SEPTEMBER 11

Police Arrest Mastermind of September 11, 2001 Attack on the United States Saturday, March 1, 2003 By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer © AP
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, has been arrested in one of the biggest catches yet in the war on terrorism, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press. Mohammed, perhaps the most senior al-Qaida operative after Osama bin Laden and Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, was one of three people arrested in Rawalpindi, near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Saturday, Ahmed said. His arrest is a major coup in the effort to stifle al-Qaida. Mohammed, who is on the FBI most wanted list, had a hand in many of the terror organization's most notorious attacks in recent years. In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush exclaimed "That's fantastic!" after his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, delivered the news. CIA officers and Pakistani authorities carried out the operation that led to Mohammed's capture, according to American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The tip-off came about a week earlier following a raid in the southwestern town of Quetta and the arrest of a Middle Eastern man, possibly of Egyptian origin, according to a Pakistani government source who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. "At the time of that raid in Quetta the authorities were looking for Khalid Shaikh but he escaped and from there they followed him to Rawalpindi," said the official. "They got information from the man they picked up in Quetta and from phone calls until they tracked him down to Rawalpindi."
Mastermind of the September 11, 2001 Attacks Khalid Shaikh Mohammed	U.S. officials regard Mohammed as a key al-Qaida lieutenant and organizer of the terror mission that sent hijacked passenger jets crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and into a field in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000 people. Mohammed was arrested along with a second man of Middle Eastern origin and a Pakistani, Ahmed Abdul Qadoos, 42, a member of one of the country's best organized and well established religious parties, Jamaat-e-Islami. The identity of the Middle Eastern man has not been revealed.
Pakistani government officials wouldn't say whether Mohammed had been handed over to the United States, but it's likely given Islamabad's previous practice of handing over al-Qaida suspects to the U.S. authorities. While Qadoos' family said he was alone when police stormed the house, senior government officials said Mohammed and the second man were picked up in the same raid, which took place around 3 a.m. Saturday (2200 GMT Friday). A guard protecting the Qadoos house tried to stop police from firing at them, but they quickly overpowered him, said Omar Qadoos, a cousin of Ahmed Abdul Qadoos. Neighbors fearing that a robbery was under way called the police. "The police pounded on the gate and then they rushed through. There was some firing, but no one was hurt and then they beat the guard and broke the lock on the front door," Omar Qadoos said. The only people home at the time of the raid were Qadoos, his wife and two children. Qadoos lives with his father. Omar said police held the entire family at gunpoint while they collected cassettes, a computer and computer discs. Clothes, papers and household items were strewn on the floor of the Qadoos household evidence of the police search. Mohammed has not been charged in the Sept. 11 attacks, but he has been charged in a 1995 plot to blow up 11 passenger planes on their way from Asia to the United States. The U.S. government was offering up to US$25 million for information leading to his capture. Mohammed's ties to terrorism are deep. He is the uncle of convicted 1993 World Trade Center conspirator Ramzi Yousef, and one of his older brothers is also an al-Qaida member. Another brother died in Pakistan when a bomb he was making exploded. He is also said to be close to bin Laden's son, Saad bin Laden. While the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan does not comment on FBI activities here, a spokesman, speaking on condition he not be identified, said: "We do have excellent cooperation with the Pakistanis. We provide technical assistance, but they conduct their own arrests." Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has been an important ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, but has said that only a small number of FBI agents are operating in Pakistan and only to provide intelligence on suspected al-Qaida or Taliban fugitives from neighboring Afghanistan. However, Pakistani police and intelligence officials say FBI agents have been involved in nearly every important terror arrest in Pakistan since the war on terrorism began. The Pakistani government says it has handed over more than 420 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects to U.S. custody. Until now the biggest catch so far was the arrest last March of al-Qaida's suspected financier, Abu Zubaydah, who was taken into custody in a raid in the central Pakistani city of Faisalabad. Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi-born Palestinian, was said to be a link between bin Laden and many of al-Qaida's operational cells. Abu Zubaydah ran the Khalden camp in Afghanistan, where U.S. investigators believe many of the Sept. 11 hijackers trained. On Sept. 11, 2002, Ramzi Binalshibh, a would-be hijacker who couldn't get into the United States, was captured in the southern port city of Karachi. He became an aide to Mohammed and a key moneyman for the attacks. Binalshibh was also the former roommate of hijacker Mohamed Atta. http://www.september11news.com/2003KSM.htm