By David E. Kaplan and Kevin Whitelaw
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Mohammed Atef, the military chief of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network, was the operational mastermind of all four of the September 11 terror attacks, U.S. News has learned.
Mohammed Atef (right) is the military chief of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network. (AFP)
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Intelligence sources told the magazine late Friday that Atef was the bin Laden associate referred to in the British government 'white paper' Prime Minister Tony Blair used to outline the evidence against bin Laden in connection with the September 11 attacks. The sources said Atef was the al Qaeda member alluded to in this passage of the white paper: “We have learned that one of bin Laden’s closest and most senior associates was responsible for the detailed planning of the attacks.”
A former Egyptian police officer who later joined the terrorist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Atef joined bin Laden in recruiting Arab fighters for the Afghanistan war in the early 1980s. In 1989, he helped bin Laden found al Qaeda and later traveled to Sudan with him, where he took charge of bin Laden’s security.
In 1996, the millionaire Saudi exile tapped Atef to be al Qaeda’s military chief, the U.S. officials said. Two years later, the officials said, Atef was instrumental in planning the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He was indicted by a grand jury in New York for his role in those attacks.
One of bin Laden’s top two aides, Atef was videotaped earlier this year giving away his daughter in a marriage to one of bin Laden’s sons. Some intelligence analysts believe Atef would likely become the leader of al Qaeda should bin Laden be killed or incapacitated.
Born in 1953, the bearded Atef is credited by intelligence analysts with being a skilled military planner who has sharply improved al Qaeda’s ability to strike with precision. His name appears frequently in the transcripts of the embassy bombing trial under his alias Abu Hafs el Masry. President Bush named Atef in an executive order two weeks ago aimed at freezing terrorist assets.
