This disturbed him in acting and started irritating his eyes. So, the actor decided to shave off his hair partially fromhis forehead. Well must say, Sanju, what a conviction for your work...
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Sanjay goes bald for 'Agneepath'
This disturbed him in acting and started irritating his eyes. So, the actor decided to shave off his hair partially fromhis forehead. Well must say, Sanju, what a conviction for your work...
Indian American wins city council seat in Texas
An Indian American has edged past a candidate of Pakistani origin to win a city council seat in Sugar Land, Texas.
In unofficial results, Harish Jajoo edged Pakistani American attorney and investment manager Farha Ahmed on June 11 in the runoff election for the city council seat in District 4 in Sugar Land.
Mr. Jajoo secured 1,473 or 52.38 per cent of the total votes, while 1,340 or 47.62 per cent polled for Ahmed. Mr. Jajoo had a 915-724 advantage in pre-Election Day balloting, while Ahmed polled better on voting day, getting 616 votes to 559 for her opponent.The tight contest was marred by a flier, circulated before the election and quoting a Pakistani newspaper, erroneously insinuated that Ahmed would represent Afia Sidique, a woman dubbed as “Lady al Qaeda,” in a criminal case.
Siddiqui is a U.S.-educated Pakistani neuroscientist who was sentenced to 86 years in prison in a New York District Court in 2010 for trying to shoot US soldiers at a police station in Afghanistan in 2008. She was shown on the flier in two grainy mug shots along with Ahmed’s photo.
Ahmed issued a statement saying she is a civil litigation attorney and could not represent Siddiqui in a criminal case.
Ahmed did say, however, that she was approached a few years ago “by attorneys and human rights groups to help gather information to find two missing American children who were believed to have been kidnapped overseas.”
“It is inappropriate for me to discuss the details of the case any further other than to state that the children were found. I would also like to humbly request that the identities of the children be safeguarded for their protection,” she said.
Ahmed did not issue any further clarification to indicate if this work involved Siddiqui or her children.
Mr. Jajoo, through a statement said that, “I want to assure you that my campaign had nothing to do with this mailer, and I do not condone this type of tactic. I also believe that the voters deserve to hear from my opponent on this issue as well.”
On results, Mr. Jajoo said, “This culminates a tough race and validates that my campaign was based on right message, right priorities and right approach. I am humbled by the support and enthusiasm of my district voters.”
Mr. Jajoo also said he received a call from Ahmed the night of June 11 after the results were declared “to congratulate me and I invited her to work with me on the issues important to her.”
He said in a press statement that his priorities as a member of the council would be “public safety, infrastructure and quality of life” in Sugar Land.
The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for June 21.
Mr. Jajoo and his wife, Shashi, have two children.
I will have to work out on my flaws in nets: Raina
Stand-in captain Suresh Raina on Thursday admitted the need to spend some time with coach Duncan Fletcher in the nets in order to iron out some flaws in his batting.
Raina who could muster only 74 runs from five ODIs was repeatedly out trying to play the wild slog over deep mid-wicket or extra cover.
“I need to spend some time in the middle. I just can’t go out there and play big shots. I will look to have a couple of sessions with the coach,” Raina stated at the media conference after his team lost the final ODI by seven wickets.
The skipper however wanted to stress on the positives. “It is disappointing that we lost the last two matches but I am happy that we won the series. We need to enjoy the moment,” he said.
Raina felt that turning point was definitely getting all out for 251 with 15 balls to go.
“I feel we fell short by at least 25 to 30 runs. But full credit to Andre Russell for the manner in which he bowled at the death.”
The batting of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel along with Amit Mishra’s bowling was a big plus for this young team.
“Our fielding has also improved after sessions with new fielding coach Trevor Penny.”
About the upcoming Test series, Raina said that all those who have been selected are raring to go. “Obviously we have prepared well and the seniors who will join us will have to get acclimatised in the next few days.”
