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Al-Qaeda (also al-Qaida or al-Qa'ida) (Arabic: , translation: The Base) is an international alliance of militant jihadist organizations established by Osama bin Laden and others around the time of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989.[1] Al-Qaeda's objectives include the elimination of foreign influence in Muslim countries, eradication of those deemed to be "infidels", elimination of Israel, and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate.[2]
The United Nations Security Council[3] and several US allies[4][5][6][7][8] have labeled al-Qaeda a terrorist organization. Its affiliates have executed attacks against targets in various countries, the most prominent being the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, DC. Following the September 11 attacks, the United States government launched a broad military and intelligence campaign known as the War on Terrorism, with the stated aim of dismantling al-Qaeda and killing or capturing its operatives.
Due to its structure of semi-autonomous cells, al-Qaeda's size and degree of responsibility for particular attacks are difficult to establish. Although the governments opposed to al-Qaeda claim that it has worldwide reach,[9] other analysts have suggested that those governments, as well as Osama bin Laden himself, exaggerate al-Qaeda's significance in Islamist terrorism.[10] The neologism "al-Qaedaism"[11] is applied to the wider context of those who independently conduct similar acts through political sympathy to al-Qaeda ideology or methods or the copycat effect.
In Arabic, al-Qaeda ( al-qā'ida) has four syllables, and is pronounced []. However, since two of the Arabic consonants in the name ([[Voiceless uvular plosive|[q]]] and []) are not phonemes found in the English language, the closest naturalized English pronunciation would be ; and are also heard. Al-Qaeda's name can also be transliterated as al-Qaida, al-Qa'ida, el-Qaida, or al Qaeda. Listen to the US pronunciation (RealPlayer).
The name of the organization comes from the Arabic noun qā'idah, which means "foundation, basis" and can also refer to a military "base". The initial al- is the Arabic definite article "the", hence "the base".
Osama bin Laden explained the origin of the term in a videotaped interview with al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni in October 2001:
The BBC documentary "The Power of Nightmares" argues that there is no organization known as "al-Qaeda" and that the name was popularized in the 2001 trial of Osama bin Laden and the four men accused of the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East Africa. According to this theory, the U.S. Department of Justice needed to show that Osama bin Laden was the leader of a criminal organization in order to charge him in absentia under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as the RICO statutes.[12] The name of the organization and details of its structure were provided in the testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, who claimed to be a founding member of the organization and a former employee of Osama bin Laden.[13] The documentary argues that al-Fadl's testimony should not be trusted since he had a history of dishonesty and was delivering it as part of a plea bargain agreement after being convicted of conspiring to attack U.S. military establishments. The documentary also says there is no evidence that bin Laden had used the term "al-Qaeda" to refer to a group until after the September 11, 2001 attacks when he realized the notoriety it brought him could be used as an effective political tool.
The name also appears with the spelling "al-Qaida" in an executive order issued by President Clinton in 1998, less than two weeks after the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Executive Order 13099, issued on August 20, 1998, lists the organization as one of several associated with Osama bin Laden, the others being The Islamic Army, Islamic Salvation Foundation, The Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places, The World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, and The Group for the Preservation of the Holy Sites.[14] The name "al-Qaida" could have been introduced to U.S. intelligence by Jamal al-Fadl, who had been providing the CIA with intelligence about bin Laden since December 1996, and who in February 2001 appeared as a witness in the trial of those accused of the 1998 United States embassy bombings.
In this trial, Jamal al-Fadl testified[15] that al-Qaeda was established in either late 1989 or early 1990 to continue the jihad after the Soviet withdrawal of Afghanistan. He claimed that during the war against the Soviets, bin-Laden had been funding a group called Mektab al Khidemat, which was led by Abdallah Azzam. This organization was based in Pakistan and provided training, money and other support for Muslims who would cross the border into Afghanistan to fight. According to al-Fadl, the Mektab al Khidemat was disbanded following the Soviet withdrawal, but bin-Laden wanted to establish a new group to continue the jihadist cause on other fronts. A meeting was apparently held in Khost, Afghanistan to establish the new group, which al-Fadl claims to have attended. Al-Fadl's recollection was that this occurred in either late 1989 or early 1990, but CNN Journalist Peter Bergen claims to have unearthed a document, apparently dating back to August 11, 1988, which contains the minutes from the organization's first meeting, and which lists Jamal al-Fadl as an attendee.[16] Al-Fadl testified that al-Qaeda's leader was initially Abu Ayoub al-Iraqi, who was later replaced by Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, but that both of these leaders nevertheless "reported to" bin-Laden. Al-Fadl claims the group initially went by two different names "al-Qaeda" and "Islamic Army", before eventually settling on the former.
