Page 23 - Operations Chief News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

He was much more of an operations chief. he was very close personally to osama bin laden. ayman al zawahiri, 59 years old, an egyptian, described as abrasive, arrogant but also very experienced. he has more history working with islamist militant groups than even bin laden did. he was arrested in egypt in 1982 in connection with the assassination of the late president anwar saddat. he was not directly implicated, and he was released from prison in 1984. the alliance he made with bin laden, however, in 1998 really expanded the operations and the capabilities for both zawahiri and bin laden. beca...

Particular you're looking for now, knowing this is happening at a time when al qaeda has been largely back on its heels? >> look, in my job as the president's homeland security adviser, what i cared about is their ability, as i mentioned, to project power. what you're looking for right now is who's the external operations chief? we used to say that person had the shortest life-span because it was high on the target list. but you want to make sure that you're monitoring external operational planning. and so you can disrupt and interrupt that. so what you don't want right now is for al qaeda to ...

Catherine has the news in washington. we are told new york was not the only target. >>reporter: yes, there are a lot of misconceptions about the plot in 2009 but the origin of the plot began in the tribal areas of pakistan with al qaeda senior leadership and it also spawned or stretched not only new york city but an attack planned in england and also, norway. so it is very international in its implication. now, the center of this not is a man who was born in saudi arabia and raised in the united states in south florida and according to the court documents, he is now an alleged operations chief...

Destroy us allegedly. malini wilkes has more from washington. >> he is 35 years old and lived in the u.s. for 15 years but thought to be playing a major role in the al-qaeda leadership. he spent time growing up in brooklyn and florida where he attended a community college. f.b.i. tells the associated press is likely the only al-qaeda leader. he once had a green card and this is first time that someone so familiar with american life has been in charge. he has eluded authorities since 2003. he apparently fell into the role of operations chief of al-qaeda after khalid shaikh mohammed was send to ...

Up about. the feds are. they've had their eye on him since 2004. now they say he has moved up in the ranks of al-qaeda. a terror suspect with unique ties to the united states. it's this man, the terror group's new global operation's chief. he grew up in new york city and spent time in florida and he's already been linked to a plot to bomb new york city subways. u.s. attorney general eric holder called it the biggest threat on u.s. soil since 9-11. now the f.b.i. says he's designing new attacks against the u.s. malini wilkes joining us with more on who he is. tell us more about him and how he b...