Finding Belmoktar News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Important out there. >> it's interesting to note it will be the second anniversary of bin laden's det of may 2nd, and two years ago, no one talked about moktar belmoktar. he wasn't somebody anyone talked about. the president 6 the time was saying al qaeda has been decimated. then he changed his speech to saying al qaeda is on the path to defeat. he's changed his rhetoric. how important would a killing of belmoktar be to this president? would it be as important right now in terms of his influence on al qaeda and people who are considering joining that organization as bin laden? >> no. i don't t...

Wh with the french, but chad forces went in on the ground, conducted this attack on what they said was a jihadist base in northern mali, the question is, is there evidence, is there intelligence that belmoktar was even there when the attack happened. is there imagery, cell phone intercepts, internet traffic, signs of a funeral planned for an al qaeda leader. all the things that the u.s. is still looking for that signals to them, would confirm to them that it's likely belmoktar was killed in the attack. so far, they don't see those signals. >> barbara starr, thank you very much. inquestion is w...

What do you think? >> there may be some truth to that. look, i think in this case, from a u.s. perspective, it's hard to gauge the evidence right now. we don't have the forces that we've had in afghanistan or pakistan to assess these kinds of strikes. the chadians, it would be great if they killed him. they are on the ground, but i would be surprised if they had the level of intelligence to kill someone of this magnitude without help from say french air strikes that were conducting attacks on the ground. >> so how big of a priority should finding belmoktar be right now, peter? he appears to be...

That. look, i think in this case, from a u.s. perspective, it's hard to gauge the evidence right now. we don't have the forces that we've had in afghanistan or pakistan to assess these kinds of strikes. the chadians, it would be great if they killed him. they are on the ground, but i would be surprised if they had the level of intelligence to kill someone of this magnitude without help from say french air strikes that were conducting attacks on the ground. >> so how big of a priority should finding belmoktar be right now, peter? he appears to be a figurehead growing in importance, but is that ...

Of course, the chad army is the one who said they killed abu zeid and moktar is slim. there's a much better chance of winning the lottery. what do you think? >> there may be some truth to that. look, i think in this case, from a u.s. perspective, it's hard to gauge the evidence right now. we don't have the forces that we've had in afghanistan or pakistan to assess these kinds of strikes. the chadians, it would be great if they killed him. they are on the ground, but i would be surprised if they had the level of intelligence to kill someone of this magnitude without help from say french air str...