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New Al-Qaeda Chief in Saudi Arabia Heads Anti-U.S. Operations in Persian Gulf

(FOX News) Abu Hazim al-Sha'ir, 29, a former bin Laden bodyguard from Yemen who is now living in Saudi Arabia, is believed to be the new head of al-Qaeda terrorist operations in the Gulf, U.S. intelligence officials said. Al-Sha'ir is believed to have trained in al-Qaeda's Afghan camps in 1999. Before Sept. 11, he traveled frequently to the Arabian peninsula, to southeast Asia, and to Afghanistan. Al-Sha'ir's presence in the Saudi kingdom is telling, said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief. "The whole locus of al-Qaeda, in terms of its power and its strength, has moved to Saudi Arabia," he said. A U.S. intelligence report notes, "Saudi Arabia has always been al-Qaeda's primary base of popular and religious support and funding....While not as permissive an operating environment as Afghanistan was, the kingdom offered enough acquiescence for al-Qaeda to actively recruit, obtain and store explosives and weapons, plan terrorist attacks, and fundraise."
2013-06-18 00:00:00
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