Word: zubaydah
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...Zubaydah's fingerprints appear on most of al-Qaeda's terrorist plots--some successful, most not--during the past few years. While bin Laden and his No. 2, the Egyptian physician Ayman al-Zawahiri, hid out in Afghanistan, Zubaydah was one of al-Qaeda's most traveled leaders, employing at least 37 aliases in extensive trips to Asia and Africa, according to U.S. investigators. (There have been reports that al-Zawahiri was spotted in eastern Afghanistan last month.) Zubaydah was implicated in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa; soon after, he rose to become al-Qaeda's chief...
Like most of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Zubaydah grew up in a comfortable middle-class home. His real name is Zayn al-Abidin Mohammed Husayn, and he was born into a Palestinian family living in Riyadh. In his teens, he was lured into Islamic extremism through the Palestinian cause. At 18, he surfaced in Gaza as a member of the Islamic Jihad. In the mid-1990s, he moved to Afghanistan, where his zeal and efficiency earned him a place in al-Qaeda's inner circle. Fastidious by nature, he was more a logistician than a fighter. Bin Laden trusted...
After the U.S. started bombing Afghanistan, on Oct. 7, Zubaydah slipped across the border. Washington investigators say the U.S. and its allies were using all existing intelligence assets to look for him in the region, especially in Pakistan. Initially, U.S. mistrust of Pakistani intelligence agencies slowed the search. But it was the Pakistanis who provided the first big break...
...waste time reveling in the capture of Abu Zubaydah. Its next task is equally urgent: persuading the al-Qaeda COO to talk. Washington will say only that it has stowed Zubaydah in a secure location while tending to his bullet wounds and that he may be transported to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he could become the first al-Qaeda man tried before a military tribunal. But more crucial than Zubaydah's ultimate destination will be any stops he makes along...
Last week Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld swatted down reports that the U.S. plans to ship Zubaydah to a nation, such as Egypt or Jordan, that unlike the U.S. has no qualms about extracting information through torture. But a well-placed American military official tells TIME that at least initially the U.S. had looked for an ally to conduct an interrogation. "Someone is going to squeeze him," says the official. "We've been out of that business for so long that it's best handled by others." No matter who pressures Zubaydah to talk, the squeezing would most likely consist...