Al-Qaida (القاعده in Arabic, and also transliterated as al-Qaeda, al-Qa'ida, al-Quaida, el-Qaida, and is Arabic for the foundation) is an Islamist paramilitary movement which is widely regarded as a terrorist organization, especially in the West.

Al-Qaida has other names that it goes by, such as The Base, Islamic Army, World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places, Usama Bin Laden Network, Usama Bin Laden Organization, Islamic Salvation Foundation, and The Group for the Preservation of the Holy Sites.

Overview

Al-Qaida was established by Osama Bin Laden in 1988 to expand the resistance movement against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan into a pan-Islamic resistance movement. It evolved from an organisation referred to as the Makhtab al-Khidamat, which initially helped to finance, recruit, and train mujahedeen for the Afghan resistance against the Soviets during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. This organisation was funded partly by Osama Bin Laden himself, but also by donations from many sources in Islamic countries and the US Government. Al-Qaida is thought currently to have several thousand members.

Although "Al-Qaida" is the name of the organisation used in popular culture, the organization does not use the name to formally refer to itself. The name al-Qaida comes from a text from the organization that talks about it being the "Qaida-al-Jihad" - the base of the jihad.

The military leader of al-Qaida is widely reported to have been Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was reportedly arrested in Pakistan in 2003. Its previous military leader, Muhammed Atef, was allegedly killed in a U.S. bombing raid on Afghanistan in late 2001.

Al-Qaida's religious inspiration has its roots in the Wahhabi sect, the creed embraced by the current rulers of Saudi Arabia. The ultimate goal of al-Qaida is to establish a Wahhabi Caliphate across the entire Islamic world, by working with allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems "non-Islamic" (ie non-Wahhabi Islamist). It sees western governments (particularly the US Government) as interfering in the affairs of Islamic nations in the interests of western corporations. The largest attack for which al-Qaida is believed to have been responsible was on the World Trade Center in New York and The Pentagon in Washington DC on September 11th, 2001. See Islamism. Al-Qaida is also suspected of carrying out the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.

History of al-Qaida

Al-Qaida evolved from the Makhtab al-Khidamat (MAK) - a mujahedeen resistance organisation fighting the Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Osama Bin Laden was a founding member of the MAK along with Palestinian militant Abdullah Azzam. Towards the end of the Soviet occupation, many mujahedeen wanted to expand their operations to include Islamist struggles in other parts of the world. A number of overlapping and interrelated organistaions were formed to further those aspirations.

One of these was al-Qaida, which was formed by Osama bin Laden in 1988. (The name "al-Qaida" was not self-chosen; it was coined by the United States government based on the name of a computer file of bin Laden's that listed the names of contacts he had made at the MAK.) Bin Laden wished to extend the conflict to non-military operations in other parts of the world; Azzam, in contrast, wanted to remain focused on military campaigns. After Azzam was killed in 1989, the MAK split, with a significant number joining bin Laden's organization.

Since other parts of the world were often not in such open warfare as Afghanistan under the Soviet occupation, the move from MAK to al-Qaida involved more training in terrorist tactics. Other organisations were formed, including others by Osama Bin Laden, to carry out different types of terrorism in different countries.

After the Soviet union withdrew from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia, while al-Qaida continued training operations in Afghanistan. He spoke against the Saudi Government during the Gulf War, and was encouraged to leave Saudi Arabia. In 1991 he moved to Sudan, whose Islamic government was fighting a civil war at the time. Money poured in from false charitable funds such as Benevolence International, and several groups that bin Laden's brother-in-law Mohammed Jamal Khalifa started. Bin Laden sent men to Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States. Money and arms flowed through cities like Chicago, Illinois, Houston, Texas, Kansas City, Missouri, Santa Clara, California, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

In 1996 he was expelled from Sudan after possible participation in the 1994 attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak while his motorcade was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Osama bin Laden returned to Afghanistan with some of his Sudanese operatives.

