Claims that al Qaeda deputy posed as leather businessman in New Zealand
Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahri, posed as a businessman selling leather goods during visits to New Zealand to raise support for the al Qaeda terror network, it was claimed on Sunday.
Bin Laden’s biographer, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, said in interviews with the Australian press that Zawahri, thought to be a key planner of the September 11 attack, visited the country twice between 1992 and 1996, examining it as a possible safe haven.
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Mir said Zawahri travelled on false passports using non-Arabic names and, posing as a leather businessman, set up ‘offices’ in Auckland, as well as Moscow, Oslo and Geneva.
