 So let's jump in. Aiman, Elz, Wahari was finally killed. God, it took them a long time. Finally killed. It's only taken 21 years for them to get this monster. The more you analyze and you read about the history, the more horrific it is. And even we'll talk about how they killed him. Even how they killed him is such a sign of, I think, such a sign of weakness. But we will talk about that. So let's first talk about who he was. Of course, Elz, Wahari was number two. Bin Laden is number two in al-Qaeda. When Bin Laden was murdered, he became number one. But his sister goes back quite a bit. As Wahari is an Egyptian, he was born to a very affluent, very well-educated family in Giza, in Egypt. His family both generated significant religious leaders within Egyptian society in the past, going back to his grandfather, and also doctors, and a very, very well-educated family. He studied to be a doctor, became a doctor, so practice medicine here and there. He actually, when he met Bin Laden in the 1980s, he actually served as Bin Laden's doctor for many years. So Wahari, in his youth, was radicalized by the Muslim Brotherhood. And now, if you're interested in the Muslim Brotherhood, if you're interested in the history of Islamism, of the whole radical, totalitarian Islam, then I highly recommend my course. I have a course. I can't remember how many parts. Four lectures, four or five lectures on the history of Islamic totalitarianism, on Islamism, on jihadism. It goes back to the history of the Muslim Brotherhood. It goes, it describes the rise of other various Islamist movements, including, ultimately, al-Qaeda. And I think we cover ISIS. It's just the beginning of ISIS. But you can find that on YouTube for free. So go check out the videos. I think you'll really enjoy it. You're not going to get, I don't think you're going to get a better, succinct perspective on the Islamist movement anywhere else on video, as far as I know. Maybe there's something out there that's better. But it's, I can't remember if it's three, four, or five lectures, but it's pretty short. And you'll get a complete history, including the revolution in Iran and the importance of the revolution in Iran for the rise of organizations like al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. It's on my channel. It's also on the AORI channel, but it's on my channel. It's audio only, but it is on my YouTube channel. It's also on the podcast channel in the past somewhere, so you can find all of that. You know, the other course that gives you even a bigger, broader perspective context for all of this is the one I did in the history of the Middle East that is also on YouTube and available for free. I think you'll really enjoy that. Again, it's, I don't know where you're gonna get a better, short, succinct to the point, essentialized history of the Middle East. So it's probably your best resource for something like that. So use that, it's on my website. It's on YouTube for free out there. I should probably share it on Twitter more often, but please, go in and watch it and let me know what you think. Anyway, the Muslim Brotherhood was an organization in Egypt dedicated to a global Islamic revolution. It was founded in the 1920s and the founders were ultimately, you know, it was in combat with the Egyptian authorities throughout. It had its kind of ebbs and flows throughout the decades. But the Muslim Brotherhood, just to give you just in more recent times, when there was the Arab Spring in what was it, 2008, 2009, the Arab Spring led ultimately to the Muslim Brotherhood taking to the streets, dominating the conversation and ultimately winning the Egyptian elections and taking power democratically in Egypt, failing dramatically and then ultimately being deposed and being replaced by the current regime, which is basically an authoritarian regime, but a secular one, the Muslim Brotherhood are very popular in Egypt, widespread support, membership in the Muslim Brotherhood is widespread even though over the years they have periodically, and I don't know what the status is right now, but they have periodically been banned. They have periodically been outlawed and yet they continue to exist. They continue to thrive, one would argue. Anyway, at the age of 14, Oswahiri joined the Muslim Brotherhood. He was particularly inspired by a particular writer for the Muslim Brotherhood, a writer that I talk about in my course on the rise of the Tertiary Islam, a writer by the name of Said Kud. One of the most important figures in the rise of Islamism in over the last 100 years, Said Kud was executed by the Nasser regime in Egypt in 1960, I think in 1968, but in the 60s and then until the late 60s as Nasser rounded up the Muslim Brotherhood and outlawed the organization. Said Kud was a very charismatic, very influential, I don't know what to call him, but I think Islamist intellectual, he had visited the United States and hated America. He is really the one within the Islamist movement to first identify the United States as essentially the enemy. He hated the United States because it was secular. He believed that even Christianity in the United States had basically been secularized and that secular America was the enemy of Islam. One of the things that really horrified him when he was in America and he went to a church dance and he saw men and women dancing together in church and he found that idea as truly horrific in a sign of the complete degeneracy of American society. And he writes about this extensively and he spent a lot of time in jail and he spent a lot of time writing in jail. And he became one of the most influential characters, certainly Bin Laden and many of the al-Qaeda and many of the radicalized Islamists that came on in the 80s and 90s all who had Said Kud always inspired by him, all studied him carefully. So he is one of the theological inspirations for the modern Islamic movement. Anyways, Wahiri joined the Muslim Brotherhood