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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/zawahiri-named-qaeda-chief-statement-065853988.html

Al-Qaeda names Zawahiri to succeed bin Laden

Al-Qaeda names Ayman al-Zawahiri as its new chief to succeed the slain Osama bin … Al-Qaeda on Thursday named Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahiri to succeed slain leader Osama bin Laden and vowed no let-up in its deadly "jihad" against arch-foes the United States and Israel. The United States immediately dismissed the appointment saying Zawahiri, the group's long-time number two, lacks the leadership skills and credentials of bin Laden, who was killed by US commandos in a May 2 raid in Pakistan. In a statement posted on an Islamist website, the jihadist network said: "The general command of Al-Qaeda announces, after consultations, the appointment of Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri as head of the group. Al-Qaeda, it said, would relentlessly pursue its "jihad" (holy war) against the United States and Israel and that the fight would continue "until all invading armies leave the land of Islam." The extremist network affirmed it would not "recognise any legitimacy of the so-called state of Israel." "We will not accept or adhere to any agreement or accord that recognises it (Israel) or that robs a mile from Palestine, whether it is the United Nations controlled by top criminals or any other organisation." But a US official said Zawahiri lacked leadership skills and may create divisions in within the jihadist network. "He hasn't demonstrated strong leadership or organisational skills during his time in AQ or previously while in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad," the official said, asking to remain anonymous. "His ascension to the top leadership spot will likely generate criticism if not alienation and dissension with Al-Qaeda," the official said. In its statement, Al-Qaeda's general command pledged to "fulfil bin Laden?s oaths and remain under the overall leadership of the 'Emir of the Believers,' Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar," SITE Intelligence Group group reported. It also voiced its "support (to) the uprisings of our oppressed Muslim people against the corrupt and tyrant leaders who have made our nation suffer in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya Yemen, Syria and Morocco." Popular uprisings that have rocked the Middle East and North Africa since December have succeeded in toppling autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia but have struggled to overcome fierce crackdowns in Bahrain, Libya, Syria and Yemen. The statement ends with a reminder that Islam forbids "oppression, against Muslims and non-Muslims, against friend and foe." Like his slain Saudi-born co-conspirator, Zawahiri has been in hiding since the United States declared its war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Zawahiri, now Washington's most wanted man, was jailed for three years in Egypt for militancy and was implicated in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, and a 1997 massacre of tourists in Luxor. Facing a death sentence, he left Egypt in the mid-1980s initially for Saudi Arabia, but soon headed for Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar where the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was based, and then to Afghanistan, where he joined forces with bin Laden. Zawahiri, 59, gifted with brains but bereft of bin Laden's potent charisma, has long been seen as the mastermind behind the global terror franchise. From hiding, he has issued video missives calling for war on the West. The most recent was a filmed eulogy to bin Laden, vowing to pursue jihad in a tape reported by the SITE Intelligence Group on June 8. It was a message of loyalty to bin Laden, whom analysts believe alone had the charisma capable of uniting an increasingly disparate group divided between Egyptians and non-Egyptian Arabs. The eulogy came nearly a month after a Saudi newspaper reported on May 5 that as the struggle for power simmered within the network, Zawahiri led US troops to bin Laden through his courier. Al-Watan newspaper, quoting an unnamed "regional source," had said the top two Al-Qaeda men had differences and that the courier was a Pakistani national who knew he was being followed by the US military but disguised the fact. With the return of an Egyptian figure in Al-Qaeda, Seif al-Adel, last autumn from Iran, the Egyptian faction had hatched a plan to dispose of Saudi-born bin Laden, according to Al-Watan. It said Zawahiri's faction had persuaded bin Laden to leave tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border and take shelter instead in Abbottabad near Islamabad where he was finally unearthed and shot dead by elite US Navy SEALs. US-Pakistani relations have soured following the raid amid mounting allegations that bin Laden evaded capture for years thanks to the complicity or incompetence of Pakistan's authorities. But Pakistan's civilian government has angrily dismissed the allegations and its powerful military has warned of unspecified reprisals if another unilateral US raid were to occur.

I knew this would happen, I mean I think we all knew. I don’t know how this is ever going to end. What do you guys think?

[sunnykerr]

It was a foregone conclusion, that's for darn sure. I think CNN announced the likehood of this happening the day after ben Laden died.

And, you know, they announced his death at 11 p.m., so I wasn't watching CNN right then. For all I know, they might have announced it in the next sentence.

As for whether this will be profitable for al Qaeda. Who knows. They mention that this guy doesn't have a whole lot of charisma. And for an organization as decentralized as al Qaeda, ben Laden was kinda of a leadership fluke, really. So this might not mean anything at all.

