and ayman al zawahiri is saying, "hang on, i'm the man in charge of my group." . do you think one may take on the other? >> yes, we have the scene in syria, a struggle between a group, which is recognised by al qaeda, and the is, which is a splinter group. absolutely we have a major fight, struggle, between the two branches, between the competition, which is clear, on the syrian battlefield. the is, the islamic state is winning the fight now. and enough for now, gradually using ground, which is recognised by al qaeda as a religious movement. >> would it be counterproductive for the islamic state and abu bakr al-baghdadi and some of his followers to say, "hang on, time to get rid of al qaeda", and think the target should be someone like ayman al zawahiri. >> well, for the is, they consider al qaeda as too soft, have no determination, unactive and not representing the principle of islam, the argument is not only who control the ground or finance and recruit, it is who is controlling the legitimacy, and for the group now, i.s.i.s., the islamic state, now they think t

and they pose --. >> rose: which is zawahiri. >> zawahiri, they pose a threat to the homeland. and you have isis. which has garnered everybody's attention because it has grabbed so much territory. it too poses a threat. but we, i think we have to look at these together. and we have to make sure that we're focused on all of them, and not just let isis grab all of our attention and grab all of our focus and grab all of our resources. because these others will bite fuss we do that. >> rose: is the administration focusing on all three of them? or four? >> i don't know. i think that-- i think that the strategy-- the president's strategy with regard to iraq and syria will also help us deal with al-nusra if successful. but as you and i have talked before, the weakness of that strategy is on the syria side. the strength of the strategy on the iraq side. i know we can come back to that. i hope we're still focused on al qaeda in pakistan and al qaeda in yemen. i don't see as much u.s. activity there as i used to see. but we have to stay focused on them. >> rose: how much intelligence do

in his video address ayman al zawahiri said he would extend to include myanmar and bangladesh. indian officials are on high alert for threat. >>> al qaeda's reach has been global. it had made attacks in tanzania, yemen. after 2001 attacks included bombings in madrid, london and indonesia. much was destroyed offer 9/11. obvious the last few years al qaeda has done much to rebuild itself. i'm joined by clinton watts, a

the advice of zawahiri. don't get out too far. >> al qaeda and pakistan's focus is attacking the u.s. first and cutting off the head of the snake as they call it. and then second getting rid of all the apostate leaders in the middle east that they feel are working at the behest of the united states and then establishing a caliphate. isis is coming at this the best -- back way. let's established territory and our caliphate and then we will go after the u.s. and another example of not listening to zawahiri. >> what is the fear we have in terms of these groups? >> attacking the u.s. and in terms of isis you have to worry today. they come in young men in the u.s. who have been radicalized by the isis movement and conduct attacks on their own without any direction from isis and second are foreign fighters who have gone from the u.s., canada, or western europe to syria and get directed by isis to come back and conduct an attack. over the longer term isis can be kind of threat as it was in 2001. \they can put the o

ayman al zawahiri released a video about releasing a new branch. is this a threat or a desperate reaction to is's rise. joining us is robert mcfadden, senior vice president of a group providing strategic intelligence service, and a former commander with a naval service, and an expert on al qaeda and other terrorist groups. let's start with the video, ayman al zawahiri has not been seen on video, al qaeda has denounced the islamic state group, the islamic state group has denounced al qaeda. why is he doing this, why is he doing it now? >> actually, this really is a big deal in middle east watchers and security intelligence services. ayman al zawahiri has not been heard from since earlier in the spring, after the public rebuke, and humiliation by abu bakr al-baghdadi, the leader of this thing called the islamic state, where he said no, he was not going to obey al qaeda core. ayman al zawahiri. those months went by, there was no direct response from the al qaeda corp. the only thing that ayman al zawahiri, the official media wing of al qaeda core did

