U.S. says it has al-Qaida's Persian Gulf operations chief in custody

Friday, November 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ U.S. counterterrorism authorities hope their interrogation of the newly captured chief of al-Qaida's Persian Gulf operations, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will shed light on terror plots still in the works, officials said.

Al-Nashiri, a Saudi, was captured earlier this month in an undisclosed foreign country and is now in U.S. custody, U.S. officials said Thursday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

A close associate of Osama bin Laden, al-Nashiri is a suspected mastermind of the USS Cole bombing in October 2000. After his capture, he was held briefly in Afghanistan before being flown to an undisclosed location, sources said.

Officials declined to comment on the circumstances or location of his capture. He had last been reported in Yemen.

At the same time, the FBI on Thursday warned that terrorists might try to attack shipping, possibly using scuba divers to put explosives on vessels. The warning, contained in the FBI's weekly bulletin to state and local law enforcement officers nationwide, was not based on any information about specific targets, a federal law enforcement official said.

Al-Nashiri is probably the highest-ranking lieutenant of bin Laden seized since the March capture of Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaida's chief coordinator of terrorist cells worldwide. However, the capture of al-Nashiri did little to quell fears of a resurgent al-Qaida that is plotting new terrorist attacks.

Since last week, U.S. officials had said a senior al-Qaida leader had been caught, but they had declined to identify him. On Sunday, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the prisoner was providing information to his interrogators.

The questioning of other senior figures, such as Abu Zubaydah and Omar al-Farouq, bin Laden's Southeast Asia operations chief, have provided a wealth of information _ often of unknown reliability _ of planned terrorist operations. Their statements have led to several public alerts in the past year.

In the Cole attack, U.S. officials have said al-Nashiri gave telephone orders to the bombers from the United Arab Emirates and may have provided money to the plotters. He went to Afghanistan after the bombing, which killed 17 sailors.

Born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, al-Nashiri is believed to be in his mid-30s, officials said.

``He has a reputation as a ruthless operator,'' one U.S. official said. ``He is a very committed follower of Osama bin Laden.''

Al-Nashiri oversaw the purchase and transport of explosives, the leasing of safe houses and the planning and financing of attacks, officials said.

He has also traveled under a number of other names, including Umar Mohammed al-Harazi and Abu Bilal al-Makki.

U.S. officials believe he was in Ghazni, Afghanistan, around the time the U.S.-led war began there in October 2001. He is thought to have moved to Pakistan when the Taliban fell, and he is believed to have gone to Yemen in recent months. Some tribesmen in Yemen, however, said he was going to Malaysia.

In addition to the Cole attack in the port of Aden, Yemen, al-Nashiri is suspected of helping direct the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He recruited his cousin, Azzam, to train in Afghanistan and serve as one of the suicide bombers in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, officials said.

In addition, he is thought to be behind the attempt to bomb another destroyer, the USS The Sullivans, nine months before the Cole attack, at Aden. That attack failed when the suicide boat, overloaded with explosives, sank.

He is also suspected of organizing a plot to bomb the U.S. 5th Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain, a plot revealed in January by another top al-Qaida operative, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who was captured by Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan.

The 5th Fleet has responsibility for the Persian Gulf and provides ships for the operations of U.S. Central Command, which is running the war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

U.S. intelligence also is investigating whether he was behind the Oct. 6 suicide boat bombing of a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, officials said. One crewman was killed.

Al-Nashiri also is suspected of playing a role in a failed al-Qaida plot to use suicide boats to bomb U.S. and British warships crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, U.S. officials said. In June, three Saudis were arrested in Morocco for involvement in that alleged plot.

The capture of al-Nashiri is the latest reported success in the worldwide effort being led by the CIA, FBI and U.S. military to capture or kill top al-Qaida chiefs.

On Nov. 3, a CIA Predator drone fired a missile at a car in Yemen that was carrying several suspected al-Qaida operatives, killing Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, bin Laden's top operative in that country. Al-Harethi is also suspected of involvement in the Cole plot.

In September, U.S. and Pakistani authorities captured Ramzi Binalshibh, an alleged planner of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. He was an aide to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected Sept. 11 mastermind who remains at large.

In June, Indonesian authorities captured al-Farouq, al-Qaida's operations chief for Southeast Asia, and turned him over to U.S. custody.

Other al-Qaida leaders still at large include bin Laden; his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri; security chief Saif al-Adil; and financier Shaikh Saiid al-Sharif.

Bin Laden's son Saad and Tawfiq Attash Khallad, another alleged planner of the Cole attack, also remain on the loose.