A nephew of senior al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was among six people detained this week in Pakistan, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The nephew, Ali Abd al-Aziz also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is in his mid-20s and was captured by Pakistani authorities in a raid that also netted a suspected mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000, U.S. officials said. Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks on the United States that killed about 3,000 people, was arrested in Pakistan on March 1 and handed over to U.S. custody. His nephew was probably privy to any al Qaeda plots that Mohammed may have been working on, officials said. The nephew had “some of the experiences, connections, knowledge and wherewithal to continue some of KSM’s terrorist plans,” one U.S. official told Reuters. Time magazine on its Web site, citing U.S. officials, said Aziz funneled nearly $120,000 to ringleader Mohammed Atta and other Sept. 11 hijackers to finance their flight lessons and living expenses in the United States. Full Story
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