Abu Hamza al-Muhajer
AGE: About 41
OCCUPATION: Chief of al-Qaeda in Iraq
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0
PRO: The man who took over after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an air strike last June has the clear endorsement of bin Laden, and close ties to al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri. An explosives expert, al-Muhajer has long run al-Qaeda operations in southern Iraq. His key mission -- keeping the Iraq civil war going by stoking sectarian hatred -- doesn't take too much effort and provides rich strategic returns for al-Qaeda.
CON: He's a Sunni terrorizing a Shi'ite-dominated country whose equally violent militias want his head at least as much as do the Americans. And al-Muhajer seems to lack the global ambitions of his predecessor; his operations so far appear to be restricted to Iraq.