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  CIA's Top Scalp: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed March 9, 2003 Reporter : Ross Coulthart  He's being called Osama bin Laden's most important deputy. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in a joint operation by the CIA, the FBI and Pakistani police last weekend. US President George W Bush has described the arrest as ‘fantastic,’ and added in a speech: "The man who masterminded the September 11th attacks is no longer a problem to the United States of America." But he may be a problem to Osama bin Laden, with reports that his interrogation at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan is producing results. American authorities told ABC America that they are closing in on bin Laden, and that more arrests of suspected Al Qaeda operatives in the U.S. could now be imminent. Sunday's Ross Coulthart reports on the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and the possible repercussions for Australia. President George W. Bush described the importance of the capture of the "mastermind of the September 11 attacks" in his televised press conference this week. He said the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed "will further disrupt the terror network and their planning for additional attacks." According to this theory, if Osama Bin Laden was the chairman of the board of Al Qaeda, Khalid was the chief executive. Professor Rohan Gunaratna, the author of "Inside Al Qaeda," said: "His arrest is perhaps the most devastating blow they have suffered."  But as Ross Coulthart reports in his cover story this Sunday, the speed with which his seizure was revealed by the Pakistan Government may be a setback to the larger goal of capturing Osama bin Laden and destroying the entire Al Qaeda terrorist network. Terrorism expert, Professor Zachary Abuza, of Simmons College in Boston told Sunday: "I think that was a terrible tactical mistake and my understanding is the announcement first came form the Pakistani Government which seemed to be so pleased with the arrest they couldn't hold back. But in terms of law enforcement and intelligence it was a disaster to announce that so quickly."Despite the alleged intelligence coup, these experts warn that war with Iraq will see new terror attacks against Australia and other American allies. Listen to Professor Rohan Gunaratna: "The implications of the US going into Iraq without wide support will have a devastating impact on world security. There will be a new wave of terrorism that we will all face." Professor Zachary Abuza has returned from a study tour of South-East Asia where he interviewed the top police and intelligence officers of several Asian governments. His assessment is the same as Gunaratna: "If there is war in Iraq, there is going to be a huge backlash across Muslim South-East Asia, let alone the Muslim world -- and groups -- radical groups such as Al Qaeda but others -- spinoffs and copycats -- are going to get a whole new round of fresh recruits." Last October's Bali bombing, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, was a wake-up call around Asia to the existence of hard-line terrorist groups, like Jemaah Islamiah. After Bali, Sunday was the first media organisation to track down and confront Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, who at the time was only suspected to be the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah. He denied any links to the Bali bombing. But admissions made by Omar Al Faruq to US interrogators in September left the US and Australia in no doubt that Bashir was directly implicated in terrorist activities with key figures in JI. Five months on, there is growing evidence that there are links that stretch all the way from Bashir to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. For much of the last decade, Khalid personally funded and nurtured terrorist cells across South-East Asia. The connection between Khalid and Bashir was Riduan Isamuddin, better know as Hambali. Wanted in Singapore and Malaysia, Hambali is believed to run the day to day terrorist operations of Jemaah Islamiah. Last month Bashir was handed over to prosecutors to be charged with treason based on an alleged plot to assassinate Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, when she was still vice-president. It's likely too that Abu Bakar Bashir will be charged with involvement in the Bali bombing. His co-plotter, Hambali, is still on the run.  In Canada, a recently captured Al Qaeda lieutenant has fingered Khalid as the source of some of the money used by Jemaah Islamiah to fund the Bali bombing. Khalid could reveal Hambali's whereabouts and any future terrorist acts. Khalid's communications could prove the undoing of his Al Qaeda accomplices. In last week's raid on his hideout in Pakistan, police seized his laptop, cellphones and notes. US reports suggest it has already put them on the trail of at least 12 Al Qaeda operatives in the United States. At week's end, ABC America was reporting Khalid had been well advanced in planning attacks on US landmarks -- notably the Brooklyn Bridge.Khalid came from a poor immigrant family in Kuwait. He studied engineering in the United States, but was radicalised by the Islamic Muhahadeen's guerilla war against the Soviets in Afghanistan -- ironically, a struggle backed by the US. Recent interrogations of Al Qaeda members have revealed it was Khalid who directed the first World Trade Centre bombing in 1993, a plot carried out by his nephew, Ramzi Yousef. Yousef was later captured in Pakistan and is now behind bars in the US. But Khalid stayed in the shadows. In June last year, Yosri Fouda, a journalist for the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera, was summoned to Pakistan for a secret meeting with Al Qaeda representatives. As Fouda told Bob Simon of CBS 60 Minutes, one of the men he met was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who admitted he had conceived the 9-11 attacks. With his nephew in jail, Khalid had personally selected Mohammad Atta to lead the group that flew the planes into the World Trade Centre. Fouda told Bob Simon: "You need a perfectionist if you are playing with America. And I think Khalid was -- for these reasons -- lucky to find someone like Atta with those qualities, and at the same time, with a lot of black smoke inside him." And that black smoke is now drifting toward Asia and Australia. For years, Australians have believed that the tyranny of distance has kept us out of the firing line of tyrants and terrorists alike. But our high-profile role in a likely war against Iraq is escalating the likelihood of terrorist attacks in mainland Australia. As Professor Zachary Abuza puts it: "The fact is Osama bin Laden is still an immensely popular figure throughout the Muslim world. There is a lot of sympathy toward these extremist groups. And I think a war against Iraq is really going to convince the people, the Muslim community in South-East Asia that the Americans really are anti-Muslim." Click here for the full transcript. |
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