F.B.I. Active in Pakistan, but Profile Is Low

The capture of a notorious planner for Al Qaeda last weekend was perhaps the greatest victory yet for Pakistani and American security agencies, which are quietly working in tandem here to root out fugitive terrorists. Yet in a sign of the political sensitivity of the American role inside Pakistan, the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, described as a mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, produced a familiar cacophony of claims and denials over the credit. Officials in Washington praised Pakistan’s cooperation but were also quick to score the man’s capture — the latest in a string of arrests of suspected Qaeda operatives in Pakistan — as a triumph for American intelligence. They whispered to reporters that F.B.I. field agents had not only tracked down Mr. Mohammed, but had also been present at the raid in which he was captured — and many others, some of which involved deadly shootouts. Pakistani officials, though, have said pointedly that Pakistani agents and no others actually carried out the arrest. “No F.B.I. man was involved in the operation,” Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat repeated emphatically in interviews today. Full Story