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rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.

There's no question in my mind that al-Qaeda has deeper roots in Africa than it's had probably at any time in its history,

although it's efforts in Africa go way, way back to the 1990s.

And it has one of its probably most important affiliate is the Shabbat in Somalia.

And the Shabbat is of concern and I think actually the Biden administration did the right thing in doing a small plus up in the US forces.

To go after the Shabbat.

So the caveat I would make to all this though is that Africa has traditionally been less of a strategic priority to the United States when you compare it with the Middle East or South Asia.

And it's bad when there's greater al-Qaeda presence in Somalia or in West Africa.

But this is of less concern than having an al-Qaeda presence that's significant in Saudi Arabia.

I'm Benjamin Wittis and this is the Law Fair Podcast June 21st, 2022.

A Svondiar near of the US Institute of Peace and Daniel Bimon of Law Fair Brookings and Georgetown are both analysts of al-Qaeda and terrorist groups.

They have a different analysis however of how al-Qaeda is fairing in the current world.

Rather than argue about the subject on Twitter, they wrote an article about it spelling out where they agree and where they disagree.

And we thought it would make for a good podcast.

So they joined me in the virtual jungle studio to chew over the whole thing. Where is al-Qaeda strong and resilient? Where is it weak and failing?

Where has it disappeared altogether? We chew over it all. It's the Law Fair Podcast June 21st. Bimon and Mir debate al-Qaeda.

I want to start with just the case, Dan, that al-Qaeda has really ebbed and we're kind of done with it.

...