Terror Suspect Likely to Face Charges in U.S.

Signs mounted Sunday that Ramzi Binalshibh, the man believed to have been the lead coordinator of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will be extradited to the U.S. to face charges for those crimes.

Official sources in this port city said Binalshibh and other suspected Al Qaeda terrorists, who were captured by police in a series of raids here Tuesday and Wednesday, were being interviewed in a military containment area.

The interrogation was being conducted mainly by Americans, sources close to the investigation said.

Meanwhile, officials said they were still not sure what would become of the suspects, particularly Binalshibh.

Before his capture, Germany issued an international warrant for his arrest. But on Sunday, German Interior Minister Otto Schily said that given the “terrible attacks of Sept. 11” on U.S. soil, “it goes without saying that Americans have priority for his extradition.”

For its part, the United States did not equivocate: President Bush’s national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, made clear Sunday that the U.S. government would be asking that Binalshibh be surrendered to American authorities.

“We certainly want custody of him,” Rice said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We certainly want to be able to find out what he knows.”

U.S. officials want Binalshibh sent to the United States in part because Germany has no death penalty and is unwilling to extradite suspects to countries where they might later face capital punishment.

Binalshibh was wanted in Germany for his alleged role in the Sept. 11 hijackings and crashes, which killed more than 3,000 people.

Charges have never been leveled against him in the United States, but he has been accused of being an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, who prosecutors believe had been destined to be the 20th hijacker if he had not been arrested before Sept. 11.

It is unclear whether U.S. authorities would want to put Binalshibh on trial in a criminal proceeding or treat him as an enemy combatant who might eventually face a military tribunal.

Binalshibh was taken into custody, along with 10 or 11 other foreigners suspected of being Al Qaeda members, during a series of raids that culminated in an hours-long gun battle Wednesday in a well-to-do residential section of Karachi known as the Military Division.

A Pakistani army source speaking to Reuters news service confirmed that the men arrested were undergoing intensive questioning at a secret location.

“They are being interrogated to retrieve maximum possible information about other Al Qaeda suspects in Pakistan,” the source said, adding that the men were being kept blindfolded and handcuffed.

The interrogation was being led by FBI agents with the help of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, he said.

“Most of the time, it’s ... FBI officials,” he added.

No details emerged, however, about whether the suspects were providing useful information. More than four days after the arrests, in fact, authorities had failed to release a complete list of the suspects’ names or nationalities.

Binalshibh, who once roomed with lead hijacker Mohamed Atta in Hamburg, Germany, reportedly was being held separately from the others.

Binalshibh, a Yemeni, left Germany a week before the Sept. 11 attacks. Over the last year, he was believed to have traveled to Afghanistan by way of Pakistan and then to have retreated into Pakistan after the collapse of the Afghan Taliban regime in December.

Only a few days before Binalshibh’s arrest, Qatar-based Al Jazeera television reported on a June interview it held with him in Karachi in which he claimed to be the coordinator of the terrorist attacks.

Pakistan has indicated that a second high-level Al Qaeda figure also was captured last week, but it has refused to identify him by name or nationality.

“Two out of those arrested are suspected to be high-level Al Qaeda men, and their identity is being confirmed,” officials said in a statement Saturday.

Speculation focused on Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, considered a close associate of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Al Jazeera said Mohammed was interviewed the same time as Binalshibh.

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Times staff writer Daniszewski reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and special correspondent Ur-Rehman from Karachi. Times wire services contributed to this report.