Spring 2001 or After: Captured Millennium Bomber Implicates Top London Imam Abu Hamza as Major Al-Qaeda Figure

After being convicted for his part in al-Qaeda’s failed millennium attacks (see December 14, 1999), Ahmed Ressam tells US authorities that London-based radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is an important figure in al-Qaeda. Ressam says that he heard many stories about Abu Hamza when he was in Afghanistan and that Abu Hamza has the power to refer recruits to other senior al-Qaeda figures. [O’Neill and McGrory, 2006, pp. 28] Abu Hamza already has a relationship with British security services (see Early 1997).