Man of the series Rohit said, “It was important for me to get some runs as I wanted to make this tour count. I am glad it came off well.”
Asked about his game plan, he answered, “I kept telling myself that I had to stay in the middle as long as possible. I wanted to take the game through to the end. But it is indeed very disappointing to lose two consecutive matches. I wanted to be around till the 48th or 49th over but it happened otherwise.”
West Indies skipper Darren Sammy lauded his bowlers for bringing them back in the match when it looked like Kohli and Rohit would take the game away.“Credit to all the bowlers who came back very well. It looked like we would chase 300 at one stage.”
He was ecstatic about Darren Bravo’s match-winning effort of 86.
“We all know what Bravo is capable of doing. About Sarwan, we had to take a decision. Sarwan was cramping, thought it would be good for the team if a new batsman came in.
Although we won the last two matches but we need to start well in order to win the series,” the skipper said.
Sammy was hopeful that the team would do even better in the Test series and is taking inspiration from their victory against Pakistan
For man-of-the-match Russell, staying “positive and bowling in the right areas” helped.
“We have been playing good cricket over the past two games. I tried to remain positive and bowl in right areas.”
With the wicket offering some assistance, Russell admitted that it was a good strip to bowl on in the morning.
“It was a good wicket to bowl on in the morning. One or two of the Indian batsmen are not accustomed to the short ball, so I tried to use it as a surprise weapon.”
I will have to work out on my flaws in nets: Raina
Stand-in captain Suresh Raina on Thursday admitted the need to spend some time with coach Duncan Fletcher in the nets in order to iron out some flaws in his batting.
Raina who could muster only 74 runs from five ODIs was repeatedly out trying to play the wild slog over deep mid-wicket or extra cover.
“I need to spend some time in the middle. I just can’t go out there and play big shots. I will look to have a couple of sessions with the coach,” Raina stated at the media conference after his team lost the final ODI by seven wickets.
The skipper however wanted to stress on the positives. “It is disappointing that we lost the last two matches but I am happy that we won the series. We need to enjoy the moment,” he said.
Raina felt that turning point was definitely getting all out for 251 with 15 balls to go.
“I feel we fell short by at least 25 to 30 runs. But full credit to Andre Russell for the manner in which he bowled at the death.”
The batting of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel along with Amit Mishra’s bowling was a big plus for this young team.
“Our fielding has also improved after sessions with new fielding coach Trevor Penny.”
About the upcoming Test series, Raina said that all those who have been selected are raring to go. “Obviously we have prepared well and the seniors who will join us will have to get acclimatised in the next few days.”
Man of the series Rohit said, “It was important for me to get some runs as I wanted to make this tour count. I am glad it came off well.”
Asked about his game plan, he answered, “I kept telling myself that I had to stay in the middle as long as possible. I wanted to take the game through to the end. But it is indeed very disappointing to lose two consecutive matches. I wanted to be around till the 48th or 49th over but it happened otherwise.”
West Indies skipper Darren Sammy lauded his bowlers for bringing them back in the match when it looked like Kohli and Rohit would take the game away.“Credit to all the bowlers who came back very well. It looked like we would chase 300 at one stage.”
He was ecstatic about Darren Bravo’s match-winning effort of 86.
“We all know what Bravo is capable of doing. About Sarwan, we had to take a decision. Sarwan was cramping, thought it would be good for the team if a new batsman came in.
Although we won the last two matches but we need to start well in order to win the series,” the skipper said.
Sammy was hopeful that the team would do even better in the Test series and is taking inspiration from their victory against Pakistan
For man-of-the-match Russell, staying “positive and bowling in the right areas” helped.
“We have been playing good cricket over the past two games. I tried to remain positive and bowl in right areas.”
With the wicket offering some assistance, Russell admitted that it was a good strip to bowl on in the morning.
“It was a good wicket to bowl on in the morning. One or two of the Indian batsmen are not accustomed to the short ball, so I tried to use it as a surprise weapon.”
