Will CAIR start their attacks on CNN for demeaning Muslims? Will any apologist or water-carrier clamour for CNN to retract what they wrote? Is there one Muslim scholar who can complain that CNN is insulting all Muslims by pointing out those Muslims who are jihadists?
The FBI pulled an ad listing their top 32 terrorists on Seattle Transit buses because Muslims complained. The American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) applies to run the same ad and Seattle Transit refuses. Now CNN is playing the game, but they will not be chastised like the others, because they regularly support jihad and the harbingers of sharia. Besides, it's only the top 10, not the top 32.
Listen for the silence.
From CNN October 10 by Tim Lister
Who are the world's 10 most dangerous terrorists?
(CNN) -- Any compilation of the world's most dangerous terrorists is a hazardous undertaking, a shifting list that's open to endless debate.
If you live in Moscow, Chechen Islamist leader Doku Umarov would feature prominently. Many Israelis would likely include Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on their list and people living in the southern Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf group.
Some terror figures who were among the most wanted several years ago, such as Abu Anas al Libi -- who was captured last weekend in Libya -- appear not to have been active for some time. Even some terrorists try to retire. The last list compiled by CNN included senior al Qaeda operative Saif al Adel. He has vanished from the radar and may have been under house arrest in Iran.
Other figures lose relevance as their group loses territory, membership and/or funding. Groups such as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have been prone to internal rifts. Additionally, al Qaeda, especially in Pakistan, has moved away from identifying senior operational figures because of the effects of U.S. drone strikes, so some of a new generation of most dangerous terrorist figures may not yet be known to us.
The following selection is intended neither as definitive nor a "league table." It focuses not on organizations but on men (and they are all men) alleged to be plotting, directing -- and in some instances carrying out -- acts of terror aimed at causing mass casualties among civilians.
Some are ideologues and planners, others "operational," and some are both. They think and act in a regional and in some cases a global context. Some of the individuals below have appeared on previous lists compiled by CNN and others, and have lived long enough to warrant a second or third appearance.
Others are only now making a name for themselves among the world's counterterrorism agencies, as they take advantage of conflict or the collapse of state authority, forge new alliances or develop new ways of bringing terror to the international stage.
1. Ayman al-Zawahiri
Despite the whittling away by drone attacks of "al Qaeda central" in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the group's leader remains vocal and active in trying to harness the disparate affiliates that claim the al Qaeda name.
Since former leader Osama bin Laden's death in 2011, al-Zawahiri has sought to take advantage of the unrest sweeping the Arab world, and has recognized that groups such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are better placed to carry out attacks than the ever-diminishing core that remains in "Af-Pak." At times, al-Zawahiri has struggled to exercise authority over groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq, not least because of the difficulty in communicating with far-flung offshoots.
Aware that pulling off another 9/11 is a remote possibility, al-Zawahiri has suggested a shift to less ambitious and less expensive but highly disruptive attacks on "soft" targets, as well as hostage-taking. In an audio message in August he recommended taking "the citizens of the countries that are participating in the invasion of Muslim countries as hostages."
Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who is now 62, is not the inspirational figure to jihadists that bin Laden was, but he is trying to fashion a role as the CEO of a sprawling enterprise. According to the Economist, he may be succeeding. "From Somalia to Syria, al-Qaeda franchises and jihadist fellow travellers now control more territory, and can call on more fighters, than at any time since Osama bin Laden created the organisation 25 years ago," it wrote this month.
Reward offered by the U.S. government for his capture: up to $25 million.
2. Nasir al Wuhayshi
For someone thought to be about 36 years old,Wuhayshi's terror resume is already extensive. Once bin Laden's private secretary in Afghanistan, he returned to his native Yemen and ended up in jail. But not for long: He and several other al Qaeda operatives dug their way out in 2006. He went on to to help found al Qaeda in Yemen, and began launching attacks on Yemeni security services and foreign tourists, as well as directing an ambitious attack against the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
He is now the emir of AQAP, widely regarded as the most dangerous and active of al Qaeda's many offshoots. A slight figure with an impish sense of humor, according to some who have met him, Wuhayshi appears to have been anointed al Qaeda's overall deputy leader in a bold move by al-Zawahiri to leverage the capabilities of AQAP. Seth Jones, a Rand Corporation analyst, called the appointment "unprecedented because he's living in Yemen, he's not living in Pakistan."
If al-Zawahiri is al Qaeda's CEO, Wuhayshi appears to be its COO -- with responsibilities that extend far beyond Yemen. It appears that in 2012 he was already giving operational advice to al Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa.
Despite a concerted effort by the Yemeni government and the United States to behead AQAP, Wuhayshi survives, and his fighters have recently gone on the offensive again in southern Yemen. The group is bent on exporting terror to the West -- both through bomb plots and by dispatching Western converts home to sow carnage.
