The US has taken custody of captured key Al Qaeda suspect Ramzi Binalshibh from Pakistan and flown him and other suspected terrorists to a secret location outside of that country, US officials said on Monday.The officials said that Binalshibh, captured last week in Karachi and accused of playing a key role in planning the Sept. 11 attacks on America, was not taken to the United States.‘‘We have control of him. We’re talking to him,’’ said one of the officials, who asked not to be identified.The officials said Binalshibh and up to a half dozen other suspects arrested in a shootout on Wednesday’s anniversary of the attacks, had been flown out of the country. They refused to say where, but said Binalshibh was not in the custody of the US military.Pakistan’s Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said in Karachi earlier on Monday that his country had completed its own investigation of Binalshibh and was prepared to extradite him to the United States if Washington requested.Binalshibh, a Yemini national, is said to have been a prominent member of an Al Qaeda cell based in the German city of Hamburg. He is accused of having played an important role in planning the attacks on the United States along with another member of that cell, Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the hijackers.The German Government had issued an international arrest warrant for Binalshibh, but said on Sunday it was prepared to stand aside in favour of Washington. (Reuters)
