Race to interrogate al Qaeda man

By RAYMOND WHITAKER and ANDREW BUNCOMBE

An international tug of war broke out today as American and Pakistani investigators questioned one of the most senior al Qaeda suspects captured since the September 11 atrocities.

Ramzi Binalshibh was found asleep in an apartment in Karachi late last Wednesday, the anniversary of the attacks.

He was taken into custody without a struggle soon before a three-hour gunbattle that led to the arrest of nine other al Qaeda suspects and the death of two others.

Binalshibh, a 30-year-old Yemeni, is considered one of September 11's chief planners. Had he not been refused a US visa, it is believed he would have piloted one of the hijacked airliners flown into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.

Binalshibh made repeated attempts to obtain a visa to attend a Florida flying school where the hijackers trained, and was one of the room-mates of Mohamed Atta, their ringleader, in Hamburg, Germany.

Binalshibh is believed to have organised a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Tunisia in April in which 15 German tourists died.

He is also suspected of plotting a suicide strike against the warship USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

The Washington Post reported Germany had issued an international warrant for Binalshibh, and German Interior Minister Otto Schily said he wanted the suspect extradited to Germany. Pakistani officials said yesterday that a high-level decision had already been made to hand Binalshibh over to the United States and not Germany.

"The Americans can sort the matter out with the Germans," said a senior Pakistani official.

The US can now indict Binalshibh or bring him before a military tribunal, but it is unlikely that he will be handed over to the Germans.

Germany has refused to provide evidence for the trial of another September 11 suspect, Zacarias Moussaoui, unless it receives guarantees that the evidence would not be used to secure the death penalty.

Binalshibh and the other suspects are being held in a secret, high-security location in Pakistan.

A Pakistani officer said he visited the interrogation centre and saw two prisoners being questioned.

They were blindfolded and their hands were shackled to the arms of their chairs.

One was "very tough", said the officer, and answered probing questions only with the words, "My name is Abdullah".

Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA counter-terrorism official, told the Post that Binalshibh was "a very big fish to catch".

"He certainly was the co-ordinator along with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed of the 11 September operation itself, and he might know some of the people who may still be in the United States, if we can get him to talk."

To date, officials say, more than 400 al Qaeda suspects have been arrested.

President George W. Bush said at the weekend: "One by one, we're hunting the killers down. We are relentless. We are strong. We're not going to stop."



It also emerged yesterday that five men arrested by US authorities in Buffalo, New York, were trained to use weapons at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden spoke about his anti-American beliefs . The men have been charged with supporting terrorism.

- INDEPENDENT