alienation news

Saturday's Al Qaeda arrest may have happened several months ago

Some analysts questioned whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had actually been arrested on Saturday and speculated he may have been held for some time.
"I think he was arrested several months ago in the shootout in Karachi," one expert on Pakistan who declined to be identified said, referring to a gunbattle in September in the southern port city that netted another Al Qaeda figure, Ahmed Omar Abdel Rahman, known as Binalshibh.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was reported to have narrowly evaded capture in that battle, when Karachi police identified him as a man hit by a police sniper.
But a suspected militant later denied this.
Another terror expert said several weeks ago he believed Mohammed had been arrested and that he expected the news would be only be made public when it was in the interests of the United States and Pakistan.