The Most Wanted Man In The World

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Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who was arrested entering the U.S. from Canada in December 1999 with a carful of explosives, has told interrogators that his al-Qaeda curriculum included lessons in sabotage, urban warfare and explosives. He was trained to attack power grids, airports, railroads, hotels and military installations. Visitors to al-Qaeda camps say that students receive instruction not only in using intricate maps of U.S. cities and targeted venues but also in employing scale models of potential sites for strikes. A 180-page al-Qaeda manual offers advice to "sleepers" (agents sent overseas to await missions) on how to be inconspicuous: shave your beard, wear cologne, move to newly developed neighborhoods where residents don't know one another.

Bin Laden's far-flung business dealings have been a tremendous asset to his network. U.S. officials believe he has interests in agricultural companies, banking and investment firms, construction companies and import-export firms around the globe. Says a U.S. official: "This empire is useful for moving people, money, materials, providing cover." Though American authorities did break up two al-Qaeda fund-raising operations in the past year, they have been mostly unsuccessful in finding and freezing bin Laden's assets.

As he built his syndicate, bin Laden also became more open about what he was up to. In 1996 he issued a "Declaration of Jihad." His stated goals were to overthrow the Saudi regime and drive out U.S. forces. He expanded the target with another declaration in early 1998 stating that Muslims should kill Americans, civilians included, wherever they could find them. Later that year, his operatives used car bombs against the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224, mostly Africans. Those blasts provoked a U.S. cruise-missile attack on an al-Qaeda base in Afghanistan that missed bin Laden and only burnished his image as an authentic hero to many Muslims.

Bin Laden has spoken out against Israel, which he, like many Muslims, regards as an alien and aggressive presence on land belonging to Islam. Lately, he has lauded the current Palestinian uprising against Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian territories. But his main fixation remains the U.S. Officially, he is committed to preparing for a worldwide Islamic state, but for now he focuses on eradicating infidels from Islamic lands.

Bin Laden's precise place in the terror franchise he's associated with is somewhat nebulous. Certainly, he is its public face. But Ressam has told interrogators that bin Laden is only one of two or three chieftains in al-Qaeda. Many bin Laden watchers and even ex-associates have observed that bin Laden appears to be a simple fighter without a brilliant head for tactics. His lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri, an Egyptian physician who heads the Egyptian al Jihad, which took credit for the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981, is often mentioned as the brains behind the operations. U.S. federal prosecutors have asserted in court filings that al Jihad "effectively merged" with al-Qaeda in 1998. Mohamed Atef, al-Qaeda's military commander, is also a powerful figure. He is said to be a former Egyptian policeman who joined the Arab Afghans in 1983. His daughter recently married bin Laden's eldest son Mohamed. Speculation that bin Laden is in poor health--he sometimes walks with a cane and is rumored to have kidney problems--has focused succession discussions on these two men.

It's not clear that any of the three key figures actually issues specific attack orders to adherents. Ressam told investigators the al-Qaeda operatives are rarely given detailed instructions. Rather, they are trained and then sent out to almost autonomous cells to act on their own, to plan attacks and raise their own funds, often using credit-card scams to load up on money, despite the Islamic prohibition against theft. Bin Laden, whose general practice is to praise terror attacks but disclaim any direct connection to them, has said, "Our job is to instigate."