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 with Al Qaeda. Zubaydah, then a member of Al Jihad, rose quickly to become a top Al Qaeda lieutenant. By age 25, he was running bin Laden's camps.

Zubaydah is linked to numerous recent terrorist plots, including Ressam's Y2K plot and another millennium plot in Jordan (for which he was sentenced to death, in absentia, in Jordan). He allegedly recruited individuals to carry out bombing plots against U.S. embassies in Paris and Sarajevo. Authorities suspect Zubaydah was a “field commander” for the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in October 2000. He is also believed to have briefed Richard Reid, the alleged “shoe bomber.” Zubaydah is assumed to have had a significant role in coordinating the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, just outside Washington, D.C. Reports suggest that he hand-picked at least three of the hijackers.

Zubaydah apparently took over as chief of military operations for Al Qaeda after Muhammad Atef was killed in a November 2001 bombing raid in Afghanistan. With Atef dead, and bin Laden and al-Zawahiri in hiding, the responsibility for reviving the terrorist network, including activating “sleeper cells” in various countries, fell to Zubaydah.

On March 28, 2002, U.S. and Pakistani forces raided a safe house in Faisalabad, Pakistan, capturing two dozen Arabs. Zubaydah was shot in stomach, groin, and thigh. During his recovery, he was interrogated. Officials suspect that Zubaydah knows the identities and locations of sleeper cells throughout the world and may also have information regarding the whereabouts of bin Laden and other top Al Qaeda figures. Much of the information gathered in the weeks following his capture was related to possible attacks on shopping malls and a dozen banks in the northeastern United States and to the allegation [Page 420]that Al Qaeda has the resources to create a “dirty bomb.”

Official opinions vary about the veracity of Zubaydah's statements, although some have proved to be accurate. Such was the case when Zubaydah told the CIA of the role of Omar al-Faruq, one of bin Laden's top representatives in Southeast Asia. Al-Faruq was responsible for coordinating the activities of the region's various Islamic militant groups and using them to attack the United States and her allies in the region. On June 5, 2002, al-Faruq was captured in Indonesia. After three months of interrogation, he revealed that plans had been underway to bomb U.S. embassies in Southeast Asia on or around September 11, 2002.