As predictable as the cavalry in a John Ford western, so are our buddies in the Pakistani military and intelligence services. Why do I say that? Because it seems whenever our President needs to prove to Americans how well he is doing at keeping us safe from all the evil doers, Pakistan’s military and intelligence services arrive just in the nick of time to capture another top Al Qaeda figure:
A senior al Qaeda commander allegedly tied to the London airplane bomb plot has been arrested in Pakistan, Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement officials have told ABC News. Matiur Rehman, one of the most wanted men in Pakistan, is known to have met with the alleged plot ringleader Rashid Rauf, according to the officials.
Rehman’s capture could provide the most important leads in months to the whereabouts of Al Qaeda’s top two leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. Rehman was believed to be in frequent contact with Zawahiri.
Rehman was taken into custody in the southern Punjab city of Bawalpur, the same town where alleged London plot ringleader Rashid Rauf was arrested last week. ABC News saw a copy of the police report on Rehman, with an attached copy of his photo.
How fortuitous is that? And he brings us closer than ever to capturing Osama Bin Laden and his notorious evil second in command henchman, Ayman al Zawahiri. What an astonishing law enforcement effort. Just when things are looking bad for the president and his party, Good triumphs over Evil once more. I’d be even more amazed, if we hadn’t seen this same narrative played out before …
(cont.)
For example, right before the invasion of Iraq, Pakistan captured alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. officials confirmed on Tuesday that another significant al Qaeda figure was captured in the weekend raid in Pakistan that nabbed suspected September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a man who officials say sent cash to lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta through bank accounts in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, was captured … during the raid that netted Mohammed, al Qaeda’s operations chief.
Then who can forget, the stirring capture of top Al Qaeda terror suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani just prior to the Democratic National Convention where John Kerry was to be officially designated as the Democratic opponent to President Bush:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 30 — Pakistan has captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is sought by the United States as a suspect in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, officials said Friday.
“This is a big success,” Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said in an unusual late-night announcement on Pakistan’s Geo television network. “More importantly, we are certain of gathering some latest intelligence on al Qaeda from him,” Hayat said in an interview later.
The operation to capture Ghailani, who is on the list of the FBI’s 22 most wanted terrorists, was supervised by agents of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and coordinated with CIA and FBI officials, according to an official in Punjab state who was present. The official said 240 Punjab policemen conducted the raid on a rented house in a middle-class neighborhood of Gujrat.
Even then, some questioned the curious timing of the announcement of the arrest, after midnight in Pakistan, and only hours before Kerry’s big nomination speech…
Some press reports (including the New Republic) questioned whether the timing of the announcement of Ghailani’s capture was politically motivated at the behest of the Bush administration. The announcement was made just hours before U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry was due to make his acceptance speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, an event at which a candidate usually receives a significant boost in the polls. Hayyat made the announcement after midnight local time, despite having apparently known Ghailiani’s identity for some days beforehand. Pakistani officials denied there was any such motivation.
No. I’m sure Pakistan would never deliberately time their announcements of captured Al Qaeda suspects to help President Bush. Just as I’m sure that the beating President Bush was taking in the media about Iraq, the Downing Street Memo and his Social Security Elimination Reform Plan had anything to do with their capture of noted al-Qaeda leader and No. 3 Man, Abu Faraj al-Libbi in May, 2005:
WASHINGTON, May 4, 2005 – Calling it “a critical victory in the war on terror,” President Bush today praised the Pakistani government for capturing Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the No. 3 man in Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terror network.
“Al-Libbi was a top general for bin Laden,” Bush said, before beginning a Social Security address to the Latino Coalition Conference here. “He was a major facilitator and a chief planner for the al Qaeda network. His arrest removes a dangerous enemy who was a direct threat to America and for those who love freedom.”
Indeed, I’ll bet that yesterday’s announcement by Pakistan’s security forces that al-Libbi, captured over 15 months ago, was actually the mastermind behind the recently foiled “liquid explosives on airplanes” plot was the merest coincidence:
Pakistani security sources said yesterday that al-Qaida’s “number three” was behind the alleged plot to blow up several transatlantic flights leaving the UK. […]
Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who after Osama bin Laden and the Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, is suspected of being al-Qaida’s third in command, has been named by Pakistani security sources as the main planner of the alleged plot, according to Dawn, a daily newspaper. He has also been accused of being in a plot to assassinate Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, and was arrested last year and turned over to the US.
Just as a side note, it’s good to see that Al Qaeda didn’t downgrade al-Libbi’s senior leadership position merely because he had been captured. Not many other terrorist organizations would continue to let a man being held in some secret CIA prison retain his position as the No. 3 guy in their leadership hierarchy. No wonder Osama is able to engender such fierce loyalty from his followers.
But back on topic, let’s not forget Pakistan’s outstanding work earlier this year when they caught their capture 6 months earlier of another “Top Al Qaeda Leader” was announced in May of this year:
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Associated PressKABUL, Afghanistan — A top Al Qaeda leader whose links stretch from Usama bin Laden’s training camps to extremist networks in Europe has been captured in Pakistan, a U.S. law enforcement official confirms for the first time.
Pakistani officials also tell The Associated Press that Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a dual Syrian-Spanish national with a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, has been flown out of the country to an unspecified location.
Nasar was captured in a November [2005] sting in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta that left one person dead, the American official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The official spoke to the AP late last week.
Jeez. I wonder what trouble Bush was in earlier this Spring? The Dubai Ports deal? The NSA surveillance scandal? Seymour Hersh’s article about Bush’s plans to attack Iran? All of the above?
No matter. Whenever they are needed, Pakistan’s security and intelligence forces are there for our Leader. No greater friend, and all that.
I can’t wait to see which terrorist baddie they’ll serve up capture next.
