| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
With the death of Osama bin Laden and the emergence of the Arab Awakening, it has become de rigueur to argue that the primary terrorist threat to the West now comes from the Arabian Peninsula or North Africa. 'For the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks', extolled a Washington Post article after interviews with senior US government officials, 'CIA analysts see one of al-Qaeda's offshoots [in Yemen] - rather than the core group now based in Pakistan - as the most urgent threat to US security.' Some have even argued that al-Qaeda itself is increasingly irrelevant. 'Basically, we are winning dramatically', remarked Marc Sageman, a terrorism specialist and former CIA officer. 'You have an organization which is a shadow of its former self. We have got to the point where the real danger is from lone wolves who decide by themselves to turn violent.' US President Barack Obama joined in the chorus, triumphantly stating that 'we have put al-Qaeda on a path to defeat' because of the death of bin Laden and other senior operatives. In short, there appears to be a wave of triumphalism across the West that al-Qaeda and its allies are on the wane, and that the terrorist threat to the West has shifted away from Pakistan.
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