Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Running al Qaeda to ground
Abu Faraj al-Libbi, described by some counterterrorism officials as the third-most senior leader in the Al Qaeda terrorist network, was arrested on Tuesday, the Pakistani information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said this afternoon. A native of Libya, Mr. Libbi was captured during a raid in South Waziristan, the tribal redoubt of Al Qaeda fighters and their Islamist sympathizers, Mr. Ahmed said.
Ugly bastard. And what's with the pigmentation thing he has going? Is he trying to disguise himself to look like Michael Jackson?
[UPDATE (11 pm Wed): It was the Michael Jackson thing!
Alleged al-Qaeda No.3 Abu Faraj al-Libbi looked more like a businessman with his trimmed beard and smart collar and tie when his picture first featured on a Pakistani most wanted poster last year.
But a very different face appeared on Wednesday in the first photograph after his capture. Not just the straggly beard and haunted look, but the facial blotching caused by the skin disorder leucoderma, or vitiligo, the condition suffered by pop star Michael Jackson.
You read it here first! Sort of.]
No, there isn't anything wrong with picking on the physical features of bad people. Here at TigerHawk, we believe in dehumanizing the enemy. Especially when they are as significant as al-Libbi:
An American counterterrorism official described the arrest of Mr. Libbi as the most important blow to Al Qaeda since the arrest of Khalid Sheik Mohammed more than two years ago.
The official described Mr. Libbi as having risen to become the third most important figure in the Al Qaeda leadership, after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. The official said that Mr. Libbi had assumed some of Mr. Mohammed's leadership role after his arrest, and had played a key role in directing Al Qaeda operations including planning for attacks against the United States homeland.
There is an interesting off-hand remark in this New York Times article suggesting that the war in Iraq may indeed be distracting al Qaeda from attacking Western targets.
Other members of the Al Qaeda leadership have been better known, but some of them have been in Iran for more than a year, where their role has been constrained, the official said.
Constrained because they are surrounded like everybody else in Iran.
Video here.
CWCID: LGF.
2 Comments:
By 
Baron Bodissey, at
Wed May 04, 07:04:00 PM:
Do you think Abu Faraj has the same sking condition as this feller?
BTW, "al-Libbi" is not really his last name; it's an honorific or distinguishing modifier meaning "the Libyan". The al Qaeda guys seem to go in for those a lot; I've seen "al-Masri" (the Egyptian), "al-Britani" (the Briton), and "al-Kanadi" (the Canadian) in the perp lists, to name a few. Also, remember Saddam was given the honorific "al-Tikriti".
By 
, at
Wed May 04, 08:55:00 PM:
The pigmentation thing is an uneven suntan on those parts not covered by a mask-- or whatever they call that face cover thing a lot of them wear.
