The Bin Laden Plot

“She’s at home, recovering from the ordeal,” Guisewhite replied. “She’s quite shaken over the close call and death of her protective agent.”

“Do we have a motive? Why would someone target her?”

“We don’t have anything solid at the moment. However, she’s been pushing aggressive anti-terrorist policies, focused not only on the roles our Navy can fulfill but on methods the military overall can implement in our war against terror. I don’t think it’s any secret that she’d like to be the next secretary of defense, and in that position, she’d be quite influential and could reshape the military’s role, intensifying America’s effort in this area.

“We’ll update you if we identify anything more concrete regarding the motive or those behind the assassination attempt. What we do know, however, is who the likely assassin is: Leonard Mixell, nickname Lonnie, who has gone by multiple aliases in the recent past. I presume you recall the details of his court-martial while a Navy SEAL and subsequent imprisonment, and his assassination of United Nations Ambassador Marshall Hill, followed by his role in the Kazan and Air Force One plots.”

The president nodded. “Of course. I also recall that he is supposedly dead.”

He leveled his gaze at Christine, who leaned back slightly under his scrutiny. She knew the issue would arise this morning. Unfortunately, the criticism was warranted.

Guisewhite continued, thankfully capturing the president’s attention again. “Unlike Mixell’s assassination of Ambassador Hill, we don’t have video of the event. We did, however, capture Mixell on camera shortly afterward.”

The director activated a video clip on his laptop. The display at the front of the Situation Room energized, showing a car pulling up to the automated exit gate in a parking garage. The video zoomed in on Mixell’s face and froze.

“As you can see, Mixell is alive and almost assuredly responsible for the attempt on Secretary Verbeck’s life. Mixell has changed the color of his hair and eyes but has otherwise not altered his appearance. In the past, he used temporary mouth implants to alter his cheek and jaw structure, but Mixell is apparently aware that this no longer fools our facial recognition algorithms.

“As for where Mixell is now or what he’s been up to, all we know is that he was at National Harbor yesterday afternoon. There have been no database hits or sightings of Mixell since he was reported killed several months ago. He’s clearly been lying low while his wounds healed and using an alias or perhaps multiple ones.

“Not only is Mixell alive and well, but it appears he’s employed again. Whether he continues to do the bidding of al-Qaeda under new leadership — we’ve confirmed the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri from our drone strike a few months ago — or is employed by others is unclear.”

“What do we know about al-Qaeda’s new leadership,” the president asked, “now that Zawahiri is dead?”

Guisewhite glanced at Christine, who took over.

She pressed the video switch on the conference table, shifting control of the wall display from Guisewhite’s computer to hers, then pulled up the first slide of her brief, a head-and-shoulder portrait of an Arab man.

“The heir apparent to al-Qaeda was Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza, the only child by Osama’s eldest wife, Khairiah Saber. However, Hamza was killed by a U.S. counterterrorism operation in 2019. That left Zawahiri in charge and al-Qaeda looking for a new successor, for which there are four leading contenders.”

Christine went quickly though the list, one slide per man:

Saif al-Adel: al-Qaeda’s number two, a longtime head of its military council and well respected within the global al-Qaeda network.

Abd al-Rahman al-Maghribi: a shura council member married to one of Zawahiri’s daughters and head of al-Qaeda’s media operations.

Yasin al-Suri: head of al-Qaeda’s organization in Iran, in charge of facilitating the transfer of money and personnel in and out of the country.

Abu Hamza al-Khalidi: a central link between al-Qaeda’s global affiliates and al-Qaeda’s leadership; one of a new generation of leaders being groomed by al-Qaeda and currently the head of al-Qaeda’s military council, having taken over from Saif al-Adel.

“Our assessment is that the new leader of al-Qaeda is likely Saif al-Adel. His relationships with jihadi cells throughout the Middle East put him in a position to solidify the somewhat fractured al-Qaeda organization and pursue additional attacks against the United States, similar to 9/11.”

Christine shifted her eyes to Guisewhite, who picked up where he had left off.

“We don’t have much to go on yet, Mr. President. But since Mixell has resurfaced and due to his recent ties to al-Qaeda, we’ll work with the CIA again to track him down as soon as possible. This concludes my brief.”