Afghanistan

Report: Biden May Have Overstated the Role of Al-Qaeda's Zawahiri

AUG 8 2022·Updated AUG 9 2022

Story

Image credit: Reuters [via The New York Times]

The Facts

A New York Times report released Mon. suggests that Biden may have exaggerated when claiming that the slain Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was the architect of the USS Cole bombing in 2000 and that he was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11.
nytimes
Though it's undisputed Zawahiri was the deputy to Osama bin Laden and became the head of Al-Qaeda in 2011, counterterrorism and intelligence officials speaking to the Times said that, as a matter of historical accuracy, Biden's words went beyond how experts regarded his role in both those attacks.
nytimes
On Fri., lawyers in death-penalty cases for accused perpetrators of the attacks at Guantánamo Bay – still in pretrial hearings after more than a decade – demanded that government prosecutors provide evidence backing Biden's speech. Hundreds of pages of legal filings, where the government lays out its understanding of the attacks, make scant reference to Zawahiri.
nytimes
The Times report comes a week after the announcement of Zawahiri's killing, which came as a result of the first airstrike carried out by the US in Afghanistan since its complete withdrawal from the country in 2021.
ITN
Until Apr., Zawahiri was thought to be dead. After Al-Qaeda released a video of him in an unknown location, the US located him in Kabul.
guardian
The Taliban opened a probe following the declaration of his death but they have reportedly been unable to find his body. They have stated that it wasn't at the site of the drone strike by the time they arrived.
The New Arab

Sources Split

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The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

This killing is likely to put Al-Qaeda into a leadership crisis at a critical moment for the global jihadist movement. As the US seeks to focus on other national security issues, this blow to Al-Qaeda's structure might prove to be a decisive step toward eradicating the threat of terrorism.

NPR

Establishment-critical narrative

Everything concerning this killing should disturb us. We have once again witnessed the US extrajudicially assassinate someone rather than bring them to court to face justice. Zawahiri, like Osama bin Laden, had skeletons in his closet about the US and those secrets will die with him.

Lew Rockwell