Dead man walking

Rico says you'd think they'd keep quiet about the succession, but, no, they had to paint a target on the guy's chest, according to David Jolly and David Goodman in The New York Times:

More than six weeks after American commandos found and killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistan hideout, his second-in-command in al-Qaeda is officially replacing him, according to a statement it posted online Thursday.

Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian who long served as Number Two to Osama bin Laden, had been expected to inherit leadership of al-Qaeda, though the delay in announcing his succession led some counterterrorism analysts to see signs of a power struggle at the top following Osama bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 2 May.
“The general command of al-Qaeda, after the completion of consultation, announces that Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri has assumed the responsibility of the leadership of the group,” according to al-Qaeda, in a statement presented by the al-Fajr Media Center, the group’s online voice, and posted on jihadist internet forums.
The statement did not provide details about the group’s decision, falling back on generalities. “We seek with the aid of God to call for the religion of truth and incite the ummah to prepare and fight,” the statement read, referring to the global community of Muslims.
Trained as a doctor, Mr. Zawahri, 59, has been described as the operational leader of the group. But he is seen as abrasive to fellow militants, and lacking Osama bin Laden’s charismatic appeal to Islamists and ability to command their loyalty, leading to questions over whether he would be able to continue drawing jihadist recruits. In addition, his new role may widen what counterterrorism officials have called a longstanding split in al-Qaeda between his Egyptian contingent and militants of other nationalities.
“We’ll see how he fares in the new role and deals with a younger generation of extremists, some of whom don’t like his leadership and management style,” said one American counterterrorism official.
Some counterterrorism officials said the likelihood of an attack by al-Qaeda militants has now increased with Mr. Zawahri’s promotion, as he may attempt a brazen public display of the group’s guile and lethal capabilities to show that its power survives even without Osama bin Laden.
“Libyan and Yemeni members of the main Aal-Qaeda had in the past huge problems with Zawahiri, and it was Osama bin Laden who kept the stability within the group,” a European intelligence official said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publically. “The new emir now will have to retaliate the killing of Osama bin Laden, and it will have to be something special and big; that’s a lot pressure.”
The whereabouts of Mr. Zawahri are unknown. In the past, some reports pointed to his presence in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, an area once thought to be the location of Osama bin Laden’s hideout. However, the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, a Pakistan army garrison city a few hours from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, called those reports into question.
The FBI has offered $25 million for information leading directly to Mr. Zawahri’s capture.
The announcement of Mr. Zawahri’s promotion comes a week after the release of a video that was his first public communication about Osama bin Laden’s death. He eulogized the al-Qaeda leader, who he said had “terrified America in his life” and “will continue to terrify it after his death”. Mr. Zawahri vowed to continue fighting the United States and others to “expel the invaders from the land of Islam”.
As in other recent video statements, he sought to connect al-Qaeda’s mission to the wave of uprisings against autocratic rulers during the so-called Arab Spring. He praised the revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria, and called on Pakistanis to rise up against their leaders.
Referring to Yemen, Mr. Zawahri said that he hoped that the uprising there would eventually expel “the Americans and their henchmen”. Even before that country’s current political crisis, militants connected to al-Qaeda had gained a foothold in Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Middle East.
Some militants embraced Mr. Zawahri’s elevation. “This is excellent news,” said Omar Bakri Muhammad, former leader of al-Muhajiroun, an extremist group. “He is an experienced mujahid, even before al-Qaeda was established,” he said, using the Arabic word for holy warrior.
Born in June of 1951, Mr. Zawahri has a long history of radicalism. He was first arrested at age fifteen for joining the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world’s oldest Islamic political organization. Eventually, finding that organization too tame, he created the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which sought to overthrow the Egyptian government.
Around 1998, Mr. Zawahri joined with Osama bin Laden, merging his jihadist group with al-Qaeda and joining a call for worldwide attacks on American targets. He was indicted in connection with the 7 August 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and Nairobi in Kenya.

Rico says, for the last fucking time, it's not Al Qaeda (as The New York Times, who should know better, insists on spelling it), any more than it's Al Bundy or Al Jolson; it's al-Qaeda... (The photo is provided for anyone who wants to try and collect the bounty on their own, and good luck to them; the pros, of course, don't need it.)