Virat Kohli and Manoj Tiwary consolidate after early losses
The final ODI of the five-match Digicel series got underway under the shadow of the Chris Gayle versus the West Indies Cricket Board conflict which turned from bad to worse after a stormy Wednesday night meeting between the two parties.
This reflected in the arena; the atmosphere was sombre.
On a surface with some juice, India was 73 for two after 15 overs here on Thursday. Much of the cricket was compelling.
Openers Parthiv Patel and Shikhar Dhwan were fired out early by the West Indian paceman. Then Virat Kohli and Manoj Tiwary, rightfully batting down the order, consolidated.
Bounce and carry
The surface at the Sabina Park had pace, bounce and carry. Batting demanded guts and application.
Kemar Roach worked up pace, extracted lift. Andre Russell too got the ball to climb.
Parthiv attempted the pull Rusell but found the ball coming on to the bat too quickly. The miscued stroke was held brilliantly by Anthony Martin.Dhawan, back in the squad, did not appear comfortable. He attempted to cut Roach and was picked up at first slip.
Kohli is a positive batsman who relishes a combat. Without being overly aggressive, he is a busy batsman. Kohli's straight-drive off Roach was a top-shot. Then, he cover-drove Sammy.
Sammy won the toss and opted to field. Adrian Barath replaced Danza Hyatt in the West Indies team. S. Badrinath and Praveen Kumar made way for Dhawan and Vinay Kumar in the Indian eleven.
Kohli who looked good for a three—figure mark was unfortunately run—out at 94 (104 balls, 10x4) but his fourth wicket partnership of 110 runs with Rohit (57, 72 balls, 2x4, 1x6) laid the foundation for the visitors to put up a stiff total.
But another failure from skipper Suresh Raina (0) and Yusuf Pathan’s (30, 29 balls, 2x4, 1x6) failure to make it count after getting set put paid to India’s hopes of posting a huge total.
From 189 for three in 35.5 overs, Indian batsmen blew away a golden opportunity to post a 300 plus total on a wicket where the ball was coming onto the bat.
If Virat was unlucky as he was beaten by fantastic throw from the deep by Ramnaresh Sarwan going for a second run, Rohit was guilty of throwing it away after doing all the hard work.
Skipper Raina would like to forget this series in a hurry as he compiled a poor 74 runs in five matches. Yusuf on his part was looking good to fire all cylinders but failed to handle the extra bounce.
Kohli’s innings was blemish free and it looks like he would walk into the first XI of the Test team after such a quality performance.
The Delhi youngster batted with lot of responsibility as he first steadied the ship with a 58—run third wicket partnership with Manoj Tiwary (22, 22 balls, 1x4, 1x6) and then a century stand with Rohit Sharma.
Skipper Raina will have to take bulk of the blame as India failed to consume 15 deliveries in the end which might mean that they finished atleast 25 runs short of what they were supposed to score.
Put into bat after Darren Sammy won the toss, India lost openers Parthiv Patel (6) and Shikhar Dhawan (11) by the seventh over as both were done in by the extra bounce in the strip.
Parthiv wasn’t in position to pull a Russell bouncer and was holed out at midwicket while Dhawan failed to negotiate a rising delivery and was cramped for room going for a cut shot off Kemar Roach. He was snapped up in the first slip.
Kohli started clipping Russell delightfully to midwicket fence off the eighth ball he received.
The next boundary was rather a streaky edge past slip off Sammy but he made it up with a delightful cover drive in the West Indian skipper’s fourth over.
Manoj for the first time looked comfortable in his short international career. A six off Sammy which hit the wooden roof of the club’s bar was a breathtaking shot. Just when he looked like geting into the groove, he edged one from Kieron Pollard straight to Carlton Baugh.
India now had the best batting passage of the innings as two best young batsmen put their wares out on display.
Both Kohli and Rohit looked to hit down the ground and picked up runs with ease as the 100 runs came up in the 22nd over.
