In early January 2009, he is approached by members of the local Al-Qaeda branch, as other reporters were before. Al-Qaeda groups in Arabia had been weakened for years. Their top members had been in Guantánamo and in Yemeni prisons. But since, the organisations’ leaders had either escaped or been set free. The Yemeni Nasir al-Wihayshi and the Saudi Said al-Shihri merged the Yemeni and Saudi affiliates of Al-Qaeda into a new entity: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. They wanted to grant an interview to the press to announce this event.