Ridge Says Mohammed Was One Reason For Orange Alert

(CBS) FBI and CIA experts dug through piles of information Monday from the Pakistani home of alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, searching for clues that new strikes might be imminent.

U.S. authorities also questioned Mohammed on Monday, seeking information about safe houses and hideouts used by the al Qaeda terror network, a Pakistani intelligence official said. Mohammed's exact whereabouts were unclear.

Intelligence about Mohammed's activities led in part to the orange alert that lasted most of February, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said.

"Some of the concerns we had that caused us to raise the threat level were attributable to the planning he was involved in," Ridge said. "There were multiple reasons that we raised the threat level and his relation to one of the plot lines was one of the several."

"Let's just say it's been a good day for all around the world, except for al Qaeda," said White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Anaylsts who've studied al Qaeda's operations and attacks like retired CIA terrorism analyst and CBS News consultant Milt Bearden agree, "al Qaeda has taken a hit."

Bearden tells CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr Mohammed has been key to the planning and execution of virtually every major al Qaeda attack going back to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and his capture may cripple al Qaeda.

"Pulling off another grandiose horrible event like 9-11 might be that much more difficult. As a result the American people are a lot more safe today than they were last Friday," says Bearden.

Officials say grabbing Mohammed may be more important the safety of Americans than getting Osama bin Laden himself. While bin Laden is the symbolic "spiritual leader," it was Mohammed who coordinated the terror cells.

"Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is infinitely more 'hands on' and is in control of the operations against us, each and every one," says Bearden.

Mohammed could also turn out to be the man who murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a Pakistani intelligence official said.

One of three Pakistanis who last May led authorities to Pearl's body, buried in a shallow grave in the southern city of Karachi, had implicated Mohammed in the murder, the official said on condition of anonymity on Monday. Members of the banned group Lashkar-e-Janghvi, the three men were never charged in connection with Pearl's death.

With Mohammed's capture, officials believe al Qaeda foot soldiers are on the run and may go underground. But, experts warn the terror threat remains. The arrest could trigger small attacks that have already been planned or prompt other anti-American groups to attempt their own retaliation.

Mohammed had been plotting attacks against targets in the United States and Saudi Arabia in the weeks before his capture, U.S. counterterrorism officials contended.

Such attacks might have been against commercial or other lightly defended civilian targets, officials said, although they acknowledged they do not know whether al Qaeda targets had been selected.

Ridge declined to discuss specifics but said the threat level was lowered last week because later information showed that plans for attacks had been disrupted and were less likely to occur.

Authorities recovered a huge amount of information about al Qaeda at the house in Pakistan where Mohammed and two others were arrested early Saturday, a senior law enforcement official said Monday.

Recovered at the home in Rawalpindi were computers, disks, cell phones and documents. Authorities believe the materials will provide names, locations and potential terrorist plots of al Qaeda cells in the United States and around the world.

Mohammed also was believed by U.S. officials to have details about the group's finances.

As CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports, the second floor bedroom where Mohammed was sleeping looks like its been shaken apart. CIA and Pakistani agents hit the two-story villa hard, bashing in doors and sweeping up anything of interest. Family members said everyone was asleep when they came.

"Late last night in the middle of the night, at 3 o'clock, 20 to 25 people raided the house. We can't say anything else, we can just call it raiding the house," says Qudsia Khanum.

Mohammed was caught in his underwear. It was his birthday and the 38-year-old spent it under intense interrogation.

Pakistani Ahmed Abdul Qadus and an unidentified third man were also detained.

Officials suggest the noose had been tightening for months. Mohammed had been spotted near his old hometown of Hub, just missed in Karachi last September and then lived in Peshawar before settling in Rawalpindi near Islambad several weeks ago where he was captured.

Sources say he was quickly taken to a U.S. base in Afghanistan and will soon be en route to a second, undisclosed location. U.S. officials say they have already developed "substantial information" since the arrest and are moving quickly to follow up the leads. Analysts say they can't move quickly enough.

"This is a critical period because it is during this period that almost all the al Qaeda leaders and cell leaders who are in direct contact with Khalid Sheik Mohammed will start to move," says Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda".

Fleischer said, "We are hoping that this will lead to substantial additional information on al Qaeda, on al Qaeda's plans and al Qaeda's operations."

Mohammed is perhaps the most senior al Qaeda member after bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Mohammed personally knew, or knew of, al Qaeda operatives and international terrorists in as many as 98 countries.

He is alleged to have organized the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and was linked to a 1995 plot to bomb trans-Pacific airliners and crash a plane into CIA headquarters and to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He also has been tied to the April bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia, which killed 19 people, mostly German tourists.