US President Donald Trump was not aware of al-Qaeda’s terrorist leaders and hadn’t assessed their danger when he ordered the liquidation of Hamza bin Laden, US intelligence sources revealed.
Hamza is the son of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and was killed in 2018.
Sources said Trump ordered killing Hamza instead of Ayman al-Zawahri, the organization's most dangerous figure.
He wanted the CIA to kill Hamza over other high-priority targets, US security sources said.
When intelligence officials briefed Trump on the most worrisome terrorist threats during the first two years of his tenure, they regularly mentioned the names of the senior terrorist figures the CIA was working hardest to find and kill, including Zawahri.
But he was more interested in a young and less influential figure much farther down the list, according to two people familiar with the briefings, because he recognized the name.
“He would say, ‘I’ve never heard of any of these people. What about Hamza bin Laden?’” NBC News quoted one former official as saying.
“That was the only name he knew,” a Pentagon official added.
“The President’s highest priority is keeping Americans safe,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“He and his administration have successfully targeted the most dangerous and deadly terrorists in the world in order to protect the American people, including Hamza bin Laden, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Qassem Soleimani, and Qasim al-Rimi.”
“These and countless other measures that have removed dozens of high value targets exemplify this administration's resolve to defeat terrorism.”
Despite intelligence assessments showing the greater dangers posed by Zawahri and the unlikelihood Hamza was in the immediate line of succession, the president thought differently.
He regularly demanded updates on Hamza and insisted on accelerating efforts to go after him, sources stressed.
Few if any counterterrorism experts argue that Hamza was not a lawful target. He was urging attacks on Americans on behalf of a terrorist group with which the US is at war, and he was seen by experts as a possible future al-Qaeda leader.
However, the CIA assessment at the time was that he was not next in the line of succession and was not a top threat.
