Posted on 04/30/2012 12:24:31 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
Ever wish you could escape your troubles by changing your name and moving away? Well, according to President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser at the White House, Osama bin Laden knew the feeling.
Hunkered down in his Abbottabad compound, bin Laden anguished as al-Qaida suffered "disaster after disaster," encouraged its operatives to flee to areas "away from aircraft photography and bombardment" and even thought about changing the name of his notorious international terrorist network, John Brennan said in a speech on Monday.
Brennan, Obama's Assistant for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, told the World Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington that bin Laden's pessimism was on full display in documents seized from his fortified home in the Pakistani garrison city. West Point's Combating Terrorism Center will display the papers this week.
Bin Laden worried about recruiting terrorist talent as U.S. strikes killed some of his veterans, fretting that "the rise of lower leaders who are not as experienced" would "lead to the repeat of mistakes," said Brennan. Al-Qaida's American-born public relations officer, Adam Gadahn, "admitted that they were now seen 'as a group that does not hesitate to take people's money by falsehood, detonating mosques [and] spilling the blood of scores of people,'" Brennan said in his prepared remarks.
Bin Laden himself "agreed that 'a large portion' of Muslims around the world 'have lost their trust' in al-Qaida," he continued.
"So damaged is al-Qaida's image that bin Laden even considered changing its name. And one of the reasons? As bin Laden said himself, U.S. officials 'have largely stopped using the phrase 'the war on terror' in the context of not wanting to provoke Muslims,'" said the U.S. official.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Must not have been a very big crowd.
I wonder if it was named for World Wilson, our 28th President and first internationalist, America second slob to occupy the White House.
His first choice was to rename Al Qaida “Coca-Cola”. He was even more depressed when he found out that was already taken. So he then wanted to try “Mountain Dew” but that, too was taken. Then he thought of “Patriotic Democrats” and he was going to go with that because no one else is using it. Then he got killed. The End.
True story...A guy in Pennsylvania is named “Al Caida” in the phone book. Right after 9/11 he was getting death threats.
League of Extraordinary Beards
iQaeda
Kandahar Ardent Brotherhood Of Orthodox Muslims (KABOOM)
Bad News Beards
Yes We Quran!
“Weird Al” Qaeda
Truly, Polygamy is it's own punishment...
As for the new name, ACORN is too generic and not ethnic enough.
Maybe Al ACORN...
Can I haz Kaboom?
Hmmmmm?
Hope and Change
Together We Thrive
Winning The Future
Forward
BOHICA (Bunch Of Highly Incompetent Complete Assholes)
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