Captured al Qaeda leader moved to Gitmo

Captured al Qaeda leader moved to Gitmo

The CIA has captured a senior al Qaeda commander who served as a liaison between al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and the terrorist group's franchise in Iraq. U .S. military and intelligence officials announced Friday that Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a native of Mosul in northern Iraq, was captured in late 2006 as he tried to re-enter the country.

This week, after more than four months of interrogations, the CIA transferred him to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Al-Iraqi joined 14 other designated high-value detainees, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Officials would not disclose what, if anything, al-Iraqi told CIA interrogators about the whereabouts of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border. Officials would not identify the country in which al-Iraqi was nabbed.

A U.S. intelligence official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said al-Iraqi provided "significant amounts of information" on al Qaeda's current structure. The official said al-Iraqi was advocating attacks on Iranian targets as well as more bombings in Iraq.