Originally posted by Momus--
2nd Link no worky, needs registration. .
Suspect caught with sleeper cells details
March 3 2003
An FBI file photo of terrorist mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Washington: The captured terrorist mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was carrying the names and phone numbers of members of al-Qaeda sleeper cells in North America when he was apprehended, according to intelligence officials.
His arrest could disrupt acts of terror in the planning stages, authorities said. Vincent Cannistraro, a former counter-terrorism chief for the CIA, said Mohammed likely would be interrogated "with some urgency" about al-Qaeda attacks that might be imminent.
Western intelligence officials said Mohammed actively recruited terrorists for a new wave of attacks against Americans at home and abroad, and is alleged to have worked to develop radioactive "dirty" bombs.
US officials are expected to keep the whereabouts of the detained terror suspect a closely-guarded secret, just as they have with other captured operatives.
Observers believe it is highly unlikely Mohammed will be put through the civilian justice system, since federal criminal defendants in the United States are allowed detailed access to the government's evidence against them.
"It'll be a lot better if we can interrogate him for a year and a half without having to worry about telling him (in court papers) everything we know about him," the official said.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that within hours of him being detained in Pakistan, the country's president, General Pervez Musharraf, authorised the transfer of Mohammed and an Arab suspect held with him to a US detention center at an undisclosed location outside the country.
US government officials and private security analysts have called Mohammed's detention the most significant arrest thus far in the war against terrorism. Only Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al Zawahri, rank higher on the list of al-Qaeda operatives sought by US authorities.
"He is probably the only man who knows all the pieces of the puzzle," French terrorism expert Roland Jacquard said.
Jacquard said French judicial documents show that Mohammed had more meetings with bin Laden than anyone else after the al-Qaeda leader moved from Sudan to Afghanistan.
Mohammed succeeded in giving Western intelligence agents the slip on a half-dozen occasions. He narrowly escaped capture in Pakistan last September.
Officials said he was able to elude capture so long in part because of his ability to easily traverse not just geographic, but cultural boundaries. US authorities said Mohammed was partially educated in the southern US state of North Carolina, where he learned flawless English as a student at Chowan College, a Baptist school.
He also studied at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in the town of Greensboro, where he earned an engineering degree in 1986, according to US authorities.
Intelligence officials said Mohammed had particularly strong ties to Kuwait and Qatar -- two of the main staging areas for US forces massing for a possible invasion of Iraq.
He is also said to have extensive connections in the Philippines and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, according to intelligence officials.
AFP
