Osama bin Laden - AP - 1998 Osama bin Laden speaking in Khost,
Afghanistan, 1998. Photo by AP Text size  Barack Obama's U.S.
administration on Sunday met the commitment made by former
President George Bush to find and kill Osama bin Laden. This is
a colossal intelligence and operational success that isn't
dampened by the long time it took to achieve it - ten years of
intensive pursuit in Afghanistan and Pakistan alone.  Click here
for full Haaretz coverage on the killing of Osama bin Laden.
 But that period was used well by bin Laden and his aides to
construct al-Qaida in such a way that would allow it never to be
wholly dependent on one leader or one squad chief.  As such,
Iraq's al-Qaida is able to operate independently, akin to
similar groups in Yemen and North Africa. Each region is headed
by a regional chief, who doesn’t always require bin Laden's
authorization to operate, and each regional chief usually
appoints several deputies who could replace him if or when he
was arrested or killed.  Bin Laden has