ARAB-US RELATIONS - April 2 - Senior Al Qaida Leader Captured.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says senior Al Qaida leader Abu Zubaydah, a 31-year-old Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia, was captured by Pakistani authorities in the March 28 raid at a compound in Faisalabad, 320 km from the Afghan border. (Zubaydah was shot three times trying to escape - in the stomach, the groin and the leg. A Pakistani official said the compound was identified after US intelligence intercepted a phone call from Afghanistan to a residence in Faisalabad). Fleischer calls Zubaydah an operational planner and key recruiter for Al Qaida and a member of Bin Laden's "inner circle", who can provide a treasure trove of information about the terrorist group. He says: "He will be interrogated about his knowledge of ongoing plans to conduct terrorist activities. This represents a very serious blow to Al Qaida". But he adds: "Threats remain. Al Qaida has many tentacles, but one of them was cut off". US officials believe Zubaydah can identify names, faces and locations of Al Qaida operatives world-wide and might also know where Bin Laden is hiding. Former CIA senior terrorism analyst Stan Bedlington calls Zubaydah's capture "a major, major victory, if not the biggest victory so far. He will know the organisation of Al Qaida, if he talks. Osama Bin Laden is a master planner. He must have made some contingency plans" for a major US military pursuit. "If Abu Zubaydah was privy to that planning, then obviously he can tell us a lot, possibly where Osama Bin Laden would go". Fleischer says Zubaydah is in US custody, but it is unclear whether he remains in Pakistan, or was among 20 Al Qaida suspects to be sent to the US naval station at Guantanamo Bay, or will be transported to a separate location. Pakistani officials said Zubaydah acknowledged his identity. Other past associates also identified the captured man as Zubaydah. Zubaydah has been linked by intelligence and police officials to at least five Al Qaida terrorist plots, including the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. But the extent of his role has not been fully determined. Captured Al Qaida operatives said he organised the millennium plots to blow up Los Angeles International Airport and the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman, Jordan. Both were thwarted. In 2000, a Jordanian military court found him guilty in absentia of conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks, and he was sentenced to death. He was tied to thwarted plots to blow up the US embassies in Paris and Sarajevo after Sept. 11. US officials say they are investigating links to the attacks on the US destroyer Cole and the East Africa embassy bombings. Since the US attacked Afghanistan, Zubaydah has led an effort to reorganise Al Qaida in Pakistan.