Key bin Laden lieutenant may be in custody

Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — U.S. and Pakistani authorities are trying to determine whether an Arab arrested in raids here this week is a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, a senior police official said Saturday.

The man bears a strong resemblance to Abu Zubaydah, bin Laden’s senior field commander, who is believed to be trying to reorganize al-Qaida after the collapse of Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

"We are trying to confirm the identity of one Arab who is believed to be Abu Zubaydah," said Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, a senior Interior Ministry official.

The man is among 60 people, including 25 Arabs and four Afghans, who were arrested Thursday in raids by Pakistani and American agents in Faisalabad and Lahore.

A police official said authorities were waiting for information from the United States before determining the man’s identity. He did not elaborate.

U.S. officials have declined to discuss Zubaydah’s potential capture.

But they acknowledged his detention would be one of the most significant breakthroughs yet in the U.S. war against al-Qaida. A top recruiter and operational planner, Zubaydah served as the critical link between bin Laden’s inner circle and al-Qaida cells worldwide. Bin Laden would order attacks; Zubaydah would frequently put together those operations.

U.S. officials believe he has the rolodex of al-Qaida’s operatives in his head.

"He had the personal contacts with most of the cell members who received the training in Afghanistan," Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorist chief, said on Saturday.

U.S. authorities also believe Zubaydah has played a role in numerous al-Qaida operations, including the Sept. 11 attacks and the plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in late 1999.

Zubaydah, 30, is believed to have been born in Saudi Arabia but has strong ties in the West Bank and Jordan. He’s been sentenced to death in Jordan and is believed connected to many of al-Qaida’s operations against U.S. interests.

Sources in Afghanistan said Zubaydah fled to Pakistan and effectively had taken control of al-Qaida because it was too dangerous for bin Laden and his second-in-command, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, to communicate from their Afghan hide-outs.