AFP PhotoPakistani policemen and onlookers gather as a cloud of smoke billows from the burning Marriott hotel. Pakistan has blamed Al-Qaeda linked Taliban militants for the massive suicide truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel that killed at least 60 people and injured more than 260.
From Yahoo News/Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Al Qaeda is struggling to boost its appeal in Pakistan following President Pervez Musharraf's resignation, a U.S. terrorism expert concludes based on comments by the militant network.
Former CIA analyst Jarret Brachman said Musharraf's departure in September had removed a target of al Qaeda's anti-American campaign. His successor, Asif Ali Zardari, has been critical of the United States.
Al Qaeda "finds itself in a variety of predicaments with regard to the Pakistani government, its army and its jihadist populations," Brachman writes in the CTC Sentinel, a journal of the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to be published on Thursday.
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My Comment: Al Qaeda's drop in popularity is not necessarily due to a new leader in Pakistan. It is a combination of factors, much of which can be directly blamed at Al Qaeda's terrorism campaign against innocent Pakistanis.