... While counter-terrorism officials no longer consider Osama Bin Laden a threat to the West, his popularity in the Muslim world has waned. Terrorism expert Peter Bergen writes in the new issue of Time magazine that the jihad has moved beyond Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. According to former CIA official Marc Sageman, two decades since its founding in Peshawar, Al Qaeda remains a source of inspiration for certain extremists around the world, but it is far from clear that Bin Laden commands them. If Bin Laden has any role in the jihad, say the Europeans, it is merely as an icon...

...Bergen believes that the best available evidence suggests that the threat posed by Bin Laden’s acolytes has not been extinguished - and his own influence over them is greater than many analysts acknowledge... LINK