All Policy Analysis by Matthew Levitt

Although bin Laden played little if any operational role over the past few years, he was the face of the organization and the voice of its extremist narrative, and his death could mark a turning point in the decade-long global struggle against terrorism.

Nearly ten years after the attacks of September 11, and a year to the day after the failed Times Square bomb plot, U.S. Special Forces killed al-Qaeda chief Usama bin Laden in a safe house some forty miles north of Islamabad, Pakistan.