Pentagon: Top al Qaeda leader taken to Guantanamo, Takes Heat Off Call-Girl Aide

The U.S. military has taken custody of a major al Qaeda figure and is holding him at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said Friday.

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, described as a high-level member of al Qaeda, had been in CIA custody, the Pentagon said, but it provided no details on how long and where.

The CIA took al-Hadi into custody last year, a U.S. intelligence official said.

Al-Hadi "was one of al Qaeda's highest-ranking and experienced senior operatives at the time of his detention," the Pentagon said.

The Pentagon lists his key alias as Nashwan Abd al-Razzaq Abd al-Baqi.

The intelligence official said al-Hadi came into CIA custody after President Bush's September speech on the agency's program of interrogating high value-prisoners.

At that time, Bush said, there were "no terrorists" presently in the CIA program.

But he said that "as more high-ranking terrorists are captured, the need to obtain intelligence from them will remain critical -- and having a CIA program for questioning terrorists will continue to be crucial to getting life-saving information."

So. It's Friday, and the Pentagon leaks word that a top al-Qaeda operative has been captured. Or, actually, that he was captured last year, but that he's just been transferred from the custody of the CIA to DoD. Wait, that's not quite right. He was transferred earlier in the week. But still. It's important news. Right?
Only here's the thing. When you have a story like this, you don't release it on a Friday. There's nothing time-critical about it. There's no reason to squander the positive headlines on the slowest media day of the week.

Maybe you've already heard something. Or maybe we'll get the word in the next few hours. But I can't think of a surer sign that the administration will be releasing some information later today that it would rather we all ignored. Who knows? It could be a post-Gonzales testimony DoJ document dump. It might be word of another probe into Rove. Maybe the RNC will be turning over some e-mails. But you can take it to the bank - something's coming down the pike.