Pakistan and al Qaeda

Here's some news that--given recent rhetoric--neither party will really want to touch, even though they probably should.

A Pakistani man accused of aiding Al Qaeda and imprisoned in his home country for three years, has been released, according to The Associated Press, and American officials made clear their dismay at the news on Monday.

The Americans declined to speak for the record about the release of the man, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, apparently out of reluctance to criticize Pakistan, which has generally worked closely with the United States in counterterrorism efforts.

“He most definitely had terrorist links,” an American intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the American case against Mr. Khan was classified.

I'm gonna go out on a limb to do some irresponsible speculating for a moment and say that I think it's likely that we can, for once, take this anonymous American intelligence official at his word. At a glance, Musharraf's incentives are to round up and arrest as many innocent people as is reasonable and label them al Qaeda (to please Americans) while subjecting actual members of al Qaeda to relatively weak punishment (to mollify extremists). No matter. I'm sure our well-seasoned diplomats are working over time on this issue to great effect. And if they fail, we alway have that failsafe alternative option of following Khan to the north western mountains and dropping an atomic bomb on his head.

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There's interesting backstory on Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. Juan Cole, in Aug. 2004 discussed that he was more than an al Queda insider:

The Pakistani government arrested a 25-year-old computer expert in Lahore on July 13 [2004]. The arrest was never given to the Pakistani press by the Pakistani government, and no notice appeared in any Pakistani or other newspaper. This absence can only be deliberate, since the Pakistanis could easily have held a press conference to trumpet their new captive. This decision to keep the arrest quiet appears to have been made because Khan had been "flipped," i.e., had become a double agent and continued to have email contact with al-Qaeda members in London, but now with the Pakistani military intelligence listening in.

Cole explains the convoluted and unclear story on how somebody (presumably the US intelligence apparatus) leaked his name as part of the Dept. of Homeland Security story just before the Dem. convention in 2004.

The appearance of Khan's name in the New York Times on Aug. 2 caused the British to have to swoop down on the London al-Qaeda cell to which he was speaking. As it was, five of them heard about Khan's arrest and immediately fled. The British got 13, but it was early in their investigation and they had to let five go or charge them with minor offenses (such as immigration irregularities). On Tuesday, the British charged eight of them.

So, yes, it appears that Koor was an al Queda guy, but since he flipped sides secretly and then was outed, he's no longer an asset to al Queda nor to the Pakistani ISI.

He may be 'free', but I wouldn't want to have his kind of freedom with ex-friends in al Queda, the ISI and CIA.

Posted by: JimPortlandOR on August 21, 2007 12:29 PM

Huh. Interesting.

Posted by: Brian on August 21, 2007 12:49 PM

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