Zawahiri, Ayman Al (1951–)

Ayman al Zawahiri (aka Abu Abdallah; Abu al Mu'iz; Abu Fatima; Abu Muhammad; Muhammad Ibrahim; The Doctor; Abu Mohammed Nur al Deen; Abdel Muaz), an Egyptian physician, is alleged to have been both Osama bin Laden's closest advisor and his doctor. Viewed by many as the mastermind who led bin Laden and al Qaeda into creating instruments of mass murder, Zawahiri is one of the FBI's “most wanted terrorists.” He is said to be the most likely successor to bin Laden and is suspected of playing a key role in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Council on Foreign Relations has stated that Zawahiri probably had a more direct role in the planning of 9/11 than bin Laden did.

Zawahiri's family is prominent in both Egypt's politics and religion. His father taught at the University of Cairo, his grandfather was a well-known and moderate imam, and his uncle was the first secretary general of the Arab League. Zawahiri took a different path; he was arrested at age 15 for involvement in Muslim Brotherhood, a militant group banned in Egypt.

According to his autobiography, Zawahiri was transformed in 1980 after leaving work at a Cairo Muslim Brotherhood clinic to go to Pakistan and give medical aid to Afghan refugees. A founding member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Zawahiri built up the organization during the 1970s and became its leader. The group, said to be a major influence on bin Laden's al Qaeda, opposes the secular Egyptian government and advocates its overthrow through violence. Zawahiri admitted planning the 1981 assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, in which Islamic Jihad members disguised themselves as soldiers to reach and assassinate Sadat in full view of Egyptian television. Zawahiri was arrested for illegal possession of firearms and spent three years in jail following Sadat's death, but he was never charged in the killing.

In the aftermath of Sadat's death, Egyptian security officials held suspects without trial and tortured many of them. Members of Islamic Jihad began to flee Egypt in large numbers. Zawahiri left Egypt in 1986 and went to Saudi Arabia, then traveled to Pakistan, caring for Afghan soldiers wounded in the guerrilla war against the Soviet Union. During this time Al-Zawahiri met bin Laden and merged his Islamic Jihad group with al Qaeda in the mid-1990s, giving al Qaeda a more radical anti-American stance. Using disguises and false documents, Zawahiri traveled through many western countries, even visiting the United States in the 1990s on a fund-raising mission.

Zawahiri worked very closely with bin Laden in al Qaeda's majlis al shura, or consultation council. al Qaeda, an Arabic word meaning “the Base,” is an international network that uses force and violence in an effort to drive the United States from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries. The al Qaeda network, which serves as an umbrella group for other militant organizations, establishes cells in areas it plans to attack.

The United States indicted Zawahiri for his involvement in the planning of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, in which 224 people were killed and thousands wounded. Coordinated truck bombs went off within minutes of each other at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, cities 400 miles apart.

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