Lessons learned 5 years after the death of Osama bin Laden

World Today

It’s been five years since the death of Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda. The deadliest of its attacks around the world was the 9/11 attack on the United States.

CCTV America’s Jessica Stone examines what the world knows about the movement bin Laden started and how to fight it.

On May 2nd 2011, an elite group of U.S. forces killed bin Laden and four others.

“The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al-Qaeda,” U.S. President Barack Obama said of his killing.

Security experts say the death of bin Laden helped prevent more large-scale attacks like those on 9/11.

But some experts say it didn’t halt the growth of radical Islam.

“For the first three to three and a half years after Osama bin Laden’s death, what we saw was a gradual increase in strength of these movements,” Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution said.

In this leadership vacuum, al-Qaeda splintered. Other groups emerged, like Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, and al-Qaeda in Iraq, which split with bin Laden’s group to become ISIL.

Many security experts say the killing of bin Laden challenged a narrative in radical Islam that justifies mass slaughter. But as this second decade of America’s war on terror has made clear, it is easier to kill Islamist leaders than it is their ideas.


Douglas Smith discusses the five-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden

To discuss the five-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden and the U.S. War on Terror, CCTV America’s Susan Roberts spoke to Douglas Smith, executive vice president and general manager of MWW Group, a government and public relations company and a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.


Jonah Blank discusses the killing of Osama bin Laden

For more on the five-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, Susan Roberts talked to Jonah Blank, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation.