Bin Laden was the facial skin of al-Qaida, but Ayman al-Zawahiri was its hate-filled heart

One of the last times al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was on center stage was roughly 40 years ago, when the international media captured his rants from a cage at the back of an Egyptian courtroom.

The cameras captured him shouting about the torture he and other prisoners endured at the tactile hands of Egyptian jailers. He started the group chanting: "We could Muslims. We are Muslims."

Zawahiri's prison amount of time in Egypt not only set him from the regime there, but also marked the start of his lifelong hatred of the U.S.

When he joined forces with Osama bin Laden eventually, he passed that enmity along, on Weekend local amount of time in Afghanistan after an unmanned U but it ended for al-Zawahiri.S drone fired two hellfire missiles at a safe house in Kabul, killing him.

President Biden noted Monday that al-Zawahiri was Osama bin Laden's deputy during 9/11 and that he was "deeply active in the planning."

"For decades he was the mastermind behind attacks against Americans," Biden added, noting the 2000 USS Cole attack and the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Biden also detailed al-Zawahiri's role leading al-Qaida since bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in 2011, including calling on followers in recent weeks to attack the U.S. and allies.

Bruce Hoffman, director of the guts for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, said in 2011 that while al-Zawahiri had a reputation to be prickly and dogmatic, he might emerge as an even stronger leader than bin Laden.

"Unlike bin Laden, he previously the street cred at having been a dyed-in-the-wool terrorist from the right time he was an adolescent," Hoffman said. "OK, he's much less telegenic as bin Laden. He lacks bin Laden's charisma. He does not have bin Laden's mellifluous voice, but he is an extremely powerful figure within the activity still."

Bin Laden had talked about creating a base for a broader Islamist movement as if it were a mantra. He wanted a company that didn't need him to survive. And al-Zawahiri has kept it going in the decade since bin Laden's death.
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