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I hope that it doesn't and I am sure we are going to surge out and try and cut off the head of this snake too but I hate that this group hasn't be neutralized.

How is this ever going to end? It's not like they can ever wipe us out nor can we ever do the same.

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LINK

U.S. dismisses terror charges against Osama bin Laden June 17, 2011 NEW YORK, N.Y. — Federal authorities dropped terrorism charges against Osama bin Laden in court papers filed Friday, formally ending a case against the slain Al Qaeda leader that began with hopes of seeing him brought to justice in a civilian court. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan approved a request made by federal prosecutors to dismiss the charges — a procedural move that's routine when defendants under indictment die. The Al Qaeda leader was indicted in June 1998 in federal court in Manhattan on charges he supported the ambush that left 18 American soldiers dead in Somalia in 1993. The indictment was originally filed under seal but was made public later that year. The indictment was later revised to charge bin Laden in the dual bombings of two American embassies in East Africa that killed 224 on Aug. 7, 1998, and in the suicide attack on the USS Cole in 2000. None of the charges involved the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Also named as a defendant was Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian eye doctor and longtime bin Laden deputy who has become Al Qaeda's new leader. The charges included conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. nationals and conspiracy to damage and destroy U.S. property. Around the time the charges were first filed, the CIA's bin Laden unit was pursuing a plan to use Afghan operatives to capture bin Laden and hand him over for trial either in the United States or in an Arab country, according to the 9/11 Commission. Bin Laden evaded capture for more than a decade until May 2, when he was killed during a Navy SEALs raid of his compound in Pakistan. The court papers filed Friday included a declaration by a Justice Department official detailing the DNA, facial recognition and other evidence confirming bin Laden's identity. “The possibility of a mistaken identification is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion,” the official wrote. The document also makes a passing reference to a “significant quantity” of terrorist network material recovered during the raid, including “correspondence between Osama bin Laden and other senior Al Qaeda leaders that concerns a range of Al Qaeda issues.”

Well if he's dead then yeah I guess charging him in court is pointless.

[sunnykerr]

Pretty much, huh?

[Comfortably Numb]

Kind of. I mean go after the organization sure but in terms of nailing Bin Laden - that job is done.

[sunnykerr]

It could just be that the end if nigh:

US in peace talks with Taliban The US is engaged in talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said, in the first high-level confirmation of US involvement. Mr Karzai said that "foreign military and especially the US itself" were involved in peace talks with the group. Hours later, suicide bombers attacked a Kabul police station, killing nine. Earlier this month, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said there could be political talks with the Taliban by the end of this year. The US is due to start withdrawing its 97,000 troops from Afghanistan in July. It aims to gradually hand over all security operations to Afghan security forces by 2014. Summer of fighting "In the course of this year, there have been peace talks with the Taliban and our own countrymen," Mr Karzai told a Kabul news conference on Saturday. "Peace talks have started with them already and it is going well. Foreign militaries, especially the United States of America, are going ahead with these negotiations." He gave no details as to whether the discussions involved Taliban officials with US authorities, or a go-between. Shortly after the announcement, a number of suicide bombers attacked a police station near the finance ministry in the Afghan capital. The interior ministry said there were three bombers, but other officials said there were four. The Taliban said they carried out the attack. The Afghan interior ministry said nine people were killed: five civilians, three police officers and one intelligence official. Twelve people - 10 civilians and two police - were also injured. The attack has now ended. ''A group of suicide attackers got inside police district one," Mohammad Ayub Salangi, Kabul's police chief, told the BBC. "We surrounded the area.'' One of the bombers detonated his suicide vest, while two others were shot dead by police. Some reports said a fourth bomber was killed in an exchange of fire with security forces. The BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul says the attack is part of the Taliban strategy to strike at the heart of government. Paradoxically, he says, the greater the likelihood of peace talks, the more Nato and the Taliban will press their military campaigns in a bid to ensure they go into negotiations with an advantage. Meanwhile, insurgents attacked two convoys supplying Nato troops in the eastern province of Ghazni, police said. Four Afghan security guards escorting the trucks were reportedly killed by roadside bombs.

Source

Of course, right now they're just talking about having negotiations. It's not even real talks. So who knows what it'll lead to.

But I do find the language being used these days seems to indicate that we're all headed towards a pull out.

And I'm not sure how I feel about having discussions with the Taliban about this.

But I do find the timing interesting, seeing as Canada is meant to pull out in December of this year and we're certainly not ever mentionned as having a significant incidence on anything... but I think we all know how much we've had to do with the mission in Afghanistan.