In April 2002, the group assumed the name Qa'idat al-Jihad, which means "the base of Jihad." According to Diaa Rashwan, this was "...apparently as a result of the merger of the overseas branch of Egypt's al-Jihad group, led by Ayman El-Zawahiri, with the groups Bin Laden brought under his control after his return to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s."[17]
The United States Department of Defense defines the organization as
This definition was given in response to a request made by Moazzam Begg, who was being held in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps. Begg was being accused of assisting or being a member of al-Qaeda or the Taliban.[18]
The origins of the terrorist group can be traced to the period following the Revolutionary War in Afghanistan of April 1978, which brought revolutionary Marxists to power. The United States viewed the conflict in Afghanistan as an integral Cold War struggle, and the American and Pakistani intelligence services supported native Afghan mujahedeen against Soviet occupation through a CIA program called Operation Cyclone.[19][20]
At the same time, a growing number of foreign Arab mujahedeen joined the ongoing counterrevolution against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, in international organizations such as Maktab al-Khidamat.[21]
Whether US aid to Afghan mujahedeen also extended to foreign Arab fighters, such as groups affiliated with Osama bin Laden, remains a matter of some dispute. The U.S. government maintains that they supported only the indigenous mujahedeen, and that bin Laden's participation in the conflict was unrelated to CIA programs. This assertion was seconded by al-Qaeda's Deputy Operations Chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in his book Knights Under the Prophet's Banner.[22]
On the other hand, former Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons Robin Cook, writing for the Guardian, spoke of al-Qaeda as an unintentional product of Western interests:
<blockquote>Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by Western security agencies. Throughout the 80s, he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians. Inexplicably, and with disastrous consequences, it never appears to have occurred to Washington that once Russia was out of the way, Bin Laden's organization would turn its attention to the west.[23]</blockquote>
CNN journalist Peter Bergen, known for conducting the first television interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997, disputed Cook's notion, stating on August 15 2006:
<blockquote>The story about bin Laden and the CIA -- that the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden -- is simply a folk myth. There's no evidence of this. In fact, there are very few things that bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and the U.S. government agree on. They all agree that they didn't have a relationship in the 1980s. And they wouldn't have needed to. Bin Laden had his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently. The real story here is the CIA did not understand who Osama was until 1996, when they set up a unit to really start tracking him.[24]</blockquote>
Monte Palmer, senior fellow at the al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, reconciles these opposing views: "It now appears that the American-sponsored jihad in Afghanistan was the first step in transforming the jihadist movements of Egypt, Iran, and Pakistan into an international network capable of challenging the United States. A coalescing of the jihadist movement would have occurred with or without Afghanistan, but the Afghan experience accelerated this process by years if not decades."[25]
Al-Qaeda was an off-shoot of the Maktab al-Khadamat, a mujahadeen organization which sought to establish an Islamic state during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Bin Laden was a founding member of the MAK, along with Palestinian militant Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. The MAK was a small organization in Afghanistan with no direct combatants; its role was to raise and channel funds from a variety of sources (including donations from across the Middle East, primarily from wealthy individuals) into the recruitment and training of mujahedeen, as well as care for Afghan refugees. MAK, while supportive of the indigenous mujahedeen's cause, was a separate group made up of non-Afghan Muslims. An estimated 35,000 foreign mujahedeen from 43 countries participated in the Afghan movement between 1982 and 1992.[26]
After a protracted and costly nine-year war, the Soviet Union finally withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. Mohammed Najibullah's socialist Afghan government was rapidly overthrown by elements of the mujahedeen. With mujahedeen leaders unable to agree on a structure for governance, chaos ensued, with constantly reorganizing alliances fighting for control of ill-defined territories.
The CIA was watching Osama bin Laden at least as early as 1995, due to the discovery of the Oplan Bojinka plot, which in part involved a suicide airplane attack on CIA Headquarters.
