By PETER POPHAM and ANDREW BUNCOMBE in New Delhi
Al Qaeda's chief of operations, the man responsible for recruiting, training, briefing and dispatching terrorists on their missions around the world, is being interrogated by American officials at an undisclosed location.
The White House celebrated Abu Zubaydah's arrest as "a serious blow" to the al Qaeda network, calling Zubaydah, a "key terrorist recruiter and operational planner" and a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle.
The 30-year-old Saudi-born Palestinian, who is believed to have used more than 40 aliases during a career with al Qaeda stretching back at least to the mid-nineties, was trapped late last week when Pakistani police and American CIA and FBI agents burst into the private house where he was staying in Faisalabad, an industrial city in Punjab, central Pakistan. He was sharing the house with seven or eight other Arabs, who were also arrested.
The pre-dawn raid was one of a number carried out simultaneously on homes in the Punjabi cities of Lahore and Multan as well as Faisalabad that netted at least 20 other al Qaeda suspects.
Zubaydah tried to escape but was shot and wounded by Pakistani police in the leg, groin and stomach. He was taken to hospital where his condition was said to be serious but stable. He is expected to live.
Americans were jubilant at the catch. "It's a major, major victory," said Stan Bedlington, formerly a senior terrorism analyst with the CIA, "if not the biggest victory so far. He's the biggest fish that we've caught." For several days there was official diffidence over the man's identity: Zubaydah is tall, and according to one report has lost an eye. Technical identification was finally confirmed, though authorities refused to give further details.
Zubaydah has been moved from his hospital bed, but whether he was to be flown to Guantanamo Bay along with other al Qaeda suspects, held at an American base inside Pakistan such as the one at Jacobabad or taken to some other location had yet to be established.
A former head of the CIA said that intelligence officers interrogating Zubaydah might resort to techniques considered by some to be torture.
William Webster, who also headed the FBI, said that interrogation efforts would "go beyond name, rank and serial number" because Zubaydah is considered an unlawful combatant. Like the other Taleban and al Qaeda fighters in US custody, he will not be considered a prisoner of war.
Washington believes that Zubaydah possesses a wealth of information about the terror network. Just how far officials will go to obtain this information is uncertain, but there are indications that Washington is prepared to go beyond the boundaries of what is normally accepted.
Webster told the Los Angeles Times that interrogators would operate on the assumption that Zubaydah knew about terrorist plots that might be in the planning stages.
"Traditional third-degree would be inappropriate, such as using physical force," he said. "I don't want to spell out how late they can keep him up before letting him go to bed, but they have a right to aggressively try to gain information from him.
"This area is very murky. We are feeling our way. Some will want to go by the book, others will want to throw out the book."
Another counter-terrorism expert, who served under the Clinton Administration, said: "This guy will be put through the wringer for days and weeks. It will take at least 96 hours ... to get him to spill everything.
"If they don't crack him by then, he is a very tough nut. If not, they will keep going. He is probably having the worst time in his entire life right now."
At the time of the September 11 attacks, Zubaydah was only fourth in the hierarchy of the organisation, under bin Laden himself, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mohammed Atef.
But operationally he was the key, the "choke point", according to Vince Cannistraro, a former head of counter-terrorism in the CIA, between the will of Osama bin Laden and actual terrorist attacks.
"He was the guy that had direct contact with prominent al Qaeda cell leaders abroad," said Cannistraro, "and he knew where they all were. He would have been the guy co-ordinating new attacks."
According to American officials, Zubaydah was "implicated" in the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, in which 224 people died, and in the kamikaze torpedo attack on the US destroyer Cole in Yemen in October 2000, which killed 17 and nearly sank the ship.
He was also said to be the brains behind plots to blow up a hotel in Los Angeles during the millennium celebrations.
- INDEPENDENT
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Bin Laden lieutenant 'probably having worst time in his life'
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