I wrote this in response to someone who said the allies killed more civilians in Afghanistan than Al Qaeda did in America, suggesting a moral equivalence where there is none. Even some, like the anarchist Chomsky were okay with a police action under UN auspices. Did most anarchists feel that way? The reasons for a "police action" seem obvious, to prevent another atrocity which would surely come if nothing was done.
In a broadcast just after September 11, bin Laden deputy Suleiman Abu Gheith warned Muslims living in the West not to reside in tall buildings or fly on airplanes, because the rain of death was not going to stop. And yet it has. But a mere "police action" probably woudn't have gone far enough to catch those like Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was nabbed yesterday. Coincidently, in June Al Jazeera, the Arab television network, had interviewed him and Khalid Shaikh Mohamed, another top Qaeda leader and a major figure in the Sept. 11 plot. They ran the audio yesterday and the two Al Qaeda leaders said the fourth plane's target was the Capitol. (Imagine America's response if that had been hit. Then Jannuzi would have seen some real vengeance.) One of them also mentioned bin Laden in the past tense. The Al Jazeera journalist thinks it was a slip of the tongue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/14/international/asia/14RAMZ.html
U.S. Says Suspect Tied to 9/11 and Qaeda Is Captured in Raid by James Risen
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 — Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who investigators say is a high-ranking operative for Al Qaeda and one of the few people still alive who know the inside details of the Sept. 11 plot, has been captured and is in custody, American officials said today.
Mr. bin al-Shibh was captured during a shootout in Karachi, Pakistan, in a joint American and Pakistani operation within the last few days, American officials said.
His capture, first reported by ABC News, is one of the most significant counterterrorism successes since the attacks on the United States, the officials said.
As many as 10 suspected Islamic militants were captured and two others were killed during the shootout in Karachi on Wednesday, the anniversary of the attacks, American officials said Friday. Other members of Al Qaeda were among those captured in the shootout, the officials said. Six Pakistani policemen were wounded in the joint operation.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, said in an interview with CNN tonight that those captured in the raid included eight Yemenis, one Egyptian and one Saudi.
American officials said they knew that Mr. bin al-Shibh was at the location when the operation was set in motion.
Mr. bin al-Shibh, a 30-year-old Yemeni, had been a close associate of Mohamed Atta, the man who is considered the leader of the hijacking operation on Sept. 11 and his roommate in Hamburg, Germany.
Mr. bin al-Shibh, also known as Ramzi Mohamed Abdellah Omar, is believed by many American investigators to have been the designated 20th hijacker in the attacks. But he was denied visas to enter the United States four times, even as other Qaeda operatives slipped into the country and began planning the hijackings.
Many investigators believe that after Mr. bin al-Shibh was prevented from entering the United States, he was to be replaced in the hijacking crews by Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent. Mr. Moussaoui was arrested in August 2001, just weeks before the attacks, after an employee at a flight school in Minnesota where he had been taking lessons grew suspicious and notified the F.B.I.
Mr. bin al-Shibh's capture comes just days after Al Jazeera, the Arab television network, said it had interviewed him and Khalid Shaikh Mohamed, another top Qaeda leader and a major figure in the Sept. 11 plot.
In a Jazeera transcript of the interview, Mr. bin al-Shibh said he was meant to be the 20th hijacker and was disappointed that he failed to obtain a visa to enter the United States. He said Mr. Atta had brought flight manuals and instruction sheets to Germany for him so that he could study them and join the others later in the United States.
The network did not broadcast videotape of the interview, but played audio it said came from the interview, which it said was conducted in Karachi in June.
American officials said on Friday that they believe that Mr. bin al-Shibh was on the audiotape, but that the Jazeera interview had not helped lead to his capture.
American officials said today that Mr. Mohamed, whom they called one of the most wanted terrorist leaders in the world, was not captured. They said they now believed that he is Qaeda's new chief of operations.
Mr. bin al-Shibh is one of the most significant Qaeda figures to be captured since Sept. 11, perhaps second only to Abu Zubaydah, the terror network's chief of operations who was arrested in Faisalabad, Pakistan in March.
The fact that both were captured in Pakistani cities seems to confirm that many Qaeda operatives found refuge in Pakistan's urban centers after they fled Afghanistan following the defeat of the Taliban last winter.
Of the four teams of hijackers on Sept. 11, each had five members except the one on United Airlines Flight 93, which had four. That plane crashed in a field in Stony Township, Pa., after passengers fought back against the hijackers. Since then, American officials have assumed that there was supposed to be another hijacker on that plane.
After failing to enter the United States, Mr. bin al-Shibh continued to play a support role, helping to funnel money from Europe to the hijackers, American officials contend.
Mr. bin al-Shibh could prove to be an important source of information about the inner workings of the Sept. 11 plot and could answer many of the unresolved questions about how the attackers put together the operation.
Since he ultimately is believed to have served as an important link between the hijackers and Al Qaeda, he may also be able to provide insight into how the group coordinated with the hijacker cells after they had moved to the United States.
American officials would not say whether he is now talking with investigators.
Mr. bin al-Shibh, described as a slightly built man about 5 feet 7 inches tall, was born in eastern Yemen and moved from Yemen to Germany in about 1995. He eventually became close to Mr. Atta, a young Egyptian, and they shared an apartment in the northern German port city of Hamburg in 1998 and 1999.
He also worked with Mr. Atta at a computer company's warehouse in Hamburg while attending a vocational school. In the federal indictment against Mr. Moussaoui, the government charges that Mr. bin al-Shibh, along with three of the eventual hijackers — Mr. Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad al-Jarrah — formed a Qaeda cell in Hamburg beginning in about 1998.
Beginning in 2000, Mr. bin al-Shibh applied for visas to the United States, both from Germany and Yemen. American officials have said that he was not on a watch list as a suspected terrorist, but rather that the visa requests were denied because State Department guidelines then placed rigorous standards on Yemenis seeking to enter the United States.
But even after his visa applications were rejected, he continued to act in Hamburg as a go-between for the various hijacker cells already in the United States, officials said.
In July 2001, Mr. bin al-Shibh, using an alias of Ahad Sabet, received two wire transfers in Germany, totaling $15,000, from a man identified as Hashim Abdulrahman in the United Arab Emirates.
Just days later, Mr. bin al-Shibh, again using the name Ahad Sabet, went to train stations in Düsseldorf and Hamburg in order to wire about $14,000 in money orders to Mr. Moussaoui, who was then in Oklahoma.
The full extent of Mr. bin al-Shibh's role in the final preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks remains a subject of conjecture and intense interest among investigators. In July 2001, he traveled to a resort town in Spain, where he is believed to have met with Mr. Atta, who had flown from Florida.
Just days before the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. bin al-Shibh left Germany and dropped out of sight. On Sept. 5, he traveled from Düsseldorf to Madrid and did not return to Germany. He is believed to have eventually fled from Spain to Pakistan.