With Al Qaeda's leadership in disarray, at least seven al-Qaeda members who have specialized in organization and tactics have assumed a more prominent role within the loose coalition of remaining terrorist groups, analysts and government officials said. These Qaeda lieutenants have both the authority to initiate attacks and the ability to carry them out by providing cash and false documents to operatives. "The operators who are still out there — they are the ones that will conduct the next terrorist attack," a senior government official said.
Organizationally, they've "gone to the mattresses". That doesn't mean they're dead...
Intelligence and law enforcement officials say they now believe that Al Qaeda operatives like Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, a Qaeda member from Kuwait, are operating independently, out from under the control of the bin Laden chain of command, which may no longer exist as a working command structure as it did in Afghanistan.
It probably doesn't...
Besides Muhammad, who was identified last week as being suspected of having a major operational role in the Sept. 11 attacks, officials identified six other people whom they view as the planners of new attacks. Officials said they were scattered among several countries to regroup the activities of what is left of Al Qaeda and operations involving other terror groups. According to government officials, these are the key leaders:
Saif al-Adel is said to sit on Al Qaeda's consultative council, the group that approves all terrorist operations, including the embassy bombings and the attack on the American warship Cole in October 2000 in Yemen. Adel, a Saudi, came to Al Qaeda as part of its affiliation with Egyptian Islamic Jihad. The United States government has been trying to find Mr. Adel since 1993, when he trained tribal fighters to attack the United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia, an operation that killed 18 American soldiers.
Saif-ul-Adil Abu Hafz was one of the five al-Qaeda Bigs who were granted Afghan citizenship by the Talibs last November.
Fazul Abdullah Muhammad is a native of the Comoros Islands, an impoverished archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Using the alias Haroun Fazul, Muhammad was Al Qaeda's chief operative in Kenya in the mid-1990's.
Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah is a 37-year-old Egyptian who was one of five fugitives indicted in the two American Embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998. Mr. Atwah was believed to have been in Afghanistan last fall, but American authorities said this week they do not know his current location.
Mustafa Muhammad Fadhil is an Egyptian who the authorities said was an important organizational operative in Al Qaeda. Fadhil is believed to have rented the house in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where a half dozen conspirators made the car bomb that exploded outside the United States Embassy there, an attack that killed 11 people. Fadhil was also indicted in the embassy bombings case, but he has eluded capture. An American official this week said that Fadhil "was one of the most important people we are pursuing."
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, an Egyptian, has served since the early 1990's as a senior adviser to Mr. bin Laden, officials said. He was indicted for his alleged involvement in the bombing of the American Embassy in Nairobi. Cooperating witnesses have told the authorities that he conducted surveillance of the embassy three days before the bombing.
Fahid Muhammad Ally Msalam, 26, is another Qaeda suspect wanted for being directly involved in the bombing of the embassy in Nairobi. Mr. Msalam, a Kenyan, is said to be the Qaeda member who bought the Toyota truck that was used in the bombing. Prosecutors say he packed it with explosives and transported it to the embassy. His fingerprints were found on a magazine that was inside a Nike gym bag that also contained clothing with traces of TNT, according to testimony at the embassy bombing trial last year in Manhattan.
What a daggone disappointing article. The Times basically took the Fed's most wanted list and snagged the names and descriptions of what they did. These guys may or may not turn up as controllers in the coming months; my guess would be that few will. Except for Saif al-Adel, they're just not at the capo level, and they probably won't ever be. It's pretty obvious the Times writer doesn't know any more than we do. And he left "Foopie" off the list. |