Thursday, October 4, 2012

I Guess Al Qaeda Is Back

Reports of Al Qaeda's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated -- Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Foreign Policy

The terrorist group may be headless, but its tentacles still pack a mean punch.

Al Qaeda is returning to the shadows. The experiment by al-Shabab, al Qaeda's Somali affiliate, of attempting to govern a broad area in Somalia's south officially came to a close this weekend when its fighters fled from their final stronghold, the port city of Kismayo. Its fate in this regard mirrors that of the jihadi group's Yemeni affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which also saw its more limited experiment in governance draw to a close in the middle of the year. In contrast, the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens suggests the group's North African affiliate, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), is taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to hone its capabilities.

Read more ....

My Comment: Even Fareed Zakaria is concerned. What's my take ... Osama Bin Laden and many of his commanders and followers are dead, but Al Qaeda's philosophy still resonates with millions of Muslims, and as long as that ideology holds for so many .... Al Qaeda and it's affiliates will be with us for a very very long time.

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