'Arrest of prized al-Qaeda figure led to new US alert'
Attack plan found on detained IT expert's computer
AFP, New York
The capture of an al-Qaeda computer engineer in Pakistan in mid-July led to the most recent terror alert in the United States, the New York Times reported yesterday, quoting senior US officials. Pakistani officials arrested Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old computer engineer, on July 13, according to the Times. The suspect is believed to have used and managed an al-Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages, according to the Times. A senior US official told the Times that "documentary evidence" found after Khan's capture showed in detail that al-Qaeda members had been studying the buildings they want to target in New York, Newark and Washington even before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. A second senior US intelligence official told the newspaper the information was more detailed than any he had seen during his 24-year career in intelligence work. The contents of the evidence was urgently relayed to Washington Friday afternoon, which immediately increased the importance of other intelligence gathered over the past weeks from al-Qaeda suspects held in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the Times reported. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Sunday raised the terrorist alert level for key financial centers, warning that al-Qaeda may attack the International Monetary Fund and World Bank headquarters in Washington and the New York Stock Exchange. Ridge said there were reports that Osama bin Laden's group planned to use truck or car bombs against the targets. Ridge said the terror threat level was being raised to "high" from "elevated" in each location. According to the Washington Post, the documents were found after Pakistani and US forces broke up an al-Qaeda cell in Gujrat, Pakistan, on July 25, after a lengthy shoot out. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was arrested in the raid along with five other Pakistani and African al-Qaeda suspects, according to the Post. One of the men arrested in that raid led authorities to the documents, according to the Post, also quoting anonymous US intelligence officials. The documents show specific information on the Citigroup Center in Manhattan, the World Bank in Washington and other financial institutions, including parking arrangements and whether guards are armed.
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