ABCNews is reporting that Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command and its most vocal representative these days, may have been killed by a CIA drone in the border region of Pakistan. Let's hope that these reports turn out to be true. We haven't seen a video from bin Laden in more than a year and instead have seen al-Zawahiri taking the lead. No one really knows why this is - bin Laden may be too remote to really lead al-Qaeda, he may be dead, or something else - but it seems that a dead al-Zawahiri would be a boon to the war on terrorism. Certainly al-Qaeda has moved on to become more than just its leaders, but if the reports of his death prove accurate, this would be a huge step forward against terrorism - unlike our current efforts in the terrorist factory that is Iraq.
**UPDATE**: It seems that we may not have gotten al-Zawahiri. Drat. Pakistan of course is declaring its outrage for this attack on Pakistani territory, but they knew this was going on. Hopefully we'll get him, and bin Laden, next time.
Speaking of assasinations, there's a good piece in the SAIS review about the rise and fall and rise of assasination as a political tool.
http://www.saisreview.org/PDF/25.1thomas.pdf
Posted by: John Ziegler | January 18, 2006 at 01:18 PM
I thank thee that I am none of the wheels of power but I am one with the living creatures that are crushed by it.
Posted by: red bottoms | October 13, 2011 at 12:16 PM
i assure you he's hiding somewhere. why not stop attacking someone else's country.
Posted by: writers job | January 18, 2012 at 11:44 AM