Al Qaeda has named a replacement to its killed leader Osama bin Laden — and it’s no surprise but does clarify Al Qaeda after bin Laden:
Al-Qaeda named Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant, as leader after the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan last month.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon, has for years been al- Qaeda’s public face, with video and audio messages threatening attacks against Western targets and attempting to turn Muslim populations against their governments.
“We ask God for this to be a new era for al-Qaeda under the leadership of Ayman Zawahiri, an era that will purify Muslim land of every tyrant and infidel,” al-Qaeda said in a statement posted on a website frequently used by the group.
For years, intelligence officials have said that bin Laden, isolated by U.S. efforts to track him, had ceded operational responsibilities to Zawahiri. The U.S. government is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to Zawahiri, who is believed to be hiding in southwestern Pakistan or Afghanistan, according to White House intelligence adviser John Brennan.
What does this mean? The Guardian’s Jason Burke:
It is tempting to answer “not a lot”. The real seismic change in al-Qaida’s evolution is the loss of the charismatic and extraordinarily well-known Osama bin Laden. After such an event the choice of successor is relatively trivial.
But there are various points to be made.
Firstly, the fact that Zawahiri has actually taken charge shows that the internal structures of the organisation founded in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1988 are still functioning. Zawahiri is a veteran Egyptian veteran militant who had been Bin Laden’s close associate for nearly 20 years and the obvious contender to take over. We don’t have the details but the appointment of Zawahiri must have been approved by a shura, or council, of senior militants. They may have met but it would have been extremely dangerous and is unlikely. They may have used some other less perilous way of consulting or at least making their voices heard. Either way the system appears to have worked. The core al-Qaida group may splinter in the coming years – it almost certainly will – but not just yet.
Secondly, the appointment of Zawahiri shows the continuing importance to the central leadership of al-Qaida of their various regional affiliates. Particularly with Bin Laden gone, the hard core of 30 or 40 senior militants, confined to western Pakistan in all probability, need al-Qaida’s scattered “network of networks” more than ever. Indeed, they need groups in Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere more than the affiliate groups need them. Several of these various “franchises” came out in favour of Zawahiri as al-Qaida emir very soon after the death of their leader. The choice of Zawahiri over younger figures such as the Egyptian Saif al-Adel or the Libyan Atiyah Abd al-Rahman (believed to be based in Pakistan) in part reflects their increased influence at the centre.
Thirdly, al-Zawahiri’s appointment is unlikely to do much to boost al-Qaida’s negligible popular support in the Islamic world. He is old – 60 this year – which won’t help in an Arab world where the authority of older generations is being questioned as never before. He is Egyptian, which could exacerbate existing splits between Libyan and other factions and those from his homeland within the leadership. He is irascible and argumentative, which won’t help bring in new recruits – or endear him to old ones.
Here are some selected quotes and statements from Al Qaeda’s announcement.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.