How Al Qaeda Has Changed In The Past Few Years

Al Qaeda In The Age Of Obama -- Con Coughlin

In the absence of American leadership in the Arab world, jihadist groups are filling the vacuum.

While the Obama administration continues to prevaricate over its response to the killing of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi in September, al Qaeda has wasted no time in its attempt to establish a foothold in post-Gadhafi Libya.

In the past few weeks, intelligence officials say they have identified an upsurge in al Qaeda activity as the terrorist organization seeks to link up with newly formed Islamist affiliates in Libya. Al Qaeda has a long history of basing its terrorist operations in failed Islamic states, starting with Afghanistan in the late 1990s. More recently it has established fiefs in Somalia, Yemen and northern Mali, among others, and is seeking to take advantage of political turmoil in Iraq, Syria and Jordan.

Now the terror group is working to exploit endemic lawlessness in Libya, where an estimated 1,700 armed groups have emerged in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Gadhafi regime last year.

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My Comment: I concur .... this is not Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda but something else .... and potentially just as dangerous.

Update: Al Qaeda expansion in Libya part of long-term terror vision? -- Catherine Herridge, FOX News

Update #2: The resurgence of al Qaeda in Iraq ... in Iraq, and Syria, and Jordan, and Libya and ... -- Long war Journal