. >> what do you make offal zawahiri's announcement?s this al-qaeda trying to raise its profile with the rise of islamic state in iraq an syria? >> yeah, i think fundamentally it is, i thinkal zawahiri feels threatened. i.s. have now captured the world's media attention, and al-qaeda, although they still have presences in the arabian peninsula, they don't have the cache they used to. it's almost a battle between i.s. and al-qaeda, and al-qaeda is trying to appeal to a vast majority of recruits the sis were trying to obtain. >> why doesn't al-qaeda have the financial support anymore? what is the fundamental difference. why are fighters being lured by the islamic state group? >> fundamentally, it comes down to the structures between i.s. and al-qaeda and whereas al-qaeda has been a very cellar operation with the intention of establishing a caliphate, it has always had to be in a very fragmented sense. i.s. have taken significant ground across syria and iraq, as we know and establishing a much stronger infrastructure in terms of their mana

zawahiri. they pose a threat to the homeland and isis. it has grabbed so much territory. a threat but we have to look at these together and we have to make sure that we're focused on all of them and not just let isis grab all of our attention and grab our focus and resources. this will buy this if we do that. administration focusing on all three of them? i do not know. withnk that the strategy regard to iraq and syria will also help us deal with al musra if successful. the weakness is on the serious side. we can come back to that. i hope we are focused on al qaeda and pakistan and yemen. i do not see as much u.s. activity is i am used to seeing. but we have to stay focused. >> how many -- how much intelligence to we seem to have? any believe we did not see the rise of isis and its capacity to take territory as fast as it did. , when i wass there serving at the central intelligence agency we were telling a story about the rising strategic threat of isis. isis is the direct descendent of aqi. when forces left -- al qaeda in iraq. were not defeated but significantly degraded

you still have ayman al zawahiri, who came out in a video saying they are starting a new faction and wing. they have an ideology and influence in north africa, yemen, somalia, afghanistan, pakistan and iraq as well. >>> so do your best to connect the dots between islamic state and al qaeda if the dots are there. >> sure. unfortunately i know how to do this because of way too horrifying incidents that happen. you have ayman al zawahiri, who founded al qaeda in iraq, when i was based in iraq, during the worst of the war in 2005. he was very eager to just show terrible bloodletting and beheadings. he had a reprimand against the current leader ayman al zawahiri saying it's not working, shoot them. he said, "kill them in a different way", he's look the godfather of the islamic state. al qaeda decided that the group was not listening to ayman al zawahiri, and not following what he said - friendships, no beheading. now they are their own group, they have young supporters, they are alt get the message out because they are hampered by not wanting to be hit by the u.s. i would argue that al qa

in his video address ayman al zawahiri said he would extend to include myanmar and bangladesh. indian officials are on high alert for threat. >>> al qaeda's reach has been global. it had made attacks in tanzania, yemen. after 2001 attacks included bombings in madrid, london and indonesia. much was destroyed offer 9/11. obvious the last few years al qaeda has done much to rebuild itself. i'm joined by clinton watts, a senior fellow at the foreign policy institute, and manuel gomez, former fbi agency and sergeant. good to have you with us. as we mark 13 years, mr watts, how strong is al qaeda today? >> it's the second-most important global jihadist group. the islamic state has taken over the lead, and if you look at the two big indicators of what mikes a global jihadist group strong - personnel and funny from financiers. the islamic state is far outpacing al qaeda. and i would say while we in the u.s. are affect by al qaeda, and focus on it a lot. globally the islamic state is far ahead, i think, and outpacing them. >> in terms of priorities for law enforcement. what does it rank

so in june, when the is group declared itself a state all eyes were on al qaeda, and al zawahiri to see how he would react. and he remained silent until now. his 55 minute video said that he put al qaeda back into the contest, rejecting the islamic state's sears of supremacy. >> especially the indian continent, the founding of a new brand. this is to raise the flag of jihad and return to islamic rule in the continent. >> al qaeda's aging leadership has struggled to compete as the islamic state has gained momentum. in 2013, the group was known as isil, the islamic state group in iraq. and they even accused them of going into syria. with the acquisition of military assets, and territory in iraq and syria, it has made it one of the wealthiest group of its kind. and public executions to generate widespread fear. that success and display of power, seemingly with impunity, have been tied to thousands of new recruits in a way that al qaeda's leadership has not. >> i think feeling the heat, al qaeda, losing credibility and other organizations, losing credibility, and recrutes, and this is an at