Kohli was careful in his shot selection and hit fours off leg—spinner Anthony Martin and Russell in successive overs.
The former India colts skipper bisected a Martin delivery through the backward point region and then spanked Russell through covers.
He reached his half century in the 23rd over with a single off Martin having faced only 63 deliveries. He celebrated it with a cheeky steer for four off Lendl Simmons.
Rohit having settled into a nice groove at the other end, slammed returning Roach over midwicket for an effortless six in the 36th over.
However, Kohli dismissal led to a dramatic collapse.
India were to suffer another blow almost immediately when skipper Raina played an ill—advised lofted shot to be out in the deep off Pollard.
Rohit and Pathan were well and truly into a repair act when Sharma was cleaned up by Martin.
Russell struck twin blows in one over when he had Pathan (30) caught behind and Amit Mishra (0) bowled in his eighth over, the 46th of the innings.
Scorecard
India: S Dhawan c Sarwan b Roach 11, P Patel c Martin b Russell 6, V Kohli run out (Sarwan ) 94, M Tiwary c Baugh b Pollard 22, R Sharma b Martin 57, S Raina c Barath b Pollard 0, Y Pathan c Baugh b Russell 30, R Ashwin not out 8, A Mishra b Russell 0, V Kumar c Baugh b Roach 2, I Sharma b Russell 0
Extras (lb—1, w—19, nb—1) 21
Total (All out, 47.3 overs ) 251
Fall of wickets: 1—15, 2—21, 3—79, 4—189, 5—190, 6—225, 7—245, 8—246, 9—249
Bowling: Roach 10—0—52—2, Sammy 6—0—48—0, Russell 8.3—0—35—4, Pollard 8—0—39—2, Martin 10—1—39—1, Simmons 5—0—37—0.
Virat Kohli and Manoj Tiwary consolidate after early losses
The final ODI of the five-match Digicel series got underway under the shadow of the Chris Gayle versus the West Indies Cricket Board conflict which turned from bad to worse after a stormy Wednesday night meeting between the two parties.
This reflected in the arena; the atmosphere was sombre.
On a surface with some juice, India was 73 for two after 15 overs here on Thursday. Much of the cricket was compelling.
Openers Parthiv Patel and Shikhar Dhwan were fired out early by the West Indian paceman. Then Virat Kohli and Manoj Tiwary, rightfully batting down the order, consolidated.
Bounce and carry
The surface at the Sabina Park had pace, bounce and carry. Batting demanded guts and application.
Kemar Roach worked up pace, extracted lift. Andre Russell too got the ball to climb.
Parthiv attempted the pull Rusell but found the ball coming on to the bat too quickly. The miscued stroke was held brilliantly by Anthony Martin.Dhawan, back in the squad, did not appear comfortable. He attempted to cut Roach and was picked up at first slip.
Kohli is a positive batsman who relishes a combat. Without being overly aggressive, he is a busy batsman. Kohli's straight-drive off Roach was a top-shot. Then, he cover-drove Sammy.
Sammy won the toss and opted to field. Adrian Barath replaced Danza Hyatt in the West Indies team. S. Badrinath and Praveen Kumar made way for Dhawan and Vinay Kumar in the Indian eleven.
Kohli who looked good for a three—figure mark was unfortunately run—out at 94 (104 balls, 10x4) but his fourth wicket partnership of 110 runs with Rohit (57, 72 balls, 2x4, 1x6) laid the foundation for the visitors to put up a stiff total.
But another failure from skipper Suresh Raina (0) and Yusuf Pathan’s (30, 29 balls, 2x4, 1x6) failure to make it count after getting set put paid to India’s hopes of posting a huge total.
From 189 for three in 35.5 overs, Indian batsmen blew away a golden opportunity to post a 300 plus total on a wicket where the ball was coming onto the bat.
If Virat was unlucky as he was beaten by fantastic throw from the deep by Ramnaresh Sarwan going for a second run, Rohit was guilty of throwing it away after doing all the hard work.
