The Al Qaeda member who was captured in Libya this weekend is being held and interrogated onboard a Navy ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Abu Anas is the name of the fugitive who was captured in a raid in Libya over the weekend and is allegedly one of the terrorist involved in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
The 1998 United States embassy bombings occurred on August 7, 1998 and killed more than 200 people. Most people believe that the attacks were revenge for the American involvement in the extradition, and alleged torture, of four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Although a group called the Liberation Army for Holy Sites originally took credit for the bombings, investigators late determined this to be a cover up for the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
U.S. commandos conducted the raid in Libya that led to the capture of Abu Anas who was indicted for the attacked in 2000 and had a 5 million bounty on his head. At the same time, a separate group of Navy Seals conducted a raid in Somalia, hoping to capture the senior leader of the group, al-Shabaab. They were not successful in capturing him.
Once Abu Anas is brought to the United States, he will be prosecuted in New York. For now, he is being questioned without an attorney. Interrogators are hoping he will offer information about the terrorist group. The United States may be able to gain knowledge of other planned terrorist attacks, and interfere before they can be executed, thus saving many lives.
The fugitive is being held onboard the U.S.S. San Antonio, which was brought in specifically for this mission. The length of his interrogation can depend on the amount of information the interrogators gain or how willing he is to cooperate. Similar interrogation cases in the past have gone on for months at a time.
Image from Market Watch.