Al-Qaida leaders, associates

Hamza bin Laden

Citizenship: revoked by Saudi Arabia in 2003

Aliases: N/A

Personal:

One of bin Laden's sons who was seen on an al-Qaida video playing in the ruins of a U.S. helicopter during the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan.  Known to have fought with his father.  The teen-ager wrongly reported to have been captured by U.S. forces near Rabat, Afghanistan, in March, 2003.  Believed to be in Iranian control.

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Seikh Saiid al-Masri

Citizenship: Saudi

Aliases: N/A

Personal: Bin Laden chief financier and brother-in-law.  A Saudi, Said is Bin Laden's brother-in-law and al-Qaida's financial controller. He first linked up with Bin Laden in Sudan during the late 1990s.  Some U.S. investigators believe he wired money to Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the hijackers, before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Citizenship: Jordanian

Aliases: N/A

Personal: Bin Laden’s brother-in-law and a man often accused of being an al-Qaida financier in Southeast Asia, but now a restaurateur in Saudi Arabia!  Twice arrested, once in the U.S. and in Saudi Arabia, but released both times.  He was tried in Jordan and acquitted.  He claims that he broke with his wife’s brother in 1986 but U.S. intelligence believes that in 1988 he played a key financial role in Bin Laden’s financing of Abu Sayaf and Ramzi Yousef's operations in the Philippines. 

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Abu Laith al Libi

Age: early 40’s

Citizenship: Libyan

Aliases:

Personal: An al-Qaeda field commander and spokesman, Abu Laith is an outspoken leader of al Qaeda, appearing in videos and on the internet.   It was he in July 2002 who revealed that Bin Laden was still alive, the first comments about the al Qaeda leader’s health after the end of the Afghan conflict.  Then in June 2004, he is shown leading an attack on what appears to be an Afghan military outpost and calling for jihad.   He is known to operate on the Afghan side of the border, working with the remnants of the Taliban.

In some US intelligence circles, he is seen as al Qaeda’s No. 3.

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Abu Hadi al Iraqi

Age: 45

Citizenship: Iraqi

Aliases:

Personal: Bin Laden’s personal envoy to Abu Musab al Zarqawi.   A former major in the Iraqi army before joining the Afghanistan resistance in the 1980’s, he has a strong resume’ for leadership: an ability to raise millions of dollars from Gulf State Arabs, a down-to-earth manner and fluency in Arabic, Urdu, Kurdish, the form of Pashtun spoken in Waziristan, and even some Farsi. 

Al-Iraqi was initially designated by Bin Laden to lead the resistance in Iraq, but ultimately he wound up becoming the intermediary between Bin Laden and Zarqawi and the facilitator of Zarqawi’s “bayat”—or pledge of loyalty—to Bin Laden.

Known to operate in Afghanistan, making occasional visits to Bin Laden in Pakistan.  A top 5 al Qaeda official.

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