Bin Laden hunt 'moving forward'

2003-03-10 21:30

Simon Denyer

Islamabad - A top Osama bin Laden aide arrested last week has given information helping investigators close in on the al-Qaeda leader and told them he met bin Laden in December, Pakistan's intelligence agency said on Monday.

Pakistan's powerful military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) said the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the city of Rawalpindi on March 1 indicated the hunt for the world's most wanted man was moving forward.

"Progressively we are moving," a senior intelligence official told foreign journalists in the first press conference by the ISI in the history of Pakistan.

But the official said he was not sure whether to believe Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when he said he had met bin Laden because he had refused to say where the meeting had taken place.

"He confirmed he met him in December," the official said. "I don't believe him unless he tells us the locations and gives us witnesses."

The ISI showed journalists a grainy video purporting to show the night-time raid on the house where they say Mohammed was seized, along with a key financier of the hijack plane attacks, Saudi national Ahmed al-Hawsawi.

But the video did not show Mohammed's face - just his back and neck before his head was hooded - nor any sign of the struggle which officials say took place.

Officials say Mohammed shot one intelligence agent in the foot with an AK-47 assault rifle during the raid.

Computer, documents seized

Most journalists at the briefing said the video looked like a reconstruction, which will not dampen rumours that Mohammed might have been seized in a previous raid in another place, as relatives of the householders have said.

The video went on to show an investigator donning plastic gloves to remove a computer from the apartment, and collecting compact discs, documents and a walkie-talkie in re-sealable clear plastic bags.

Officials said they had already gleaned useful information from the documents and from interrogating Mohammed for three days alongside US agents before handing him over to US custody.

"In the first two days he didn't say a word except to confirm he was KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed)," the intelligence official at the briefing said.

"On the third day he started giving information, confirming his association with different people inside Pakistan and outside Pakistan. He started giving leads," he said.

The official said Mohammed also had in his possession some hand-written notes that the suspect said were written by the al-Qaeda chief. "But how can we be sure if we haven't seen his writing?" the official asked.

Officials said another al-Qaeda suspect arrested by Pakistani authorities also said he met bin Laden last September, but said he was taken to the meeting blindfolded.

Closer questioning of that man gave "indications" bin Laden might still be hiding in Afghanistan, which served as al-Qaeda's base before the September 11 attacks, the officials said.

Again, officials said they were unsure whether to believe him - it is thought likely al-Qaeda might try to conceal the facts if bin Laden had indeed died.

ISI, usually an intensely secretive organisation, said it had called the unprecedented news conference to counter "flak" from Western media that it was not doing enough to co-operate in the US-led war on terror.

It said it had arrested 442 foreign al-Qaeda suspects since September 11, 2001, and handed 346 of them over to US custody.

While the vast majority was seized trying to flee Afghanistan in the rugged border area, authorities have since netted several people thought to have played a key role in al-Qaeda, including Mohammed.

- Reuters