The U.S. confirmed Tuesday that a
drone strike in Pakistan a day earlier took out Al Qaeda’s charismatic
second-in-command, Abu Yahya al-Libi.
The Libyan loudmouth specialized in religious doctrine and
goading propaganda-not strategy or actual operations.
But his prominence and a rapidly shrinking talent pool
bumped him into the number two slot when Navy SEALs killed Osama Bin Laden last
May and forced Egyptian crank Ayman Al-Zawahiri to take Al Qaeda’s helm.
Al-Libi’s dogmatic credibility with jihadists and
wannabes, combined with unparalleled charisma, made him the most dangerous man
in core Al Qaeda, said terror scholar Jarret Brachman, a counterterrorism
adviser to the U.S. government.
If Al-Libi is replaceable, no one currently stands out to
do the job.
“There’s no one I would be able to name,” Brachman said.
“It’s my guess it would have to be done by committee.”
A committee is increasingly hard to assemble for Al Qaeda,
on the run from drone strikes that resumed this year after a disastrous
friendly fire incident Nov. 25 that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Al-Libi, believed to be about 49, was captured soon after
the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, but escaped from an Afghan pris