Sunday Telegraph:
A Libyan hunted by Pakistan because of his senior role in the al Qa'eda terrorist network has taken charge of its sleeper cells in Britain and the United States, Pakistani intelligence officials believe.
Abu Faraj al Libbi, said to have taken over as third in command of al Qa'eda when his mentor, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was captured last year, has sent coded messages to "several" Islamic militants in Britain over the past 10 months, according to Pakistani officials.
Security officers who have interrogated recently captured militants say that Abu Faraj, who is now believed to be al Qa'eda's top operational chief, masterminded and financed assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf, the country's military ruler, last December.
They have now revealed that Abu Faraj, who was once Osama bin Laden's personal assistant, is also in frequent contact with al Qa'eda members and supporters abroad, particularly in Britain and America. They have identified two people - both of whom are in British custody - as recipients of coded messages from Abu Faraj.
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"The coded messages deciphered recently have revealed to us that he was not only co-ordinating pre-election terrorist acts in the US, but had sent several messages to several militants in the UK in the last eight to 10 months . . . to share notes with them about future terror attacks in the UK," said an investigator who has seen the communications.
At least two of the British-based militants are believed to have travelled to Pakistan from London and met Abu Faraj to finalise details of attacks.
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Abu Faraj, who is 40, has a Pakastani wife and speaks Arabic and Urdu, is thought to be around five feet six inches tall and muscular.He suffers the skin disorder luecoderma, also known as vitiligo, which causes white spots.
He first became closely involved with bin Laden while he was based in Sudan and later arranged forged passports to enable Arab recruits to travel to new training camps in Afghanistan.
For some time he was chief of al-Qaeda's North African operations, but assisted Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - known as KSM - plan the September 11 attacks and was promoted in his place when Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi.
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