Google Earth pointer to Damadola, Pakistan, where Ayman Al-Zawahiri is reported/rumored to be killed, today, in a Predator strike.
"Pakistani military sources told American ABC television that five of those killed were "high level Al-Qaeda figures", and their bodies are undergoing forensic tests for identification."
"One official said intelligence indicated a strong possibility that Zawahri was in the Pakistani village at the time of the airstrike, but there is no confirmation that he was killed.
Pakistani officials say U.S. aircraft, apparently CIA Predator drones, fired as many as 10 missiles at the residential compound. Reports indicate as many as 30 villagers, including some women and children, were killed.
The attack came in the Bajur region of Northwest Pakistan, along the Afghanistan border.
The CIA Predators carry as many as four Hellfire missiles. While some remains were reportedly recovered from the site of the attack, there was still no confirmation Friday night that Zawahri was among the dead. An intelligence official told NBC that it does have a sample of Zawahri's DNA." - MSNBC
"A doctor in the area told The Associated Press that at least 17 people were killed in the attack, but other witnesses at the scene said the death toll was higher." - CNN
Getting Zawahiri, the titular head of Al Qaeda, would mean that the most important and articulate public face of the overarching terrorist organization would be gone. In my opinion, this would signify that we've entered officially into the "Nuisance Times," to borrow a word from the inimitable John Kerry (who ill-fatedly decided that treating the terrorist threat as a crime to be prosecuted was the right way to go) - the disparate terror groups who've been using the umbrella name of Al Qaeda will no longer need to do so nor have any reason to adhere to the specific Al Qaeda agenda.
It's fairly clear that the American public along with their duly elected representatives in the Congress have all but forgotten about the pursuit of Al Qaeda and reports like this in the past weeks, months, or years have become a "nuisance" and more of a concern for a process of traditional legal prosecution rather than a proactive awareness on their parts. Without a singular face for the American public to point to and ask "what he mean by?" the unofficial drain on our collective psyches will become an official status as the variety of retroactive Islamists start vying for their own regional causes (the explosions in Dhaka on 12/25, for example). With our short-term focus, attempting to rally people to keep up support for fighting a multifacted, multiagendaed Islamist threat will be very real difficulty - a reality that's been the problem from day one within our military and intelligence organizations. Now, it's with our public.
The second prong of Zawahiri's death would be that of a sign to the Jihadist/Islamist groups - there's no focal leader to dole out poorly made videos espousing broad blandishments that have kept disgruntled muslim youth cheering on the "movement." Without Zawahiri, the role of top propagandist will be delegated to the individual Islamist organizations - something that'll cause regionalization, specialization, and ultimately, a disconnection from an overarching goal. The question is, when Zawahiri dies, will the idea of the Caliphate be only Bin Laden's?
Another possibility for these events is simple hype/disinformation. Without any ability to confirm whether or not the strikes were aimed at Zawahiri or have actually killed Zawahiri, the reporting with his name attached could be an attempt to flush out denials.