The FBI pulled an ad listing their top 32 terrorists on Seattle Transit buses because Muslims complained. The American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) applies to run the same ad and Seattle Transit refuses. Now CNN is playing the game, but they will not be chastised like the others, because they regularly support jihad and the harbingers of sharia. Besides, it's only the top 10, not the top 32.
Listen for the silence.
From CNN October 10 by Tim Lister
Who are the world's 10 most dangerous terrorists?
(CNN) -- Any compilation of the world's most dangerous terrorists is a hazardous undertaking, a shifting list that's open to endless debate.
If you live in Moscow, Chechen Islamist leader Doku Umarov would feature prominently. Many Israelis would likely include Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on their list and people living in the southern Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf group.
Some terror figures who were among the most wanted several years ago, such as Abu Anas al Libi -- who was captured last weekend in Libya -- appear not to have been active for some time. Even some terrorists try to retire. The last list compiled by CNN included senior al Qaeda operative Saif al Adel. He has vanished from the radar and may have been under house arrest in Iran.
Other figures lose relevance as their group loses territory, membership and/or funding. Groups such as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have been prone to internal rifts. Additionally, al Qaeda, especially in Pakistan, has moved away from identifying senior operational figures because of the effects of U.S. drone strikes, so some of a new generation of most dangerous terrorist figures may not yet be known to us.
The following selection is intended neither as definitive nor a "league table." It focuses not on organizations but on men (and they are all men) alleged to be plotting, directing -- and in some instances carrying out -- acts of terror aimed at causing mass casualties among civilians.
Some are ideologues and planners, others "operational," and some are both. They think and act in a regional and in some cases a global context. Some of the individuals below have appeared on previous lists compiled by CNN and others, and have lived long enough to warrant a second or third appearance.
Others are only now making a name for themselves among the world's counterterrorism agencies, as they take advantage of conflict or the collapse of state authority, forge new alliances or develop new ways of bringing terror to the international stage.
1. Ayman al-Zawahiri
Despite the whittling away by drone attacks of "al Qaeda central" in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the group's leader remains vocal and active in trying to harness the disparate affiliates that claim the al Qaeda name.
Since former leader Osama bin Laden's death in 2011, al-Zawahiri has sought to take advantage of the unrest sweeping the Arab world, and has recognized that groups such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are better placed to carry out attacks than the ever-diminishing core that remains in "Af-Pak." At times, al-Zawahiri has struggled to exercise authority over groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq, not least because of the difficulty in communicating with far-flung offshoots.
Aware that pulling off another 9/11 is a remote possibility, al-Zawahiri has suggested a shift to less ambitious and less expensive but highly disruptive attacks on "soft" targets, as well as hostage-taking. In an audio message in August he recommended taking "the citizens of the countries that are participating in the invasion of Muslim countries as hostages."
Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who is now 62, is not the inspirational figure to jihadists that bin Laden was, but he is trying to fashion a role as the CEO of a sprawling enterprise. According to the Economist, he may be succeeding. "From Somalia to Syria, al-Qaeda franchises and jihadist fellow travellers now control more territory, and can call on more fighters, than at any time since Osama bin Laden created the organisation 25 years ago," it wrote this month.
Reward offered by the U.S. government for his capture: up to $25 million.
2. Nasir al Wuhayshi
For someone thought to be about 36 years old,Wuhayshi's terror resume is already extensive. Once bin Laden's private secretary in Afghanistan, he returned to his native Yemen and ended up in jail. But not for long: He and several other al Qaeda operatives dug their way out in 2006. He went on to to help found al Qaeda in Yemen, and began launching attacks on Yemeni security services and foreign tourists, as well as directing an ambitious attack against the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
He is now the emir of AQAP, widely regarded as the most dangerous and active of al Qaeda's many offshoots. A slight figure with an impish sense of humor, according to some who have met him, Wuhayshi appears to have been anointed al Qaeda's overall deputy leader in a bold move by al-Zawahiri to leverage the capabilities of AQAP. Seth Jones, a Rand Corporation analyst, called the appointment "unprecedented because he's living in Yemen, he's not living in Pakistan."
If al-Zawahiri is al Qaeda's CEO, Wuhayshi appears to be its COO -- with responsibilities that extend far beyond Yemen. It appears that in 2012 he was already giving operational advice to al Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa.
Despite a concerted effort by the Yemeni government and the United States to behead AQAP, Wuhayshi survives, and his fighters have recently gone on the offensive again in southern Yemen. The group is bent on exporting terror to the West -- both through bomb plots and by dispatching Western converts home to sow carnage.
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