A short time ago, the US State Dept Rewards for Justice program announced a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the identification and location of key al-Qa'ida leader Hamza bin Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, better known as Hamza bin Laden, a son of Usama bin Laden.

Subscribers are reminded that on multiple occasions over the past few years,  AlertsUSA Threat Journal has warned of the threats made by Hamza bin Laden and the growing urgency of the US and other western nations to identify his whereabouts.

Hamza bin Laden is the son of deceased former al-Qa’ida leader Usama bin Laden and is emerging as a leader in the al-Qa’ida franchise. He has released audio and video messages on the Internet, calling on his followers to launch attacks against the United States and its Western allies, and he has threatened attacks against the United States in revenge for the May 2011 killing of his father by U.S. military forces.

Hamza married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker and a mastermind of al-Qa’ida’s September 2001 airline terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Usama bin Laden’s letters seized from the Abbottabad, Pakistan compound where bin Laden was killed indicate that he was grooming Hamza to replace him as leader of al-Qa’ida.

Al-Qa’ida was established in 1988. The group helped finance, recruit, transport, and train fighters for the Afghan resistance against the former Soviet Union. In 1996, al-Qa’ida issued a declaration of war against the United States.

Al-Qa’ida and its supporters conducted three bombings targeting U.S. troops in Aden in December 1992, and claimed responsibility for shooting down U.S. helicopters and killing U.S. soldiers in Somalia in 1993. Al-Qa’ida also carried out the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing up to 300 individuals and injuring more than 5,000. In October 2000, al-Qa’ida conducted a suicide attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen with an explosive-laden boat, killing 17 U.S. Navy sailors and injuring 39 others.

On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qa’ida members hijacked and crashed four U.S. commercial jets – two into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon, and one into a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 civilians, police, and first responders were killed. The dead included U.S. citizens and foreign nationals from at least 77 countries.