Sadly, He Died From Natural Causes

It's much preferred they go to pieces. On the bright side, he's dead.

Al Qaeda planner Abu Obaidah al Masri, a main suspect in the 2005 London subway and bus bombings and a foiled 2006 plot to blow up passenger planes, is believed dead from natural causes, U.S. and British officials said on Wednesday.

"There is compelling reason to believe that Abu Obaidah is dead," a U.S. counterterrorism official said on condition of anonymity. McClatchy newspapers reported that Masri died of hepatitis in Pakistan.

The U.S. official said Masri appeared to have died of natural causes, and a British official said his death had been known to security sources for some time.

"He was a major operational figure," another U.S. official said of Masri, the nom de guerre of one of the least known of major al Qaeda figures.

The official confirmed that Masri was suspected in the plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic Ocean. The Washington Post in 2006 also said he was believed to be al Qaeda's conduit to British-Pakistani cells that carried out the July 7, 2005, public transit bombings in London. The bombs killed 56 people.

"He was someone ... who had ties to operations outside of the South Asia region. Al Qaeda lost something when this man died," the U.S. official said. However, he said, the organization does have a "regenerative capability."

Keith Olbermann is officially in mourning.