Doesn’t surprise me, but a report showed that al-Zawahiri is the guy calling the shots. From the report:
“Although Bin Laden remains the group’s ideological figurehead, Zawahiri has emerged as Al Qaeda’s strategic and operational planner,” the report added.
People don’t seem to understand the format of Al-Qaeda. Yes bin Ladn is in charge of it, but think of this network as a corporation if anything. Bin Laden is like the CEO: he has influence, but at the same time, he doesn’t. Al-Zawahiri is like the managing director. If we capture or kill bin Laden, al-Qaeda will still survive. If we capture or kill al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda will be detrimentally weakened. But like most Americans, no one listens. They only care about bin Laden. I say the bigger threat is al-Zawahiri.
Shaun Miller's Ideas 
People like to see and hear what they are told to. It is societal blinders that have been place on American. If the government says it’s not a threat then it must not be. Even when confronted with information such as this people will stick to what they have been told previously by a ‘trusted source’. I agree that this is a serious problem and it worries me, alot.
I agree 100%. Bin Laden is more of an ideological figure head. Hell, if we kill Bin Laden it may even strengthen their resolve due to the martyr effect.
al-Zawahiri has been calling the shots for a few years now. The organization was split somewhat when the Iraqi, Zarqawi, was going off in his direction, but once we nailed his ass with those guided missiles al-Zawahiri took full control.
Killer J says:
Exactly. The reason it split is because Zarqawi wanted to fight the Shiites instead of the Americans. In fact, he wrote a letter to bin Laden in 2004 saying that the Shiites were a greater threat than the Americans. When he died though, al-Zawahiri became the guy that spoke for them all again.
Hi, nice post. I have been thinking about this topic,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be subscribing to your site.