Toward the end of the Soviet military mission in Afghanistan, some mujahedeen wanted to expand their operations to include Islamist struggles in other parts of the world, such as Israel and Kashmir. A number of overlapping and interrelated organizations were formed to further those aspirations.
One of these was the organization that would eventually be called al-Qaeda, formed by Osama bin Laden with an initial meeting held on August 11, 1988.[27] Bin Laden wished to establish nonmilitary operations in other parts of the world; Azzam, in contrast, wanted to remain focused on military campaigns. After Azzam was assassinated in 1989, the MAK split, with a significant number joining bin Laden's organization.
In November 1989, Ali Mohammed, a former special forces Sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, left military service and moved to Santa Clara, California. He traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and became deeply involved with bin Laden's plans. A year later, on November 8, 1990, the FBI raided the New Jersey home of Mohammed's associate El Sayyid Nosair, discovering a great deal of evidence of terrorist plots, including plans to blow up New York City skyscrapers. In 1991, Ali Mohammed is said to have helped orchestrate Osama bin Laden's relocation to Sudan.[28]
Following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 had put the country of Saudi Arabia and its ruling House of Saud at risk as Saudi's most valuable oil fields (Hama) were within easy striking distance of Iraqi forces in Kuwait,[29] and Saddam's call to pan-Arab/Islamism could potentially rally internal dissent. In the face of a seemingly massive Iraqi military presence, Saudi Arabia's own forces were well armed but far outnumbered. Bin Laden offered the services of his mujahedeen to King Fahd to protect Saudi Arabia from the Iraqi army.
The Saudi monarch refused bin Laden's offer,[30] opting instead to allow U.S. and allied forces to deploy on Saudi territory. The deployment angered Bin Laden, as he believed the presence of foreign troops in the "land of the two mosques" (Mecca and Medina) profaned sacred soil. After speaking publicly against the Saudi government for harboring American troops, he was quickly forced into exile to Sudan and on April 9, 1994 his Saudi citizenship was revoked.[31] His family publicly disowned him. There is controversy over whether and to what extent he continued to garner support from members of his family and/or the Saudi government.[32]
Shortly afterwards, the movement that came to be known as al-Qaeda was formed.
After the Soviet withdrawal, Afghanistan was effectively ungoverned for seven years and plagued by constant infighting between former allies and various mujahedeen groups.
Throughout the 1990s, a new force began to emerge. The origins of the Taliban (literally "students") lay in the children of Afghanistan, many of them orphaned by the war, and many of whom had been educated in the rapidly expanding network of Islamic schools (madrassas) either in Kandahar or in the refugee camps on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
According to Ahmed Rashid, five leaders of the Taliban were graduates of a single madrassa, Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak, near Peshawar, situated in Pakistan but largely attended by Afghan refugees.[33]This institution reflected Salafi beliefs in its teachings, and much of its funding came from private donations from wealthy Arabs, for whom bin Laden provided conduit. A further four leading figures (including the perceived Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar Mujahed) attended a similarly funded and influenced madrassa in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The ties between Afghan Arabs and the Taliban ran deep. Many of the mujahedeen who later joined the Taliban fought alongside Afghan warlord Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi's Harkat i Inqilabi group at the time of the Russian invasion. This group also enjoyed the loyalty of most Afghan Arab fighters.
The continuing internecine strife between various factions, and accompanying lawlessness following the Soviet withdrawal, enabled the growing and well-disciplined Taliban to expand their control over territory in Afghanistan, and they came to establish an enclave which it called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In 1994, they captured the regional center of Kandahar, and after making rapid territorial gains thereafter, conquered the capital city Kabul in September 1996.
After Sudan made it clear that bin Laden and his group were no longer welcome that year, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan — with previously established connections between the groups, a similar outlook on world affairs and largely isolated from American political influence and military power — provided a perfect location for al-Qaeda to establish its headquarters. Al-Qaeda enjoyed the Taliban's protection and a measure of legitimacy as part of their Ministry of Defense, although only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and the Pakistani border regions are alleged to have trained militant Muslims from around the world. Despite the perception of some people, al-Qaeda members are ethnically diverse and connected by their radical version of Islam.
An ever-expanding network of supporters thus enjoyed a safe haven in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan until the Taliban were defeated by a combination of local forces and United States air power in 2001 (see section September 11 attacks and the United States response). Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders are still believed to be located in areas where the population is sympathetic to the Taliban in Afghanistan or the border Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
In 1993, al-Qaeda associate Ramzi Yousef used a truck bomb to attack the World Trade Center in New York City. The attack killed six people, injured 1,042, and caused nearly $300 million in property damage, but did not destroy the complex.[34] Yousef was later captured in Pakistan.
