How Al-Qa'ida Has Split Into Dozens Of Autonomous, Hard To Find 'Franchises'

Independent (UK) ^ | 11-22-2003 | Kim Sengupta

[blam]

How al-Qa'ida has split into dozens of autonomous, hard-to-find 'franchises'

By Kim Sengupta
22 November 2003

The Afghan war was meant to deprive al-Qa'ida of the protection of its Taliban allies and destroy it as a fighting force. But the Istanbul bombings are the latest example of how the organisation has reinvented itself to continue its jihad.

Al-Qai'da has proved to be a many-headed hydra. One was decapitated in Afghanistan, with many of Osama bin Laden's senior lieutenants killed or captured, and much of its financial resources uncovered and blocked. But the organisation has now sprung up again in a number of countries in a franchised form. The recent attacks in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and, possibly, Iraq show that smaller organisations, often with fighters trained in al-Qa'ida camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, are able to carry out operations without overt help from Bin Laden.

According to Western and Arab intelligence sources, the pattern emerging is of the remnants of the al-Qa'ida leadership, in their bases in the Afghan-Pakistan frontier, requesting missions to be carried out, at suggested times and regions, and leaving the details of the attacks to local bodies.

The evolution poses a difficult challenge for the West. Instead of facing a few defined, recognised targets, they have to cope with dozens of small groups that are much more difficult to trace and attack.

While two attacks - the 12 May and 9 November suicide bombings in Riyadh - appear to be the work of al-Qa'ida, other operations show different terror groups at work.

A new group, the Islamic Great East Raiders Front, claimed responsibility for Thursday's car bombing in Istanbul. Jemaah Islamiah, a better known al-Qai'da affiliate, took responsibility for a suicide bombing in August at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, in which 12 died. And within 48 hours of the May attack in Riyadh, four other missions were carried out by little-known groups in Pakistan, Morocco and the Philippines, killing scores of people.

Rohan Gunaratna, of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore, described the al-Qa'ida camps as "a terrorist Disneyland, where you could meet anyone from any Islamist group". British and US security sources say around 20,000 people from 47 countries passed through the al-Qa'ida camps from the mid-1990s until the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.

Western security agencies say they are seeing new similarities in the groups' communication techniques and the use of explosives. For example, al-Qa'ida members are believed to have taught individuals from other groups how to use the internet to send encrypted messages to avoid detection. Bomb and chemical-making techniques also appear to have been passed around, with investigators finding the same kind of fuse being used on different continents.

The financial structure of terrorism also has shifted, with many of the local groups rely on petty crime, drug trafficking and extortion, unable to draw on the web of organisations and donors that have supported al-Qa'ida. Because the groups are hitting softer targets in less sophisticated attacks, money is less of an obstacle.

Michael Pillsbury, a Pentagon terrorism consultant, argued that the evolution of the terrorist groups is analogous to a process of corporate merger and acquisition. Regionally focused groups with their own agendas join with al-Qa'ida to learn their operational techniques or use their contacts, but are not subordinate to it.

For example, Jemaah Islamiah seeks to create a pan-Islamic state in Asia, an agenda that has little to do with driving US forces out of Saudi Arabia or other goals of Bin Laden's. "They like to get advice and equipment from al-Qa'ida but still have their own political agenda," Mr Pillsbury argued.

[onedoug]

Islamism by any other name, should still be crushed.

[b4its2late]

They can run, but they can't hide.

[Brian_Baldwin]

amen, crush the terrorists. This is a World War. The reason they hate us is because they are still in the 14th Century, and we landed a man on the moon. And when we went to Afghanistan, it was sort of like landing on the moon again, and we did it. They are surrounded by the 20th and 21st Century in regards to consumer goods, electronics, radios, cars, air conditioners - etc - none of which they had a part in the creation of as far as the last few hundred years. Actually, they don't just hate the Jews, hate the "West", they hate everybody, anyone who isn't them. Because, they are surrounded by 20th and 21st Century science, consumer goods, Democracy, surrounded by things which they haven't had "hands on" for decades, living mentally in the 14th Century, and so they hate everyone. They hate us, because we live mentally in this world and in this time, and so we landed a man on the moon, and they hate us because we landed a man on the moon and they live mentally in the 14th Century and are surrounded by "us", surrounded by the modern world. They want to kill us, but actually, deep down, they just want to kill themselves, to commit suicide - and in fact, that is exactly what they do in suicide bombers (homocide bombing) ... they could just as often NOT blow themselves up and still kill some of us, but they prefer to blow themselves up in the process. Why? Because they just want to kill themselves, because they are losers, they already instinctively know they have lost. They only have another 100 years, maybe.

[Iris7]

That this has happened is simply expectable. I don't find this as other than "Well, duh."

Unravelling terrorist networks is quickly and straightforwardly done if correctly approached. The biggest problem we face is not enough good people who can function effectively amongst and within the al Qaida type social structures. Basically I am talking about people able to do police work. For historical examples of what I mean check out the postwar British operation in Malaya and the Thugee operation in 1800's India or the German operations during their colonial days in Africa.

Empire it is, may as well get on with it.

[Recovering_Democrat]

More targets, kill 'em all.

[VOA]

Yesterday, I heard "Yoni", a former Israeli soldier and currently a "personal protection"
professional do one of his regular appearances on The Hugh Hewitt Show.

Yoni said that Al-Quida and their operatives in Turkey made a very deadly mistake the other
day...because with their bombing in Turkey, the full force of the Turkish government, military
and intelligence apparatus will come down on Al-Quida's punks like a ton of bricks.

Not many folks know that over a century ago, during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire,
the Turks actually went to war with the Wahhabists, aftet the Turks realized
one of the main targets of the Wahhabis were any Muslim that wasn't a Wahhabi.

Al-Quida/Wahhabis may not field a conventional army, but they are now dangerously
close to getting the defense/intelligence apparti of the civilized world to
fully stoke their boilers and steam out to a battle that Al-Quida can't hope to win.
I just hope Al-Quida, even if it takes a decade, will join the practitioners of Thugee
in hell, as a minor footnote in history books, and decomposing on the ash-heap of history.

For lurkers/posters, the history of the Wahhabis, includding their bruising
by the Turks is detailed in a book titled "Hatred's Kingdom, by Dore Gold.

[observer5]

"Al-Qai'da has proved to be a many-headed hydra."

Correction: "Islam has proved to be a many-headed hydra."

[blam]

"Turks actually went to war with the Wahhabists, aftet the Turks realized one of the main targets of the Wahhabis were any Muslim that wasn't a Wahhabi. "

Didn't know that. We can use the help...especially Muslim help.