shepard: and continuing conversation with senators nelson of florida and senator burr, the main thing is whatever you do get, you have to act quickly, right? guest: well, in the only do you have to act quickly we have probably operations around the world right now watching to see if people are moving from location to location. remember, we have all sorts of al qaeda affiliates that have green over the last 9 1/2 years so there could be a power struggle for the core of al qaeda. we cannot be sure that zawahiri becomes number one. that could fall to al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and al-aliwalki or other bad actors but we have a greater area. shepard: according to most
streaming live in jordan. what does he bring to the table? no one no has been at osama bin laden side longer, zawahiri has a great deal of spreadability having been involved in the planning of not just the african embassy bombing, but the bombing of the uss cole and, also, of course, the 9/11 attacks. on the other side, he is said to be argumentative and not that popular among the al qaeda we hierarchy but he could be too busy to be effective leader because having seen what happened to osama bin laden zawahiri will be focused on his survivor in the short-term. shepard: could the extremists look to al-aliwalki in yemen?
jonathan: a lot of analysts blow they may well look to him. he is a more inspirational figure and zawahiri is motivational, al-aliwalki is inspirational, he has inspired the attempted bombing in times square, new york, and, also, the ft. hood shootings and the bomber who hid explosives in the underwear in the plane flying over detroit on christmas day 2009. but having said that, al-aliwalki, too, will have witnessed what happened to osama bin laden and he may be forced underground in the short-term. shepard: the dead bearded one told the family not to join the al qaeda or go to the front line so the kids, the sons, are out of the picture, right? jonathan: not entirely. some of the sons, he has many children, some sons have played a very active role in al qaeda. two of the sons were closest,