In 1996, al-Qaeda announced its jihad to expel foreign troops and interests from what they felt were Islamic lands. Bin Laden issued a fatwa,[35] which amounted to a public declaration of war against the United States and any of its allies, and began to focus al-Qaeda's resources towards attacking the United States and its interests.
On February 23, 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, along with three other Islamist leaders, co-signed and issued a fatwa (binding religious edict) under the banner of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders (al-Jabhah al-Islamiyya al-'Alamiyya li-Qital al-Yahud wal-Salibiyyin) declaring: <blockquote>[t]he ruling to kill the Americans and their allies- civilians and military— is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Makka) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah'.[36]</blockquote>
Neither bin Laden nor al-Zawahiri possessed the traditional Islamic scholarly qualifications to issue a fatwa of any kind; however, they rejected the authority of the contemporary ulema (seen as the paid servants of jahiliyya rulers) and took it upon themselves.[37] 1998 was also the year of the first major terrorist attack reliably attributed to al-Qaeda- the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, resulting in upward of 300 deaths, mostly locals. A barrage of Cruise missiles launched by the U.S. military in response devastated an al-Qaeda base in Khost, Afghanistan, but the network's capacity was unharmed.
Bin Laden then turned his sights towards the United States Navy. In October 2000, al-Qaeda militants in Yemen bombed the missile destroyer U.S.S. Cole in a suicide attack, killing 17 U.S. servicemen and damaging the vessel while it lay offshore. Inspired by the success of such a brazen attack, al-Qaeda's command core began to prepare for an attack on the United States itself.
The September 11, 2001 attacks are attributed by most observers to al-Qaeda, acting in accord with the 1998 ''fatwa'' issued against the United States and its allies by bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and others.[38] Evidence points to suicide squads led by al-Qaeda operative Mohammed Atta as the culprits of the attacks, with bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and Hambali as the key planners. While messages believed to be from bin Laden after September 11,2001 have praised the attacks, a statement issued six days later through Al Jazeera allegedly denied his involvement.[39] However, although bin Laden denied involvement, he sought to legitimize the attacks to the general Muslim public by identifying grievances of both mainstream Muslims and extremists, such as the general perception that the United States was actively oppressing Muslims.[40] For example, bin Laden claimed that America was massacring Muslims in 'Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir and Iraq' and that Muslims should retain the 'right to attack in reprisal'. He also claimed the 9/11 attacks were not targeted at women and children, but 'America's icons of military and economic power'[41]
The attacks were the most devastating terrorist acts in American history, killing nearly 3,000 people, destroying four commercial airliners, leveling the World Trade Center towers, and damaging The Pentagon.
Evidence has since come to light that the original targets for the attack may have been nuclear power stations on the east coast of the U.S. The targets were later altered by al-Qaeda, as it was thought that the US retaliation would be too great.[42][43]
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the United States government decided to respond militarily, and began to prepare its armed forces to overthrow the Taliban regime it believed was harboring al-Qaeda. Before the United States attacked, it offered Taliban leader Mullah Omar a chance to surrender bin Laden and his top associates. The Taliban offered to turn over bin Laden to a neutral country for trial if the United States would provide evidence of bin Laden's complicity in the attacks. U.S. President George W. Bush responded by saying: "We know he's guilty. Turn him over",[44] and British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned the Taliban regime: "Surrender bin Laden, or surrender power". Soon thereafter the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan, and together with the Afghan Northern Alliance removed the Taliban government in the war in Afghanistan.
As a result of the United States using its special forces and providing air support for the Northern Alliance ground forces, both Taliban and al-Qaeda training camps were destroyed, and much of the operating structure of al-Qaeda is believed to have been disrupted. After being driven from their key positions in the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan, many al-Qaeda fighters tried to regroup in the rugged Gardez region of the nation. Again, under the cover of intense aerial bombardment, U.S. infantry and local Afghan forces attacked, shattering the al-Qaeda position and killing or capturing many of the militants. By early 2002, al-Qaeda had been dealt a serious blow to its operational capacity, and the Afghan invasion appeared an initial success. Nevertheless, a significant Taliban insurgency remains in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda's top two leaders, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, evaded capture.
