*EPF203 03/04/2003
Arrest of Al Qaeda Leader Seen as Blow to Global Terrorist Network
(Ashcroft, Ridge, Mueller discuss U.S. counterterrorism advances) (460)

Washington -- Attorney General John Ashcroft says the arrest of al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Pakistan dealt a major blow to al-Qaeda's worldwide terrorist network, and it illustrates that the United States and its allies are winning the global war on terrorism.

Mohammed, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, is being held by U.S. intelligence agents at an undisclosed location after his arrest March 1 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by Pakistani authorities and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Ashcroft, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee March 4 along with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller, said Mohammed's arrest has most likely destabilized al-Qaeda's worldwide network. He said that the CIA and FBI are cooperating "thoroughly to share information from the capture, analyze intelligence and coordinate follow-up operations."

The ability to defeat global terrorism comes from an "unrelenting focus and unprecedented cooperation," Ashcroft said.

"The apprehension of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is just one more success in a string of successes by you and others in the law enforcement and intelligence community aimed at disrupting and eliminating al-Qaeda from the face of this earth," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican.

Mohammed is less known outside the anti-terrorist community than al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Mueller said, but he "was the operational mastermind. His terrorist plots are believed to include the 1993 World Trade Center [bombing], the USS Cole bomb delivered by boat, and the September 11 terrorist attacks delivered by air, having resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people."

Ashcroft also announced at the hearing the January arrests of a Yemeni cleric who officials said secretly raised money and recruited troops for al-Qaeda and the terrorist group HAMAS. A federal complaint, unsealed March 4 in a New York federal court, charges Sheik Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad with providing material support to a terrorist network.

"The FBI undercover operation developed information that al-Moayad personally handed Osama bin Laden $20 million from his terrorist funding network," Ashcroft testified.

Al-Moayad, and his assistant, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, were arrested January 10 near the Frankfurt airport in Germany. Mueller also announced that law enforcement and intelligence officials have blocked more than 100 terrorist attacks around the world.

"We also are looking with some anticipation to determine what information we may obtain from whatever was seized with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in hopes of exploiting those materials with the expectation that we will be able to avert additional attacks," Mueller testified.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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