• Meet the new boss, not like the old boss: Ayman al-Zawahiri is now broadly considered to be al-Qaeda’s new top man. The 59-year-old has been within the organization for years, working as a strategist from the days of the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole until today — in recent years he’d been more vocal, through audio and video releases, than even the vastly more popular Osama bin Laden. His ascension is generally viewed as good news for the opponents of al-Qaeda; Zawahiri is Egyptian, which is a distinct area of racial tension within al-Qaeda, and while he’s a successful strategist, most consider him utterly lacking in the charisma or leadership ability that made bin Laden such a dangerous figure. source

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