Quotes of the Day

Captured al-Qaeda planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has given U.S. interrogators the names and descriptions of about a dozen key al-Qaeda operatives believed to be plotting terrorist attacks on American and other Western interests, according to federal officials. Other high-level al-Qaeda detainees previously disclosed some of the names, but Mohammed, until recently al-Qaeda's chief operating officer and the brains behind the 9/11 attacks, has volunteered new ones. He has also added crucial details to the descriptions of other suspects and filled in important gaps in what U.S. intelligence knows about al-Qaeda's practices.

One of the al-Qaeda operatives identified by Mohammed is Adman G. El Shukrijumah, a 27-year-old Saudi who went to college in South Florida. Last week the FBI launched a global manhunt for Shukrijumah, who, officials say, Mohammed has dubbed a leader on a par with Mohammed Atta, the top man on the 9/11 hijack team. Sources tell TIME that U.S. intelligence agencies are urgently searching for at least two other key lieutenants fingered by Mohammed. Still other team names and descriptions have been refined during Mohammed's interrogation. This data has been dispatched to allied intelligence and security services to be placed on lookout lists.

Mohammed's cooperation has improved investigators' understanding of al-Qaeda's command-and-control structure. Sources say he has explained that at any time, the organization has open-ended plans for as many as two dozen attacks — mostly ideas proposed by field operatives and sanctioned and financed by Osama bin Laden's inner circle.

Mohammed's account dovetails with those of other detainees. Al-Qaeda schemes, now in various stages of development, run the gamut from old-fashioned truck bombings to assassinations to the dispersal of chemical and biological agents, sources say. He has underscored al-Qaeda's interest in spectacular attacks on landmarks such as the White House, the Israeli embassy in Washington, Chicago's Sears Tower and bridges in Manhattan, St. Louis and San Francisco.

Mohammed, captured March 1 in Rawalpindi by Pakistani security officials working with the CIA, began talking much sooner than anticipated, and some officials remain skeptical that at least some of the information he is feeding interrogators is intentionally misleading. But as some of his disclosures have been corroborated by other detainees and electronic sources, investigators are more confident that, as one counter-terror official says, "We're getting valuable, credible, specific information."

• Elaine Shannon and Michael Weisskopf
• Feds say the al-Qaeda planner has given his interrogators the names of several key members of his organization who may be plotting terrorist attacks on America