Osama bin Laden’s death has dealt a serious blow to the world’s most recognized terrorist group.
What works in America’s favor is that most Al Qaeda members find Al Qaeda’s new leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri’s leadership style "less compelling than bin Laden’s image as a holy man and warrior and will not offer him the deference they gave bin Laden.”
As a result, Clapper predicted that the core Al Qaeda organization will be “diminishing in operational importance” in the next two to three years. With continued counterterrorism operations, Clapper said that “there is a better-than-even chance that decentralization will lead to fragmentation of the movement within a few years.”
