al-Qaeda

Authors: Jayshree Bajoria, and Greg BrunoUpdated: June 6, 2012
Introduction
Al-Qaeda, an international terrorist network, is considered the top terrorist threat to the United States. The group is wanted for its September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as a host of lesser attacks. To escape the post-9/11 U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda's central leadership fled eastward into Pakistan, securing a safehavenin loosely governed areas there. In July 2007, U.S. intelligence agenciesfoundthat the organization was regrouping and regaining strength in thesetribalareasalong the border with Afghanistan, though targeted killings of senior al-Qaeda leaders have since diminished the group's command and control capabilities. In February 2009, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told lawmakers that the group's core "islesscapableandeffectivethanitwasayearago." The killing of al-Qaeda's top leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan in May 2011 served a significant blow to the organization, but analysts say al-Qaeda remains deadly with its networks spread all over the world. Plus, a number of affiliated groups have gained prominence in recent years, complicating the task of containing the organization.
What is al-Qaeda?
Al-Qaeda, Arabic for "the Base," is an international terrorist network founded byOsamabinLadenin the late 1980s. It seeks to rid Muslim countries of what it sees as the profane influence of the West and replace their governments with fundamentalist Islamic regimes. After al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks, the United States launched a war in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda's bases there and overthrow theTaliban, the country's Muslim fundamentalist rulers who harbored bin Laden and his followers. Like his predecessor George W. Bush, President Barack Obama has committed U.S. strategy todestroyingal-Qaeda'ssafehavenin the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, and limiting the group's ability to strike U.S. targets.
What are al-Qaeda's origins?
Al-Qaeda grew out of the Services Office, a clearinghouse for the international Muslim brigade opposed to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, the Services Office--run by bin Laden and the Palestinian religious scholar Abdullah Azzam--recruited, trained, and financed thousands of foreign mujahadeen, or holy warriors, from more than fifty countries. Bin Laden wanted these fighters to continue the "holy war" beyond Afghanistan. He formed al-Qaeda around 1988.

How big is al-Qaeda?

It's impossible to say precisely, because al-Qaeda is decentralized. Estimates range from several hundred to several thousand members. According to the U.S. State Department's 2008 report on terrorism, while the largest concentration of senior al-Qaeda members now reside in Pakistan, the network incorporates members of AQI and other associates throughout the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and Central Asia who continue working to carry out attacks against U.S. and Western interests.

The international crackdown that followed the 9/11 attacks greatly cut into al-Qaeda's resources and many of al-Qaeda's former leaders were captured or killed, leading experts to question the relevance of al-Qaeda's central leadership. In these years, al-Qaeda transformed from what was once a hierarchical organization with a large operating budget into an ideological movement. Whereas al-Qaeda once trained its own operatives and deployed them to carry out attacks, it is just as likely to inspire individuals or small groups to carry out attacks, often with no operational support from the larger organization. Experts say al-Qaeda is able to spread its ideology effectively through the Internet andal-Sahab, its media wing (NPR). As Blair noted in his 2009 assessment, al-Qaeda and its affiliates and allies "remain dangerous and adaptive enemies," keen on attacking U.S. and European targets.

What major attacks has al-Qaeda been responsible for?

The group has targeted American and other Western interests as well as Jewish targets and Muslim governments it sees as corrupt or impious-above all, the Saudi monarchy. Al-Qaeda-linked attacks include:

  • The attempted December 2009 bombing of a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight.
  • An October 2007 suicide bombing that narrowly missed killing former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Two months later, another bomber succeeds in killing the former prime minister; Pakistani officials blame Baitullah Mahsud, a top Pakistani Taliban commander with close ties to al-Qaeda.
  • The February 2006 attack on the Abqaiq petroleum processing facility, the largest such facility in the world, in Saudi Arabia.
  • The July 2005 bombings of the London public transportation system.
  • The March 2004 bomb attacks on Madrid commuter trains, which killed nearly 200 people and left more than 1,800 injured.
  • The May 2003 car bomb attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
  • The November 2002 car bomb attack and a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli jetliner with shoulder-fired missiles, both in Mombasa, Kenya.
  • The October 2002 attack on a French tanker off the coast of Yemen.
  • Several spring 2002 bombings in Pakistan.
  • The April 2002 explosion of a fuel tanker outside a synagogue in Tunisia.
  • The September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks on four U.S. airplanes, two of which crashed into the World Trade Center, and a third of which crashed into the Pentagon.
  • The October 2000U.S.S. Colebombing.
  • The August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Al-Qaeda is also suspected of carrying out or directing sympathetic groups to carry out the December 2007 bomb and suicide attacks in Algiers; May 2003 suicide attacks on Western interests in Casablanca, Morocco; the October 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia; and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf blamed al-Qaeda for two attempts on his life in December 2003. In December 2009, al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghribkidnapped two Italian citizens (al-Jazeera)in Mauritania, claiming the abductions were to avenge Italy's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Earlier that month, three Spanish aid workers were alsocaptured in Mauritania (CNN)by AQIM operatives; the group said that attack was because of AQIM opposition to the detention of fourteen Islamic militants in Spain, sentenced for involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombing.

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- created by Anne Proctor and Melissa McGready