Bin Ladenism News Today

Reading the extensive interview (published in three episodes by this newspaper) that my colleague Ghassan Charbel conducted with Yasser Abed Rabbo, the former Secretary-General of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), is the sort of exercise that could make a child’s head turn gray.

In 2011 and 2012, a wave of popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East shook the region’s autocratic regimes, prompting euphoric reactions in the West about an “Arab Spring” and a supposed new age of democracy. While the overthrow of authoritarian regimes can give democracy a chance to bloom, it has also created opportunities for a wide spectrum of Islamist parties to advance their undemocratic agendas.

You count per by having a very difficult discussion with our friends, and especially our friends in saudi arabia, to be honest. a lot of the narrative, a lot of the ideology, coming from there. and i hope the prince will be back to at least take charge of the the counterterrorism efforts and do the magic did he before in countering the spread of this narrative. >> do you think there is any validity to thinking, we spent a lot of time thinking about al qaeda and isis and then they take credit for...

See what the australian police are going to find out about the motivation about why he did that. but the flag he had with him is basically a black flag that has the slogan theres no good but good mohamed is his prophet. thats the original flag of al qaeda under osama bin laden. >> it is. >> now with the nustra front underneath it it indicates its al qaeda affiliated organization in syria. the isis flag is a little bit different. its black. has the same terminology but has that circle at the bott...

Tool when theres always somebody standing in the wings. >> well, but the importance of bin laden cant be underestimated. he was the founder, he was the leader, he was the symbol. bin laden is dead, theyre trying to kill bin ladenism, but they have also got to end al qaeda. now al qaeda operates in many ways as a franchise operation and a franchise organization. so theres still plenty of work to be done. so in order to get that entire organization, yes, they got the top of the organization, but j...

Will there be sentcentrifugal forces? >> is it in some way, tough analogy to make, like the collapse of the cold war, you knew the soviets, the one unifying enemy you were looking at, now with this splintering. the splintering, why its a significant achievement, al qaeda as we knew it, may be crippled, if not on its way to death. does it make it more complicated to keep an eye on the other things happening? >> thats right. the rise of the affiliates of al qaeda. theres a more complex threat and ...

Apparently there are photos of bin ladens body and his burial at sea. we talked to ed henry about that at the top of the program. dmo word they will be made public. a lot of people would like to see that kind of evidence. "new york times" columnist and author thomas friedman joins me now. your reaction on learning that bin laden had been killed. >> well, anderson, im glad that justice was done, especially as we sit here at the site of, you know, the world trade center. but weve killed bin laden....

Ladenism. okay? >> what does that mean, bin ladenism? >> this whole extremist ideology that the way the arab muslim world finds dignity and justice and governance is through the violent overthrow of these regimes. and what is the good news here is that the arab people, in a very heroic way, have already started that process. >> the uprisings -- >> the uprising in egypt. the uprising in tunisia. the uprising in yemen. the uprising in libya. are arab people saying no, no, we want to get justice, w...

He has lost that ability to direct al qaeda as a central organization, capable of carrying out big attacks. but there are others. franchise operations. individuals. look at the christmas day bomber and others. those who are trying to pull off plots, who considered al qaeda a loosely commit confederation in terms of organization or bin ladenism if you want to call that an idea, the idea of striking the u.s. whether you do it alone or as part of a larger syndicate or as part of a larger plot. what...

Symbolic to take out osama bin laden, sit is a huge move forwad in what this country needs to feel in a fight back and justice. but it doesnt mean they will fall apart completely with the loss. >> more importantly with all of the arabs and muslims and their families who were killed in the name of bin ladenism, just a few days ago the bombing attack ark straited most likely by al qaeda. the tens of thousands of muslims that were killed and arabs that