Clues to Abu Ali's Al-Qaida Contacts in Saudi Arabia

By Evan Kohlmann

The latest USDOJ filing in the case of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali offers tantalizing clues as to the alleged identity of his Al-Qaida contacts in Saudi Arabia.  According to the document:

"Between in or around September 2002 and on or about June 9, 2003, the defendant joined a clandestine al-Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia... The defendant discussed plans for assassinating President of the United States George W. Bush with a member of the al-Qaeda cell (identified in the Indictment as Coconspirator #2).  Specifically, the defendant and Coconspirator #2 discussed two options for assassinating the President: (1) an operation in which the defendant would get close enough to the President to shoot him on the street; and (2) an operation in which the defendant would detonate a car bomb... The government proffers that Coconspirator #2 later was killed in a shoot-out with Saudi law enforcement authorities in or around September 2003."

This last detail narrows the field considerably as to the identity of Co-Conspirator #2.  That September, there was only one shoot-out of note between Saudi security forces and Al-Qaida members wanted for their involvement in the May 2003 suicide bombings in Riyadh...

On September 23, 2003, Saudi forces attempted to raid the three-story housing complex of the King Fahd Hospital in Jizan (600 miles south of Riyadh) on the suspicion that it was being used as a base to plan upcoming Al-Qaida terrorist attacks in the Kingdom.  During the ensuing shootout, one Saudi policeman and three Al-Qaida militants were killed, including Zubayr al-Rimi (a.k.a. Sultan Jubran Sultan al-Qahtani).  At the time, al-Rimi was among Saudi Arabia's most wanted terrorist suspects and had served as a key lieutenant to other senior Al-Qaida operatives in the region.  Moreover, only days before his violent death in Jizan, the FBI had sent out a specific alert to state and local law enforcement about Zubayr al-Rimi, warning that he was wanted "in connection with possible threats against the United States."  In retrospect, it seems likely that Rimi's "possible threat against the United States" was a would-be plot to assassinate President George W. Bush with the assistance of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali.

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