The Almanac of Al Qaeda
By BY PETER BERGEN, KATHERINE TIEDEMANN
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 5:39 AM
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FP's definitive guide to what's left of the terrorist group.
In December 2007, al Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, made a
little-noticed nod to the fact that his organization's popularity was
taking a nosedive: He solicited questions from jihadi forum
participants in an online question-and-answer session. It looked like a
rather desperate gambit to win back al Qaeda’s dwindling support. And
it was. Since the September 11 attacks, the terrorist organization and
its affiliates had killed thousands of Muslims -- countless in Iraq,
and hundreds more in Afghanistan and Pakistan that year alone. For a
group claiming to defend the Islamic ummah, these massacres had dealt a devastating blow to its credibility. The faithful, Zawahiri knew, were losing faith in al Qaeda.
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