Pakistan has suddenly hit a hot streak in capturing al-Qaeda suspects, arresting two more to bring their total to four over the past month. Either their intelligence has improved or someone's singing:

In the latest arrests, one of the men was apprehended at a bus stop in the Hafizabad town in Punjab province but the officials were unsure of his nationality.

"He first said he was from Yemen but later changed his statement to say he was Egyptian," one of the officials who asked not to be named told Reuters. "We are still checking his nationality. He does not have a passport."

In another swoop, authorities arrested a foreign al Qaeda suspect along with two Pakistanis who were traveling to the eastern city of Lahore, also in Punjab, from the nearby town of Sheikupura Monday night.

The key capture, the one that made headlines last week, was Pakistan's arrest of Ahmed Ghailani and computer expert Muhammed Naeem Nour Khan. Ghailani made the big headlines as one of the leading suspects in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. However, I wonder if the real prize was Khan, or more intriguingly, any equipment or data captured with Khan. The Pakistanis seem to be on a roll after a long, quiet period, and American intelligence on AQ activities appears a lot more specific than before. That would indicate that either the Pakistanis have infiltrated AQ to an unprecedented depth or that they're getting some pretty good intel from their captives. Hard drives and computer codes can keep secrets only so long.

In either case, AQ command must be worrying over the same issues and looking desperately for a mole. That would keep them occupied for a while, and we can continue to dismantle their operations while they chase their tails. In case anyone wonders, keeping the enemy on the defensive definitely demonstrates progress, and is a huge improvement over our pre-9/11 efforts against Islamofascist terror.

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» Pakistan Gets More Terrorists from Jack of Clubs
As I predicted (OK, guessed) last week, the capture of Ahmed Ghailani seems to have contributed to more captures and better intelligence. Captain Ed has the story: [Read More]

Tracked on August 3, 2004 6:43 PM