Accused al-Qaida leader arrested

WASHINGTON – An Iraqi man accused of being a key aide to Osama bin Laden and a top leader of al-Qaida was arrested late last year on his way to Iraq and handed over to the CIA, the Pentagon announced Friday, in what became the first secret overseas detention since President Bush acknowledged the existence of such a program last September.

The disclosure revealed that the Bush administration reopened its detention program within three months of announcing that no prisoners remained in the CIA’s “black sites,” the secret facilities for the program, which has been criticized by human rights organizations and U.S. allies.

In a statement Friday, the Defense Department described Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, 46, as “one of al-Qaida’s highest-ranking and experienced senior operatives” and announced that he has been sent to the Pentagon-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bush acknowledged the CIA’s detention program last September and transferred all 14 of its senior al-Qaida suspects to Guantanamo Bay. One intelligence official said al-Iraqi was the first person held by the CIA since Bush made the acknowledgment, but the official would not say whether other people have been held since al-Iraqi was handed over to the agency earlier this year.

“What the president said in September was that there was no one in CIA custody at that time,” the intelligence official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “This individual was captured late last year, well after the president’s speech, and transferred to the CIA several weeks later.”

The Pentagon and the CIA confirmed Friday that al-Iraqi was held by the CIA for several months before he was transferred earlier this week to Guantanamo Bay.

Pentagon officials said al-Iraqi was behind assassination attempts against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and a U.N. official. The Pentagon also accused him of coordinating with the Taliban in its insurgency against U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

But his most recent assignment was as the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of al-Qaida in Iraq who was killed by U.S. forces last summer. As a native Iraqi, officials said, he hoped to lead Sunni insurgents there and coordinate their efforts with al-Qaida’s global operation. The Pentagon said he traveled before his capture to Iran, meeting with several al-Qaida operatives to urge them to do more against U.S. troops inside Iraq.

U.S. officials would not say where al-Iraqi was captured, but sources ruled out all of Iraq’s immediate neighbors, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, and said he was not stopped at a border crossing. Officials said that several recent reports that al-Iraqi was operating freely were erroneous and that he had been in custody, in a third country, since late December.

Intelligence officials and experts have referred to al-Iraqi as the organization’s chief planner and a top-ranking leader. The Pentagon said he was known and trusted by bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and once served as al-Zawahiri’s chief aide.