True or not, this seems like a useful suspicion to have floating around out there.
Egyptian Ayman Al Zawahiri, who has been touted widely as the man who will succeed Bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, turned his back on his terrorist leader following a prolonged power struggle, according to a Saudi newspaper.
The plot to get rid of Bin Laden began when Zawahiri’s faction persuaded bin Laden to leave the protection of the tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
nstead, they convinced him to set up home in Abbottabad, where he was finally killed by U.S. Navy SEALS earlier this week, a regional source told the Al-Watan newspaper.
Zawahiri’s Egyptian ally Saif Al Adel is said to have moved to Pakistan last autumn as Al Qaeda’s ‘chief of staff’ after a period of house arrest in Iran.
With his return, Al Qaeda’s Egyptian faction then hatched a plan to dispose of Saudi-born Bin Laden after irresolvable divisions developed between the terrorist group’s top two men. …
The courier who led U.S. forces to Bin Laden was a Pakistani national working for Zawahiri, according to the source.
The man is said to have known he was being followed by American troops and to have intentionally led them to their target.
The upside here would be the obvious: If a terrorist can’t trust his right-hand man, who can he trust? Is there no honor among cold blooded murderers anymore?
The downside is a bit more subtle, but goes like this. Zawahiri got his terror start with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. That group is poised to win at least a slice of power in Egypt’s elections this fall. It’s possible then that Zawahiri’s al Qaeda gets a phantom seat at the table in Cairo, that bin Laden’s al Qaeda might not have had.
Don’t know if it’s true, but there’s certainly value in people believing it. After all, the Muslim world still operates on the concept of “Kinsman Avenger of Blood,” wherein a murder victim’s next of kin has the obligation to kill the murderer. Let bin Laden’s sons kill Zawahiri! May all of Al Qaeda be consumed with infighting!
Actually, the reason this might be believable has little to do with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Al Azzam assassinated in 1989. Possible due to infighting over control of global Jihad network and next fight (al azzam wanted palestine, Zawahiri wanted Egypt + global jihad).
Zarqawi given up after public fight via letters and video between him and Zawahiri. We “dusted” his courier carrying a last letter. Zarqawi was 2 popular. Told Zawahiri to “bug off” w/ demands to roll back attacks on civilians and beheading videos.
Also, possible similar “deniable assassination” when info leaked on three of Zarqawi’s subcontractors after letters were discovered saying they were incompetent, taking money, not doing jihad right, etc. Plus, after Zarqawi had to go into hiding from first attempt to kill him, lots of fighting over who would take leadership. Zarqawi returns and, boom, several who participated were dead.
There are others. This is not really unusual in Al Qaeda. It is very plausible.
however, I do think that Egypt is the next battle space. Zawahiri now nominal leader. his entire program has been built on returning to egypt to establish Islamic caliphate from there. Told Zarqawi in 2006 to focus on building network in Egypt and Levant as the “next front”.
Right now, Salafis have burned down a church and Christians and Muslims are marching chanting against Salafis and Tantawi. They believe that Tantawi is part of old regime allowing Salafis to attack to spear chaos, etc.