the al qaeda leader ayman al zawahiri's message was posted online. in it he talks about the need for jihad in parts of india and the desire to, quote, liberate its land. let's bring in our national security analyst, peter bergen, joining us today from phoenix. what's your take on this new al qaeda message, specifically the substance and the timing? >> well, wolf, i think, you know, zawahiri is trying to get back some of the limelight that has been stolen by the islamic state of iraq and syria. you know, isis has been dominating the news now for many months. al qaeda is sort of forgotten. in fact, one of the interesting things, wolf, about the videotape was how boring it is, you know. i mean, here is -- you know, when you think about the isis social media campaign that they're waging, it's highly effective. it's well edited. it's exciting. there's music. here you've got a picture of ayman al zawahiri sort of blabbing away for an half hour claiming that al qaeda is going to set up an affiliate in india, the likelihood of which is very, very small. i me

al-zawahiri's message is about raising al qaeda profile in wake of recent successes by islamic state, which has been competing in international jihad movement and succeeding of late. joining to us talk about president's failed foreign policy in fighting al qaeda and the islamic state, and how to forestall vladimir putin's ambitions, we're joined by congressman ted poe. great to have you here. >> thank you. lou: this has been a terrible week for united states, and this president, on the world's stage. what can the president do now to make clear what his strategy is? he is in possession of one. lou?arctic lacearticulate a dir. foreign policy. >> the president needs to lead, being leader of free world has some responsibility, one is to lead. this issue, with isis, we should have a plan. the president should have a plan. america should know what it is, and isis needs to know wha whatt is. we're not sure we got a plan, president said, well we want to manage the group. what does that mean? puz them oput them on bro buyine -- probation and make them do community service, isis needs to be def

this was announced shortly after the statement came out by al saturd zawahiri. what does it mean? >> we spoke to the indian ministry today, they said they're taking this video very, very seriously, they will not tell us what that security alert means, though. what they are saying is that security alerts in general mean that in the states that were mentioned by lal zawahiri, they will be asking their police stations, all of their units to just be alert as to what could happen. remember, both of those states as well as those in the northeast are states that have seen hindu/muslim clashes in the past. recently as well. those are the places that the government's going to be looking out for. hin hindu/muslim clashes in india very, very different from the kind of terror that we've seen from al qaeda in other parts of the world. >> so, ravi, how big is al qaeda's presence in india? why has this announcement been made now. >> every single security analyst i've spoken to says that al qaeda doesn't have a very large presence in india, in fact, if you look at the south asian terrorism portal

this is where zawahiri who's now the head of al qaeda, these guys were radicalized in arab jails. so you can't have the same arab countries that gave birth inadvertently gave birth to these movements by the mistreatment of their own citizens, then go and try to fight this process. the third one, they're technically incapable. they don't have the military means, and it's ironic that those countries spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the last 20 years on the most advanced weaponry, and they're not really using it at all. so you have some really serious contradictions, shortcomings, distortions, real bizarre dynamics that have to do with arab governments, and that's why the whole region has been suffering. first a series of citizen revolts and uprisings, and now most recently wars in iraq and syria and libya and other places. and that's why the western countries feel they need to step in. >> the u.s. president obviously taking some heat for not laying out all of the details about his man, but he has been comparing it in meetings to how the united states dealt with al qaeda in p

ayman al zawahiri, the head of al qaeda, has issued a video appeal trying to create an al qaeda in indiaasia, he says, but the message was really directed towards india and he says he wants to free muslims from the oppression they face in gujarat, and kashmir. do you worry something like this could succeed? >> translator: my understanding is that they're doing injustice towards the muslims of our country. if anyone thinks indian muslims will dance to their tune, they are delusional. indian muslims will live for india, they will die for india, they will not want anything bad for india. >> why do you think it is that there is this remarkable phenomenon that you have 170 million muslims and they seem to be almost no or very few members of al qaeda even though al qaeda is in afghanistan and, of course, there are many in pakistan. what is it that has made this community not as susceptible? >> translator: firstly, i'm not the authority for doing a psychological and religious analysis on this but if question is whether or not humanity should be defended in the world whether or not believers in

