Abu Farraj al-Libbi Reported in US Custody

It's times like these when you wish all the horror stories about Camp X-Ray down at Guantanamo were true. At the very least let'l get a female guard to do the cavity search when he arrives. AP:

Pakistan said Monday it handed over a senior al-Qaida suspect to the United States even though he had been the country's most wanted man for allegedly masterminding two bloody attempts to blow up President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Some Pakistani officials have described Abu Farraj al-Libbi as al-Qaida's latest No. 3 man, after Osama bin Laden and Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri. However, he did not appear on the FBI list of the world's most-wanted terrorists, and his exact role in al-Qaida remains murky....

Because of the grave nature of the attacks, al-Libbi had been widely expected to stand trial in Pakistan. But last week Musharraf told CNN his government would turn the Libyan over to the United States. In a newspaper interview published Monday, he confirmed the handover had taken place.

"Yes, we turned Abu Farraj al-Libbi over to the United States recently, and we don't want people like him in our country," he was quoted as saying by al-Ittihad, a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates.

Musharraf's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, verified the comments, which were made during an official visit to the UAE.

A Pakistani intelligence official said al-Libbi was whisked out of Pakistan with U.S. officials on a plane "a few days ago." The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the clandestine nature of his job, said he did not know where al-Libbi was taken.

The U.S. will not confirm that al-Libbi is in our custody. You will recall that al-Libbi is much more important to the Pakistanis because of his involvement in several assasination attempts on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. It seems odd that Musharraf would want the US to deal with this guy rather than deal with him himself. Is it possible that al Qaeda sympathy runs so deep in the Pakistani security forces that Musharraf can no longer trust his own people?

Earlier report on Abu Farraj al-Libbi here.

Posted by: Rusty at 09:25 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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