General Overview
Al-Qaeda is an international terrorist network led by Usama bin Laden
[the "Osama" spelling is deprecated, because there is no letter "O" in
Arabic). Established around 1988 by bin Laden, al-Qaeda helped finance,
recruit, transport and train thousands of fighters from dozens of
countries to be part of an Afghan resistance to defeat the Soviet Union.
To continue the holy war beyond Afghanistan, al-Qaeda's current goal is
to establish a pan-Islamic Caliphate throughout the world by working
with allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems
"non-Islamic" and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim
countries.
In February 1998, al-Qaeda issued a statement under banner of
"The World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders"
saying it was the duty of all Muslims to kill US citizens-civilian or
military-and their allies everywhere. Al-Qaeda would merge with Egyptian
Islamic Jihad (Al-Jihad) of Ayman al-Zawahiri in June 2001.
After al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on America, the
United States launched a war in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda's bases
there and overthrow the Taliban, the country's Muslim fundamentalist
rulers who harbored bin Laden and his followers. "Al-Qaeda" is Arabic
for "the base."
In an al-Qaeda house in Afghanistan, New York Times reporters found a brief statement of the "Goals and Objectives of Jihad":
- Establishing the rule of God on earth
- Attaining martyrdom in the cause of God
- Purification of the ranks of Islam from the elements of depravity
In 1998, several al-Qaeda leaders issued a declaration calling on
Muslims to kill Americans-including civilians-as well as "those who are
allied with them from among the helpers of Satan."
Activities
Tactics include assassination, bombing, hijacking, kidnapping, suicide
attacks, et al. Numerous reports and public bin Laden proclamations
indicate strong desire to obtain and utilize biological, chemical and
nuclear weapons. Targets tend to be prominent symbols (public buildings,
embassy and military personnel, etc.) of the United States, its allies,
and moderate Muslim governments. According to the former CIA Director
George J. Tenet, "Usama Bin Ladin's organization and other terrorist
groups are placing increased emphasis on developing surrogates to carry
out attacks in an effort to avoid detection. For example, the Egyptian
Islamic Jihad (EIJ) is linked closely to Bin Ladin's organization and
has operatives located around the world-including in Europe, Yemen,
Pakistan, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. And, there is now an intricate web
of alliances among Sunni extremists worldwide, including North Africans,
radical Palestinians, Pakistanis, and Central Asians. Some of these
terrorists are actively sponsored by national governments that harbor
great antipathy toward the United States."
The group has targeted American and other Western interests as
well as Jewish targets and Muslim governments it saw as corrupt or
impious - above all, the Saudi monarchy. Al-Qaeda linked attacks
include:
- May 12, 2003 car bomb attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- November 2002 car bomb attack and a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli jetliner with shoulder-fired missiles, both in Mombasa, Kenya
- October 2002 attack on a French tanker off the coast of Yemen Several spring 2002 bombings in Pakistan
- April 2002 explosion of a fuel tanker outside a synagogue in Tunisia
- September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
- October 12, 2000 U.S.S. Cole bombing in Aden, Yemen killing 17 crew members and wounding 39.
- August 7, 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- Al-Qaeda is suspected of carrying out or directing sympathetic groups to carry out the May 2003 suicide attacks on Western interests in Casablanca, Morocco; the October 12, 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia; the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and a series of incidents in Saudi Arabia against U.S. targets from 1995 to 1996
Plots linked to al-Qaeda that were disrupted or prevented include: a
2001 attempt by Richard Reid to explode a shoe bomb on a transatlantic
flight; a 1999 plot to set off a bomb at Los Angeles International
Airport; a 1995 plan to blow up 12 transpacific flights of U.S.
commercial airliners; a 1995 plan to kill President Bill Clinton on a
visit to the Philippines; and a 1994 plot to kill Pope John Paul II
during a visit to Manila.
Any information about Al-Qaeda's U.S. operations has come from
investigations following the September 11 attacks and the December 1999
foiled Los Angeles airport attack. Interrogations of captured al-Qaeda
terrorists are occurring at Guantanamo Bay and from additional
undisclosed locations. The extent to which valuable intelligence or
information about al-Qaeda's organization is being provided is not
known.
In the federal indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was
apprehended in August 2001, prosecutors described how the hijackers
lived in the United States for months before the attacks-renting
apartments, taking flight classes, joining health clubs, and living off
funds wired from overseas.
On 29 October 2004, four days before the U.S. presidential
election, al-Qaida leader Usama bin Laden had threatened new attacks on
the United States. He appeared in a video broadcast on the Arab TV
network Al Jazeera claiming responsibility for the 2001 terrorist
attacks in New York. Speaking in a calm but strong voice, the terrorist
leader referred to the following week's U.S. election, telling Americans
their security did not depend on President Bush or Democratic candidate
John Kerry or al-Qaida, but would depend on government policies. Bin
Laden said al-Qaida decided, in his words, to destroy New Yorks' World
Trade towers in 2001 and listed several factors that motivated the
attack, including frustration over what he called America's pro-Israeli
Middle East policies. He said Israel's bombing attacks on Beirut in 1982
gave him the idea of targeting New York's skyscrapers.
