior American official described Mr. Hindi as having been "intimately involved'' in producing, perhaps as the author, the detailed reconnaissance reports that described security measures, engineering features and potential vulnerabilities at five buildings, which have been identified by the Bush administration as potential targets of an attack.
Intelligence and law enforcement officials said it was not certain whether Mr. Hindi himself had traveled to the United States to take part in the surveillance operations. One law enforcement official said there was evidence that Mr. Hindi did conduct on-the-ground surveillance at the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup building in Manhattan and at the Prudential site in Newark.
At minimum, a senior counterterrorism official said, investigators have established that Mr. Hindi was a central planning chief for the reconnaissance effort, overseeing the surveillance studies in the United States and relaying reports and other information to Qaeda counterparts in Pakistan.
British officials remained tight-lipped on Thursday about the arrest of Mr. Hindi and 11 others being held with him on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Under British law, the suspects may be detained for up to two more weeks without charges, and the British authorities have warned that speculation linking the arrests to operations in Pakistan could undermine the legal case against the suspects.
A senior counterterrorism said there had been several anxious days when the British authorities who had been trailing Mr. Hindi apparently lost sight of him after American intelligence learned of his significance.
Another man, Babar Ahmed, was arrested in central London on Thursday at the request of the United States, the police in London said, and American officials said he was being sought in connection with the operation that had been uncovered in Pakistan.
But a sealed warrant issued by the United States attorney's office in Connecticut at a time that has not been specified sought the extradition of Mr. Ahmed, 30, on unspecified charges in connection with his role in using American Web sites and e-mail to solicit money from Americans for terrorist causes from 1998 to last year.
It was not clear what evidence led the authorities to believe that he took part in the planning effort.
Intelligence and law-enforcement officials would not say whether they believed either of the arrests had disrupted an active plot to strike targets in the United States. But Mr. Hindi's arrest in particular was described as a major development in an effort to identify who conducted what American officials have described as the meticulous, professional studies of five financial buildings in the United States.
Mr. Hindi was tracked down after computer forensic specialists were dispatched to Pakistan to retrieve and decipher the information found on computers linked to two important suspects arrested there in recent weeks.
[[[[There is a part 2 of this, but my computer didn't want to cope with all the popups, and popovers....so it still should be on the NYT site...]]]]] |
