KABUL — Pakistani authorities on Saturday zeroed in on the alleged mastermind of a plot to send five northern Virginia men to Afghanistan to kill U.S. troops, saying they hope the case could help unravel an extensive network of terrorist recruiters who scour the Internet for radicalized young men.
Investigators said they were hunting for a shadowy insurgent figure known as Saifullah, who invited the men to Pakistan after first discovering them when one made comments approving of terrorist attacks on the website YouTube.
Saifullah guided the men once they were in Pakistan, attempting to help them reach the remote area in Pakistan’s tribal belt that is home to al-Qaeda and its terrorist training camps.
But a Pakistani intelligence official who had been briefed on the case said Saturday that Saifullah was unsuccessful in convincing al-Qaeda commanders that the men were not part of a CIA plot to infiltrate the terrorist network. As a result, they were marooned for days in the eastern city of Sargodha, far from the forbidding mountains of the northwest that have become a terrorist haven.
“They were regarded as a sting operation. That’s why they were rejected,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said the men were undeterred and were still trying to acquire the right endorsements to gain access to the al-Qaeda camps when they were arrested by Pakistani law enforcement.
The case of the five — who remain in Pakistan and are being questioned by the FBI — underscores the critical role of recruiters in identifying potential terrorists and, perhaps more importantly, determining which of them can be trusted.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. intelligence has made it a top priority to try to place human assets inside al-Qaeda. The organization’s recruiters act as gatekeepers.
Al-Qaeda treats American would-be recruits with special scrutiny, analysts said. But they also are considered appealing because of their propaganda value and potential to access U.S. targets.
