CIA Announces Capture and Transfer of Al Qaeda Terrorist Muhammad Rahim

Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, described as a high-level al Qaeda operative, was transferred from an undisclosed CIA facility Friday, March 14, to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Pentagon issued this statement: "Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani was a close associate of Osama bin Laden and had ties to Al Qaeda organizations throughout the Middle East. He became one of bin Laden's most trusted facilitators and procurement specialists prior to his detention." Part of the charges against the Afghan is that he aided bin Laden in his flight from the Tora Bora caves to escape capture.

Muhammad Rahim, whose age is unknown, is one of approximately 280 detainees at Guantanamo.

Rahim has denied allegations that he was a member of the Taliban, that he was part of al Qaeda, that he has terrorist ties, knows about certain weapons caches or that he knows anything about the terrorist organization. He does admit to being a conscript of the Taliban. The United States maintains otherwise. Rahim was captured in mid-2007.

The American War on Terror has had several victories against al Qaeda since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but the latest came when an American Predator drone fired a missile at a compound in Pakistan and killed Abu Laith al-Libi, a lieutenant of bin Laden's and the leader of al Qaeda's network in Afghanistan. Al Libi was also al Qaeda's chief liaison with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistani security officials suspected al Libi was killed but became convinced when Islamist websites began to report his death. Al Libi was killed with about a dozen other militants. It is believed that al Libi was al Qaeda's third ranking operative.