The killing of Osama bin Laden comes at a time when the “Emir of al-Qaida” is nothing else but a symbol and the “base” has already widely spread its franchise. The networks in Yemen, which are the strongest, as well as those in Somalia, are working independently; they’re gathering their own funds and establishing targets on their own. The Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa didn’t really give al-Qaida any chance, and the jihadis received a huge blow when they found themselves in the dark.
Propaganda has always been a big part of the organization, and it eventually turned Osama into the biggest enemy of the most powerful country on the planet — this, of course, with the relentless help of Bush Jr., who always took Osama so seriously. The emir loved this role especially because, let’s not forget, during the time when the Afghans were fighting the Soviets, bin Laden was the hero of the Saudi people and the friend of the Americans, who were strongly financing the conflict.
Osama made Bush’s campaign successful, and now he makes Obama’s stay in the president’s chair warmer. However, whoever believes that terrorists had to be tortured in Romania, Poland or Guantanamo for them to confess the whereabouts of bin Laden is extremely naïve. It is like having to torture New Yorkers so that they confess where they stashed the Empire State Building.
Living in a three-story fortress (a real skyscraper in the area) 30 kilometers from the Military Academy in Abbottabad and never being seen — not even by the famous Pakistani secret service (ISI or Inter-Services Intelligence, which since 1980 has been in charge of Afghan problems, namely the distribution of funds and CIA logistics to the mujahideen) — is a lame story, as lame as the one in which bin Laden supposedly used one of his wives as a human shield when the Navy SEAL Team Six stormed in.
Osama bin Laden’s time has already passed. In the same way that his killing meant a real manna for Barack Hussein Obama, it represented a chance for bin Laden to die honorably as a jihad martyr. Still, his right hand man, his possible successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is still alive. The most notorious al-Qaida leader after Osama and third on the most wanted list, also known as “The Doctor,” enjoys his share of publicity. Apparently, he really is a doctor, a surgeon, to be more exact (however, it’s hard to believe that he treated bin Laden of renal failure — with a Kalashnikov bayonet perhaps).
Al-Sahab, al-Qaida’s “media department,” also known as “The Cloud,” has already offered al-Zawahiri the chance to make public the recorded tapes in which he heavily mocks the president of America. And if no one pays attention to The Doctor, he will probably remain in Pakistan, where he is now, for a long time to come.
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