Debate raged about the exact nature of al-Qaeda's role in the 9/11 attacks, and after the U.S. invasion began, the U.S. State Department also released a videotape showing bin Laden speaking with a small group of associates somewhere in Afghanistan shortly before the Taliban was removed from power.[45] Although its authenticity has been questioned by some,[46] the tape appears to implicate bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the September 11 attacks and was aired on many television channels all over the world, with an accompanying English translation provided by the United States Defense Department.
In September 2004, the U.S. government commission investigating the September 11 attacks officially concluded that the attacks were conceived and implemented by al-Qaeda operatives.[47] In October 2004, bin Laden appeared to claim responsibility for the attacks in a videotape released through Al Jazeera, saying he was inspired by Israeli attacks on high-rises in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon: "As I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children."[48]
By the end of 2004, the U.S. government claimed that two-thirds of the top leaders of al-Qaeda from 2001 were in custody (including Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Saif al Islam el Masry, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri) or dead (including Mohammed Atef). Despite the capture or death of many senior al-Qaeda operatives, the U.S. government continues to warn that the organization is not yet defeated, and battles between U.S. forces and al-Qaeda-related groups continue.
In the meantime, autonomous regional branches of al-Qaeda continue to emerge around the world.
Osama bin Laden first took interest in Iraq when the country invaded Kuwait in 1990, raising concerns the secular Baathist government of Iraq might next set its sights on Saudi Arabia, homeland of bin Laden and Islam itself. In a letter sent to King Fahd, he offered to send an army of mujahedeen to defend Saudi Arabia, but the offer was rebuffed.[49] During the Gulf War, the organization's interests became split between outrage at the intervention of the United Nations in the region, hatred of Saddam Hussein's secular government, and concern for the suffering of Islamic people in Iraq.
The Bush Administration's claims of links between Saddam's regime and al-Qaeda (which was a crucial part of the WMD justification for the Iraq invasion) was non-existent or exaggerated, according to the report of both the United States Government's 9/11 Commission[50] and the Pentagon [51]; despite these conclusions, Vice President Dick Cheney has continued to publicly assert an Iraqi-al-Qaeda link.[52] Recently, the US has acknowledged that the role of al-Qaeda in post-invasion violence in Iraq was overstated.[53] The US also claimed that al-Qaeda was in contact with the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-islam from its inception in 1999; however, Ansar al-islam's founder, Mullah Krekar, has staunchly denied any such link.[54]
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, elements associated with al-Qaeda, commanded by al-Zarqawi, have supported local resistance to the occupying coalition forces and the emerging government, particularly targeting Shia.[55] They have been implicated in the bombing of the United Nations headquarters,[56] as well as hundreds of other smaller scale attacks.[57] In 2004, the main al-Qaeda bases in Iraq were raided by U.S. forces besieging Fallujah.
Al-Zarqawi was killed by U.S. air strikes on a safe house near Baqubah, Iraq on June 7, 2006. Before his death, al-Zarqawi was allegedly trying to use Iraq as a launching pad for international terrorism, most notably dispatching suicide bombers to attack hotels and government targets in Jordan.[58] Since the killing of al-Zarqawi, it was believed that Abu Ayyub al-Masri took over as head of "al-Qaeda in Iraq". On September 3, 2006 the second-in-command of "al-Qaeda in Iraq", Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi (also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana), was arrested north of Baghdad, along with a group of his aides and followers.[59]
In 1991, Sudan's National Islamic Front, an Islamist group that had recently gained power, invited al-Qaeda to move operations to Sudan.[60] For several years, al-Qaeda operated several businesses (including import/export, farm, and construction firms) in what might be considered a period of financial consolidation. The group built a major 1200-km (845-mi) highway connecting the capital Khartoum with Port Sudan.[61] However, they also ran a number of camps where they trained operatives in the use of firearms and explosives.
In 1996, Osama bin Laden was asked to leave Sudan after the United States put the regime under extreme pressure to expel him, citing possible connections to the 1994 attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak while his motorcade was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Controversy exists regarding whether Sudan offered to turn bin Laden over to the U.S. prior to the expulsion. There is an audio tape (Audio) (Transcript) recording of former President Bill Clinton talking about the offer from the Sudanese government. There are conflicting reports on whether the Sudanese government indeed made such an offer, but they were in fact prepared to turn him over to Saudi Arabia, who declined to take him.[62] Osama bin Laden finally left Sudan in a well-executed operation, arriving at Jalalabad, Afghanistan by air in late 1996 with over 200 of his supporters and their families.
