Could be another case for Bin Laden actually being dead. He’s not running things anymore and has not been involved in operations in over 2 years. Why would this be? Why would Zawahiri be taking the reigns? Cause Bin Laden is DEAD, people.
Osama bin Laden’s deputy has seized control of al-Qaeda and rebuilt the terror network into an organisation capable of launching complex terror attacks in Britain and America.
Intelligence officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that bin Laden has not chaired a meeting of al-Qaeda’s ruling shura, or council, in more than two years.
Instead, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s nominal number two, is credited with rebuilding the terror network since the Afghan war in 2001.Intelligence sources in Washington have revealed that Western spy chiefs were recently forced to revise dramatically their view that al-Qaeda was so depleted that it was little more than a cheerleader for extremists.
Instead, British and American intelligence agencies believe that a network of terrorist cells, funded, controlled and supported by al-Qaeda’s central command, based in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, is in place again.
Al-Zawahiri’s task has been made easier because not a single prominent al-Qaeda leader has been captured since March 2006, nearly 18 months ago.
Citing information gathered by Pakistani intelligence, Bruce Hoffman, a member of the US Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Centre, said: “Bin Laden is the brand name but al-Zawahiri is the grand -strategist.
“He has taken control of al-Qaeda. Despite the new video [released this month], bin Laden has ceased to be a major force in decision-making and propaganda effort.” A window on the changing outlook on al-Qaeda came in July when a US government National Intelligence Estimate, concluded that the organisation had “regrouped”.Prof Hoffman said: “The idea that they were just a franchise for ideology was simply not true. While we were saying that al-Qaeda had been diminished and degraded, it was just wishful thinking.”
What forced the re-evaluation was the plot last August to blow up 10 aircraft en route from Britain to the US. “That sent shock waves through the intelligence -agencies of both countries,” said Prof Hoffman. “It was incontrovertible evidence that al-Qaeda was back, and that it was prepared to go after hard targets.”
A former British intelligence officer said that al-Qaeda under al-Zawahiri’s direction had promoted a new generation of leaders to the highest echelons of the shura, a group of about 20 to 30 leaders who govern operations, finance and religious fatwahs.
“The guys on the subs’ bench are now in the first XI,” he said. “They have stopped using mobile phones to talk to each other, which has made it more difficult to find them.”
An American intelligence official told The Washington Post last week: “They do appear to meet with a frequency that enables them to act as an organisation and not just as a loose bunch of guys.”
When bin Laden marked the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by releasing two videos, it highlighted the key role of Adam Gadahn, an American widely credited with helping to write the script.
Gadahn, 28, an Islamic convert from California, is the first American charged with treason since 1952 and has appeared in dozens of al-Qaeda videos as “Azzam the American”.But it is al-Zawahiri – who has quadrupled the number of videos produced each year to more than 60 – who is credited with stepping up the propaganda effort.
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- Bin Laden spotted in Afghanistan?
- Musharraf: We are not pursuing Bin Laden
- Taliban commander: Bin Laden Alive and well
- Leahy: No need to interrogate Bin Laden
- Bin Laden more popular than Musharraf in Pakistan
- Muslim support for Bin Laden and suicide bombers falls, but remains high
