Today, Wuhayshi is a top target for the United States, after intelligence agencies monitored a conference call last week that served as a virtual board meeting for al Qaeda’s central leadership and the group's global affiliates—and in which the Yemeni-born jihadist was promoted to the position of general manager for al Qaeda operations. At the request of its sources, The Daily Beast is withholding details about the technology al Qaeda used to conduct the conference call. U.S. intelligence officers say Wuhayshi is leading an attack plan that could call on resources from al Qaeda’s franchises across North Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia.
After bin Laden’s death in 2011, Wuhayshi and his affiliate became one of the first groups within al Qaeda to endorse Zawahiri for the top position. Bruce Riedel, an expert on al Qaeda at the Brookings Institution and a former senior CIA analyst, said Wuhayshi had a connection with the Egyptian-born commander. “He has been loyal to Zawahiri,” Riedel said. “They were quick to endorse him in 2011. I don’t know the grounds for it, those incidents back in Afghanistan before 9/11, but there was a bond between the two of them,” he said.
One U.S. intelligence official told The Daily Beast that Wuhayshi had designs on a more senior role in al Qaeda. The letter that prompted bin Laden’s response has not been declassified.
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