Suspected 9/11 Plotter Captured

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Suspected 9/11 Plotter Captured
Fri Sep 13, 8:28 PM ET
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials struck a double blow Friday in the war on terrorism, capturing a fugitive suspected of helping organize the Sept. 11 attacks overseas and breaking up a suspected terrorist cell in the suburbs of Buffalo, N.Y.

Ramzi Binalshibh, the former roommate of hijacker Mohamed Atta who is suspected of planning to be the 20th hijacker, was captured in Pakistan nearly a year after he became one of America's top terror targets, U.S. officials said.

The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said Binalshibh was captured earlier this week in a joint raid by Pakistani forces and U.S. intelligence officers in southern coastal city of Karachi. The raid ended in a deadly shootout.

Separately, officials said five men of Yemeni descent, most believed to be American citizens, were arrested outside Buffalo on suspicions they were operating as a terrorist cell on U.S. soil.

Officials declined to describe many of the details of the case, saying it was sealed. But officials were considering an announcement in Washington this weekend to provide more details.

The officials said the men were on U.S. soil for years and lived just a few blocks from each other, but were discovered through recent investigation and intelligence suggesting they were part of a terrorist cell.

The evidence included a recent spike in communications with suspected terrorist locations overseas, and some evidence of attendance at a terror training camp linked to Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites), the officials said.

The officials said, however, there was no evidence the men were in any stages of launching a terrorist attack.

The arrest of Binalshibh was major coup for U.S. authorities who have searched for him for months. Officials said he was not wounded during the capture.

Before Sept. 11, Binalshibh was frustrated in his attempts to receive a visa to enter the United States in 2000. Instead, U.S. officials allege, he provided financial support to the other 19 hijackers.

Binalshibh, 30, was born in Yemen. He was being sought by the German government for his role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

He is considered an aide to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, believed to be the mastermind of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings that nearly 3,000 dead, officials said. Officials declined to discuss his whereabouts, or whether he was providing information to authorities.

To catch him, police commandos fought a pitched battle with al-Qaida suspects holed up in an apartment Wednesday, with combat spilling out onto adjoining rooftops, officials said. They said that two suspects were killed and five captured in the fighting, as Pakistan stepped up pressure on the remnants of the terrorist movement a year after it made its mark on the world.

Six officers were wounded when police stormed the top-floor apartment and the rooftop where the gunmen held out against hundreds of troops in the street and on the roofs of nearby apartment blocks, they said. Two of the wounded were reported in critical condition.

Police said one of the dead militants and one of those arrested were Arabs, but their nationalities were not known. The rest were Afghans.

U.S. personnel were not hurt in the raid, officials said.

The Arab satellite network al-Jazeera ran a taped interview with Binalshibh Thursday, in which he said he helped coordinate the attacks.

He also appeared in a videotape recovered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan ( news - web sites) at the home of al-Qaida's slain military chief, Mohammed Atef.

According to the U.S. grand jury indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, an alleged conspirator in the Sept. 11 attacks, Binalshibh applied four times for a visa to enter the United States from May to October 2000, but was rebuffed each time.

After being denied a visa for the third time, Binalshibh allegedly began funneling money to associates inside the United States. He wired money to Moussaoui, to at least two hijackers and to a Florida flight school at which one of the hijackers was training, the indictment said.

Authorities believe Binalshibh fled Germany for Pakistan before Sept. 11. German authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for Binalshibh, whose whereabouts until now were unknown.

A correspondent for the pan-Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera claimed to have interviewed Binalshibh and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, at a secret location in Pakistan. The men admitted being central figures in the Sept. 11 plot, and claimed the U.S. Congress had been another target that day.

In Thursday's broadcast, al-Jazeera aired audio excerpts of the interview, in which two male voices attributed to Mohammed and Binalshibh revealed details about the buildup to the Sept. 11 attacks.

The voice purported to be Binalshibh's said the hijackers were instructed to take over the planes 15 minutes after takeoff. "That was the best time, and they were very brave," he said.

Two other members of the Hamburg cell, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, died in the suicide hijackings. Two additional members of the Hamburg cell did not take part in the hijackings and are still at large.