Skipper Raina would like to forget this series in a hurry as he compiled a poor 74 runs in five matches. Yusuf on his part was looking good to fire all cylinders but failed to handle the extra bounce.
Kohli’s innings was blemish free and it looks like he would walk into the first XI of the Test team after such a quality performance.
The Delhi youngster batted with lot of responsibility as he first steadied the ship with a 58—run third wicket partnership with Manoj Tiwary (22, 22 balls, 1x4, 1x6) and then a century stand with Rohit Sharma.
Skipper Raina will have to take bulk of the blame as India failed to consume 15 deliveries in the end which might mean that they finished atleast 25 runs short of what they were supposed to score.
Put into bat after Darren Sammy won the toss, India lost openers Parthiv Patel (6) and Shikhar Dhawan (11) by the seventh over as both were done in by the extra bounce in the strip.
Parthiv wasn’t in position to pull a Russell bouncer and was holed out at midwicket while Dhawan failed to negotiate a rising delivery and was cramped for room going for a cut shot off Kemar Roach. He was snapped up in the first slip.
Kohli started clipping Russell delightfully to midwicket fence off the eighth ball he received.
The next boundary was rather a streaky edge past slip off Sammy but he made it up with a delightful cover drive in the West Indian skipper’s fourth over.
Manoj for the first time looked comfortable in his short international career. A six off Sammy which hit the wooden roof of the club’s bar was a breathtaking shot. Just when he looked like geting into the groove, he edged one from Kieron Pollard straight to Carlton Baugh.
India now had the best batting passage of the innings as two best young batsmen put their wares out on display.
Both Kohli and Rohit looked to hit down the ground and picked up runs with ease as the 100 runs came up in the 22nd over.
Kohli was careful in his shot selection and hit fours off leg—spinner Anthony Martin and Russell in successive overs.
The former India colts skipper bisected a Martin delivery through the backward point region and then spanked Russell through covers.
He reached his half century in the 23rd over with a single off Martin having faced only 63 deliveries. He celebrated it with a cheeky steer for four off Lendl Simmons.
Rohit having settled into a nice groove at the other end, slammed returning Roach over midwicket for an effortless six in the 36th over.
However, Kohli dismissal led to a dramatic collapse.
India were to suffer another blow almost immediately when skipper Raina played an ill—advised lofted shot to be out in the deep off Pollard.
Rohit and Pathan were well and truly into a repair act when Sharma was cleaned up by Martin.
Russell struck twin blows in one over when he had Pathan (30) caught behind and Amit Mishra (0) bowled in his eighth over, the 46th of the innings.
Scorecard
India: S Dhawan c Sarwan b Roach 11, P Patel c Martin b Russell 6, V Kohli run out (Sarwan ) 94, M Tiwary c Baugh b Pollard 22, R Sharma b Martin 57, S Raina c Barath b Pollard 0, Y Pathan c Baugh b Russell 30, R Ashwin not out 8, A Mishra b Russell 0, V Kumar c Baugh b Roach 2, I Sharma b Russell 0
Extras (lb—1, w—19, nb—1) 21
Total (All out, 47.3 overs ) 251
Fall of wickets: 1—15, 2—21, 3—79, 4—189, 5—190, 6—225, 7—245, 8—246, 9—249
Bowling: Roach 10—0—52—2, Sammy 6—0—48—0, Russell 8.3—0—35—4, Pollard 8—0—39—2, Martin 10—1—39—1, Simmons 5—0—37—0.
Al-Qaeda's new chief, and its war within
Ayman al-Zawahiri has been at the centre of a stormy debate over the jihadist movement's future.
“Liberating the Muslim nation” reads Knights under the Prophet's Banner, “confronting the enemies of Islam and launching a jihad against them, require a Muslim authority, established on a Muslim land, that raises the banner of jihad and rallies the Muslims around it”.