The October 1991 secession of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia opened up a new ethno-religious conflict at the heart of Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina is ethnically diverse, consisting of Bosniaks (Muslims), Serbs (Orthodox Christians) and Croats (Roman Catholics) distributed throughout its territory, a region which comprised the central component of the former Yugoslavia. After its secession, ethnic Serbs and ethnic Croats within Bosnia, supported by irredentist movements in the adjacent states of Serbia and Croatia, engaged in a three-way conflict against the Muslim population.
Radical Islamic veterans of the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan seized on Bosnia as a new opportunity to defend Islam.[63] Besieged on two fronts and seemingly abandoned by the West, the new government of Alija Izetbegovic was willing to accept any help it could get, military or financial, including that of a number of Islamic organisations, such as al-Qaeda.[64] Several close associates of Osama bin Laden (most notably, Saudi Khalid bin Udah bin Muhammad al-Harbi, alias Abu Sulaiman al-Makki) joined the conflict in Bosnia.[64]
While al-Qaeda might initially have seen Bosnia as a possible bridgehead enabling the radicalization of European Muslims for operations against other European nations and the United States, Bosniaks had been secularized for generations, and their interest in fighting was largely limited to securing the survival of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian state. The "Bosnian Mujahideen" (comprising largely Arab veterans of the Afghan war and not necessarily members of al-Qaeda) thus operated as a largely autonomous force within central Bosnia. While their bravery in the fray initially attracted a large number of native Muslims to join them, their brutality against civilians[65] came to appall many native Bosnians and repel new recruits. At the same time, their vigorous attempts to Islamicize the local Muslim population with rules on appropriate dress and behavior were widely resented and thus went unheeded. In his book Al-Qaida’s Jihad in Europe: the Afghan-Bosnian Network, Evan Kohlmann summarizes: "In spite of vigorous efforts to ‘Islamicise’ the nominally Muslim populace of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the locals could not be convinced to abandon pork, alcohol, or public displays of affection. Bosniak women persistently refused to wear the hijab or follow the other mandates for female behavior prescribed by extreme fundamentalist Islam."[64]
The signing of the Washington Agreement in March 1994 brought to an end to the Bosniak-Croat conflict in Bosnia. While the "Bosnian Mujahideen" remained to fight on in the war against the Serbs, the Dayton Peace Accord of November 1995 ended the conflict for good, with international aid contingent keen on the disarming of foreign fighters. With Bosnian government support, NATO forces took effective action to close the bases of these fighters and deport them. Only a limited number of former mujahideen who had either married native Bosnian Muslim women or who could not find a country to go to were permitted to stay in Bosnia and granted citizenship; in 2007 the Bosnian government started reviewing these cases these linked to extremist activity were expelled.
Activities of al-Qaeda in Somalia are alleged to have begun as early as 1992.[66] The organization's role during the course of the 1992–1994 UN missions was limited to a handful of trainers. Ali Mohamed and other al-Qaeda members purportedly trained forces loyal to warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid.[67] Osama bin Laden himself claimed in an interview with ABC's John Miller to have sent al-Qaeda operatives to Somalia. One of the al-Qaeda fighters present during the interview claimed to have personally slit the throats of three American soldiers in Somalia.[68] Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down, states the terrorist organization did train some of Aidid's men on how to fire rocket-propelled grenades to destroy U.S. helicopters, but they were not personally part of the fight with US forces in the Battle of Mogadishu.[69] Sources from captured Somali fighters in the country said that this is when Osama Bin Laden 1st saw a a vulnerability in the United States government and the US military and quoted: "The infidels are a paper tiger, when just of their blood is spilled they run like dogs."
