[NEWS] Al Qaeda Claims Rashid Rauf Is Alive

The Australian reports:

The alleged al-Qa'ida mastermind of the plot to bomb trans-Atlantic aircraft, Briton Rashid Rauf, is still alive, his lawyer claimed last night, amid reports that the terrorist organisation's leaders are being forced to flee to new hideouts in Pakistan because of US unmanned drone attacks.[...]
"We don't believe that this story is true. It's a fake story," lawyer Hashmat Ali Habib told the BBC world service.

"We still believe that my client Rashid is alive."

He said that requests for Rauf's body to be returned to his family -- a hallowed principle in Islam -- had gone unanswered.