The New York Times is Also Reporting...

Last night, an official said that “detainees” had identified a few years ago the nickname of one courier who “in particular had our constant attention.” He described the courier as, among other things, a “trusted assistant” of Abu Faraj al-Libi, who was the No. 3 figure in Al Qaeda until his capture in 2005. Officials later figured out the real name for that courier, which in turn eventually allowed them to trace him to the compound in Abbottabad. One of the Guantánamo detainee assessment files disclosed recently to WikiLeaks and obtained independently by The New York Times may provide a clue about the origins of the intelligence that led to the breakthrough. That document, an assessment for Mr. Libi, who was transferred from a secret C.I.A. prison to Guantánamo in September 2006, discusses his interactions with a courier for Bin Laden — identified by the initials UBL — in Pakistan. Footnotes to those sentences cite what appear to be C.I.A. accounts of interrogations of Mr. Libi in 2005 and 2006. “In July 2003, detainee received a letter from UBL’s designated courier, Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan, requesting detainee take on the responsibility of collecting donations, organizing travel, and distributing funds to families in Pakistan,” the assessment says. “UBL stated detainee would be the official messenger between UBL and others in Pakistan. The file then immediately connects Mr. Libi’s activities at that time to Abbottabad, stating: “In mid-2003, detainee moved his family to Abbottabad, PK and worked between Abbottabad and Peshawar.” A footnote to that section also includes an analyst’s note that in May 2005 Mr. Libi stated that “he was responsible for facilitation within the settled areas of Pakistan, communication with UBL and external links. He was responsible for communicating with al-Qaida members abroad and obtaining funds and personnel from those al-Qaida members.”