Lately, al-Qaeda was also linked to militant Islamic Courts Union (ICU). It is believed several terrorist attacks were orchestrated from Ras Kamboni, in the extreme southern tip of Somalia adjacent to Kenya, including the 1998 United States embassy bombings and the 2002 Mombasa hotel bombing.[70] On June 22, 2006, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer announced the U.S. was seeking the assistance of the ICU in the apprehension of suspects who carried out attacks against its East African embassies in 1998 and an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya in 2002.[71] She listed the following persons as suspected of being in Somalia (name and nationality):
On July 13, 2006, a spokesperson for al-Qaeda called up a local news agency in Srinagar to announce the arrival of the group in India. The al-Qaeda spokesman said its arrival was a "consequence of Indian oppression and suppression of minorities, particularly Muslims." There have been reports that al-Qaeda men had infiltrated the Kashmir Valley over the past few years, particularly after the US pursued the group following its invasion of Afghanistan. Also, it has been said that links have been found between al-Qaeda and terror groups like LeT, which is actively supported by Pakistan.[72]
Al-Qaeda is suspected to have planned and carried out two nearly simultaneous terror attacks against Israeli civilian targets in Mombasa, Kenya, on November 28, 2002. The one successful attack, a car-bomb placed in a resort hotel popular among Israeli tourists, claimed the lives of 15 people. The hotel bombing occurred 20 minutes after a failed attack on an airplane, when a terrorist fired an SA-7 MANPAD against an Israeli airliner carrying 261 passengers, which was taking off from the airport; the missile narrowly missed its target and landed in an empty field.
Bin Laden's repeated references to the Palestinian cause in his manifestos and interviews. In April 2007 an extremist group calling itself "the organization of al-Qaeda in Palestine" emerged in the Gaza Strip. [16] In December 2002 Israel made similar claims and these are now believed by some to have been a Mossad false flag operation. [17][18]
Shakir al-Abssi, a former associate of al-Qaeda in Iraq, recruited Palestinian refugees in Lebanon into Fatah al-Islam and rose against the government. [19]
Though the current structure of al-Qaeda is unknown, information mostly acquired from Jamal al-Fadl provided American authorities with a rough picture of how the group was organized. While the veracity of the information provided by al-Fadl and the motivation for his cooperation are both disputed, American authorities base much of their current knowledge of al-Qaeda on his testimony.[73]
Bin Laden is the emir and Senior Operations Chief of al-Qaeda (although originally this role may have been filled by Abu Ayoub al-Iraqi), advised by a shura council, which consists of senior al-Qaeda members, estimated by Western officials at about twenty to thirty people. Ayman al-Zawahiri is al-Qaeda's Deputy Operations Chief and Abu Ayyub al-Masri is possibly the senior leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The number of individuals belonging to the organization is also unknown. According to the controversial BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, al-Qaeda is so weakly linked together that it is hard to say it exists apart from Osama bin Laden and a small clique of close associates. The lack of any significant numbers of convicted al-Qaeda members despite a large number of arrests on terrorism charges is cited by the documentary as a reason to doubt whether a widespread entity that meets the description of al-Qaeda exists at all. Therefore the extent and nature of al-Qaeda remains a topic of dispute.[74]
Some organizational specialists have said that al-Qaeda's dispersed network structure, as opposed to a hierarchical structure, is its primary strength. The decentralized structure enables al-Qaeda to have a worldwide distributed base while retaining a relatively small core. While an estimated 100,000 Islamist militants are said to have received instruction in al-Qaeda camps since its inception, the group is believed to retain only a small number of militants under direct orders. Estimates seldom peg its manpower higher than 20,000 worldwide.
For its most complex operations (such as the 9/11 attacks on the US) all participants, planning, and funding are believed to have been directly provided by the core al-Qaeda organization. But in many attacks around the world where there appears to be an al-Qaeda connection, its precise role has been less easy to define. Rather than handling these operations from conception to delivery, al-Qaeda often appears to act as an international financial and logistical support-network, channeling income obtained from a network of fundraising activities to provide training and coordination for local radical groups. In many cases it is these local groups, only loosely affiliated to core al-Qaeda, which actually undertake the attacks.
Australian tourists and interests have been targeted in a series of devastating attacks north of Australia in the southern islands of Indonesia, on the southern edge of southeast Asia. These attacks and plots have been attributed to Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Qaeda's affiliate in the region. The 2002 Bali bombing, 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing and the 2005 Bali bombings provide some insight into al-Qaeda's decentralized method of operations. The attacks showed far greater coordination and effectiveness than might historically have been expected from regional militant networks. But police investigations and subsequent trials showed that while al-Qaeda was believed to have provided expertise and coordination, much of the planning and all the personnel who undertook the attacks came from local radical Islamist groups.
