Bin Laden's No. 2 is Al Qaeda's new chief

The LA Times ^ | June 16, 2011 | Ken Dilanian

[Pinkbell]

In July 2005, Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman Zawahiri sent a long letter to the group's lead operative in Iraq, urging him to tone down his activities.

In Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi had been orchestrating suicide bombings of Shiite Muslim shrines. His followers frequently videotaped the beheading of hostages. Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who helped organize the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and other violence, told Zarqawi he was going too far.

"We are in a media battle, in a race for the hearts and minds" of Muslims, wrote Zawahiri, who was named Thursday to succeed Osama bin Laden as Al Qaeda's leader. And most Muslims "will never find [such tactics] palatable."

Zarqawi didn't heed the counsel, and a year later he was killed in a U.S. airstrike, aided by some of his growing number of enemies. If the attempt to rein him in revealed Zawahiri as a canny strategist, it also illustrated how little control Al Qaeda's leaders had over their affiliates even then.

Zawahiri, who has a $25-million American bounty on his head, will be looking to launch a major strike to prove himself and avenge Bin Laden, say U.S. officials and terrorism experts. But he may find the organization even more difficult to manage.

Al Qaeda and its offshoots have further splintered, Zawahiri lacks Bin Laden's charisma, and the U.S. drone campaign in Pakistan, where Zawahiri is presumed to be hiding, will make it more difficult for him to communicate, said Daniel Byman, director of research at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, a Washington think tank.

[Bobalu]

Bin Laden's No. 2 is Al Qaeda's new chief

What a great headline :-)

[DeaconRed]

Calling Seal Team 6. . . . . . . .

[CitizenUSA]

Kinda hard to call in Seal Team 6 when the Pakistani informants who helped lead us to Osama are in Pakistani custody. Nice job, Obama. While you were crowing about killing Osama, you no doubt helped reveal the fact that we received help from said informants.

[21twelve]

Posted on FR last week, a sign board that said:

Being a terrorist is like a King Salmon.
Life is good, until the SEALS show up!

[alloysteel]

Can you say, “Paint a target on him”?

Because this person is now doomed.

No significant change in status.

[SunkenCiv]

Free pun.

[norwaypinesavage]

"the attempt to rein [Zarqawi] in revealed Zawahiri as a canny strategist"

canny strategist??? It certainly doesn't take much to impress the editors at the LA Times, at least if you are a Muslim.

[BuffaloJack]

Ayman Zawahiri has always been the head of al-Qaeda and Osama bibLaden has always been the pocketbook and figurehead.
Zawahiri’s only change has been to now become the figurehead too
This scumbag needs killing.

[TheOldLady]

Do not read this headline.

[Slings and Arrows]

Do not read this headline.

Eh? Seems perfectly factual to me.

[Slings and Arrows]

[Tijeras_Slim]

If it was the comapny I work for they’d bring in somebody from Hamas or Hezbollah because they never promote from within.

[TheOldLady]

I asked you not to read it!!

[TheOldLady]

Pun is in prison? Been banned? What?

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Pun is in prison?

Poor pun.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Do not read this headline.

Sorry. I accidentally read it.

[TheOldLady]

It’s okay for you to read it.

Slings and Arrows is the one who shouldn’t. ;-p

[TheOldLady]

Yeah, free pun.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

---

To: TheOldLady

Free me! Free me! Free me!!!!!!!

19½ posted on 6/17/2010 4:02:35 PM EST by Pun (I just wanna be free!)

[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

---

To: TheOldLady

Lol. Should we start a free pun campaign?

Free me! Free me! Free me!!!!!!!

Lol. Should we start a free pun campaign?