President Joe Biden touted the recent killing of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri during a speech on Sunday commemorating the 21st anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Zawahiri was leader of Al-Qaeda since the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, and helped plan the 9/11 attacks. On August 1, Biden announced that the terrorist leader had been killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan the day before.
"Through all that has changed over the last 21 years, the enduring resolve of the American people to defend ourselves against those who seek us harm and deliver justice those responsible for the attacks against our people has never once faltered," the president said.
Biden added: "It took 10 years to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden, but we did. And this summer, I authorized a successful strike on Zawahiri—the man who bin Laden was his deputy at 9/11 and was the leader of Al-Qaeda—because we will not rest. We'll never forget, we'll never give up and now Zawahiri can never again threaten the American people."
Following Zawahiri's death, the State Department warned that the killing of the terrorist leader could inspire new attacks.
"The Department of State believes there is a higher potential for anti-American violence given the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri on July 31, 2022," a statement from the State Department in early August read. "Current information suggests that terrorist organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in multiple regions across the globe."
A September 2 bulletin from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), obtained by Newsweek warned that foreign terrorist groups "will seek to exploit the 21st anniversary of 9/11, the one-year anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the recent death of AQ overall leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in their messaging."
Officials said they "are monitoring intelligence from domestic and international partners to identify potential terrorist threats," surrounding the anniversary.
During his speech on Sunday, Biden said that the country's "commitment to preventing another attack in the United States is without end."
"Our intelligence, defense and counterterrorism professionals...continue their vigilance against terrorist threats that has evolved and spread to new regions of the world. We'll continue to monitor and disrupt those terrorist activities wherever we find them, wherever they exist," the president added.
Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment.
Zawahiri's killing came just about a year after the U.S. withdrew troops from Afghanistan, and the Taliban took control of the country.
In an interview on CBS's Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan asked retired Marine General Frank McKenzie if he agrees with the Biden administration's "assessment that ISIS and Al-Qaeda do not presently pose a threat of being able to carry out an attack here?"
McKenzie said that when he left active duty, "it was our assessment that if we left Afghanistan, if the Afghan government fell, if the Taliban took over, then over a period of time, both Al-Qaeda and ISIS would be able to regenerate."
"That is still my opinion today," McKenzie said.
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Xander Landen is a Newsweek weekend reporter. His focus is often U.S. politics, but he frequently covers other issues including ... Read more
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