An open question for Kossacks.
No doubt Osama's vision of a new caliphate and hatred of the Crusaders and desires to drive Christians and Jews out of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) was what motivated him and some of his key followers, but in the final analysis his key role has always been as the money-man based on his inheritence of his share of the family construction business. And the stark realities is that you don't build training camps, luxurious final refuges, and unlimited cell phone and weapons purchases without money in the bank.
So was Osama able or even willing to transfer ultimate ownership of his assets to other members of his organization, or are they still family controlled? And if so what was the role of the son that was killed alongside him? And what are the leanings of his remaining children? We know that the entire vision of jihad is not shared by all of the junior members of Osama's family and maybe hardly not at all by the collateral branches who are more likely to be sitting at Board meetings for Carlyle with G.H.W.B. and various Saudi Princes than anything
People are speculating about what al-Qaeda offshoots can muster in the way of zeal and charismatic leadership, which may be enough to sustain local efforts in places like Sudan or Yemen but organizing things like al-Q's 'specactulars' like multiple in-flight plane bombings or tourist hotel attacks in Bali requires writing some big checks.
So exactly who holds check writing privileges and which leaders of subsidiaries actually have 'debit 'cards? That may be what makes or breaks A-Q going forward.