Zubaydah, Abu (1971–)

In March 2002, Abu Zubaydah (aka Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn), believed to be 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. However, the nature and intensity of those interrogations have left the veracity of his statements open to question.

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 the 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, working 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 Islamic Jihad, Ayman al Zawahiri's Egypt-based terrorist group, merged with al Qaeda. Zubaydah, then a member of Islamic Jihad, rose quickly to become a top al Qaeda lieutenant. By age 25, he was running bin Laden's camps.

Zubaydah has also been 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 USS 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 Zawahiri in hiding, the responsibility for reviving the terrorist network, including activating “sleeper cells” in various countries, fell to Zubaydah.

[Page 652]On March 28, 2002, U.S. and Pakistani forces raided a safe house in Faisalabad, Pakistan, capturing two-dozen Arabs. Zubaydah was shot in the stomach, groin, and thigh. During his recovery, he was interrogated, first in a secret CIA prison, and subsequently at the Guantánamo Bay facility, where he was moved in 2004. In the course of these interrogations, Zubaydah was waterboarded as many as 80 times. Officials suspected that Zubaydah knew 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, including Khaled Sheik Mohammed. Official opinions about the veracity of Zubaydah's statements have varied, although some have proved to be accurate.