Caught a Big Fish in Pakistan
Charles Johnson
Wed May 4, 2005 at 9:07 am PDT • Views: 294
Suspected Senior Leader of Al Qaeda in Pakistan Is Captured.
ISLAMABAD, May 4 - Pakistani authorities said today that they had arrested a senior Al Qaeda operative suspected of orchestrating two assassination attempts against the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Abu Faraj al-Libbi, described by some counterterrorism officials as the third-most senior leader in the Al Qaeda terrorist network, was arrested on Tuesday, the Pakistani information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said this afternoon. A native of Libya, Mr. Libbi was captured during a raid in South Waziristan, the tribal redoubt of Al Qaeda fighters and their Islamist sympathizers, Mr. Ahmed said.
“This is a big catch,” Mr. Ahmed said in a telephone interview. “We were looking for him for a very long time.”
Frank says: