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| You Idiotic Bastards,,,,, What the shit you have done. I always know it was you who bombed London. You would always kill innocent people........... | |||
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| '''Al-Qaeda''' ({{lang-ar|القاعدة}} - ''al-Qā‘idah'', "the foundation" or "the base") is the name given to an international alliance of ] ] organizations. Originally built from the cadre of ] Arab fighters who flocked to join the ] resistance movement against the ] occupation of ], it seeks to establish, via military and ] tactics, a radical form of Islamist ideology to supplant both current regimes in the Middle East and eventually Western society as a whole. The group places itself in confrontation with the ], because the U.S. and other liberal democracies stand between Al-Qaeda and the achievement of its extremist objectives. Another reason for their conflict with the United States is their perception that certain aspects of Western culture and values are incompatible with Islam. Al-Qaeda has masterminded and inspired terrorist attacks against both civilian and military targets around the world. | |||
| Al-Qaeda gained worldwide notoriety after the ] on the ] in ] and the ] in ]. The group is led by ] and ], although al-Qaeda's exact size and organizational structure are unknown. According to Vincent Cannistraro, former top ] counter-terrorist official, "] is the guy-he's the operational commander...number one, on the right hand side of Osama." The ] stated in a ] report that more than 18,000 "potential militants" are scattered around the world operating in more than 60 countries which could be recruited by Al-Qaeda. In terms of real numbers, some question whether this murky entity has more than a handful of true members. | |||
| ==Overview== | |||
| Although "al-Qaeda" is the name of the organization used in popular culture, the organization rarely uses the name to formally refer to itself. The origin of the name "al-qaeda" is disputed; some allege 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 in the Bait al-Ansar guesthouse during the late 1980s. Bin Laden himself says of the origin, saying "We used to call the training camp al Qaeda . And the name stayed." | |||
| Al-Qaeda's religious inspiration comes from a combination of the fundamentalist ] ideology of Saudi Arabia and the philosophy of the ], which gave rise to most of the principal militant Islamist movements in the Middle East today. Though it adheres to no particular sect, in general its philosophy is ]. According to statements broadcast by Al-Qaeda on the internet and on satellite TV channels such as Al-Jazeera, the ultimate goal of al-Qaeda is to re-establish the ] across the Islamic world, by working with allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow secular or Western-supported regimes. ] and anti-Israeli sentiments are often expressed by al-Qaeda members in those speeches and messages. | |||
| Al-Qaeda believes that western governments, and particularly the American government, interfere in the affairs of Islamic nations against the interests of Muslims. Their grievances have included: the provision of economic and military support to regimes perceived by Al-Qaeda as oppressive of Muslims (particularly the US and its support for Israel), the vetoing of United Nations condemnations of Israel, attempts to influence the affairs of Islamic governments and communities, direct support by means of arms or loans for anti-Islamist Arab regimes, troop presence in Muslim countries (especially Saudi Arabia), and support for economic sanctions against Iraq. | |||
| Besides the ] on the ] in ] and ] in ], al-Qaeda has also taken responsibility for the ] in ], ], and ], ], and the ], as well as many attacks on people in and of other nations around the world. | |||
| The military leader of al-Qaeda is widely reported to have been ], who was arrested in ] in ]. Its previous military leader, ], was killed in a U.S. bombing raid on ] in late ]. | |||
| == History of al-Qaeda== | |||
| ===Afghan jihad=== | |||
| Al-Qaeda evolved from the ] (MAK) — a ] resistance organization fighting against the ] in the ]. Osama bin Laden was a founding member of the MAK, along with ] militant ]. The role of the MAK was to channel funds from a variety of sources (including donations from across the Middle East) into training ] from around the world in guerrilla combat, and to transport the combatants to Afghanistan. Bin Laden and the MAK were aided by the governments of ] and ], but never by the ], which channeled all of its support via the Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate. In fact, the Arab contingent in Afghanistan during the latter half of the 1980s was quite small and not generally involved in the fighting, rather limiting its activities to logistics, housing, recruitment and financing of the mujahideen. Bin Laden, the MAK and most of the Arab volunteers were largely unknown to the CIA and the American government during the war to oust the Soviet from Afghanistan; only later would the Arab element come to U.S. attention. | |||
