Osama bin Laden’s death won’t bring an end to terror attacks, even if the al-Qaeda movement has now lost its “spiritual father,” said Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat who runs Terrorist, a risk advisory company.
“It doesn’t change much on the ground, even if it has a symbolic importance,” Giudicelli said in a telephone interview. “There has been such a process of decentralization within the movement that operations are now all local.”
“Osama bin Laden was at the head of an ideological movement, but he no longer had the central role in planning operations that he had until 2001. Groups like al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and in Yemen have lost a spiritual father, but their actions go on independently,” Giudicelli said. “This death may even give them new impetus and new justifications to carry out attacks.”
Bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S., was killed yesterday by U.S. special forces in Pakistan.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
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