Posted on 09/15/2007 6:35:14 PM PDT by blam
Bin Laden sidelined as al-Qaeda threat revives
By Tim Shipman in Washington Last Updated: 1:29am BST 16/09/2007
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.
Al-Qaeda leadership
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.
Adam Raisman, an analyst with the Search for International Terrorist Entities institute, which intercepts jihadi broadcasts, said: "The releases are getting more elaborate both in content and delivery.
"The old grainy video has been replaced by high-definition, near DVD-quality video. They are now issuing them in formats for cell phones."
Michael Scheuer, the head of the CIA's bin Laden unit between 1996 and 1999, warned that officials who "have concluded that there is no overt threat in bin Laden's new message" may be making a dangerous miscalculation.
The new powers that be in al-Qaeda, al-Zawahiri and Gadahn, had "fired a great number of warnings at the United States this year".
Nine years of outrages and war on terror
1998: Bomb attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania kill 200, injure 4,000.
2001: September 11 attacks in New York, worst in history, kill nearly 3,000.
2003: Capture of 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed leads to arrest or assassination of major al-Qaeda figures.
2003: President Bush says al-Qaeda inspires extremists but "is no longer a threat".
2004-6: Bin Laden's silence prompts rumours he is dead.
2006: Al-Qaeda plan to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners indicates he is still active.
2007: Ayman al-Zawahiri credited with reviving al-Qaeda. Bin Laden reappears in two videos.
He is taking a dirt nap.
“It was incontrovertible evidence that al-Qaeda was back, and that it was prepared to go after hard targets.”
Seems to me I read here that the latest Bin Laden tape had been debunked.
“It was incontrovertible evidence that al-Qaeda was back, and that it was prepared to go after hard targets.”
What BS. Anyone who considers airliners as “hard targets” hasn’t been through airport security lately.
This is no surprise.
If AQ is easily able to pass the torch of terror to new leaders, that is ominous.
When will America start knocking off these so called "religious" leaders? When?
He was worm food, now just worm poop.
BTW Osama is out for next week as well with a bad case of being dead. The Pres. won't announce it of course, since the dems will say "okay, the war on terror is over we got him. Let's quit."
That's my reading also.
Recruiting is so bad, they have a fake “al-Baghdadi” as their Iraqi representitive. The real Iraqis kept getting waxed, which was bad for morale. A fake can’t be killed. (Bin Laden, being dead, can’t be killed either.)
Congressman Billybob
This would further substantiate my claim that the videos of Gadahn are not designed for American and Western consumption.
Osam bin Laden is dead - - been saying so for two years - - this article ices it.
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.
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