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Terror Icon

DW Staff (cat)August 4, 2008

In an interview published Monday, Germany's intelligence chief said that Osama bin Laden, the "Che Guevara of Al Qaeda," no longer personally plans attacks.

https://p.dw.com/p/Eq7s
Face of Osama bin Laden
Bin Laden no longer personally planning attacks?Image: AP

Ernst Uhrlau, the head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND), spoke with Bild newspaper reporter Monday about terrorism and the BND's efforts to combat it. In the interview, which includes a brief discussion on the recent bombing in Istanbul, Uhrlau was quoted as saying that he knew that "Islamist terrorist" forces were at work in Turkey as part of a global jihad movement.

Those forces, he claimed, were just a part of the al Qaeda terrorist network. Al Qaeda, he said, is still being run by Osama bin Laden, who "as far as we know" still resides in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. Uhrlau, however, no longer sees bin Laden as personally planning attacks.

Instead, Uhrlau said, he is "a creative director and icon, something like the Che Guevara of al Qaeda" who helps hold the terror network together.

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