the following year, Said Kud was executed and following that execution, Wahiri kind of started an underground cell devoted to the overthrowing of the government and the establishment of the Islamic State. As he grew older, he became more involved. Ultimately, if you were spinning off of the Muslim Brotherhood, it was too dedicated to political change. It was too dedicated to long term change. He wanted now, he wanted militant, he wanted violence. And he landed up merging, joining his little organization with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which by the early 1980s, he was basically the head of. The big events in the early 1980s in Egypt was the assassination of President Sadat. President Sadat was the guy who took over, was an authoritarian dictator of Egypt following Nasr. He had launched Egypt into a war with Israel in 1973. But then in 1970, God, I might get my years off by year two, but 1979, I think, had come to the conclusion that it was not in Egypt's interest to be at war with Israel, that Egypt had very little to gain from this war, that it wasn't really fighting for anything that it really valued. And he basically unilaterally called out for peace with Israel, which was incredibly unpopular. He at the same time also was working throughout the 1970s to slowly secularize Egyptian society. He also, after 1973 war, which in spite of Egypt's great advantage, it was a surprise attack. It gained a lot of advantage in the first few days. Ultimately, it landed up losing big time and Israel landed up being not too far from Cairo. So he realized that part of what made him weak part of what made Egypt weak was his alliance with the Soviet Union, with the Russians. And as a consequence, not to a hurry, a Sadat realized this. As a consequence, Sadat kicked out the Russians during the 1970s, moved closer to the United States, declared his interest in having peace with Israel, started secularizing Egyptian society. And actually, in one of the great acts of courage of any politician that I've seen while I've been alive, actually came to Jerusalem and stood in front of Israeli parliament and expressed his interest, his willingness, his commitment to a peace treaty with Israel. Ultimately, that peace treaty was signed with Jimmy Carter and Bagan and Sadat with Jimmy Carter, witnessing. And as a consequence, somewhat of the peace treaty with Israel, but I would say even more so, as a consequence of his secularization of Egyptian society, a strong move towards greater secularization of Egyptian society, he had a bullseye on his back and he suspected he was going to be killed. And as a consequence, 1500 Islamists were rounded up and imprisoned, among them, Zewahiri. But he had missed a cell, a cell that was actually within his military, within the military, in the Egyptian military. And during a military parade, this unit, which was parading in front of him, suddenly, Bokrank ran towards where the president was sitting and shot him dead. Zewahiri, while in jail during this period, they accused him of being part of the assassination. They accused him of being part of the cell. But ultimately, some rumors say that he cooperated and handed in some high-ranking Islamists. So ultimately, the Egyptians accused him of, I don't know, weapon charges or something like that, left him in jail for three years and released him in 1984. So he was released in 1984, he goes to Pakistan. And ultimately, there he meets Bin Laden. This is at the time where there is a call for Jihad in Afghanistan. All these Islamists are going to Pakistan and then launching attacks against the Russians from Pakistan into Afghanistan, all in the name of Jihad, all in the name of getting the atheistic communists out of Afghanistan. So Zewahiri latches on or becomes very close to Bin Laden. And from that point on is affiliated and associated with Bin Laden. It is interesting that in spite of this, he managed to visit the United States in the early 1990s, I think in 1993. He addressed several mosques in California. Even though, well, I guess at this point, al-Qaeda or at least what was the previous version of al-Qaeda when it was fighting the Russians was considered an ally. But of course, soon after that, al-Qaeda is involved in terrorist attacks primarily, starting in the late 1990s, 1998, the U.S. Embassy bombing in Kenya and Tanzania where hundreds of people were killed. And, you know, he was indicted for that in absentia. It was indicted and then in 2000, the bombing of the U.S. coal, again, he was deemed to be one of the planners of that. And to a large extent, it's quite clear that he might have been the mastermind, if not one of the masterminds behind the 9-11 attacks. He was on a list of the top most wanted terrorists in the world by the United States. Now, since 2001, since 9-11, 2001, supposedly the United States has been after trying to murder him and kill him. Kill him, not murder him. I mean, this would be an act of self-defense. He has been leading al-Qaeda since we learned his death. As I said, he's been number two. He's been very much the spokesman. He is very much an organizer. He's really been suspected for a long time to be kind of the intellect behind the charismatic being learned. On several occasions, it is said, the United States had a clear shot at killing him. Certainly in the direct aftermath of 9-11, this is true both of him and in Bilalda. They didn't take the shot because they were afraid of collateral damage. One occasion when they did shoot, when they thought he was there, I think one of his wives and children were actually killed. But the United States has had lots of opportunities, lots of opportunities to kill Bilalda, lots of opportunities to kill Swahili. Particularly again in the months after 9-11, they didn't take it because of the fear of collateral damage of civilian casualties, which is horrific. This is a guy who didn't care about collateral damage of civilian