The two South Africans detained in Pakistan as suspected al-Qaeda terrorists are now effectively in American hands, according to a range of sources in Lahore and in South Africa.
Asif Shahzad, crime reporter for a Pakistani daily, The Dawn, who has followed the arrests closely, said the interrogation of Feroz Ganchi and Zubair Ismail was being driven by the United States, with Pakistani intelligence only assisting. This claim chimes with allegations made by South African and other international intelligence sources.
Shahzad said that according to local intelligence sources the CIA was responsible for identifying the 13 al-Qaeda suspects arrested in the town of Gujarat, including Ganchi (33) and Ismail (20). The heavy crackdown on al-Qaeda in Pakistan in recent months could not have been conducted by the Pakistanis alone, he added.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported on Thursday that all key al-Qaeda suspects arrested in Pakistan have been ”handed over to the US authorities for broader investigation”.
The pair have been detained under Pakistani military law, under which suspects can be held without charge for up to 24 months. Shahzad said it appeared the South Africans would not be released soon. They are regarded as key suspects because they were allegedly arrested in the same house as Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian on the FBI’s ”most-wanted” list, in connection with the 1998 bombing of US embassy buildings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Shahzad said it seemed that Ismail was viewed with greater suspicion than Ganchi, a medical doctor, as the former had passed through madressas (Islamic schools) in many parts of the world. US intelligence considers the schools a breeding ground for terrorism.
Judy Moon, spokesperson for the US embassy in Pretoria, declined to comment. Stratfour, a US-based private intelligence agency, has also been reporting that American intelligence has ”been in a position to debrief the suspects in Pakistan”. It said Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence had worked in partnership with the CIA over the past eight months in clamping down on al-Qaeda in the country.
Intelligence sources in South Africa also confirmed that the CIA was leading the interrogation.
South Africa continued to downplay an alleged al-Qaeda presence in the country, saying the deportation of four alleged Middle Eastern militants ahead of the April election was ”pre-emptive”. In addition, early local investigations into Ganchi and Ismail had not yet revealed international Islamic militant links, say intelligence sources.
It became clear last week that the police and intelligence gave different risk ratings to a potential terrorist threat in South Africa. Intelligence sources vehemently denied rumours that the two captives were plotting to attack the Union Buildings and other sites, while the police took a more cautious approach.
By this week, the different security agencies were both talking down the threat, saying the interrogation in Pakistan had yielded no such evidence.