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Bin Laden's new butchers
By Martin Chulov, Tel AvivSeptember 20th, 2004 AL-QA'IDA'S new torchbearers are on the march. The next generation of Islamist leaders is more determined, more ruthless and far more dangerous than its predecessors. And the world is just getting to know them. The chilling prophecy was delivered last week by a panel of the world's leading counter-terrorist experts, who have, since the events of 9/11, watched al-Qa'ida shift like sand dunes in a desert storm. "What they have in store for us is probably more than any of us could bear," one security official told a closed session of the Terrorism's Global Impact summit in Tel Aviv. The al-Qa'ida brand now extends far beyond its ubiquitous leader Osama bin Laden. The five men who carry on his ideology feel emboldened enough to make revolutionary calls of their own. First among them is Ayman el Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy and doctor, and the man who has for the past two years called most of al-Qa'ida's operational shots. Zawahiri has taken up the slack left by the arrest of a swath of mid-level organisers, in particular the group's operational chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was nabbed in Pakistan 18 months ago. It was Zawahiri's face that the world saw on television screens last week, days before the third anniversary of 9/11. And, providing he eludes capture, it will be Zawahiri we will continue to witness publicly trumpeting the aftermath of future strikes. Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-09-20 |
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