The recent arrest of a top al-Qaida operative has confirmed for U.S. law enforcement the identities of about a dozen suspected terrorists in this country, a government official said Thursday.
Discussing the intelligence haul from the search of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s living quarters, this official said that authorities had known about the individuals whose names were part of the intelligence haul. Federal law enforcement officials had said earlier that a vast amount of information was found when Mohammed was arrested at a home in Pakistan on Saturday, including computers, computer disks, portable telephones and documents. The official, discussing the situation on condition of anonymity Thursday, said authorities are keeping the al-Qaida suspects under surveillance and that no arrests appear to be imminent. Continued tracking of the suspects might lead authorities to other al-Qaida figures, the official said. On Wednesday, the FBI warned that while the arrest was a major blow to al-Qaida, it could speed up planned attacks by the terrorist network in the United States. Mohammed’s capture “deals a severe long-term blow” to al-Qaida’s ability to carry out attacks, said a weekly FBI memo sent to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies. Full Story