Clues to Abu Ali's Al-Qaida Contacts in Saudi Arabia

The latest USDOJ filing in the case of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali offers tantalizing clues as to the alleged identity of his Al-Qaida contacts in Saudi Arabia.  According to the document:

"Between in or around September 2002 and on or about June 9, 2003, the defendant joined a clandestine al-Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia... The defendant discussed plans for assassinating President of the United States George W. Bush with a member of the al-Qaeda cell (identified in the Indictment as Coconspirator #2).  Specifically, the defendant and Coconspirator #2 discussed two options for assassinating the President: (1) an operation in which the defendant would get close enough to the President to shoot him on the street; and (2) an operation in which the defendant would detonate a car bomb... The government proffers that Coconspirator #2 later was killed in a shoot-out with Saudi law enforcement authorities in or around September 2003."

This last detail narrows the field considerably as to the identity of Co-Conspirator #2.  That September, there was only one shoot-out of note between Saudi security forces and Al-Qaida members wanted for their involvement in the May 2003 suicide bombings in Riyadh...

On September 23, 2003, Saudi forces attempted to raid the three-story housing complex of the King Fahd Hospital in Jizan (600 miles south of Riyadh) on the suspicion that it was being used as a base to plan upcoming Al-Qaida terrorist attacks in the Kingdom.  During the ensuing shootout, one Saudi policeman and three Al-Qaida militants were killed, including Zubayr al-Rimi (a.k.a. Sultan Jubran Sultan al-Qahtani).  At the time, al-Rimi was among Saudi Arabia's most wanted terrorist suspects and had served as a key lieutenant to other senior Al-Qaida operatives in the region.  Moreover, only days before his violent death in Jizan, the FBI had sent out a specific alert to state and local law enforcement about Zubayr al-Rimi, warning that he was wanted "in connection with possible threats against the United States."  In retrospect, it seems likely that Rimi's "possible threat against the United States" was a would-be plot to assassinate President George W. Bush with the assistance of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali.