HIGH AL QAEDA OFFICIAL ARRESTED

ABC reports,

The CIA has captured a major al Qaeda leader who is believed to have planned bombings in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, ABCNEWS has learned.

A top al Qaeda member and a leader of Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, Riduan Isamuddin — also known as Hambali — was arrested as part of a CIA undercover operation in the last 24 hours. The operation was in cooperation with an undisclosed Southeast Asian country that wants its participation kept secret, officials told ABCNEWS.

The CIA called the arrest the “most significant capture since that of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,” who was nabbed in March and is believed to have been the military commander al Qaeda’s global terror network and to have masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

In the past, the CIA has called the Indonesia-born Hambali the “Osama bin Laden” of Southeast Asia.

I’d prefer the actual OBL, of course. . . .

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.