Al Qaeda's Number 3 Is Back, And This Time He's Libyan

The Cable's Josh Rogan reports that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), is not on board with any administration decision to arm the Libyan rebels.

Rogers wouldn't confirm or deny the report that Obama issued what's known as a "presidential finding" authorizing the intelligence community to begin broadly supporting the Libyan rebels, because such findings are sensitive and classified. But he said that if Obama wanted to arm the rebels, the president would need Rogers' support, which he doesn't yet have.

"Any covert action that happens would have to get the sign off of the intelligence chairmen, by statute. You won't get a sign off from me," Rogers said referring to National Security Act 47. "I still think arming the rebels is a horrible idea. We don't know who they are, we only know who they are against but we don't really who they are for. We don't have a good picture of who's really in charge."

-- snip --

Rogers said he was concerned about al Qaeda's involvement with the Libya opposition.

"The number 3 guy in al Qaeda right now is Libyan. They have put a fair number of fighters into Iraq from Libya. So it is a place where al Qaeda is, [but] that doesn't mean this is an al Qaeda effort."

Number 3 is back yet again? What does it take to put that guy down for good? We've killed him four times already, most recently in June 2010:

As [Slate's] Mr. Noah noted at the time, at least four previous militants identified by American officials as the third-ranking member of Al Qaeda were captured or killed as part of the Bush administration’s effort to “decapitate” the network — Abu Zubaydah in March, 2002; Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in March, 2003; Abu Faraj al-Libbi in May, 2005; Hamza Rabia in December, 2005. Iran may also have had another former No. 3, Saif al-Adel, in custody since August 2003.

We have also repeatedly captured Number 3, but he just keeps getting away.

It does not surprise me that Number 3 is now a Libyan. We have built him up into a mythic figure, an elusive folk hero who frustrates our War on Terror. So of course he would go where the action is.

Number 3 is basically the Scarlet Pimpernel of our day. Like that original elusive hero:

We seek him here, we seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven?—Is he in hell?
That demmed, elusive Pimpernel.