The New York Times reports infromation gathered from a captured 25-year-old Pakistani Al Qaeda computer engineer lead to the raised terror alert issued yesterday:

But the official said “documentary evidence” found after the capture had demonstrated in extraordinary detail that Qaeda members had for years conducted sophisticated and extensive reconnaissance of the financial institutions cited in the warnings on Sunday.
One senior American intelligence official said the information was more detailed and precise than any he had seen during his 24-year career in intelligence work. A second senior American official said it had provided a new window into the methods, content and distribution of Qaeda communications.
“This, for us, is a potential treasure trove,” said a third senior American official, an intelligence expert, at a briefing for reporters on Sunday afternoon.

It’s hard to know how much to make of some of these anonymously-sourced stories, particularly on the intelligence front. This significance of this may be exaggerated. But I have to wonder: Has the capture of this single individual gone further to foil a potential Al Qaeda attack than the thousand troops and hundreds of billions consumed in Iraq? Interesting thought exercise. And it goes to illustrate that tanks and missiles are no substitute for good intelligence work in the “war on terror.”
UPDATE: It’s also worth noting that this was at least the second significant Pakistani capture which conformed with the Bush administration-imposed Democratic National Convention deadline.
Funny how the timing of everthing has worked out.