casualties. He targeted civilians, killed as many as necessary in America in defending itself. In defending itself by killing somebody who was continuously planning to attack America, reframed from doing it. Even the bomb that killed him was it a few days ago. Even that bomb was a bomb that is very low impact. So it creates very little damage. I mean, this is kind of the technology that we have today. They literally noticed him on the balcony. Sent a missile that would kill him on the balcony and pretty much not harm anybody else in the building. Now he was in a building, in a home in Kabul, in Afghanistan, in a very large home, in a very, very, very lucrative neighborhood, the richest neighborhood in Kabul. Not far from many of the foreign embassies, or at least what were foreign embassies before the foreigners evacuated as the Taliban took control. It's interesting that it was in Afghanistan, not surprising at all, but interesting. Partially because the peace agreement that the Taliban signed with Donald Trump, Trump promised us, committed to us, that the Taliban had promised not to work with terrorist organizations and not to harbor terrorists like Zwaheri, and here we are, the head of al-Qaeda at the heart of Kabul in the heart of Afghanistan, and as far as we can tell, Arabs, remember the Afghans are not Arabs, Arabs who are coming in from the Middle East are going in and out of his compound, in and out of his house, continuing to plot and plan and support terrorist activities probably all over the world who knows what he's already put in motion. So this idea that the Taliban is not in league with al-Qaeda, the idea that the Taliban will not support al-Qaeda, will not continue to harbor al-Qaeda is a joke and is ridiculous. And the idea that the Biden administration, so that's Trump's peace deal. I mean, the idea that you have a peace deal with the Taliban is a travesty and abomination and a betrayal of America. But that's just a day in the office of Trump. But the Biden administration, on the other hand, is saying, look, we left Afghanistan, but we can still hook them. We can still go in and we can still do this. We can still kill the head of, so he's taking full credit for this. Well, he deserves none. I'm sure the CIA has been working on this for years and months and has been working to try to make this happen for a long, long time. But notice, they used the bomb just to kill him. Nobody else in the house was killed. They haven't attacked any of what I assume are training bases of ISIS and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. They continued to kill one-off leaders, Hugh and their. But as far as I can tell, there's no considered bombing attempt. There's no considered attempt to destroy al-Qaeda's capabilities now that the Taliban are back in Afghanistan and back allowing, I'm sure. So the credit and the, you know, Biden is not saying, you see, this vindicates my leaving Afghanistan last year. Now, I'm all for leaving Afghanistan. Not the way he left, but the way he left was so disgusting, so horrific, so treasonous, so reflective of American weakness, just horrific. And for him now to say, see, it's all worked out, no. Nothing has worked out. This continues to be an example of American capitulation and American weakness. And there's nothing to suggest that American can handle the, if Afghanistan becomes a base for terrorism, which it's very, very likely, probably already is, a base for terrorism, there's no evidence that the Biden administration has the will or the ability to take care of that. It is interesting, you know, and I don't know the answer to this, but it is interesting. To speculate, where the drone took off from, I mean, did the drone come from Pakistan, from a CIA base in Pakistan? The Pakistanis are not gonna acknowledge that, they're not gonna admit it. Is the drone, has flying distance enough to be able to have come out of a aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean and flown to Afghanistan all that distance, hung around until the exact moment where the guy was gonna be in the balcony and then shot him. Did it come from the North, from Uzbekistan or Tajikistan, where the United States has had military bases? Hard to tell, that's interesting. It's just interest me as a former military intelligence guy, I'd love to know where the drone came from and kind of how it functioned and to what extent was the government of Pakistan aware or to what extent is the governor of Pakistan right now freaking out and pissed off because the origins of the drone are probably in Pakistan, but in any case, all of that I'm sure is super confidential and since the governor of Pakistan is not gonna let the world know if it came from its base on its land, we probably won't know, but it is, it would be interesting. These are pretty significant missiles so it can be a little drone, it's a substantial drone. No, who knows, maybe the CIA has a base somewhere in the mountains in Afghanistan itself. I mean, it really is with drones big enough to do this. I doubt that, I think that's too risky, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had a base in Pakistan and I'm pretty sure they have bases in Tajikistan or Uzbekistan in the north of Afghanistan, but maybe it just came off of an aircraft carrier, although then I don't think it would have been categorized as it has been as a CIA operation. So anyway, a lot of interesting kind of military intelligence stuff that I'd love to know and I'm sure you guys would love to know as well. At least some of you would love to know as well. All right. Thank you for listening or watching the Iran Book Show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening, you get value from watching, show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbrookshow.com slash support by going to Patreon, subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. 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