Key Al Qaeda courier seized, U.S. says
WASHINGTON — A suspected Al Qaeda operative who is believed to be a link between the terrorist network's headquarters in Pakistan and its East African cell has been captured and taken to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Defense officials identified the detainee as Abdullahi Sudi Arale, and described him as both a known terrorist and a leader of the Islamic militant political organization that ruled large portions of Somalia last year before being routed by Ethiopian troops.
"We believe him to be an extremely dangerous member of the Al Qaeda network," said Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman.
The Pentagon said it suspected that Arale was acting as a courier between Al Qaeda members in East Africa and senior Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and providing weapons and explosives to the African cell and its affiliates.
Arale, whose age and country of origin were not released, was captured within the past few weeks and taken into U.S. custody somewhere "in the Horn of Africa region," Whitman said, adding that Arale arrived at the Guantanamo prison camp on Cuba sometime this week.
Whitman said he would not provide more information about Arale and his detention because it "could compromise ongoing operations," in East Africa, where U.S. and allied forces have been actively hunting Al Qaeda leaders and extremist groups believed to be sheltering them.
Last Friday, at least eight foreign and an unspecified number of Somali Islamic militants were killed in fighting with Somali government forces and during bombardment from a U.S. warship.
Arale's alleged role as a courier and a weapons provider fits the pattern of recent intelligence that has shown active communication and cooperation between Al Qaeda's headquarters in Afghanistan and, more recently, in Pakistan, and the organization's resurgent East Africa operation, according to Whitman and two U.S. counter-terrorism officials.
The intelligence suggests that some East African Al Qaeda operatives and their affiliates have gone to Pakistan for training and strategizing, and that money and guidance has flowed from headquarters out to Al Qaeda cells in Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and other nearby countries, according to the two counter-terrorism officials.
They both spoke on the condition of anonymity because their government agencies do not allow them to be identified by name or agency in print.