| Toward the end of the ] occupation, many ] wanted to expand their operations to include Islamist struggles in other parts of the world. A number of overlapping and interrelated organisations were formed to further those aspirations. | |||
| One of these was the organization that would eventually be called al-Qaeda, which was formed by Osama bin Laden in ]. Bin Laden wished to extend the conflict to nonmilitary operations in other parts of the world; Azzam, in contrast, wanted to remain focused on military campaigns. After Azzam was assassinated in ], 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-Qaeda involved more training in terrorist tactics. Other organizations were formed, including others by Osama bin Laden, to carry out different types of terrorism in different countries. | |||
| ===Gulf War and start of US enmity === | |||
| After the Soviet union withdrew from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden returned to ], while training operations in Afghanistan continued. He spoke against the Saudi government during the Gulf War for harboring American troops on Saudi soil and was encouraged to leave Saudi Arabia. | |||
| ===Sudan operations=== | |||
| In ], Sudan's National Islamic Front, an Islamist group that had recently gained power, invited al-Qaeda to move operations to their country. For several years, al-Qaeda ran several businesses (including an import/export business, farms, and a construction firm) in Sudan. They also ran a number of camps where they trained aspirants in the use of firearms and explosives. | |||
| In ], Osama bin Laden was expelled from Sudan after possible participation in the ] attempted assassination of ] President ] while his motorcade was in ]. According to some accounts, during this period the Sudanese government offered to give bin Laden over to the United States. According to ], U.S. president at the time, due to the lack of a legal basis for holding bin Laden the offer was rejected; the United States instead elected to merely remove bin Laden from Sudan and thus sever his valuable business and financial ties there . | |||
| ===Return to Afghanistan=== | |||
| Taking advantage of an invitation from some Afghan warlords, al-Qaeda returned to Afghanistan. There, bin Laden quickly established ties with the fledgling ] group, led by ], and by providing funds and weapons at a crucial time helped the group rise to power. Thereafter al-Qaeda enjoyed the Taliban's protection and a measure of legitimacy as part of their Ministry of Defense. | |||
| Al-Qaeda training camps trained <!-- thousands of - Source? --> militant Muslims from around the world, some of whom later applied their training in various conflicts in places such as ], ], ], the ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. Other terrorists came from ], parts of ], the ] (]s), and, in one case, the ]. These terrorists intermingled at their camps, causing all of those causes to become one. Despite the perception of some people, al-Qaeda members are ethnically diverse and are connected by their fundamentalist version of Islam. They are also connected by their common pledge of loyalty to Bin Ladin. | |||
| ===Start of militant operations against civilians=== | |||
| On ], ], Osama bin Laden and ] of ] issued a ] under the banner of the '''World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders''' saying that "to kill Americans and their allies, civilians, and military is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able." In point of fact, neither man possessed the Islamic credentials, education or stature to issue a fatwa of any kind, but this seems to have been overlooked in the enthusiasm of the moment. This was also the year of the first major terrorist act reliably attributed to al-Qaeda, the ] in ], which resulted in upward of 300 deaths. In ], Egyptian Islamic Jihad officially merged with al-Qaeda, and al-Zawahiri became bin Laden's right-hand man. | |||
| ===September 11 attacks === | |||
| Following the ] by al-Qaeda, the United States began to build up military forces in preparation for an attack on Afghanistan (whose government harbored bin Laden's organization) in response. In the weeks before the United States invaded, the Taliban twice offered to turn over bin Laden to a neutral country for trial if the United States would provide evidence of bin Laden's complicity in the attacks. The Americans, however, refused, and soon thereafter ] and, together with the ], deposed the Taliban government. | |||
| Battles between the United States and the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces continue as of ]. As a result of this invasion, the al-Qaeda training camps were destroyed, and much of the existing operating structure of al-Qaeda was disrupted. The American government now claims that two-thirds of the top leaders of al-Qaeda in 2001 are currently in custody (including ], ], ], ], and ]) or dead (including ]), though it warns the organization is not yet defeated and is still very determined to continue the fight. | |||