“Without achieving this goal, our actions will mean nothing more than mere and repeated disturbances.”
Four weeks after Ayman Muhammad Rabi al-Zawahiri published al-Qaeda's seminal manifesto online, the forces unleashed by the tragic events of 9/11 led to the disintegration of the state he hoped would spearhead a global Islamist revolution. Taliban-ruled Afghanistan disintegrated in the face of western military power. In the years since, al-Qaeda has re-emerged resurgent, building ever more powerful in the arc of states from Mali to Indonesia.
But the real goal remains elusive: and now, as al-Qaeda's newly-appointed chief, it will be al-Zawahiri's goal to see what might be done to secure it.
Faced with deep and little-understood dissent within his ranks, and a storm of events across the Middle-East which seem to have rendered irrelevant al-Qaeda's core belief that Islamist-led violence would alone spearhead change, his prospects appear bleak.
Born into a well-connected upper-middle class family from suburban Cairo, al-Zawahiri grew up in a scholarly milieu: he is said to have excelled as a student, been drawn to poetry, and hated organised sports, seeing them as “inhumane”.
He was drawn to the teachings of the Islamist ideologue Syed Qutb as a teenager, and joined the Muslim Brotherhood when he was just 14. Qutb, whose works Milestones and In the shade of the Quran are foundational texts for the global Islamist movement, was executed in 1966, for his alleged role in a plot to assassinate Egypt's President, Gamal Abdel Nasser. Al-Zawahiri, with four other schoolchildren, set up an underground cell to stage an Islamist revolution.
In the years that followed, al-Zawahiri would train as a doctor and specialise as a surgeon. He married Cairo university philosophy student Azza Nowari in 1978; their wedding, held at the Continental Hotel, attracted attention in the liberal Cairo of the times: men were segregated from women, photographers and musicians were kept away, and joking banter was discouraged.
But following the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981, al-Zawahiri was among hundreds arrested and tortured. Released after three years in prison, he fled the country, and began practising medicine in Saudi Arabia. There, he came into contact with Osama bin-Laden. He first travelled to visit bin Laden-funded jihad facilities in Pakistan in 1985, a relationship that would slowly mature until 2001, when the EIJ formally merged with al-Qaeda.
The two men became inseparable: the intellectual, serious al-Zawahiri providing the perfect foil to the enthusiastic but politically immature bin Laden. Both men helped plan 9/11; it was to be al-Qaeda's greatest moment: a spectacular gesture that would precipitate a civilisational cataclysm between Islam and the west and signal that the power of the United States was illusory.
Azza, al-Zawahiri's wife, and his youngest daughter Aisha would both die in November, 2001, pinned under the debris of an al-Qaeda guesthouse hit by American bombs in Afghanistan.
Al-Zawahiri himself would spend the rest of his life trying to clear away the wreckage from around al-Qaeda.
The schisms within
Now appointed commander of the organisation following the killing of his friend by United States special forces, al-Zawahiri also faces a war within. More than a few inside al-Qaeda are said to believe the job should have gone to Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi, also known as Saif al-Adel: part of a small caucus of top al-Qaeda commanders, including Saeed al-Masri and Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, who are reputed to have opposed the 9/11 attacks, saying they would destroy the Islamist state in Afghanistan and thus retard the movement's progress. Ever since 2009, following the death of jihadist commander Muhammad Atef, Makkai has commanded al-Qaeda's military assets—which means al-Zawahiri will have to rely on his allies among the jihadist movement in Pakistan to exercise power, not the people who built the organisation. Part of the story about al-Qaeda's internal dissensions became public in 2009, when the jihad veteran Abdullah Muhammad Fazul published his memoirs online. Fazul, who joined the jihadist movement as a teenager in 1991, drew a sharp distinction between the jihadists grouped in what he called the “original al-Qaeda” and al-Zawahiri's Egyptian Jihad cadre.