Al-Qaida training camps trained thousands of militant Muslims from around the world; some of whom later applied their training in various conflicts around the world such as Algeria, Chechnya, the Philippines, Egypt, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Somalia, Yemen, Kosovo and Bosnia. Other terrorists came from parts of Africa, the People's Republic of China (Uighurs), and in one case, the United Kingdom. These terrorists intermingled at their camps, causing all of those causes to become one. Despite the perception of some people, Al Qaida members are ethnically diverse and are connected by their fundamentalist version of Islam.

In February 1998, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri of Egyptian Islamic Jihad issued a statement under banner of "the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders" saying that it was the duty of all Muslims to kill US citizens, either civilian or military, and their allies everywhere.

From January 5, to January 8, 2000, Al-Qaida held the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit in a condominium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysian authorities found out about the summit beforehand and provided videotapes after the summit occurred. Several September 11 hijackers attended the summit. However, wiretaps were not conducted, so authorities did not hear what they were discussing.

Benevolence International Foundation, a non-profit charity group accused by U.S. authorities of funding Al-Qaida was branded as a terrorist organization in 2002.

In September 2002, the Lackawanna Cell was discovered by the Americans, leading to the arrests of the Buffalo six.

Al Qaeda has used London's Finsbury Park mosque as a recruitment ground, as well as areas in Manila, Philippines. The Finsbury Park mosque was raided in 2003.

The United States Administration now claims that two-thirds of the top leaders of Al-Qaida are in custody or dead.

Al-Qaida terrorist actions

The first terrorist attack that Al Qaeda has supposedly carried consisted of out three bombings which were targeted at US troops in Aden, Yemen, in December 1992. Two Austrian tourists died in the bombing.

They claim to have shot down US helicopters and killed US servicemen in Somalia in 1993. It is also sometimes suggested that they were involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Al Qaeda members Ramzi Yousef, who was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, made Operation Bojinka. If it was implemented, it would have been disastrous. An apartment fire in Manila, Philippines exposed the plan. Youssef was arrested, but Mohammed evaded capture until 2003.

They have been thought to have proctored a bombing at a U.S. military facility in Riyadh in November 1995, which killed two people from India and five Americans. Al Qaeda is also thought to be responsible for the 1996 bomb attacks on American military personnel in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Al-Qaida is believed to have conducted the bombings in August 1998 of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing more than 300 people and injuring more than 5,000 others.

On January 3, 2000, Al-Qaida also planned attacks against US and Israeli tourists visiting Jordan for millennial celebrations, however the Jordanian authorities thwarted the planned attacks and put 28 suspects on trial. Al-Qaida also attempted the bombing of the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California during the millennium holiday although the bomber, Ahmed Ressam was caught at the US-Canadian border with bombs in the trunk of his car. Also, Al-Qaida planned to attack the USS The Sullivans but that failed due to too much weight being put on the small boat meant to bomb the ship.

For more information about those three plots, see: 2000 celebration terrorist attacks plot

They are also thought to be responsible for the October 2000 USS Cole bombing. German police foiled a plot to destroy a cathedral in Strasbourg, France in December 2000. That plot was probably being carried out by Al Qaeda.

The most destructive terrorist act ascribed to al-Qaida was the series of attacks in the USA on September 11th, 2001, an attack the group's spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith defended on widely-distributed videos in October 2001.

Several attacks and attempted attacks since September 11, 2001 have been attributed to al-Qaida. The first of which was the Paris embassy terrorist attack plot, which was foiled. The second of which involved the attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid (who proclaimed himself a follower of Osama bin Laden - he got close to destroying American Airlines Flight 63)

More subsequent plots included the synagogue bombing in Djerba, Tunisia and attempted attacks in Jordan, Indonesia, Morocco, and Singapore. See: Singapore embassies terrorist attack plot. The network has also been implicated in the Limburg tanker bombing, of complicity in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and suspected of complicity in the October 2002 Bali car bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia. Al-Qaida was also involved in the assassination of US diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan, a terrorist car bombing in Kenya in November 2002, the Riyadh Compound Bombings, and the Istanbul Bombings in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2003.