| ===Activity in Iraq === | |||
| ] | |||
| ''See also ]'' | |||
| Al-Qaeda first took official interest in ] when that country invaded ] in ], giving rise to concerns that the secular, ] ] government of Iraq might next set its sights on ], homeland of bin Laden and of Islam itself. | |||
| During the ], the organization's interests became split between outrage with the intervention of the United States of America in the region and hatred of ] ] government, as well as expression of concern for the suffering that Islamic people in Iraq were undergoing. | |||
| Bin Laden referred, in his speeches and recorded/written announcements, to Hussein (and the Baathists) as evil, a demon or devil worshipper, calling for his overthrow by the people of Iraq. Organizations such as Ansar al-Islam that would later come to identify with al-Qaeda were set up in northeastern Iraq, in areas controlled by the anti-Saddam ] which were protected by the no-fly zones patrolled by the United States, the U.K. and others. | |||
| During the ], al-Qaeda took more formal interest in the region and is known to have been responsible for actively organising and aiding local resistance to the occupying coalition forces. During Iraq's historic elections in January ] al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for nine suicide blasts in the Iraqi capital ]. | |||
| ], founder of ] and alleged ally of al-Qaeda, formally merged with al-Qaeda on ] ]. The organization started to use the banners of "Al-Qaeda in the Land Between the Two Rivers", instead of old ] banners. In the merger al-Zarqawi declared loyalty to ]. | |||
| == Incidents for which al-Qaeda is believed by some to be responsible == | |||
| ''Note: Al-Qaeda does not have a habit of taking credit for actions, resulting in a great deal of ambiguity over how many attacks the group has actually conducted. In addition following the U.S. declaration of the ] in ], the U.S. government has made a great effort to connect as many groups and actions as possible to al-Qaeda, which might result in erroneous attributions.'' | |||
| The first militant attack that al-Qaeda allegedly carried out consisted of three bombings which were targeted at U.S. troops in ], ], in December ]. A Yemeni and an ]n tourist died in the bombing. | |||
| There are claims that al-Qaeda operatives assisted in the shooting down of U.S. ]s and the killing of U.S. servicemen in ] in ]. (see: ]) | |||
| ], who was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (though probably not an al-Qaeda member at the time), and ] planned ], a plot to destroy airplanes in mid-Pacific flight using explosives. An apartment fire in ] exposed the plan before it could be carried out. Youssef was arrested, but Mohammed evaded capture until ]. | |||
| Al-Qaida is believed to be responsible for a bombing at a U.S. military facility in ] in ] ], which killed two people from ] and five Americans. Al-Qaeda is also thought by some to be responsible for the ] ] which killed American military personnel in ]; this attack and the previous one are usually ascribed to ]. | |||
| Al-Qaeda is believed to have conducted the ] in August ] of the U.S. embassies in ], ], and ], ], killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 5,000 others. | |||
| In ] ] and into ], al-Qaeda planned attacks against U.S. and ]i tourists visiting ] for millennial celebrations; however, the ]ian authorities thwarted the planned attacks and put 28 suspects on trial. Al-Qaeda also attempted the bombing of the ] in ] during the millennium holiday, although the bomber ] was caught at the US-] border with bombs in the trunk of his car. Also, al-Qaeda planned to attack the ] on ], ], but that effort 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: ] | |||
| They are also thought to be responsible for the October ] ]. ] police foiled a plot to destroy a cathedral in ] in ] ]. Al-Qaeda is thought to be responsible. See: ] | |||
| The most destructive act ascribed to al-Qaeda was the series of attacks in the USA on ]. | |||
| Several attacks and attempted attacks since ], ] have been attributed to al-Qaeda. The first of which was the ], which was foiled. | |||
| The second of which involved the attempted shoe bomber ], who proclaimed himself a follower of Osama bin Laden, and got close to destroying ] ]). | |||
| More subsequent plots included the ] ] in ], ] and attempted attacks in ], ], ], and ]. See: ]. The network has also been implicated in the ], of complicity in the ]ping and ] of ] reporter ] and in numerous bombings in Pakistan. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq, and his group, Beyyiat el-Imam, was responsible for the assassination of US diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan; Al-Qaeda is responsible for the ] in Mombasa in ] ], the ], and the ] in ], ], in ]. | |||
| Al-Qaeda has strong alliances with a number of other Islamic militant organizations including the Indonesian Islamic extremist group ]. That group was responsible for the ] ] ]. | |||
