Mohammed Noor KhanMohammed Naeem Noor Khan, the al Qaeda operative and computer expert who is viewed by many counterterrorism experts as being a major player in al Qaeda's communication network, has been released from a Pakistani prison after three years. Pakistan's Attorney General Mahbooba Elahi would not explain why Khan had been released, only that the terrorist-turned-informant had been returned to his home in Karachi. From the Times Online:

Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan was arrested in Lahore in July 2004 but never charged. Investigations had shown that he was the key connection between Osama bin Laden’s inner circle and al-Qaeda’s operatives in Britain and the United States. He had also worked in close association with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

Pakistani investigators said that Mr Khan had invented secret codes that enabled al-Qaeda operatives to send encrypted e-mails and messages via the internet. The information gleaned from Mr Khan’s computer after his arrest revealed al-Qaeda’s plans for terrorist attacks against Britain and top financial institutions in the US.

His interrogation helped to break down al-Qaeda’s cell in Britain and led to the arrest of Dahron Bharot, alias Eassa al-Hindi, and nine others. Bharot has recently been sentenced to 20 years jail. Among those arrested was Mr Khan’s cousin, Ahmed Babar. 

To read about what terrorists do when they get out of prison, I recommend reading either of the books or papers listed below on Omar Saeed Sheikh. Sheikh, who specializes in kidnapping westerners, spent time in an Indian prison before the millennium but was released alongside Maulana Masood Azhar (also linked to the London Planes Plot) in a prison-for-hostages exchange after fellow jihadists hijacked Indian Air 814 and flew it to Afghanistan. One American, Dr. Jeanne Moore, was among those held hostage. An Indian man on his honeymoon was brutally murdered in front of the other passengers. 

After Omar Sheikh's release from prison, he was involved in the planning of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — reportedly sending Mohammed Atta $100,000 in a wire transfer. After 9/11, he masterminded the kidnapping and subsequent beheading death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in Pakistan in early 2002. 

Omar Sheikh is presently in a Pakistani prison facing a death sentence for the Pearl murder. In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Pearl's widow Mariane Pearl, also a journalist, said that Omar Sheikh has made over forty-five appeals since his incarceration and continues to influence other jihadists from his prison cell. After being sentenced to death, Omar Sheikh had this to say: 

"We shall see who will die first — either I or the authorities who arranged the death sentence for me." 

Further reading:

 

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