Global Security, Privacy, & Risk Management

Special Ops chief warns of Al-Qaeda 2.0….Somalia named! July 28, 2011

The top commander of U.S. special operations forces said Wednesday that Usama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda is bloodied and “nearing its end,” but he warned the next generation of militants could keep special operations fighting for a decade to come.

Navy SEAL Adm. Eric T. Olson described the killing of bin Laden by a special operations raid on May 2 as a near-killing blow for what he called “Al Qaeda 1.0,” as created by bin Laden and led from his hideout in Pakistan.

“It will morph, it will disperse,” he said. “It will become in some ways more westernized, (with) dual passport holders” and “fewer cave dwellers,” he said.

Olson said others like al-Awlaki (the American cleric in Yemen) will probably refine their message to appeal to a wider audience, and seek ungoverned spaces to operate from, where they can smuggle in weapons and train their followers. He described how current offshoots like al-Awlaki’s Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen are cooperating with militants in Somalia, who in turn are raising money for terrorist operations via ransoms paid to pirates, describing what he called an “invisible bridge” between the two.

He said the fight against all versions of Al Qaeda could keep U.S. special operations forces deploying at the same pace for another decade, even as U.S. conventional forces draw down from places like Iraq and Afghanistan.