bin laden's deputy ayman al zawahiri criticized his blood thirsty tactics. the beheadings stopped. but when isis murders journalist james foley in the same way, the same al qaeda core leader has no response, at least not yet. as a result, extreme violence for propaganda seems to have no bounds. isis' wholesale slaughter of both syrian and iraqi army troops is institutionalized in the organization now. even women, even young children are given severed heads to hold. isis leader baghdady is marginalizing al qaeda's core, which means when his proteges target the west, it could be even more despicable than the terror we've seen in the past. these are fighters who have so debased and degraded themselves they've lost moral compass. and as any regular military commander will tell you, that puts them almost beyond control and ultimately a danger to their own organization. but unless they implode, despite the veneer of a regular army, there will like he be more horrors like these. >> nic, you show that child holding the head. you talk about just how horrific it is, the people that they're r

be part of al qaeda in the islamic magrib one of the groups that's pledged allegiance to ayman al zawahiri, the head of al qaeda since osama bin laden died. last weekend this group in algeria that posted the video today, they changed their allegiance and they announced instead of ayman al zawahiri and al qaeda central they now consider themselves to be allied with isis, affiliated with isis, the group that the united states is now fighting in iraq and syria.ç isis put out an audio recording a few days ago calling for their supporters and sympathizers around the world to take action anywhere on earth where they can target civilians from any of the countries that are joined with the u.s. in trying to fight isis in iraq and syria. that's what happened today to end the life of a french tourist, a french hiker who had the misfortune to be kidnapped in algeria just this weekend. the khorasan group and isis are now learning how the u.s. fights groups like them. the pentagon announced more than a dozen air strikes on isis in syria. a dozen air strikes targeting what the pentagon describes as modu

about this, "new york times" reporting leader of al qaeda, the leader of khorasan group, ayman al-zawahiriover for usama bin laden. president obama insisted al qaeda is decimated the was president obama misinformed or misleading us. >> i'm vender about that. i'm concerned about the narrative the administration that al qaeda is on the run, on its heels and decimated. we see al qaeda core reconstituted itself and develop ad cell in syria. we have major problems with al qaeda in north africa. other parts as al qaeda in arabian peninsula. a the fact that a lot of groups are working together. plot out of syria supposedly involved bomb-makers out of yemen, al qaeda in arabian peninsula, with direction from south asia, ayman al-zawahiri and number of multinational died operatives, and western passport holders they may have recruited, targeting global i have i have y vision aviation. heather: this is dark time out there. peter brookes, thank you very much. >> thank you, heather. jon: in response to isis, some stories we're working on in the next hour of "happening now." the u.s. announces devastat

you're seeing more of these militants breaking away from zawahiri and joining al baghdadi. that turns them into a dangerous force against the united states. and you talked earlier about lone wolves. i pulled the "inspire" magazine out at the hearing today which shows you how to specifically make bombs for car bombs. it talks about specific targets in the united states. so they're not bashful. and this sort of technology they have, this social media program they have is very effective and very sophisticated. we're very worried about that threat as well. >> yeah, they've got one article entitled "how to build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom" in that magazine put putt out by al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. how are you going to vote on this legislation to appropriate $500 million to arm arm and train moderate syrian rebels? >> i'm going to support it. the money is reprogrammed -- the reason why i'm supporting it, anything i can do to help defeat and destroy isis. i do think the moderate syrian force is really in the best position to defeat the sunni extremists. we can put

(laughter) the announcement came from longtime al quaida leader and jihadi smurf ayman al-zawahiri, whoeased a video calling on muslims across the indian subcontinent to join the "caravan of jihad." that caravan is easy to spot -- just look for the trucks with 72 virgins on the mudflaps. (laughter) look, i get why al quaida is outsourcing to india -- they're a global terror organization. they have their one true prophet margins to think about, and they have been running on a shoestring budget for so long, they've never even had a christmas party. (laughter) but i think i know what's really going on here. >> i think they're trying to reclaim some mantel of leadership here. i.s.i.s. was kicked out for being too brutal, and they've sort of taken the world stage, and everyone's talking about them and no one's talking about al quaida, so this is probably at least part an attempt to regain some notoriety. >> stephen: ooh ooh, someone's jeal-ous of i.s.i.s.! they're the mysterious new kid in town and everyone's talking about him. just like kevin bacon in footloose. only i.s.i.s. wants to outla

