http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/february/02_26_2.html CIA: AL QAIDA TURNS INTO COLLECTION OF GROUPS
WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Al Qaida has been transformed into a collection of regional networks that operate autonomously.
In an updated assessment of the organization, the intelligence community has determined that Al Qaida has relinquished its control over many Islamic insurgency groups. Instead, Al Qaida permits its satellite organizations to designate targets and plan attacks.
"These far-flung groups increasingly set the agenda, and are redefining the threat we face," CIA director George Tenet said. "They are not all creatures of Bin Laden, and so their fate is not tied to his. They have autonomous leadership, they pick their own targets, they plan their own attacks."
In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Tenet said the Al Qaida network contains dozens of Sunni groups. Tenet cited Ansar Al Islam in Iraq the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Salifiya Jihadiya in Morocco.