Our wacky neighbor Khalid

I read this article before about the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, including this part:

Those held included Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and 41-year-old Pakistani Ahmed Quddus... "Actually, he's a bit slow, he's not very clever, so I can't even begin to imagine that he could be involved with any terrorist organisation.

"He does not have any links with any terrorist organisation.

"They're saying such strange things about him in the press.

"He's been living in the neighbourhood for 15 years and everyone knows him to be a placid person," she said.

Ms Qudsia said her mother was a district administrator of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamic political party, and her father a retired microbiologist who used to work for the United Nations and had lived abroad.

"He's a heart patient so we had to break the news gently to him," she said.

Aww. Qudus is a bit slow, and the dad's a heart patient. And we did what to them? We heartless bastardos!

Now, the first time I read this, I must have glazed over when I got to the bit about the microbiologist and his Islamist functionary wife.

Mark Steyn has more on them here:

The big-time terrorist was holed up in the home of a top World Health Organisation microbiologist, whose wife heads up one of the most radical Islamist political parties in the country. Is it normal for UN microbiologists to rent the spare room to terrorists known to be in the market for biological weapons?

There's a discrepancy between Steyn's characterization of them and the previous characterization, however, I think this deserves much more looking into by the U.N. or whomever.

Terrorism · Sun, 03/09/2003 - 13:17 · · Importance: 1