, we should follow it with that war in its own land. >> the day after the anniversary of 9/11. >> zawahri also called for the hits to hurt. >> we should hit by spending it massively on security. >> the u.s. spends billions on homeland security, $50 billion last year and according to the national priorities projects the wars in iraq and afghanistan have cost the u.s. almost $1.5 trillion since 2001. it's hard to measure what this massive investment has achieved. white house press secretary jake carney acknowledge, that al qaeda has been significantly weakened. >> there is no question over the last couple of years al qaeda core has been diminished not only because of the elimination of osama bin laden. >> the underwear bomber and the shoe bomber didn't act successfully, more attacks in madrid in 2004 which killed 191 people and london in 2005 which killed 52 people. but the recent boston bombing showed how vulnerable the united states is to even an international attack. courtney ke keeley, al jazeera w york. >> there isn't really anything out there to really evaluate how successful our coun

i see zawahri having no influence on what is going on in syria at all. >> actually, i agree. we he look at what he has actually said. his influence is far more in egypt than syria. he's from egypt himself. when you look at the recent arab spring and realize what has happened there, that influence is there because he has that personal connection, but there is no more command and control, and that has been one of the things that the west has been effective in lopping off. that doesn't mean they're gone, it just means it's not being directed from elsewhere. >> there's been al shabab recruiting in minnesota. there's been videos about the so-called martyrs, the path to paradise. here's one of the comments from that video. >> if you guys only knew how much fun we have over here. this is the real disney land. come here and join us. >> now, that young man apparently went on to be a suicide bomber. we know that al-qaeda, the leadership did years ago send fighters to africa. do you see some of the people we've talked over the past few days think al shabab has not gotten stronger, that