NEW AL-QAEDA BOSS ‘IS WORSE THAN BIN LADEN’
Fears of renewed attacks on West
AL-QAEDA could become even more deadly than when it carried out the 9-11 attacks – under a new chief known as “the Sword of Revenge.”
Bloodthirsty Saif al-Adel is tipped to replace Ayman Zawahiri, who has led the terror group since Osama bin Laden’s death in 2011.
He aims to recruit Islamic State fighters and could unleash a wave of atrocities in the West, having been involved in every al-Qaeda attack for three decades.
Col Richard Kemp, who monitored Saif in the 2000s for the UK, told the Daily Mirror he is likely to be “more effective” than either bin Laden or Zawahiri, who is now also thought to be dead.
The terror expert said: “He is highly likely to be leader as he is hugely respected among al-Qaeda but, crucially, also among Islamic State.
“He could entice members of ISIS to join al-Qaeda or cause some kind of fusion between the two. He’s an intelligent, strategic thinker and al-Qaeda has been in the doldrums under Zawahiri. “He would know the place to make an impact is not the Middle East... he would look at Europe and the US.” British and US spies have been tracking Saif, 60, for years and former FBI terror expert Ali Soufan has said he may be “the third Emir of al-Qaeda”. He is on the FBI’s most wanted list with a $10million (around £7m) bounty on his head, over the 1998 embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which claimed 224 lives. Saif also led bin Laden’s “Black Guard” close protection unit in Afghanistan and a person who knew him then said he was always “the least affected by deaths of innocent civilians”. Egyptian Saif introduced Islamic State founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and 9-11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to bin Laden. Col Kemp said that he is “probably” the top figure in al-Qaeda now. And he warned: “His importance is even greater and more dangerous.”
WHAT was that about wanting to be a Paperback Writer? Paul McCartney is finally releasing his version of an autobiography at 78.
The book includes the lyrics of 154 songs written by the legend, from his earliest boyhood compositions, through The Beatles and Wings to the present.
Each is used as a starting point to tell the story of his life and art, complete with handwritten early drafts as well as photos and letters.
Announcing the book, called The Lyrics, Sir Paul said: “More often than I can count, I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right. The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs.
“I know that some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks. What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life.”
It is the first time definitive texts of the lyrics have been set out, and tells of the people and places that inspired them – and what he thinks of them now.
He said: “I hope that what I’ve written will show people something about my songs and my life which they haven’t seen before. I’ve tried to say something about how the music happens and what it means to me and I hope what it may mean to others.”
The songs are arranged alphabetically for a “kaleidoscopic rather than chronological account”, the publishers said. Editor Paul Muldoon said: “Based on conversations I had with Paul McCartney over a five-year period, these commentaries are as close to an autobiography as we may ever come.
“His insights into his own artistic process confirm a notion at which we had but guessed – that Paul McCartney is a major literary figure who draws 1977 Recording with Wings
upon and extends, the long tradition of poetry in English.”
The book will be released in November, initially in the form of two hardback books housed in a slipcase.
Earlier this year McCartney admitted to being “a hoarder” – a habit that will have helped compile the book as it includes handwritten lyrics and other papers he has kept over the years.
A Beatles documentary film, Get Back, is out in August with unseen footage of the band from 1969.
The Lyrics: 1956 to present by Paul McCartney, will be released on November 2 by Allen Lane, costing £75.