Zubaydah, Abu (1971–)

aka Zayn al-Abidin Mohamed Husayn

In March 2002, Abu Zubaydah, a top-level member of Al Qaeda, was captured in eastern Pakistan. Since being taken into custody, Zubaydah has undergone intense interrogations by U.S. officials and has revealed information about possible terrorist attacks in the future.

Zubaydah, a Saudi-born Palestinian, is believed to have been the chief of operations for Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. According to the testimony of Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian terrorist convicted in the bin Laden-supported Y2K bombing plot, Zubaydah vetted recruits for the various terrorist training camps in Afghanistan; Zubaydah worked out of the “House of Martyrs,” an Al Qaeda compound in Peshawar, Pakistan. Zubaydah also briefed newly trained terrorists and coordinated travel and other activities for the vast international network of terrorist cells.

Zubaydah's relationship with bin Laden can be traced to the mid-1990s, when Al Jihad, Ayman al-Zawahiri's Egypt-based terrorist group, merged ...