Joe Biden is an ageing, gaffe-prone president of the United States who wants to serve a second term in office. The only thing he has got going for him is that there is no credible competition on the Democratic side for his seat. Also, there are only crusaders on the Republican side.

Ever since 9/11, American presidents have been stalking jihadis. George W. Bush never caught one of significance. The professorial Obama got Bin Laden, the trigger-happy Trump got Al Baghdadi (the head of ISIS) and now Biden claims to have got Al Zawahiri (the latest chief of Al Qaeda). Biden was quick to proclaim the death of Al Zawahiri.

Like American presidents before him, he wanted to glorify in the killing of a top jihadi. But there are many issues with Zawahiri’s death. I have written a biography of Al Zawahiri entitled, “Inside Al Qaeda’s Plot to Nuke America”. Zawahiri was the most canny of all the top jihadis – Bin Laden, Al Baghdadi or Mullah Omar.

For 20 years after 9/11, the Americans couldn’t find a trace of him. They looked all over Pakistan and Afghanistan and even into cyber space and the nether world yet they had no idea where he was.

He was reclusive. He didn’t crave the luxurious life as Bin Laden did. To think that he was killed sipping morning tea in his balcony in an upscale neigbourhood of Kabul is simply preposterous. His body wasn’t found. No DNA has been found.

Kabul at the time of his supposed death was firmly in control of the Taliban. There wasn’t an American in sight. No photos of his dead body or his funeral have emerged.

The Taliban and the US hate each other. The US could provide the $25 million bounty on Al Zawahiri’s head to the Taliban, but the Taliban has roughly $10 billion in assets frozen in American banks. America hasn’t unfrozen those assets. $25 million is chump change when compared with $10 billion.

It’s been almost a year since Al Zawahiri’s supposed death in July 2022, but nothing has leaked so far. When Bin Laden died, Al Zawahiri was almost immediately appointed head of Al Qaeda. When Al Baghdadi was killed, his successor as head of ISIS was proclaimed immediately.

The one exception has been Mullah Omar, the former head of the Taliban. Omar died of natural causes in 2013. His death was kept secret for two years, mainly to protect his successor from the Americans. It is believed that the Egyptian Saif-al-Adel is the successor of Al Zawahiri, but Al Qaeda has made no proclamation to this effect. In December 2022, Al Qaeda released a video it stated was narrated by Al Zawahiri.

The video was undated and didn’t mention when the audio recording was done. Clearly Al Qaeda was trying to pose as if Al Zawahiri was alive. But he very well could be. In February 2023, the UN (which always parrots the US) claimed that Al Adel was the de-facto successor of Al Zawahiri, even though Al Qaeda had not formally named him. Al Adel is reportedly living in Iran.

But how can an avowed Sunni group like Al Qaeda function with its leader in hiding in a country of Shias, a sect that the Sunnis despise, and whose hatred is likewise reciprocated by the Shias? All evidence points to Al Zawahiri being alive and not killed by any drone strike as the Americans would have us believe. It seems probable that Biden has made his usual gaffe in jumping the gun and proclaiming Zawahiri’s death before his time.

All the UN and US analysts, are covering up for Biden. Biden is running a terrible presidency. Inflation in the US is sky-high. Biden refuses to let Zelenskyy of Ukraine negotiate with Russia because he wants Putin to bleed and bleed. Most Americans couldn’t care less what happens to Ukraine.

Americans vote their pocketbook and elections are nigh in 2024. Barack Obama got a philip from killing Bin Laden because Bin Laden was such an iconic figure. Al Zawahiri has always lived in the shadows. Most Americans don’t know who he is. That is why Biden got only the slightest of bumps after claiming that Al Zawahiri was dead. Now to accept that Al Zawahiri is alive would be like so much egg on his face. It would kill his presidency.

Al Qaeda doesn’t believe in hiding its chiefs. To romanticize jihad, it needs a charismatic leader. Al Zawahiri was not but he had been the operational head of Al Qaeda ever since its inception more than 20 years ago, so he got to be chief. Al Adel is charismatic.

Al Qaeda won’t hide him in Shiite Iran. It would bring him to a Sunni country like Afghanistan or Pakistan to lead and command. It would not be trying to fake his headship. He would be as safe in Afghanistan or Pakistan as he would be in Iran. The bottom line is that Biden seems to have goofed up.

There is no body, no DNA, no pictures, no funeral, nothing about what happened to Al Zawahiri’s family. Al Zawahiri’s purported death is one of the biggest conjobs of our times.

(The writer, an expert on energy, contributes to journals in India and overseas. The views are personal.)