Al-Qaeda's Operations Manual
In the early 1990s, al-Qaeda produced the Encyclopedia of the Afghan
Jihad, a detailed how-to guide for using handguns, explosives, and
biological and chemical weapons, in print and on CD-ROM. Materials
belonging to a captured al-Qaeda operative in England detailed
techniques for forgery, surveillance, and espionage.
Location/Area of Operation
Al-Qaida has cells worldwide and is reinforced by its ties to Sunni
extremist networks. Coalition attacks on Afghanistan since October 2001
have dismantled the Taliban-al-Qaida's protectors-and led to the
capture, death, or dispersal of al-Qaida operatives. Some al-Qaeda
members at large probably will attempt to carry out future attacks
against US interests. Other known areas of operation: United States,
Yemen, Germany, Pakistan.
Al-Qaida is a multi-national network possessing a global reach
and has supported through financing, training and logistics, Islamic
militants in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bosnia, Chechnya, Eritrea, Kosovo,
the Philippines, Somalia, Tajikistan, and Yemen, and now Kosovo.
Additionally, al-Qaida has been linked to conflicts and attacks in
Africa, Asia, Europe, the former Soviet Republics, the Middle East, as
well as North and South America.
The headquarters of al-Qaeda are not known anymore.
- From 1991 to 1996, al-Qaeda worked out of Sudan.
- From 1996 until the collapse of the Taliban in 2001, al-Qaeda operated out of Afghanistan and maintained its training camps there.
- U.S. intelligence officials now think al-Qaeda's senior leadership is trying to regroup in lawless tribal regions just inside Pakistan, near the Afghan border, inside Pakistani cities or in Iran.
- In May 2003, administration officials claimed that senior al-Qaeda figures were in Iran and urged Tehran to apprehend them. Sa'ad bin Laden, Usama bin Laden's son, in an October 2003 report, is said be among those in Iran.
- Al-Qaeda has autonomous underground cells in some 100 countries, including the United States, officials say. Law enforcement has broken up al-Qaeda cells in the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Albania, Uganda, and elsewhere.
Strength
It is impossible to known precisely, due to the decentralized
stucture of the organization. Al-Qaida may have several thousand members
and associates. It trained over 5,000 militants in camps in Afghanistan
since the late 1980s. It also serves as a focal point for a worldwide
network that includes many Sunni Islamic extremist groups, some members
of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and the
Harakat ul-Mujahidin.
External Aid
Bin Laden, member of a billionaire family that owns the Bin Ladin
Group construction empire, is said to have inherited tens of millions of
dollars that he uses to help finance the group. Al-Qaida also maintains
moneymaking front businesses, solicits donations from like-minded
supporters, and illicitly siphons funds from donations to Muslim
charitable organizations. US efforts to block al-Qaida funding has
hampered al-Qaida's ability to obtain money.
Al-Qaida has cooperated with a number of known terrorist groups worldwide including:
- Armed Islamic Group
- Salafist Group for Call and Combat and the Armed Islamic Group
- Egyptian Islamic Jihad (Egypt)
- Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya
- Jamaat Islamiyya
- The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
- Bayt al-Imam (Jordan)
- Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad (Kashmir)
- Asbat al Ansar
- Hezbollah (Lebanon)
- Al-Badar
- Harakat ul Ansar/Mujahadeen
- Al-Hadith
- Harakat ul Jihad
- Jaish Mohammed - JEM
- Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
- Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan
- Laskar e-Toiba - LET
- Moro Islamic Liberation Front (the Philippines)
- Abu Sayyaf Group (Malaysia, Philippines)
- Al-Ittihad Al Islamiya - AIAI (Somalia)
- Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
- Islamic Army of Aden (Yemen)
These groups share al-Qaeda's Sunni Muslim fundamentalist views. Some
terror experts theorize that Al-Qaeda, after the loss of it Afghanistan
base, may be increasingly reliant on sympathetic affiliates to carry
out it agenda. Intelligence officials and terrorism experts also say
that al-Qaeda has stepped up its cooperation on logistics and training
with Hezbollah, a radical, Iran-backed Lebanese militia drawn from the
minority Shiite strain of Islam.
Al-Arabiyah television reported on 20 October 2004 that Jama'at
Al-Tawhid wa Al-Jihad hadr released a statement claiming it has
officially joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Al-Jazeera broadcast a
statement by the group identifying itself as Tanzim Qa'idat Al-Jihad in
Bilad al-Rafidayn (Organization of Jihad's Base in the Country of the
Two Rivers). Iraq is commonly known as the land of the two rivers, the
Tigris and Euphrates. The statement has not been verified. Usama bin
Laden'd 29 October 2004 video broadcast on the Arab TV network Al
Jazeera made no mention of Zarqawi, suggesting that the report a few
days earlier that Zarqawi and Bin Laden had joined forces were in error.
Source: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/al-qaida.htm
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