UPDATE:
blog:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/04/al_qaeda_operative_r_1.php
“Al Qaeda operative Rashid Rauf survived US strike”
By BILL ROGGIO
April 12, 2009 12:43 PM
SNIPPET: “A senior al Qaeda leader who was reported to have been killed during a US airstrike in Pakistan’s tribal areas is now thought to have survived the attack and has been plotting terror attacks in Europe.
Rashid Rauf, an al Qaeda leader who is in charge of al Qaeda’s external operations branch responsible for attacks in Europe, survived the November 2008 Predator strike in North Waziristan that was also thought to have killed Abu Zubair al Masri and two other al Qaeda operatives.
US intelligence believes that al Qaeda has reconstituted its external operations network in Pakistan’s lawless, Taliban-controlled tribal areas. This network is tasked with hitting targets in the West, India, and elsewhere. Al Qaeda is particularly interested in recruiting westernized Muslims with western passports, which would allow them to more easily enter their target countries. The Predator campaign is largely designed to prevent al Qaeda from conducting another major attack in the West.
The assessment that Rauf had been killed changed, after an al Qaeda operative detained during a raid in Belgium claimed that Rauf had trained him and dispatched him to Brussels to conduct a suicide attack during a meeting of European leaders, The Times Online reported. The operative also said Rauf had plotted attacks in major cities in Belgium, France, Holland, and England. Rauf has also been implicated as being the director of the failed plot to conduct attacks in England on Easter Sunday.”
UPDATE:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/2009/09/rashid_rauf_is_still_alive_bri.php
#
“Airlines plot: al-Qaeda mastermind ‘is still alive’
MI5 and MI6 believe the British al-Qaeda commander who was behind the airlines’ plot may still be alive in Pakistan and plotting new a wave of attacks.”
By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Published: 11:51AM BST 10 Sep 2009