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Al Qaeda takedown

NY Post Editorial:

The arrest in Pakistan of top al Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is a significant reminder that — despite what you might have heard from the folks up in Boston this week — America and its allies are making real progress in the War on Terror.

Ghailani, a 30-year-old Tanzanian who ranked high on the FBI's list of the 22 most wanted Islamist terrorists, is the biggest find since Pakistani officials last year nabbed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Ghailani is under indictment in Manhattan, facing a possible death sentence, for his role in the 1998 twin bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya — which took 224 innocent lives, most of them his fellow Africans.

According to the FBI, which had placed a $5 million price on his head, Ghailani bought the truck that was used in the attack on the embassay in Dar-es-Salaam and loaded it with the bomb elements.

He's also played a key role in facilitating Osama bin Laden's financing: A year-long investigation determined that in 1999 he and a fellow terrorist went to Liberia and Sierre Leone as part of a $20 million effort to corner the market in African diamonds for al Qaeda.

Most important, though, is that he was one of seven "most wanted terrorists" believed to have specific knowledge about a possible future terrorist attack. And, say the Pakistanis, he's already begun providing "very valuable" information under questioning.

His arrest, in turn, came about thanks to information from a suspected Pakistani terrorist who was arrested in a separate operation. Which shows clearly how, once these people are captured, they begin to fall like a row of dominoes.