As was noted in a previous post western intelligence has been able to get inside al-Qaeda cells and disrupt them. It marks a big difference between the post 9-11 and pre 9-11 worlds, one which is really hurting al-Qaeda. Before 9-11 al-Qaeda thrived due to our ignorant bliss and lack of attention to threats.

Today, … well let’s just ask ourselves if there is any connection between these two stories. On April 2, 2008 we learned of a massive round up of al-Qaeda in Turkey:

Turkish police have apprehended 45 suspected Al-Qaeda militants in simultaneous operations in eight separate districts of the European part of Istanbul.

…

This latest operation brought to 63 the number of suspected terrorists now in the custody of Turkish anti-terrorist police. Today’s Zaman said 18 militants were arrested on Monday.

Eight simultaneous raids across Istanbul means this was a large operation that had created a linked target list from intelligence. It is a stunning and successful piece of work. al-Qaeda needs some headlines news and a big hit on the West and Turkey would be a good place to get both. Not to mention the fighters could be coming out of Iraq as al-Qaeda is decimated there.

But consider the possible connections between that news and this story out today:

Pakistani security agencies have arrested four Turks with suspected links to al Qaeda, intelligence officials said on Friday.

Explosives, some 1,400 rounds of ammunition, and a laptop containing “jihadi” material were found on the suspects, who were detained by paramilitary troops late on Thursday as they were travelling on a bus from the western province of Baluchistan to neighbouring Sindh, the officials said.

Interrogations revealed they were Turkish, and three were carrying Turkish passports, although they all had fake identity cards.

…

A Frontier Corps official said the men were arrested in Dera Murad Jamali town after a tip-off, and had been handed over to an intelligence agency.

When large raids are made like the one in Turkey there almost always follows a lot of leads from the material gathered in the raids. Especially laptops and information inside them to know who they have been communicating with. I won’t go into details for obvious reasons, but I could see the raid in Turkey leading to the four individuals in Pakistan. It would represent an expected cell and controller structure being operated out of Pakistan. It could also mean al-Qaeda is distributing its cells to places like Turkey for when the hammer comes down this spring in Pakistan.

Which ever way it happened (and they may not be connected at all) both stories represent significant progress in our intelligence gathering and targeting capabilities. A good sign.