Comment by dmix | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dmix | Hacker News Reader

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Osama Bin Laden had an extremely long run, considering the CIA and NSA was after him at max agenda. Almost embarrassingly long.

Ayman al-Zawahiri (the defacto “leader” of Al-queda today) could easily be in some back room hidden in Pakistan right now. He technically is not listed as dead either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayman_al-Zawahiri

Stranger things have happened in our world.

It depends on how much these experts law enforcement people care too. A random IRS guy found the Silk Road guy, not some fancy investigation. The question is anyone in India, or where ever with corrupt police and military, are even looking hard for her.

You probably need someone like the Americans, UK, or Russians (see Shamil Basayev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamil_Basayev) IRL to really care at this level.

Note: I haven’t listened to the podcast or deeply into her, just my point of view on that subject.

An IRS guy found the Silk Road guy? Do you have a source? I remember reading that DPR got caught after some faked murder for hire plot by a (what later turned out) corrupt FBI agent after leaking the Silk Road IP of his Icelandic servers, which were then silently taken over and monitored.

IRS agent Gary Alford found him first and was ignored. It’s detailed in American Kingpin and the following

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/business/dealbook/the-uns...

Bin Laden is one thing. But what’s the use of taking out the de facto leader of an org that will have no problem having a replacement immediately like Al-queda? It makes more sense when you’re doing a full on or strong attack like right after 9/11 or for When ISIS was brought down a ton.

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For the Silk Road. That’s true. However the next two silk roads had the people arrested fairly quickly.

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Note: I don’t know much or anything about hiding out or disappearing.

"living charismatic leader the enemy can't seem to catch" has much greater recruitment value than "dead leader martyred, but we'll keep fighting".

The use of it is depleting the leadership chain of command and leave third and fourth stringers at the top at best. It won't actually eliminate them but it will reduce their effectiveness greatly.

In Al Qaeda's case the futility comes more from the vacuum in their niche.

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