From Reuters, with thanks to Twostellas:
RIYADH, Dec 8 (Reuters) – The leader of the al Qaeda attack on the U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia had been jailed for “extremist ideology” and once worked for the kingdom’s austere morality police, local newspapers said on Wednesday.
Saudi dailies said Fayez Awad al-Jihani was the head of an al Qaeda cell in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, where the brazen daylight attack on the U.S. consulate took place on Monday.
Jihani was one of four attackers who died in the assault. A fifth was wounded and arrested. Saudi authorities identified three of the assailants, none of whom were on a list of top wanted militants….
Leading Saudi newspaper Okaz quoted sources close to Jihani’s family as saying he had been jailed for four months “due to extremist ideology”, was freed in October 2003 and disappeared three months after that. It said rumours surfaced then that he had gone to the western Iraqi city of Falluja.