al-zawahiri has been on the ground, 14 years after we start to talk about bombings in syria we cannotk about the significance of these bombings without stepping back and saying look, the kind of targets we want are successful operatives who have evaded us for now a decade or more in al-zawahiri's case. if we think we're going to degrade them in 24 hours, that is nuts. we're going to be in this two to five years because the kind of operatives with the good operational security, they can evade us. this is not about buildings, it is about people. we're going to be at this for a long time to find these people. >> and i talked to rear admiral kirby. we'll talk more later in this hour. he said it will be 18 months at least to identify, the vet, to train some 5,000 so-called moderate syrian rebels. it will take perhaps that long to try to get the new government in syria to revamp the new government of iraq to get them in there. again, we're talking about the open-ended conflict here. peter bergen, fran townsend. thank you very much. just ahead in the hour we'll talk more about questions and

al qaeda leader ayman al zawahiri made the statement in an online video. >> translator: i announce to muslims around the world and especially in south asia the founding of a new branch of al qaeda. >> indians have faced threats for years. militants staged coordinated attacks in 2008 in mumbai. more than 160 people were killed. the majority of indians are hindu but the country also has the world's third largest population of muslims. new prime minister modi has described hinduism as the cornerstone of the muslim state. some are concern his views could agitate radical muslims. >>> representatives of iran and six world powers failed to reach a lasting agreement on the future of the iranian nuclear program. but they'll return to the table later this month in new york. the negotiators missed a july deadline for an agreement. but a european union spokesperson said they'll meet again in two weeks on the sidelines of meetings of the u.n. general assembly. they're hoping to reach a deal by late november. but negotiators need to resolve differences on some core issues including the scale of ira

. >> just as tracking down ayman al zawahiri, bin laden's former lieutenant, and now the head of al qaedaing the leaders we've done attest to the ability of our intelligence agencies. >> a good reminder al zawahiri is still alive and still pumping out videos. i think one just last week as well. professor rascoff, thank you. the united states has been conducting air strikes against the isis group in iraq. now there's another tool in that fight. ahead, a look at america's propaganda videos. yes, counter propaganda. how good a weapon is it? how good is america at using it? that's next. [ male announcer ] if you suffer from a dry mouth then you'll know how uncomfortable it can be. [ crickets chirping ] but did you know that the lack of saliva can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath? [ exhales deeply ] [ male announcer ] well there is biotene. specially formulated with moisturizers and lubricants, biotene can provide soothing relief and it helps keep your mouth healthy, too. [ applause ] biotene -- for people who suffer from dry mouth. biotene -- wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, sh

that's 40 minutes of a speech after ayman al zawahiri with a simple graphic over it. tech production values in that al qaeda video, wolf, compared to that isis video, it seems like the world of media might have passed al qaeda core by. >> ayman al zawahiri very boring looking into the camera, the isis video looking like the opening of "homeland," many of us watch that show. isis has been so effective with this media dpcampaign, the u.s. government is responding to it. >> the state department has produced a counternarrative. a new video. we can show you a clip. it sarcastically tells potential isis recruits that they can, quote, learn new, useful skills by blowing up mosques, by crucifying and executing muslims. they show gruesome images to that effect much of the rest of that video was too graphic for us to show you. again, what's extraordinary. that video produced by the state department just to counterthe isis videos. >> battle of the videos on social media. thanks very much, brian todd for that report. brian will have a lot more information to share with you. he's

sources say khorasan, which takes orders from al qaeda chief ayman al zawahiri, exdz explosives experts, who may have been trained by al qaeda's top bomb maker. he is the architect of bombs hidden in underwear and computer printers. unlike isis, khorasan is not battling for territory. instead, sources say it's plotting external attacks against the west and recruiting american and european radicals. western passport holders who have joined the jihad in syria could be used to carry bombs on to planes. lieutenant general william mayville said the airstrikes on khorasan disrupted an imminent plot. >> intelligence reports indicated the khorasan group was in the final stages of plans to execute major attacks against western targets, and potentially the u.s. homeland. >> reporter: khorasan works in tandem with al-nusra, al qaeda's affiliate in syria. this new web video shows extensive damage from the airdisprieks the now the u.s. is trying to determine if a major khorasan leader was killed pop twitter, jihadis are claiming mushin al-fadhli died in the bombings. al-fadhli, once a close adviser

