Actually, Mohammad Rahim was caught last summer, but we’re just finding out now. It’s a bit amazing that the government was able to keep it secret for so long.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Authorities have captured a high-level al-Qaida figure who helped Osama bin Laden escape from Afghanistan in 2001, the Pentagon announced Friday.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to say when or where Mohammad Rahim was captured—or by whom—announcing only that he was handed over by the CIA to the Pentagon earlier this week and is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But in a memo obtained by The Associated Press, CIA Director Michael Hayden told agency employees that Rahim was detained in the summer of 2007. “Rahim is a tough, seasoned jihadist,” Hayden said. “His combat experience, which dates back to the 1980s, includes plots against US and Afghan targets.”

Rahim is a close associate of bin Laden and has ties to al-Qaida organizations throughout the Middle East, Whitman said.