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Al-Qaeda
Pakistan, Afghanistan, and points throughout the World
Since the attacks of 9/11, no terrorist group in the world has attained as much infamy as al-Qaeda: the militant Islamic fundamentalist group led by the late Osama bin Laden. Its name (also spelled “al-Qaida” in the West) translates as “the Base,”and it acts as an umbrella organization for a number of radical Islamic groups. According to the State Department, al-Qaeda seeks a return to ancient Sharia law throughout the Muslim world, an expulsion of Western forces from the Persian Gulf region, the overthrow of Israel (specifically the return of Jerusalem to Muslim hands), and the creation of a “pen-Islamic state” which will presumably engage in an apocalyptic final struggle with the forces of the West.
It began life during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, dedicated to removing the communist occupiers and enjoying the support of the United States towards the end. As the occupation drew to a close, some members wanted to continue the fight in other parts of the world, and spread their message of militant Islam to places locked in conflict with other ideologies. Bin Laden, then one of the organizations key leaders, returned to his native Saudi Arabia, only to see it all fall under threat from the late Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, bin Laden offered his services as a protector to the Saudi kind, lest Iraq continue its advance further south. King Fahd declined the offer, and instead allowed the US Army to establish bases on Saudi soil. The thought of foreign soldiers on holy land (Saudi Arabia is home to Mecca and Medina, the two most sacred sites in all of Islam) angered bin Laden, and he began publicly criticizing the Saudi government before eventually fleeing into exile in the Sudan.
From there, he slowly built up his organization, opening training camps and marshalling financial resources to his cause. An ill-conceived alliance with the group Egyptian Islamic Jihad came to a head with the attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. When it failed, the Sudan expelled both EIJ and bin Laden’s organization from its soil. Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan, where the, then, well-organized Taliban was cementing its power in the chaos following the departure of the Soviets. It offered him safe haven where he could train and develop his organization further. Al-Qaeda training camps soon sprung up through-out the country.
From there, it began an extended jihad, or holy war, against the Western powers (specifically the United States). Its first noted attack came in 1993, when Ramzi Yousef conducted a bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. Though only partially successful (the towers did not collapse), he succeeded in killing six people and causing millions of dollars worth of property damage. Similar attacks followed in the ensuing years: car bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1995, attacks on US embassies in Africa in 1998, and the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.
It came to a head on the morning of September 11, 2001. Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four passenger planes on the US East Coast. They flew two of them into the World Trade Center- causing the collapse of both towers-and a third into the Pentagon building in Washington DC (which suffered damage but remained intact). The fourth plane, likely intended for the US Capitol building, crashed in a field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers onboard turned against their captors.
In response, the United States and its allies launched an attack to overthrow the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. With the help of the Afghan Northern Alliance, they enjoyed considerable early success, removing the Taliban from power and inflicting considerable damage on al-Qaeda facilities. Bin Laden and other key operatives managed to evade capture, however, retreating to the rugged terrain of eastern Afghanistan. The US has claimed subsequent gains against al-Qaeda in the ensuing years, including the capture of many members in important leadership positions. Bin Laden remains at large, during the time, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 drew numerous al-Qaeda operatives into that country. The organization continues to present a substantial threat, and new cells and members continue to emerge all over the world.
Al-Qaeda retains an extremely loose, almost nebulous structure that defies any one definition. By some accounts, it consists only of bin Laden and his inner circle, numbering perhaps twenty-five people. They serve as the “emir” and command structure for the organization: planning operations, raising funds, and issuing edicts. A law committee studies Islamic text to ensure that their activities are in keeping with their extremist interpretation of the faith, while a business committee works to ensure funding, and issue documentations such as phony passports and the like.
Beyond that, little is known about the precise structure of Al-Qaeda operations. Anti-terrorist campaigns in the West successfully disrupted a number of its activities-including capturing or killing many mid-level and senior level leaders, including bin Laden himself. In addition, many Islamic extremist groups who identify themselves with al-Qaeda’s goals operate without communication from senior leadership, transforming the group into an amorphous blob of independent organizations with similar methods and direction. In this sense, al-Qaeda remains more of a spiritual inspiration than a formal organization, and with the War on Terror continually in flux its status literally changes from day to day.
Al-Qaeda maintains a significant presence in Iraq, currently organized under an umbrella institution called the Mujahidin Shura Council (MSC). Leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq currently falls to Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who replaced Abu Mus; ab al-Zarqawi after Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike. Its targets both Coalition Forces led by the United States, and Shiite civilians (al-Qaeda is a Sunni Muslim organization) in an attempt to foster sectarian strife. It also targets Shiite leaders for assassination, launches roadside attacks on US convoys and checkpoints, and targets hotels and public gathering points for suicide bombings.
Similar tactics mark it activities in the rest of the world, too. Organizations claiming affiliation or inspiration from al-Qaeda instigated bombings in the city of Istanbul in 2003; the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, Spain, which killed almost two hundred people; and attacks on the London Underground in the summer of 2005. In all cases, the perpetrators displayed a willingness to inflict civilian casualties in hopes of sowing fear and insecurity among cultures they viewed as barbari. This stems from bin Laden’s stated belief that the death of civilians is necessary during jihad.
It raises money through donations from like-minded individuals, and by re-routing funds initially gathered for Muslim charitable causes. It also kidnaps hostages for ransom and operatives in Europe engage in credit card fraud as well. US anti-terror efforts routinely target such operations as a way of hampering the group’s financial assets. Despite that, its recent operations-and in particular the horrifying success of the 9/11 attacks-made its name a rallying cry for radical Muslims everywhere, and terrorist attacks claimed by al-Qaeda operatives will likely continue well into the foreseeable future.
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 Posted by: Izan-Oen Mon Feb 17, 2014 @ 03:27am
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