Osama bin Laden ‘considered changing name of al-Qaeda before death’

May 1st, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

“Under intense pressure in the tribal regions of Pakistan, they have
fewer places to train and groom the next generation of operatives, they’re
struggling to attract new recruits.

“Morale is low,” Mr Brennan said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson
Center for International Scholars, which was briefly interrupted by a Code
Pink anti-war demonstrator who was hauled out of the room by a burly
policeman.

News of bin Laden’s death broke in Washington late on May 1, 2011, and in
Pakistan on May 2, owing to the time difference.

Mr Brennan said that the documents gathered at bin Laden’s lair in Abbottabad,
outside Islamabad, show the late al-Qaeda leader urged subordinates to flee
for places “away from aircraft photography and bombardment.”

Things got so bad for the group which plotted the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest
terror strike in US history, that bin Laden considered changing the group’s
name in a rebranding effort, he said.

Mr Brennan’s speech will likely prompt new claims by Republicans that the
Obama campaign is exploiting the anniversary of the bin Laden raid to boost
the president’s prospects of reelection in November.

Senior Obama aides are clearly using the president’s decision to launch the
high-risk raid as an implicit comparison to the character of his presumptive
Republican rival Mitt Romney.

The president himself implicitly suggested in a news conference on Monday that
Romney may not have ordered the high-stakes raid last year.

Mr Brennan also claimed that the administration’s tactics against al-Qaeda had
made it harder than ever for the terror network to plan and execute
large-scale, potentially catastrophic attacks.

“Today, it is increasingly clear that compared to 9/11, the core
al-Qaeda leadership is a shadow of its former self,” Mr Brennan said.

“al-Qaeda has been left with just a handful of capable leaders and
operatives, and with continued pressure is on the path to its destruction.

“And for the first time since this fight began, we can look ahead and
envision a world in which the al-Qaeda core is simply no longer relevant.”

Mr Brennan’s speech amounted to the administration’s most comprehensive public
survey about the state of the struggle against al-Qaeda.

He spent considerable time defending strikes by unmanned US aerial drones in
nations like Pakistan, crediting them with dismantling al-Qaeda’s top
leadership and causing bin Laden’s distress.

Mr Brennan said the strikes were legal, ethical and proportional, and added
that Obama had instructed officials to share more details about the secret
war.

Despite lauding the administration’s achievements in hammering top al-Qaeda
leaders and the group’s capacity, Mr Brennan also warned that global terror
threats were still potent, particularly those emanating from Africa.

“As the al-Qaeda core falters, it continues to look to its affiliates
and adherents to carry on its murderous cause,” Mr Brennan said,
warning that the group’s merger with the Shebab group in Somalia was “worrying.”

He said that Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) remained a
threat, despite the strike that took out radical US-born cleric Anwar
al-Awlaki, who directed its external operations.

Source: agencies