ayman al-zawahiri, a man who has been silent for months, came out last night, earlier this morning and up a new al-qaeda branch that will go after perhaps targets in india, bangladesh, pakistan, perhaps nepal. >> uh-huh. bill: what do you think that's about? >> well, i think they're trying to reclaim some mantle of leadership here. they've taken their lumps over these last several years. then you have an upstart that was kicked out of al-qaeda, right? isis was kicked out for being too brutal, and they've sort of taken the world stage, and everyone's talking about them and not al-qaeda, so this is probably at least part an attempt to regain some notoriety. notice that all those targets are in the region. they're not u.s. targets, they're not really european targets which i think speaks to their weakness. you know, in the end i think isis has made a strategic blunder. they may be good tactically, but at the strategy level what they've done is picked a fight with everyone in the room. so now israel and arabs, christians, muslims and jews, the syrian government and the syrian rebels, iran

c-span: have you met al-zawahiri? >> guest: no. he kept a low profile. c-span: the number two. is he number two? >> guest: yeah. and he's g... c-span: do you think he's alive? >> guest: he shows up in the videotape, of course, the trade center, where bin laden takes responsibility for the trade center. it's hard to tell. i mean, there were reports that he was dead and they seem to be not that accurate. but... c-span: but his family's dead? or part of it. >> guest: yes. the family is dead. apparently they took out a death notice in some egyptian newspaper. so... c-span: you say in the book you met atef. >> guest: yes. c-span: who was he? >> guest: yes. no, no, no. well, actually, i didn't, actually, meet with him. i corresponded with him. c-span: who was he? >> guest: he's now deceased military commander. but, i mean, i didn't -- when i was dealing with him, i never really -- i wasn't quite sure if he was the military commander or not. there was that -- he was simply one of the media advisers. but apparently he's one in the same person. and we corresponded after the attacks on t

i remember some years back, there was a live chat with zawahiri from al qaeda where he talk to muslimsthe region and actually in that discussion, there was real pushback and people criticized him for the fact that innocent muslims are being killed. so there are ways, if we are smart about it and we work with our allies in the region, there are ways to use social media effectively, but it cannot be just the united states imposing its view on everybody else. it has to be working with those who are part of a community in the region to come up with an alternative vision of what the future may be. >> is using social media and technology risky for them? does it leave behind digital evidence that would make it easier for the people behind us to track them down? >> of course, when they leave digital fingerprints, that creates the possibility of following those fingerprints. i don't want to get into specifics, but obviously there is a certain risk to them. there is also the risk that what they put out will actually offend people. there have been some muslim religious leaders in the region who h

. >> reporter: tom who testified before congress said that bin laden successor, al-zawahiri ordered season operatives with longstanding tries to al qaeda leadership to syria, include, ma soon, responsible for blotting attacks against the west, and saudi national,al nassar, bin laden 's third cousin. >> one of the biggest mistake that has been made in analysis of al qaeda is that khorasan is in --al quad isa had core operatives in several country for years. >> reporter: today the state deputy denied there is a connection. >> they are afilliated work i would not character it that way. >> reporter: to justify the president's claim that al qaeda is on the run, way white house spokesman has nearly defined the senior leadership. >> threat is by core al queda, a network based on afghan, pakistan border. >> reporter: but they acknowledge that members are not dead or decimated but just relocateed. >> they had to flee to try to find a safe haven to carry out attacks against the west. >> reporter: and they are bringing former enemies together, isis and al qaeda affiliate in syria, of which khorasan i

now has declared himself the caliph of all the pious muslims in the world he's a rival to ayman al zawahiri. and they correspond publicly in various ways but they both have sort of acknowledged they're out of -- isis is now no longer affiliated with al qaeda. so i called up some legal scholars who have since written on their own in more detail but the view was that you cooperaul really say isis was an associated force of al qaeda because they've kicked them out. theed ed administration's argums if it walks like a terrorist and quacks like a terrorist -- talks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. i don't think that's going to pass legal muster. it's hard to make this argument that isis is an associate force. it's a wholly separate force than al qaeda. >> is it then leaving it up to the terrorist groups thegez mse to define who they're related to or what groups they come from? i mean, an argument that the white house has been making on capitol hill is that -- >> it's a very -- first of all, i mean, this is independent entirely from whether or not the united states should be at war