Re: Osama bin Ladin documents released
The basic reason for creation of alqaeda was to evict the Americans from Muslim lands (precisely Saudi Arabia). Many in the muslim world (extremists or not supported this point of view). AQ got a perfect environment in Afghanistan to settle in and train. From there they attacked American embassies in east Africa. 911 happened and the fame that they got as a result was phenomenal.
Jehadi outfits mushroomed through out the muslim world partly as a result of the war on terror. The figure head remained OBL but he was not in control as he was trying to evade the authorities, he couldn’t communicate with the outside world other than using trusted couriers and even that was frought with dangers.
Anyhow it seems as if the basic goal of AQ remained the same I.e. to damage American interests, and for that their synergy was to align with the afghan taleban and engage the NATO forces stationed there. In many countries some taleban/militant organizations were formed which were focused in their own countries and didn’t have any global aspirations. This is a big difference in the working of AQ and the TTP. Secondly the activities of TTP in Pakistan was alienating the people from the concept of ‘jehad’ that was another worry for him. It seems as if he wanted the taleban to stop focussing on Pakistan and target the real ‘enemy’.
His death didnt make that much of a difference to us as we were already under attack from 2007 onwards. After his killing a few attacks were carried out in Pakistan by ilyas Kashmiri’s 313 brigade like the PNS attack.