[Comfortably Numb]

If peace is possible I say we try and go for it. Unless one side bombs the other right off the face of the earth, the war won't end; so peace is a much better option.

[sunnykerr]

I'll be honest. I would have liked to have made Afghanistan safe for its women and girls. While were there anyway.

But the mission is accomplished now. Time indeed to go home.

[Comfortably Numb]

Sure I would think alot of people would feel that way. I just don't think it's possible to make another country go along with one's own ideology. People have to change on their own time or it's not authentic and won't last. Again that's just my opinion.

[sunnykerr]

Oh, no. I quite agree.

I just can't believe these women support being beaten, raped and killed at the whim of some shady organization of old, criminal men.

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LINK

Bin Laden showed interest in kidnapping for ransom (AP) – 19 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Pressured by increased scrutiny of terrorist money sources and strikes aimed at its financiers, al-Qaida's core organization in Pakistan has turned to kidnapping for ransom to offset dwindling cash reserves, according to U.S. officials, some of whom cited information in files retrieved from Osama bin Laden's compound. Bin Laden's interest in kidnapping as a cash-raiser bolsters accounts that the financial squeeze has staggered al-Qaida, forcing it to search for alternative funding sources. Officials would not detail al-Qaida's role in specific crimes, but the group's affiliates have targeted diplomats, tourists and merchants. His awareness of al-Qaida's growing use of kidnapping is evidence that even in isolation behind high walls in Abbottabad, Pakistan, bin Laden kept tabs on how his network moved its money. The al-Qaida founder was killed last month by U.S. Navy SEALs. "There are clearly times for them when money is tight," said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "We've seen that their donors have been less dependable and we're seeing them turning more to kidnapping as a way of keeping the money coming in." Experts from the CIA's National Counterterrorism Center, the Treasury Department and the FBI and military are trying to learn more from the recovered files about al-Qaida's money sources and the impact of bin Laden's death on the group's financial future. They hope to identify important al-Qaida donors, especially wealthy Persian Gulf figures who dealt with bin Laden dating to his work with Afghan fighters in the campaign against Soviet occupiers in the late 1980s. The Treasury Department's acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, David Cohen, said U.S. efforts are focused on disrupting al-Qaida's cash flow from donors, fundraisers and facilitators. "Al-Qaida's supporters ought to be wondering if their identities have been revealed," Cohen said. Analysts are examining lists of numbers found in bin Laden's files, hoping to find bank accounts, credit cards or ledgers depicting the financial underpinnings of network known to demand strict accounting from its operatives. Al-Qaida's leadership inside Pakistan rarely championed kidnappings publicly and was not known previously to widely support its use as a funding source. The group historically relied on donations through a pipeline of couriers and money-changing operations. At the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, the network took in as much as $30 million annually, but that money flow has tightened, Ruppersberger said. CIA drone attacks, combined with economic penalties by the U.S. and its allies, have cut into that stream. At the same time, al-Qaida affiliates have shown that abductions could rake in millions of dollars. As a result, attitudes about ransom operations inside the core group changed. "That kind of money could go a long way to sustaining a terrorist organization," said Scott Helfstein, director of research at the U.S. Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center. A U.S. official familiar with the review of bin Laden's files cautioned that the kidnapping-for-ransom material found in the seized files was outweighed by bin Laden's more copious notes on terrorist plots and long-range planning. The official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the continuing review of classified files, would not elaborate on bin Laden's interest in kidnapping or the precise role al-Qaida's core played in any operations. The official said the material is consistent with other evidence showing that al-Qaida had turned to abductions within the past two years as money from sympathetic donors dried up and that the group resorted to "basic criminal tactics" to compensate. "People paid up, helping the terrorist group reline its coffers," the official said. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the offshoot in North Africa, long has used kidnapping as a terrorist tool and a major funding source. Canadian diplomats, Italian tourists and Algerian merchants have been abducted; some ransoms have approached $2 million per hostage. The ransoms have totaled more than $80 million for this branch since 2008, according to Matthieu Guidere, a former French military counterterrorism trainer. The terrorist group's affiliate in Yemen, al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula, and its affiliates in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, have used kidnapping for ransom, too. Figures from the National Counterterrorism Center show that 1,264 hostages were taken in Pakistan in 2008, compared with 3,366 in 2009. Pakistanis were the usual victims. Foreign hostages included a Chinese engineer, a Polish oil worker and an American, John Solecki, who worked for the U.N. refugee agency and was released after two months in captivity. A similar wave plagued