Al-Qaeda has been known to establish and foster new groups to further the radical Islamic interest in local cablish's. The Taliban might be deemed to fall into this category, the roots of the organization formed from radicalized students from the bin Laden funded-medressas of the Afghan refugee camps at the time of the Russian occupation.
9/11 hijackers (American Airlines 11):<br/>
9/11 hijackers (United Airlines 175):<br/>
9/11 hijackers (American Airlines 77):<br/>
9/11 hijackers (United Airlines 93):<br/>
7/7 Suicide bombers (London):<br/>
Suspects at large<br/> (1998 Embassy Bombings and 2002 Kenya hotel bombing):
Other al-Qaeda leaders:<br/>
In the wake of its evacuation from Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and its successors have migrated online to escape detection in an atmosphere of increased international vigilance. As a result, the organization’s use of the Internet has grown more sophisticated, encompassing financing, recruitment, networking, mobilization, publicity, as well as information dissemination, gathering, and sharing.[79] Abu Ayyub al-Masri’s al-Qaeda movement in Iraq regularly releases short videos glorifying the activity of jihadist suicide bombers. In addition, both before and after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq), the umbrella organization to which al-Qaeda in Iraq belongs, the Mujahideen Shura Council, has a regular presence on the web where pronouncements are given by Murasel. This growing range of multimedia content includes guerrilla training clips, stills of victims about to be murdered, testimonials of suicide bombers, and epic-themed videos with high production values that romanticize participation in jihad through stylized portraits of mosques and musical scores. A website associated with al-Qaeda, for example, posted a video of captured American entrepreneur Nick Berg being decapitated in Iraq. Other decapitation videos and pictures, including those of Paul Johnson, Kim Sun-il, and Daniel Pearl, were first posted on jihadist websites.
With the rise of “locally rooted, globally inspired” terrorists, counter-terrorism experts are currently studying how al-Qaeda is using the Internet – through websites, chat rooms, discussion forums, instant messaging, and so on – to inspire a worldwide network of support. The July 7 2005 bombers, some of whom were well integrated into their local communities, are an example of such “globally inspired” terrorists, and they reportedly used the Internet to plan and coordinate. A group called the "Secret Organization of al-Qaeda in Europe" has claimed responsibility for these London attacks on a militant Islamist website – another popular use of the Internet by terrorists seeking publicity.[80]
The publicity opportunities offered by the Internet have been particularly exploited by al-Qaeda. In December 2004, for example, bin Laden released an audio message by posting it directly to a website, rather than sending a copy to al Jazeera as he had done in the past. Some analysts speculated that he did this to be certain it would be available unedited, out of fear that his criticism of Saudi Arabia — which was much more vehement than usual in this speech, lasting over an hour — might be removed by al Jazeera editors concerned about offending the Saudi royal family.
In the past, Alneda.com and Jehad.net were perhaps the most significant al-Qaeda websites. Alneda was initially taken down by an American, but the operators resisted by shifting the site to various servers and strategically shifting content. The U.S. is currently attempting to extradite an information technology specialist, Babar Ahmad, from the UK, who is the creator of various English-language al-Qaeda websites such as Azzam.com.[81][82] Ahmad's extradition is opposed by various British Muslim organizations, such as the Muslim Association of Britain. More recently it has been discovered that young British Christians and non-religious types have been taken in by the al-Qaeda ideals; most notably an 18 year-old boy from Chingford, London, idintified as Daniel Mimms, was taken into custody for attempting to bomb the local Woolworths, claiming it to be "so wrong". He is currently being held in a detention centre awaiting trial. Daniel Mimms' lawyers have pleaded that his low intellect and poor education caused him to be easily drawn in, and shouldn't be held fully culpable for his actions.
Finally, at a mid-2005 presentation for U.S. government terrorism analysts, Dennis Pluchinsky called the global jihadist movement “Web-directed,” and former CIA deputy director John E. McLaughlin has also said it is now primarily driven today by “ideology and the Internet.”
Financial activities of al-Qaeda have been a major preoccupation of the US government following the September 11 2001 attacks. It was discovered by investigative reporter Denis Robert that funds from Osama bin Laden's Bahrain International Bank transited through illegal unpublished accounts of "clearinghouse" Clearstream, which has been qualified as a "bank of banks".
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