The Death of Al-Qa’ida?

Only the other day I was writing on a thread about the recent death of Al-Qa’ida’s number two Abu Yahya al-Libi and during the thread I stated that I believed that soon the Core of Al-Qa’ida would be soon gone.

This inspired me to go and do some research into who might be the next number two, when I came across this fantastic article by Peter Bergen, who has wrote extensively on Al-Qa’ida and who I regard as one of the best authors on the topic.

In this article Bergen points out that Al-Qa’ida as we knew it before 9/11 now effectively no longer exists. He points out that under the Obama administration 15 senior Al-Qa’iad leaders have been killed and under bush 16 were neutralized leaving only one senior Al-Qa’ida leader of any significance remaining, Al-Zawahiri. Further to this he also points out that Al-Qa’ida has not successfully struck the west since the 2005 London bombings however make it clear that other groups such as Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula still represent a threat to national security.

This article points out that since the war on terror started the fear of terrorism that Americans have is now almost irrational. I personally disagree with this assessment as Bergen basis this on the fact that despite repeated attempts to strike at America since 9/11 the terrorists have failed. I would argue that as long as they are planning and attempting attacks they remain a real threat that people should be vigilant of and although core Al-Qa’ida is almost gone, its ideology and franchise groups remain a threat.

It is my belief that the Al-Qa’ida that committed the attacks of 9/11 no longer exists and has not for quite some time, Jason burke also supports this view. The core of Al-Qa’ida has lost all its leadership, members, finance and it would also appear its operational capabilities which to may says it no longer exits as it did before 9/11 That being said however the ideology of Al-Qa’ida will life on and it is only a matter of time before we see another attack against the west that bares the hallmarks of this twisted ideology.

Anyway, for those of you who are interested I have lined the article below.
And now, Only one senior Al Qaeda leader is left

Give it a couple of months and there will be a new number 2 to go after. After all he is the fourth number two so far. Atiyah Abd al-Rahman last August, Abu Qaswarah in 2008, and Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi was arrested in 2006. So who is not able to count past two when it comes to Al-Qaeda?

reply to post by buster2010

. Atiyah Abd al-Rahman last August, Abu Qaswarah in 2008, and Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi was arrested in 2006.

I think you are talking about Al-Qa’ida in the land of the two rivers (Al-Qa’ida in Iraq), I am referring to core Al-Qa’ida, that is to say the original Al-Qa’ida responsible for the attacks of 9/11, not any of their franchise groups.

With the dates you are talking about at that time Al-Zawahiri was number two, I know that the name Abu Qaswarah rings a bell and I think he was Al-Qa’ida in Iraq, not so much core Al-Qa’ida. This idea of different branches of Al-Qa’ida dose create quite a lot of confusion.