The Rise Of an Evil Protégé

(2 of 5)
The two al-Qaeda leaders are certainly under pressure. In a statement said to have been taped in September and aired by al-Jazeera last week, al-Zawahiri claimed that al-Qaeda is "spreading, expanding and strengthening" and that "bin Laden is still leading its jihad" against the West. But intelligence officials say it's striking that bin Laden himself has not issued a videotaped statement for more than a year--a sign, U.S. intelligence believes, that while he is probably still alive, he has been forced to go further underground to avoid detection.

So, is bin Laden still in control? By tracing his relationship with al-Zarqawi through a variety of sources--interrogation of captured operatives, encrypted codes on jihadist websites, chains of messages spanning from Iraq to Afghanistan--terrorism experts have assembled a picture of the way bin Laden turned to his former acolyte to revive al-Qaeda after the fall of the Taliban. It also reveals the ways in which al-Zarqawi has steered al-Qaeda in directions his bosses probably never intended or approved of--and why that makes the terrorist threat more unpredictable, and perhaps more dangerous, than it was before Sept. 11.

The pair's first purported meeting, in Afghanistan in 1999, provided hints of their future rivalry. A senior Pakistani military officer who once advised the Taliban's inner circle says, "Osama's camp was not open to everyone. People like al-Zarqawi, who were temporary visitors, were never trusted by him." According to the officer, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was warned by al-Qaeda not to be swayed by al-Zarqawi's global war cry. The officer says, "Those around Mullah Omar made it clear that the Taliban should avoid fighting in other people's wars"--especially in gulf states where the Taliban and al-Qaeda had plenty of wealthy backers.

But according to a biography of al-Zarqawi written by al-Adel (now believed to be under detention in Iran), bin Laden thought it "unwise to lose the chance of mobilizing al-Zarqawi and his companions in those regions"--especially if al-Zarqawi, with his ties to Jordan's militant underground, could help carry out an attack against Israel. According to al-Adel's account, bin Laden instructed al-Zarqawi to set up his own camp, far from bin Laden's activities, in the stony hills behind Herat, near Afghanistan's western border with Iran. By 9/11, al-Zarqawi was training several dozen fighters from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq at his Herat camp. He and other jihadis brought out their wives and children and formed an armed, Islamic commune, with al-Zarqawi as self-anointed emir, or prince.

1. Are Evangelicals Really Sold on Palin?
2. Obama Meets O'Reilly: No One Dies!
3. Searching for Palin's 'Hot Photos'
4. A Convention That Sparked the GOP
5. Collider Triggers End-of-World Fears
6. Behind Obama's Palin Strategy
7. Klein: McCain's Muted Acceptance
8. The Man Behind Palin's Speech
9. Mayor Palin: A Rough Record
10. Why Disasters Are Getting Worse