For months, Pakistani and American intelligence had picked up clues that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was in Pakistan organizing what he hoped would be a spectacular new attack, officials of both countries said. On Feb. 13, when Pakistani authorities raided an apartment in Quetta, they got the break they needed. They had hoped to find Mr. Mohammed, but he had fled the apartment, eluding the authorities, as he had on numerous occasions. Instead, they found and arrested Muhammad Abdel Rahman, a son of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric who in 1995 was convicted along with 10 followers for conspiring to blow up the United Nations headquarters and other New York buildings, bridges and tunnels — as an extension of the first World Trade Center attack in 1993. Under interrogation, Mr. Rahman told police that Mr. Mohammed had also lived at the address. Information from Mr. Rahman and a fresh trail of cellphone messages and other clues allowed the authorities to follow Mr. Mohammed’s trail from Quetta. They quickly tracked him to Rawalpindi, where he was captured without incident in the predawn hours of Saturday. Today, intelligence officials expressed optimism, but not certainty, that Mr. Mohammed’s arrest would breathe life into the search for Osama bin Laden. Some officials said they suspected that Mr. Mohammed knew the whereabouts of Mr. bin Laden, who is thought to be alive and in hiding, possibly in the wildly remote region encompassing parts of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Full Story
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