Zawahiri set up bin Laden for Death, Ex-SEAL Says

Al-Qaida's current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, set up his boss Osama bin Laden to be killed, a former U.S. Navy SEAL says.

Zawahiri is believed to have repeatedly sent a courier -- whom the U.S. had already interrogated and turned -- to bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The information is from the forthcoming book, SEAL Target Geronimo, by former SEAL Chuck Pfarrer.

Zawahiri, 59, was elected to command al-Qaida a mere six weeks after bin Laden was killed in the May 2 SEAL raid. Pfarrer cites testimony from U.S. servicemen who participated in the operation.

Despite knowing that this operative was blown, Zawahiri used Abu Ahmed al Kuwaiti to make repeated trips to Bin Laden's compound, says the book, Based on this accumulation of information, one can draw conclusion that it was Zawahiri who led the U.S. to bin Laden's hiding place in Abbottabad, accomplishing this through a complex and persistent series of lapses in security.

Zawahiri had several advantages over his boss. Besides an innate viciousness, Zawahiri could speak and read English. He was an avid consumer of American news about al-Qaida. Moving between his own first-provided safe houses, Zawahiri had his messages delivered in Abu Ahmed al Kuwaiti's fantastically painted four-wheel drive truck. The vehicle and its frequent destination soon attracted the attention of American intelligence, writes Pfarrer in the book.

SEAL Target Geronimo will be published by New York-based St. Martin's Press and is expected to be released in a few days. It will, in addition, contain an account of the death of bin Laden that varies greatly from the official U.S. story.