For all practical purposes, he wrote, the original al-Qaeda jihadists saw al-Makkawi as their commander. Even though, he wrote, al-Zawahiri “is called the number two man in the organization, but we don't have firsts and seconds in Islam, all are equal before God, and in any case I have never once taken orders from [him]”
Last year, Nasser al-Bahri, bin Laden's bodyguard until the events of 9/11, published memoirs which included a similar unflattering assessment of al-Zawahiri. “Bin Laden,” he argued, “is a born leader.” But Zawahiri had “generated a great deal of reserve, sometimes very harsh criticism,” al-Bahri wrote. “I doubt he has sufficient authority for such a position, even with his well-known authoritarianism and his penchant for centralizing power in himself.”
Kuwaiti cleric-turned al-Qaeda operative Suleiman Abu Gaith — who won notoriety by appearing in a video broadcast on al-Jazeera weeks after 9/11, proclaiming that “the storm of the planes will not stop” — also last year published an online manifesto highly critical of bin Laden's leadership.
Ghaith lashed out at al-Qaeda for “taking decisions in haste which led to a big defeat.” The poor decision making, he said, was a consequence of bin Laden being “encircled by a bunch of advisers who do not qualify to give advice”— a reference, presumably, to al-Zawahiri. He was also critical of al-Zawahiri's politics, which had led to “isolation of yourself and the mujahideen from the mainstream Islamic movements and from the Muslim world.”
Zawahiri has repeatedly attempted to defend himself. In 2008, responding to such criticisms, he said his critics, by refusing to countenance the loss of innocent life in a contest between grossly asymmetric adversaries, were in effect advocating capitulation. The voices of Islamist critics of al-Qaeda appear to have been growing ever louder.
The new ideologues
Even as al-Zawahiri's military success will depend on the cooperation he musters from Pakistani jihadist groups, the outcome of these debates could lie in the hands of a new generation of jihadist ideologues who have proved adroit in using new media to spread their message.
Key among the new ideologues are Libyan-born Muhammad Hasan Abu Bakr, who has occupied centre-stage in al-Qaeda's media campaigns since he escaped from Kabul's Bagram prison in 2005. Known by the alias Yahya al-Libi, Abu Bakr has delivered several impassioned video sermons, drawing from Islamic juridical tradition to argue al-Qaeda's cause.
Jarret Brachman, a counter-terrorism expert and former Central Intelligence Agency analyst, said this of al-Libi: “He's a warrior. He's a poet. He's a scholar. He's a pundit. He's a military commander.”
Libyan-born Jamal Ibrahim Ishtaywi, from the war-torn city of Misrata, and Kuwaiti national Khalid bin Abd al-Rahman al-Husaynan, a former prayer leader employed by the country's ministry of religious endowments, have also acquired great visibility.
Perhaps best-known, though, is the Yemeni-American preacher Anwar al-Awlaki — the English speaking face of al-Qaeda, whose sermons and books have been translated into a dozen languages. Al-Awlaki's words inspired the actions of Umar Farooq Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national who attempted to blow himself up on a transatlantic jet in 2009, as well as the United States military psychiatrist, Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 when he opened fire inside a military base in Texas
Barack Obama authorised the assassination of al-Awlaki in April 2010, making him the first citizen of the United States to be placed on the Central Intelligence Agency's death-list.
In a recent article, researcher Christopher Anzalone argued that these “charismatic communicators will play an increasingly important role in ensuring the survival of the transnational jihadi trend in the aftermath of bin Laden's killing”.
But will Zawahiri and the al-Qaeda he helped build guide that new jihadist current? Cut off from the mainstream of the Islamist movement in the Middle-East, where parties like the Muslim Brotherhood are poised to acquire power through democratic means; battered by relentless United States military pressure; isolated from his own organisation's most influential minds, Zawahiri more likely than not has often contemplated the terrible strategic error of 9/11.
He may in time come to be seen as the figure who presided over the death of the old al-Qaeda — not the man who gave it birth again after bin Laden's death.
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