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Bin Laden Son Touted as Possible Replacement - Empire? - Global Policy Forum Bin Laden Son Touted
Strategic Forcasting
as Possible Replacement
August 2, 2002
According to an anonymous U.S. intelligence official cited recently by The Associated Press, one of Osama bin Laden's eldest sons -- Saad bin Laden -- is taking a leading role in al Qaeda fundraising and operations. Saad, thought to be around 22 years old, is widely suspected of helping plan the April attack on a Tunisian synagogue that left 19 people dead, most of them German tourists.
A move by Saad into the upper ranks of the al Qaeda leadership could lend credence to reports that the elder bin Laden is either dead or incapacitated. His rise to power also could trigger infighting or splits inside al Qaeda, as Saudi financiers and Egyptian planners struggle for control of the group. But it is just as likely that the reports are yet another part of the ongoing disinformation campaign being waged by both al Qaeda and the U.S. government.
Saad is not the first of bin Laden's sons thought to be taking more control over al Qaeda. In numerous Sept. 2001 press reports, elder son Mohamed bin Laden was cited as being groomed to succeed his father. Mohamed, who reportedly was in charge of his father's personal security, is married to the daughter of deceased senior al Qaeda planner Mohammed Atef.
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