It was, in some sense, jealousy and drive that caused current Al Qaeda chief Ayman Zawahiri to betray bin Laden, with whom he was becoming increasingly estranged, Pfarrer argues.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been Zawahiri鈥檚 MO ever since he鈥檚 been a terrorist to push himself forward in every situation he鈥檚 ever been in," according to Pfarrer.
Mr. Zawahiri read fluently in English 鈥� and voraciously consumed anything written about 9/11, Pfarrer points out, adding that a number of 9/11 books talk about a courier that had been compromised in interrogations of Al Qaeda detainees. Pfarrer argues that for this reason, Zawahiri must have known that the courier bin Laden was using had been compromised.
鈥淪o why would he continue to use a blown courier? For 10 years, their tradecraft was so perfect that we couldn鈥檛 penetrate it. Zawahiri set up bin Laden," Pfarrer says.
He concedes: "Not everyone in the community agrees with me regarding Zawahiri. But I鈥檇 say about 65 percent of the people agree with me.鈥�
The Pentagon has challenged many of Pfarrer's assertions. Click on to the final page to read what the Pentagon says Pfarrer got wrong.
