Agence France Presse October 29, 2002
Six al-Qaeda leaders take on new prominence
BY PATRICK ANIDJAR
The al-Qaeda terror network has a new leadership of six men who previously worked in the shadow of their boss Osama bin Laden, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The six were identified by US and European intelligence since bin Laden and his lieutenants, whether dead, ill, injured or on the run, cannot manage the reins of the network.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's number two man, is believed to have had his ability o manage network cells hurt by US operations in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 terror strikes on US targets. Saad bin Laden, a son of the al-Qaeda leader believed to have been trained to succeed him, is believed to be at large.
Middle Eastern in origin, the six in the past made a big mark with painstaking preparation of attacks on two US embassies in Africa in 1998 and on the USS Cole in 2000 off Yemen.
"Intelligence officials view these men's emerging roles within al Qaeda as proof that the group can adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and regenerate its leadership," the Post reported.
The new leaders "have been there from the beginning, but were in the shadows, not the most visible people," said a European intelligence analyst.
The six are believed to have met for the first time training Somalis who then killed 18 US troops in a clash in October 1993.
They now have become responsible for planning attacks worldwide and financing them, according to the daily.
"The strength of the group is they don't need centralized command and control," said one US intelligence official. They "know what it is they want to do."
Prior to the September 11 terror strikes on US targets al-Qaeda was led by a tiny command unit of bin Laden and his lieutenants, who made major decisions and handled financing.
The six now have a harder time communicating and are at separate locations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia and south Asia.
The Post named Saif al-Adel, "an Egyptian and a member of al Qaeda's security committee for several years, he is viewed as the new military leader for the remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region."
Also named as among the six were Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, an "Egyptian, he has become al Qaeda's chief financial officer, at least in Pakistan and Afghanistan"; Abu Musab Zarqawi: A Jordanian; Riduan Isamuddin "an Indonesian known as Hambali, he is al Qaeda's liaison to loose-knit radical Islamic groups in Southeast Asia," Tawfiq bin Atash, either Saudi or Yemeni; and Rahim al-Nashri, a Yemeni.
"It would be much easier if we had a more centralized structure to aim at, like al Qaeda was in Afghanistan," a senior US official told the Post. "Now, instead of a large, fixed target we have little moving targets all over the world, all armed and all dangerous. It is a much more difficult war to fight this way."
And terrorism expert John Pike stressed the list of six is anything but exhaustive.
"There are probably much more than six," said Pike, director of www.globalsecurity.org.
"Whoever is a leading figure in this community today, will probably change tomorrow," according to Pike, who stressed their activities require them to "always be on the move, to change, to adapt" in order to be able to strike again.
Copyright 2002 Agence France Presse