Al-Qaida has a worldwide reach, with cells in a number of countries and strong ties to Sunni extremist networks. Bin Laden and his lieutenants took shelter in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime in the 1990s. The group had a number of terrorist training camps there, and in the late 1990s the Taliban itself became effectively subordinate to al-Qaida. Since the American attack, members of the group are suspected of fleeing to the tribal areas of the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan, Pakistan.

Al-Qaida has strong links with a number of other Islamic terrorist organisations including the Indonesian Islamic extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Organizational specialists point out al-Qaida's network structure, as opposed to hierarchical structure is both its strength and a weakness. The decentralized structure enables al-Qaida to have a worldwide base; however, acts involving a high degree of organization, such as the September 11 attacks, take time and effort. American efforts to disrupt al-Qaida have been partially successful. Attacks made by al-Qaida since then have been simpler and involved fewer persons.

The UN Security Council, on January 16, 2002, unanimously established an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining Taliban.

The chain of command

Osama bin Laden is the emir, or the ruler of the group.

His second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri is the head of the Shura council. The shura council is made up of 30 aides who deal in policymaking.

Next down in the line are three committees:

The Military committee is responsible for training, weapons acquisition, and planning terrorist attacks.
The Money/Business committee runs business operations. The travel office provides air tickets and false passports. The payroll office pays Al-Qaida members, and the Management office oversees money-making businesses.
The Islamic study/fatwah committee issues fatwahs meant to promote Al-Qaida's cause

There was a once Media committee, which ran the now defunct newspaper Newscast and did public relations.

How Al-Qaida strikes

Al-Qaida sets up groups of members called "terrorist cells" all over the world. To do this, members obtain false passports and travel to wherever they are assigned to.

Some cells are immediately put to work on performing a terrorist attack. Other cells are "sleeper cells". Sleeper cells blend in with the community and remain active until the top brass sends them further instructions. Some cells launder money and/or make false passports.

Members have some say in recent terrorist plots. Mohammed Atta chose the date which the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks occurred.

Countries that Al Qaida operates in

According to the United States Department of State, Al Qaida has operated in the following countries.

Internet Activities

Al Qaeda had allegedly possessed several websites. Several others offered Al Qaeda content. Some of the websites were taken over by American crackers.

Alneda.com and Jehad.net were perhaps the most significant of the websites, and both were probably owned by Al-Qaida. Alneda was initially taken down by an American, but the operators kept trying to put the website back up.

Al-Qaida also claimed responsibility for two of its attacks on Jehad.net. Its members had also allegedly signed up for free electronic mail accounts and used steganography to transmit messages.

Some believe that Al-Qaida is actively trying to recruit members using the Internet. They are believed to use public internet cafes.

Al-Qaida-backed crackers probably were behind an October 16, 2003 denial of service attack against a website called Internet Haganah (web). The DDoS attack originated from a server in Malaysia. Internet Hanagah is an Israeli site that states that it is there to uncover and shut down websites and message boards run by Al Qaeda sympathizers. See: [1]

Did US actions create al-Qaida?

Many believe that al-Qaida would not have come into being without the US funding and training given to the Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviet invasion of 1979 to 1989. The Pakistani military regime may have tended to supply the most extreme Islamist Afghan fighters with the lion's share of the imported weaponry.

Critics of US and Western policies in the Middle East and worldwide note that some actions have caused a great deal of opposition among Arab and Islamic people, and regard terrorism as a predictable reaction. Examples of controversial policies are

Perceived US support of Israel in its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians;
US support of some dictators in the Middle East, including Saddam Hussein in Iraq before the Gulf War;
The US bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan in 1997 suspected of being a chemical weapons facility;
The use of Saudi Arabian bases by allied forces after 1991, which, since as the birthplace of Islam, the Arabian Peninsula is seen as a Holy Land under Islam where non-believers do not belong; and
Periodic military action against Iraq by the US and the UK from 1991 to the 2003 Iraq War, with the last particularly controversial.

List of alleged Al-Qaida members

This is a list of people accused of being Al-Qaida members. Some of them have been captured and convicted of participating in the organization by the U.S. government or another party.

At large, free, or status unknown

Alive and captured/in custody

Dead

Referenced By

Indian Security & Intelligence

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Al-Quida : Do You Know