Pakistan: CIA tip led to Indonesian terror suspect arrest
Almost 10 years. I wonder how long he’s been “hiding” in Pakistan?
ISLAMABAD — A CIA tip-off led to the arrest in Pakistan of the main Indonesian suspect in the 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Pakistani security officials said Wednesday, but it was not clear whether the Americans will get access to the militant.
The officials did not say where or when Umar Patek, a deputy commander of al-Qaida’s Southeast Asian affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah, was detained. But the Philippine army, which has also been hunting him, said he was picked up in Pakistan Jan. 25 alongside a Pakistani associate assumed to have been harboring him.
The arrest of Patek, who has a $1 million American price tag on his head, ends a 10-year international manhunt and is a major achievement in the global fight against al-Qaida and its offshoots. If he cooperates, the 40-year-old militant could give valuable intelligence on the current state of the extremist organization and its hardy affiliates in Southeast Asia.
[…]