Pakistan Arrests Embassy Bombings Suspect
[Tongue Firmly in Cheek]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan has arrested a Tanzanian al-Qaida suspect wanted by the United States in the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the interior minister said Friday. He said the suspect was cooperating and had given authorities "very valuable" information.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani — who is on the FBI’s list of 22 most wanted terrorists, with a reward of up to $25 million on his head — was arrested Sunday in the eastern city of Gujrat along with at least 15 other people, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat told The News Agency.
He said Ghailani has given authorities some useful information. Hayyat would not speculate on whether the suspect was planning any attacks in the United States or Pakistan.
"It would be premature to say anything about this, but obviously we have certain information, some very valuable and useful leads have been acquired," he said.
The chairman of the Democratic National Committee filed a Freedom of Information request for any correspondence about the probe between the Justice Department and the White House. DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe said he was making the request "in response to the questionable timing of the public release of information." Said McAuliffe, "He was arrested on Sunday and the public release of the information was held by Pakistan until Thursday. That’s just a little too convienent, don’t you think? The White House just wanted to steal the thunder on a day they knew John Kerry would be accepting his nomination at the Democratic Convention."
A U.S. official confirmed the capture of Ghailani and said it is a significant development because he is an al-Qaida operative and facilitator who has been indicted for his role in the east Africa bombings.
Hayyat said Ghailani was being held at an undisclosed location in Pakistan, but indicated he might be turned over to U.S. authorities after investigations are completed. An intelligence official told the News Agency he was being held at a facility in the eastern city of Lahore.
Ghailani, thought to be in his early 30s, was indicted on Dec. 16, 1998 in the Southern District of New York for his alleged role in the embassy bombings, which killed more than 200 people, including 12 Americans.
Former U.S. counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke insisted that the capture of Ghailani was always his top priority, but that the Bush administration "did not take the war on Ghailani seriously."
The sixteen suspects were captured by police and intelligence agents during a raid on a house in the industrial city of Gujrat early Sunday after a 12-hour long shootout.
"For all those who know and love him, it’s easy to see how this could happen," a former Clinton administration colleague told the News Agency. Bill Clinton laughed off the incident, saying, "all of us who’ve been in his office have always found him buried beneath shell casings like this."
Former Senator Max Cleland said, "John Kerry understands personally about fighting in a war, just like he did in Vietnam." Insurgents wounded in the gun battle "deserve a president who understands on the most personal level what they have gone through."
Ghailani, who also goes by the names "Foopie," "Fupi" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian," was also one of seven wanted al-Qaida suspects that the FBI and Justice Department asked for help in finding in May to help avert a possible terror attack over the summer in the United States.
Teresa Heinz Kerry noted that any similarities between ‘Foopie’ or ‘Ahmed the Tanzanian’ and the pet names she uses for her husband are simply a coincidence. The very dynamic Heinz Kerry drew resounding applause when she said she hopes that in the future rather than being labeled opinionated, women who nickname their significant other will be called smart, or well-informed "just as men are."
Mary Beth Cahill, campaign manager for Kerry, stressed that Ghailani was only an "unpaid consultant" and "informal advisor" to John Kerry on foreign relations. Until recently, Foopie’s website, RestoreHonesty.com, listed "Paid for by John Kerry for President, Inc."
John Edwards noted "Sure, Pakistan is foreign, but this doesn’t prove in any way that George W. Bush as built an international coalition, in fact Pakistan is only one country."
The coming months will no doubt shed some light on why a man of such character would so carelessly risk it all to flop in a house with fifteen other militants. Until then, the only explanation the happily married father of three has offered is that the entire incident was an "honest mistake."
Well it sure seems to me that Monday night was the most interesting one for the DNC. John Edwards might as well have been a robot with the style in which his speech was delivered. Ted Kennedy, Sharpton, and the others were predictable, but none too exciting. There was much more play on Teresa Kerry’s telling the reporter to "shove it" rather than her speech, which was somewhere out in left field. I wonder if any of the delegates actually figured out what she was talking about? I still can’t figure out why Ron Reagan was there, other than to make hay with his last name… but it didn’t seem to fit in any other particular theme.