- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ramzi
Binalshibh, a key al Qaeda member accused of helping plan the Sept. 11
hijacked plane attacks on the United States, has been captured in Pakistan,
U.S. officials said on Friday.
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- Binalshibh, who is wanted by Germany for his alleged
role in planning and carrying out the deadly attacks, is one of the most
important members of al Qaeda to be taken into custody over the past year.
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- A U.S. official said Binalshibh was captured in Karachi
around the first anniversary of the attack by Pakistani authorities with
help from the FBI and CIA . He was found based on information provided
by U.S. intelligence.
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- U.S. officials have said the Yemeni national, who was
refused a visa into the United States at least four times before Sept.
11, 2001, wanted to join the 19 hijackers involved in last year's attack.
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- Binalshibh was one of the roommates of Mohamed Atta --
the suspected ringleader of the hijackers -- in Hamburg, Germany. He is
also known as Ramzi bin al-Shaibah.
-
- Binalshibh is suspected of helping plan attacks and was
very prominent in the Hamburg cell. His capture was considered a significant
development in the U.S. goal of destroying the network, the officials said.
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- Binalshibh was not as high in the organization as Abu
Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in March and turned over to U.S.
authorities who have been interrogating him at a secret location outside
the United States.
-
- Also on Friday, U.S. officials said law enforcement authorities
had detained several al Qaeda-trained men near Buffalo, New York. They
would not give further details of the arrests but said the men did not
appear to be top-level members of al Qaeda.
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- 'VERY SENSITIVE MATTER'
-
- It was not immediately clear whether Binalshibh had been
turned over to U.S. authorities. One U.S. official declined to say what
would happen next, adding, "It's a very sensitive matter."
-
- In an interview aired on CNN, Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf described the raid that led to Binalshibh's capture as a violent
one. "The place was raided and there was a shootout," he said,
and two al Qaeda members were killed and 10 were arrested. He described
the detainees as one Egyptian, one Saudi Arabian and eight Yemenis.
-
- Binalshibh's capture came just days after a journalist
with al-Jazeera Arabic satellite television said he interviewed the Yemeni
in or around Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi. Binalshibh and another key
al Qaeda member reportedly affirmed that Osama bin Laden was personally
involved in planning the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people.
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- Yosri Fouda, the al-Jazeera journalist who said he interviewed
Binalshibh, said the Yemeni claimed to be the coordinator of the Sept.
11 attacks.
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- Binalshibh said Atta called him on Aug. 29 last year
and told him a riddle to set the date of the attacks, Fouda said.
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- One of the suspected hijackers had tried to enroll Binalshibh
in a flight school in Florida. After Binalshibh was unable to get into
the United States, the leaders of the plot may have tried to find someone
else to take part in the hijacking of the fourth plane, top FBI officials
have said.
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- The airplane that crashed into a Pennsylvania field on
Sept. 11 had only four hijackers. The other three airplanes, which smashed
into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon each had five hijackers.
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- Binalshibh is mentioned repeatedly in the indictment
of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in
connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.
-
- The indictment mentions at least four times that Binalshibh
applied for, and failed to receive, a visa to enter the United States.
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- It also details various money transfers he made to the
hijackers and to Moussaoui.
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