New Faces in Al Qaeda Hierarchy

Newsweek, November, 2001 by Christopher Dickey

The language picked up on the Spanish phone taps was cryptic and frightening. A mysterious figure, code-named Shakur, was talking to the alleged leader of Osama bin Laden's clandestine organization in Madrid. The date was August 27, 15 days before suicide hijackers attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "I've cut all my communications and I'm calmer psychologically," said Shakur. "At the moment I'm doing something, I'm giving classes," he said, and he wouldn't be back in Spain for a month or so. "In the classes, we've entered into the field of aviation and we've even slit the bird's throat."

Based on this and other evidence, Spanish Prosecutor Baltasar Garzon states in a court document made public today that a terrorist cell based in Madrid was "directly related...

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