Bin Laden was the true face 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 relative again of an Egyptian courtroom.

The cameras trapped him shouting about the torture he and other prisoners suffered at the hands of Egyptian jailers. He started the group chanting: "Were Muslims. We are Muslims."

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

When he joined forces with Osama bin Laden eventually, he passed that enmity along, on Sunday 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 mixed up in 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 Center for Security and Tranquility Studies at Georgetown University or college, said in 2011 that while al-Zawahiri had a reputation to be prickly and dogmatic, he might emerge as an more powerful leader than bin Laden even.

"Unlike bin Laden, he had the road cred at having been a dyed-in-the-wool terrorist from enough time he was an adolescent," Hoffman said. "OK, he's not as telegenic as bin Laden. He lacks bin Laden's charisma. He does not have bin Laden's mellifluous voice, but he is still a very powerful amount within the activity."

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