According to C.I.A. Director Michael Hayden, there is a rivalry brewing within Al-Qaeda's hiearchy between Egyptians and Saudis. At stake could be leadership of the group, post bin Laden. Bill Gertz of the Washington Times has the details:
Internal divisions between Saudi and Egyptian leaders of al Qaeda are producing "fissures" within the terrorist group and a possible battle over who will succeed Osama bin Laden, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday.
Mr. Hayden, an Air Force general, also said that al Qaeda regrouped in the past two years inside tribal areas of Pakistan and linked up with Pashtun regional extremists in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
Bin Laden is now an "iconic" figure hiding in the remote border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Mr. Hayden said in a wide-ranging interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Times.
"And frankly, then, we think there has been an awful lot of jockeying" among possible successors, Mr. Hayden said.
"Keep in mind, he's a Saudi. An awful lot of that leadership is Egyptian. If the Saudi dies, who becomes the next guy may be quite a contentious matter," he said.
"And there are fissures in al Qaeda because of this dominance of Egyptians inside the senior leadership, where you have a Saudi at the top," Mr. Hayden said during a meeting at CIA headquarters in McLean. "You can only imagine what then happens if he goes and then who comes in."
But don't write UBL off just yet.
Asked whether bin Laden is alive, Mr. Hayden said: "We have ... no evidence he's not. And frankly, we think there would be evidence. ... Given the iconic stature, his death would cause a little more than a wake in the harbor."
Bin Laden's efforts to avoid capture have limited his role in al Qaeda's operations, Mr. Hayden said.
"He's putting a lot of his energy into hiding right now."
What about or old friend, Adam Gadahn?