Bin Laden deposed?

Sunday Telegraph:

Osama bin Laden's deputy has seized control of al-Qaeda and rebuilt the terror network into an organisation capable of launching complex terror attacks in Britain and America.

Intelligence officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that bin Laden has not chaired a meeting of al-Qaeda's ruling shura, or council, in more than two years.

Instead, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's nominal number two, is credited with rebuilding the terror network since the Afghan war in 2001.

Intelligence sources in Washington have revealed that Western spy chiefs were recently forced to revise dramatically their view that al-Qaeda was so depleted that it was little more than a cheerleader for extremists.

Instead, British and American intelligence agencies believe that a network of terrorist cells, funded, controlled and supported by al-Qaeda's central command, based in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, is in place again.

Al-Zawahiri's task has been made easier because not a single prominent al-Qaeda leader has been captured since March 2006, nearly 18 months ago.

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Experience over the relevant time period suggest substituting the word "failed" for "complex" in the lead. Al Qaeda has not had a "successful" attack in the US for Europe since the puny 7-7 attacks of 2005 in the UK. It is even having fewer successful attacks against non combatnats in Iraq. It recently launched a failed coup attempt in Algeria and a "successful" mass murder of about 10 civilians in Yemen. It is still going for the "complex" multiple attacks, but has failed in Germany, Denmark and Turkey in recent weeks. While it does appear that Zawahiri has more energy than bin Laden he is not having great success.