Analyst says bin Laden 'desperate'

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"In The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global, his latest book on al-Qaeda, Middle East analyst Fawaz Gerges says that by the mid-1990s, the jihadi movement was nearly a spent force, having been ruthlessly repressed by 'the near enemy' - Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

"To revive their flagging movement, al-Qaeda decided to take its fight to the West, 'the far enemy', but this caused a rift with other militant movements who feared US military power would ultimately destroy them."

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