Keeping Score Against al Qaeda(Great Al Qaeda primer)

Strategypage ^ | February 20, 2005 | James Dunnigan

[Dog]

How can you tell if al Qaeda is winning, or losing, the war on terror? How do you even tell who the major players are in al-Qaeda? Like baseball, one’s best bet is to use a scorecard. The scorecard for al-Qaeda (“The Base”) is pretty complex.

Al-Qaeda was originally built like a large corporation. It has a board of directors of 24, with Osama bin Laden as the CEO (official title is Emir-General). Bin Laden also has 15 people in what could be described as his “inner circle” of aides. Al-Qaeda also had training camps in six countries in September, 2001 (Afghanistan, Indonesia, Chechnya, Albania, Sudan, and the Philippines), with eight commanders. Al-Qaeda also maintained cells in numerous Arabian and European countries.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States and allies have been hunting down the leadership of al-Qaeda. Among the big fish (the “Board of Directors”), seven are dead and ten are in custody. Four members of the “inner circle” are also in custody. This is 53 percent of the senior leadership for al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden is still at large, along with Ayman al-Zawahiri (the deputy commander of al-Qaeda) and Abu Mohammed al-Masri (the planner of the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania). However, five out of the eight training camp commanders are dead or in custody.

Other statistics of note: Eighteen al-Qaeda financiers are dead or in custody. Among those still at large, though, are two of bin Laden’s sisters, two of his brothers-in-law, and a Swiss banker by the name of Ahmed Huber. Huber also has extensive connections with neo-Nazis in Europe. The real financial resource for al-Qaeda remains untouched – the dozen or so Saudis who are called the “Golden Chain.” All are at large, and all can still provide enough resources for bin Laden to regroup and strike again.

Al-Qaeda’s military committee has also been decimated. One is dead (killed by a CIA Predator firing Hellfire missiles), fourteen, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Yousef, have been captured. These include the commanders in Singapore, Java, Southern Europe, and Japan. Several are at large, including the operations chiefs in Kosovo, Tunisia, and Somalia.

Subordinate networks in several countries have been rounded up or decimated. In Jordan, five out of the six major al-Qaeda figures are in custody; in Syria, only five major terrorist figures are still at large – dozens of al-Qaeda members are currently incarcerated, but three major Hezbollah figures are still on the loose. Syria, however, remains a sponsor of Hezbollah. Egypt has rounded up all of the major al-Qaeda figures, as have Italy, Belgium, Germany. The United Kingdom, Spain, and France have rounded up many al-Qaeda figures as well. Many of the major al-Qaeda figures in Saudi Arabia are dead or apprehended, but a number of figures involved in the Khobar Towers bombing are still at large – some with connections to Hizbollah. In Turkey, 75 percent of the big fish connected with al-Qaeda are dead or in custody. Most of the support structure for the 9/11attack, including Mukhabarat agent Ahmad Khalil Ibraham al-Ani (who the Czechs insist met hijacker Mohammed Atta in Prague), are in custody.

But in some places, the network is pretty intact. Many major Taliban figures are still on the loose. So are all three members of al-Qaeda’s WMD Committee, and all of those involved in a Bolivian hijacking plot.

Short version, al-Qaeda is on the run throughout most of the globe. Even Abu Musab Zarqawi, in charge of all al-Qaeda elements in Iraq, is on the run – as elements of his infrastructure are taken apart. Eight of Zarqawi’s top aides are dead. Twenty others have been captured. Zarqawi was unable to disrupt the elections on January 30, a serious loss for the terrorists. Al-Qaeda is still potent, as the attacks in Madrid proved, but they are clearly reacting to the multi-pronged offensive in the United States. – Harold C. Hutchison (hchutch@ix.netcom.com)

Link to Terrorist Scorecard (by “Straight Vermonter”): http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/terroristscorecard/index.html

[Destro]

We got some nobodies - while al-Qaeda's "operations chiefs in Kosovo" are at large. Maybe they escaped camp Bondsteel like the mad bomber did?

[Hoplite]

Maybe you're just talking clueless smack, like usual.

[mark502inf]

Straight, I saw the discussion above on the Kosovo/Macedonia Al Qaeda ops chief at large, looked it up on your list and was surprised to see it was Ali Ahmeti. I was on a military team working in Macedonia in 2001 and have some familiarity with the cast of characters. Ahmeti was a honcho in the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army in 2001, but was not a member of Al Qaeda. He helped negotiate the Ohrid Agreement, is the head of an Albanian political party in Macedonia and is now a member of parliament. Because of his NLA activities, he was on the US Treasury terrorist list, but was taken off on 29 May 2003. That's him on the right meeting later in 2003 with Lord Robertson, the Secretary-General of NATO.

You can follow his career here and here and here.

Besides the head of NATO he has also met in the last 6 months with Secretary Rumsfeld and Under Secretary of State Grossman who would both certainly be surprised to hear of Ali Ahmeti's status as the Al Qaeda "Kosovo/Macedonia operations chief" currently "at large", but probably not as surprised as Ahmeti would be himself!

Somebody who is not on your list is [mentioned by Hoplite above] Claud al-Cader (Kader?), a North African (Algerian?) who was bin Laden's emissary to the KLA in 1998. When the USA told the KLA not to cooperate with Al Qaeda, they booted al-Cader & he is now serving a 20 year prison sentence in Albania.

[Straight Vermonter]

Thanks. There are just too many of these guys to keep track of them all.

I haven't updated the list for more than a month since my wife has been ill. Now that I have her home again I will be doing a big update soon.

[pythagorean]

Kader and other individual Al Qaeda operatives are expendable and happily sacrifice themselves to the grand cause of Islamic jihad. The emphasis of Islamists (whether or not under the Al Qaeda banner) is mainly placed on long-term penetration by building grassroots support. In Albania there is apparently increasingly fertile ground and they are about to make a big step of progress, as happily reported by islamonline:

Albanians to Have First Islamic University.

Since the Albanian state is not funding this university, there are some pretty good guesses who will jump to fill the void.

[joan]

It seems Destro's account has been banned or suspended. What happened - does anyone know?

[Incorrigible]

Awww man! Not again!

Destro please come back!

[DTA]

>>>>>>Al-Qaeda’s military committee has also been decimated. One is dead (killed by a CIA Predator firing Hellfire missiles), fourteen, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Yousef, have been captured. These include the commanders in Singapore, Java, Southern Europe, and Japan. Several are at large, including the operations chiefs in Kosovo, Tunisia, and Somalia.<<<<<

Mark, accortding to NATO intel "there is no AQ in Kosovo. Never."

[mark502inf]

DTA, overall Straight Vermonter does a pretty good job on his terrorist scorecard, but if you look at who is listed as the "operations chief in Kosovo" on his matrix, it is Ali Ahmeti. As discussed in post 23 above, Ahmeti is not a member of Al Qaeda and is not in Kosovo, but is a member of parliament in Macedonia and as a leader of one of the political parties in Macedonia has been meeting and hob-nobbing with such notorious Al Qaeda sympathizers as the Secretary General of NATO, U.S. Ambassador Grossman, and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.

As for Al Qaeda in Kosovo, we've been through that before--you can find more Al qaeda in just about any mosque in London. Or in Islamic high schools in northern Virginia!