U.S. intelligence has identified the designated successor

of ailing terrorist leader Osama bin Ladin

UPI - U.S. intelligence has identified the designated successor of ailing terrorist leader Osama bin
Ladin, according to U.S. government sources. United Press International has learned that the
CIA believes Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Egyptian terror group al-Jihad, will assume
control of bin Ladin's terrorist finances, operations, plans and resources. Bin Ladin is said
to be suffering from a bone marrow disease, in addition to kidney failure. Ayman Al-Zawahiri
is already closely associated with bin Ladin, serving as his sometime - spokesman and
identified by the U.S. State Department as a key leader in bin Ladin's new World Islamic
Front, an alliance of various terrorist groups formed to carry out a holy war against America
and its allies.

Al-Zawahiri is the operational and military leader of al-Jihad, also known as Islamic Jihad, an extremist group active since the late 1970s whose goal is to overthrow the Egyptian government. He is believed to be in Afghanistan, where bin Ladin has resided for at least a year. Al-Zawahiri was the second signer on a "fatwa," or declaration of holy war issued by bin Ladin in February 1998, that called for the killing of all Americans and their allies, civilian or military.

"We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson," states the "fatwa." In its original incarnation al-Jihad was believed to be responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Al-Jihad has split into two factions, one of them controlled by al-Zawahiri. The group has not conducted an attack inside Egypt since 1993,

according to the State Department.

Al-Zawahiri, 49, was born in Giza, Egypt, according to a White House declaration in 1995 that
identified him as a terrorist. He was reported to have participated in a planning meeting of
Hezzbollah, a pro-Iranian group in Lebanon, to set up attacks on U.S. interests on all
continents. He is also reported to be behind "Islamic terrorist operations" in Bosnia with
U.S. and international peacekeepers his primary target. Al-Hayat, a London-based Arabic
newspaper reported last year that al-Zawahiri had vowed to take revenge on the United States
for its support of Israel, its ongoing war with Iraq and its military presence in the Middle
East.

According to intelligence sources, Bin Ladin's failing health makes it impossible for him to continue overseeing his organization, the Islamic Salvation Foundation or al-Qaida. Dubbed by President Clinton "the pre-eminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in the world today," and on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List," bin Ladin has been variously linked to the World Trade Center bombing in New York, bomb attacks against U.S troops in Saudi Arabia, and the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998 that killed 257 people and injured 5,500 more.

At the time of the embassy bombings, a reporter in Pakistan, Rahimullah Yusufzai, said he received a call from Ayman al-Zawahiri, who identified himself as a spokesman for bin Laden. "I have nothing to do with the bombing of American embassies in Africa, but I urge the Muslims all over the world to continue their jihad against the Americans and Jews," al-Zawahiri, told the reporter on bin Ladin's behalf.

Bin Ladin hasn't been seen in more than a year, and the last event he was associated with
publicly was the embassy bombings. Bin Ladin controls about $300 million of his Saudi Arabian
family's estimated $5 billion fortune, and he uses it almost exclusively to fund his international operations. He is said to be behind terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and building roads, tunnels, and hospitals in Afghanistan and Sudan.

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