A screenshot from a video of Osama Bin Laden released by Al-Jazeera Al Jazeera via APTN/AP
Al Qaeda on ‘Life Support’
The terrorist network and its affiliates are mostly focused on domestic targets – not carrying out another large-scale attack in the West, says Peter Bergen. By Stephanie Gaskell
Al Qaeda and its central core are on “life support.” That’s the diagnosis from national security analyst Peter Bergen, as he heads to the annual Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
Writing for CNN, Bergen argues that the terrorist network and its affiliates are not focused on carrying out another large-scale attack in the West, like the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.While these groups have made the most of the unrest in places like Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Mali in recent years, Bergen says “the bulk of jihadist violence in those countries is focused purely on domestic targets,” like the recent deadly attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the BP gas facility in Algeria.
“Al Qaeda itself hasn’t carried out a successful attack in the West since the suicide bombings in London in 2005 that killed 52. And the terrorist group hasn’t carried out an attack in the United States since 9/11. Nor have any of its affiliated groups,”writes Bergen, author of “Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden.”
“Al Qaeda ‘Central,’ in short, remains on life support,” he said.
Read the full story at CNN.
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