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Since many people (myself included) are curious as to who exactly al-Qaeda's top leadership is and there is no truly definitive list, I've been forced to create my own ever since War on Terror first began using various news articles and counter-terrorism reports as my guide. This list, like most of my other ramblings, can be accessed on my blog, which you can get to by looking at my profile. Allow for alternate spellings of many of the names and keep in mind that it does NOT include the names of the leadership of affiliate Wahhabi terrorist groups like the GIA, Salafist Group for Call and Combat, Abu Sayyaf, MILF, Jemaah Islamiyyah, et al. This is only the names of those individuals within al-Qaeda's direct hierarchy.

Anywhos, here's who they are:

SHURA MAJLIS

These are the first-tier guys and the actual members of al-Qaeda's board of directors. Any one of them is a possible successor to Osama bin Laden.

Name: Osama bin Laden
Function: Emir-General
Status: Unknown, possibly killed at Tora Bora in December 2001

Name: Ayman al-Zawahiri
Function: Second-in-Command/Gamaa al-Islamiyyah Emir-General
Status: At Large

Name: Mohammed Atef
Function: Supreme Military Commander
Status: Dead

Name: Abu Zubaydah
Function: Global Operations Chief
Status: Apprehended

Name: Rifa Ahmed Taha
Function: Egyptian Islamic Jihad Secretary-General
Status: At Large

Name: Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Function: Middle East Operations Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Abu Musab Zarqawi
Function: Former Southeast Asian Operations Chief, currently Global Operations Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Abu Zubair al-Haili
Function: North African Operations Chief
Status: Apprehended

Name: Tawfiq Attash Khallad
Function: South Asian Operations Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Abu Mohammed al-Masri
Function: East African Operations Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Zaid Khayr
Function: Unknown
Status: At Large

Name: Mohammed Salah
Function: Senior Explosive Expert, Central African Operations Chief
Status: Dead

Name: Tariq Anwar al-Sayyid Ahmad
Function: Balkans Operations Chief
Status: Dead

Name: Saif al-Adel
Function: Former second-in-command of al-Qaeda's military, currently Supreme Military Commander
Status: At Large

Name: Amin al-Haq
Function: Shura Majlis Security Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Abu Hafs the Mauritanian (aka "Mr. Mauritania")
Function: Theologian
Status: Formerly believed dead, now believed to be at large

TERRORIST TRAINING CAMP COMMANDERS

These are the guys who supervise the training, indoctrination, and assignment of al-Qaeda operatives worldwide. They also seperate all recruits into four categories: mujahideen (foot soldiers), shahideen (suicide bombers), takfiri (sleepers), and ansar (support personnel). Each category has its own version of the "Afghan Guide to Jihad," al-Qaeda's training manual (all four versions combined are roughly 3,000 pages in length) that provides instruction to recruits for just about any situation imaginable.

Name: Sheikh Ibn al-Liby
Function: Terrorist Training Camp Commander
Status: Apprehended

Name: Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi
Function: Terrorist Training Camp Commander
Status: Apprehended

THE FINANCIAL COMMITTEE

This is the committee that oversees al-Qaeda's legitimate and illegitimate businesses, charities, drug smuggling, ect.

Name: Sheikh Saeed (Mustafa Ahmed al-Hisawi?)
Function: Head of the Financial Committee
Status: At Large

Name: Mohammed Jamal Khalifa
Function: Financier and envoy to the Saudi Bin Laden Group
Status: At Large

Name: Abu Jafar al-Jaziri
Function: Financier
Status: Dead

Name: Abu Salah al-Yemeni
Function: Financier
Status: Dead

Name: Abdul Rahim Riyadh
Function: Financier
Status: Apprehended

Name: Ahmed Saeed al-Kadr
Function: Financier
Status: At Large

Name: Hamza al-Qatari
Function: Financier
Status: Dead

MEDIA COMMITTEE

This the group that manages and updates the websites, oversees the E-Jihad, and is responsible for all statements by the al-Qaeda leadership. Not a lot of declassified info on this one.

Name: Suleiman Abu Ghaith
Function: Spokesman
Status: At Large

Name: Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri
Function: Spokesman/Recruiter
Status: At Large

Name: Sheikh Omar al-Bakri
Function: Spokesman
Status: At Large

Name: Sheikh Abu Qatada al-Philisteeni
Function: Spokesman
Status: Apprehended

WMD COMMITTEE

Al-Qaeda employs a number of Muslim scientists of various nationalities to assist it in procuring as well as manufacturing the necessary materials to create chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons.

Name: Midhat Mursi
Function: Top scientist for nuclear weapons research
Status: At Large

Name: Abu Khabab
Function: Biological and chemical weapons expert
Status: At Large

Name: Assadalah Abdul Rahman
Function: Weapons of Mass Destruction Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Abu Bashir al-Yemeni
Function: Unknown
Status: At Large

MILITARY COMMITTEE

These are the definite guys to watch out for. Most have a great deal of combat experience either from serving in Arab militaries or else from fighting in Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, or the Philippines.

Name: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Function: Martyrdom Battalion Commander-in-Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Abd al-Aziz al-Jamal
Function: Unknown
Status: At Large

Name: Bilal bin Marwan
Function: Arabian Sea Commander-in-Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Saqar al-Jadawi
Function: Unknown
Status: At Large

Name: Mohammed Omar Abdel Rahman
Function: Military Commander
Status: At Large

Name: Ahmed Omar Abdel Rahman
Function: Military Commander
Status: Apprehended

Name: Abu Walid
Function: Military Commander
Status: At Large

Name: Abdel Hari al-Iraqi
Function: Afghanistan Commander-in-Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Abu Leith al-Lybi
Function: Algeria/Libya Commander-in-Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Shamil Basayev
Function: Chechnya Commander-in-Chief
Status: At Large

Name: Amir ibn al-Khattab
Function: Dagestan Commander-in-Chief
Status: Dead

Name: Hanbali
Function: Indonesia Commander-in-Chief
Status: At Large

I should mention that there probably a lot more of these guys that we don't know about, but this is the best run-down that I've been able to create.

And yes, I am aware that there are more than twenty names on the list.