So Who is Al-Qa`idah's Number 3? Take your guess. Today, not to my surprise, I saw news reports refer to Abu Hamzah Rabi`ah as the number of 3 of Al-Qa`idah. Does anybody scrutinize the propaganda claims of the US government? Do people keep tabs? Do they in the media at least compare notes before they are fed government lines that they reproduce verbatim with the faithfulness not seen since the last book by Bob Woodward? Abu Hamzah is NOT number 3. And did you forget that the US government in the past claimed that Khalid Shaykh Muhammad was number 3? Did they not claim that Abu Layth Al-Libi was number 3? Did they not claim that Abu Zubaydah was number 3? All these claims were in fact made. And how could Abu Hamzah be number three when he was an aide to Abu Layth Al-Libi? I personally think that these numbers do not mean much. There is no rigid ranking as in a corporation in Al-Qa`idah. But if I were to designate a number three, it would be not Abu Hamzah but Sayf Al-`Adl, who is still at large (most probably in Iran).