Afghanistan from 2008 to 2009 as the number of hostages taken climbed from 584 to 2,088. Four Americans were targeted, including New York Times reporter David Rohde, later released by militant captors. Officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan say criminal gangs account for many ransom plots, though they are known to work with militant nodes like the Pakistani Taliban. Citing the recent kidnapping of a European journalist in Afghanistan, a security consultant in Kabul said hostages are sometimes sold or traded to militants. Insurgents also can levy "taxes" on groups transporting hostages through their turf, said the consultant, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the handling of sensitive abduction cases. Bin Laden justified the use of kidnapping in an audio message sent last October, but solely as an instrument of vengeance. He said the abduction of five French nationals by the North African affiliate was a reaction to that country's ban on Muslim veils and support for the war in Afghanistan. "It is a simple and clear equation," bin Laden said. "As you kill, you will be killed. As you capture, you will be captured." Al-Qaida for years relied primarily on donations as its main source of income, using its cash stream mostly for sustenance, including training, weapons, pay for operatives and their families and money for bribes and hideouts, officials said. Terrorist plots rarely require large amounts of cash. The Sept. 11 attacks cost an estimated $500,000, but tens of thousands of dollars in unspent funds were sent back by the hijackers to al-Qaida accounts. Last year, Yemeni operatives bragged that their failed attempt to ship package bombs on two airlines cost a paltry $4,500. Bin Laden styled al-Qaida's network's financial operation similarly to an international corporation. A financial wing oversaw finances, headed by skilled money men who monitored the books and primed streams of donated cash. Donations were ferried from militant clerics, charities and social service organizations and money-changing hawalas in the Gulf and central Asia that made tracing the money pipelines almost impossible. Much of the group's heavy funding is believed to originate from wealthy Gulf donors who either knew bin Laden from past dealings or viewed him as an inspiration. Some dealt with him in his days as a logistics commander and fundraiser for the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. Others were royals and merchants who reportedly met him during on hunting expeditions in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, said Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA unit that tracked bin Laden. Scheuer said bin Laden's death probably would mean only a temporary setback to donors who reflexively give in support of al-Qaida's brand of jihad. But Cohen and others insist that bin Laden's death will cause lasting damage. Ayman al-Zawahri, the al-Qaida second-in-command who was elevated to bin Laden's leadership post Thursday, according to a communiqué from the group, does not approach bin Laden either in donor contacts or quixotic sway, they said. "Bin Laden was a symbolic and galvanizing figure for al-Qaida's fundraising efforts, and al-Qaida's donor base will likely be less willing to contribute to an al-Qaida that has lost its founder, not knowing who is in charge or how their money might be used," Cohen said. The Treasury Department's terrorist finance unit and allies in the U.N. and other nations have cut into al-Qaida's money pipeline by adding more than 500 individuals to a list whose assets should be frozen, Ruppersberger said. Last month, the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Controls reported it had frozen a total of $13.5 million in al-Qaida funds since first targeting bin Laden in 1998. Stuart Levey, the department's former top official on terrorist finance, described that effort as a success. But he said freezing the assets of terrorists won't work alone in the long term and needs to be augmented by criminal prosecutions and penalties aimed at their donors and supporters. The CIA's ramped-up program of pilotless drone aircraft over Pakistan also took a toll on the group's internal financiers. A year ago, a drone missile attack killed Mustafa al-Yazid, al-Qaida's third in command and a critical overseer who managed the bank accounts used to launch the Sept. 11 attacks. Other operatives with financial duties have also been targeted, officials said. "Al-Qaida became sensitive to the risks that their financial system posed to their security," Levey said. "They were under real financial stress. We knew about that stress from their pleas for more money and from the fact that they passed up some (plot) opportunities." The situation grew so dire, Levey said, that some operatives had to pay their own room and board, training and weapons. In one instance in 2008, Saudi authorities seized memory cards from the cell phones of arrested militant suspects that contained an audio message from al-Zawahri. The man who succeeded bin Laden was pleading for donations.

Grab for cash is a pretty easy way to get money fast.

[sunnykerr]

I don't know that kidnapping is such an easy way to get money... So many things can go wrong when you involve tertiary parties.

But I do think it's really smart of the intelligence community to be looking at the funding of the operation. Freezing accounts in the United States and Canada (and so forth) will only accomplish so much. Obviously they still have means, and that's an excellent place to target their operations.

But why are they telling us about it? They just killed Public Enemy No. 1, so it can't be because they want to prove they're doing something. Why do we need to know about it?

[Comfortably Numb]

More justification for their actions I guess..

[sunnykerr]

Huh? Which part?