| Although there have been no identified al-Qaeda attacks within the territory of the United States since the ], numerous al-Qaeda attacks in the Middle East, Far East, Africa and Europe have caused extensive casualties and turmoil. In the aftermath of several ], ] ], a ] newspaper reported receiving an email from a group affiliated with al-Qaeda, claiming responsibility and a videotape claiming responsibility was also found. | |||
| == The chain of command == | |||
| Though the current structure of al-Qaeda is unknown, information mostly acquired from the defector ] provided American authorities with a rough picture of how the group was organized. | |||
| Bin Laden is the ''']''' of al-Qaeda (although originally this role may have been filled by ]), advised by a '''shura council''', which consists of senior al-Qaeda members, estimated by Western officials at about twenty to thirty people. | |||
| * The '''Military committee''' is responsible for training, weapons acquisition, and planning attacks. | |||
| * The '''Money/Business committee''' runs business operations. The travel office provides air tickets and false ]s. The payroll office pays al-Qaeda members, and the Management office oversees money-making businesses. In the US 911 Commission Report it is estimated that al-Qaeda requires 30,000,000 USD / year to conduct its operation. | |||
| * The '''Law committee''' reviews Islamic law and decides if particular courses of action conform to the law. | |||
| * The '''Islamic study/fatwah committee''' issues religious edicts, such as an edict in 1998 telling Muslims to kill Americans. | |||
| * In the late 1990s there was a publicly known '''Media committee''', which ran the now-defunct newspaper ''Nashrat al Akhbar (Newscast)'' and did ]. It is currently assumed that media operations are now outsourced to internally redundant parts of the organization. | |||
| ==Political revolt or structured terrorist organization: unknown== | |||
| Organizational specialists point out al-Qaeda's ] structure, as opposed to ] is both its strength and a weakness. The decentralized structure enables al-Qaeda to have a worldwide base; however, acts involving a high degree of organization, such as the ], take time and effort. American efforts to disrupt al-Qaeda have had mixed success. Some political scientists feel that al-Qaeda's actions are more akin the political revolts the British put down in India in the 19th century. | |||
| ==Is al-Qaeda real?== | |||
| Al-Qaeda has no clear structure, and this permits debate as to how many members make up the organisation, whether it is millions scattered across the globe, or whether it is even zero. According to the controversial ] documentary '']'', al-Qaeda is so weakly linked together that it is hard to say it exists ''apart from'' ] and a small clique of close associates. The lack of any significant numbers of convicted al-Qaeda members despite a large number of arrests on terrorism charges is cited by the documentary as a reason to doubt whether a ''widespread'' entity that meets the description of al-Qaeda exists at all. Still, the extent and nature of Al Qaeda remains a topic of dispute. | |||
| A useful distinction can be made between al-Qaeda and Islamist terrorists. Islamists generally operate nationally within one country, whereas al-Qaeda is mostly involved in international terrorism, but also has links to national terrorism. The vast majority of the people arrested appear to be Islamists, not al Qaeda. Even the al Qaeda name itself does not seem to have been used by bin Laden himself to apply to his organisation until after the ]. Previous attacks attributed to bin Laden and al-Qaeda were, at the time, claimed by organisations under a variety of names. Bin Laden himself has since attributed the al Qaeda name to the MAK base in Pakistan, dating from the Afghan war days. Daniel Benjamin in "The Age of Sacred Terror" cites an incident in the early 1990s where a document titled "The Foundation", Arabic "Al Qa'eda", was found on an associate of Ramzi Youssef. | |||
| Others that have been alleged to be al-Qaeda leaders include: | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] (arrested in Pakistan, 2005) | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] (captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in 2003) | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] (captured in 2002) | |||
| == Internet activities == | |||
| Al-Qaeda has been suspected of running several ]s. Several others offered al-Qaeda content. Some of the websites were taken over by American ]. | |||
| ] and ] were perhaps the most significant of the websites. Alneda was initially taken down by an American, but the operators kept trying to put the website back up. | |||
| Al-Qaeda also claimed responsibility for two of its attacks on Jehad.net. Its members had also allegedly signed up for free electronic mail accounts and some speculated that they used ] to transmit messages, although no evidence of this ever materialized. | |||
| Some believe that al-Qaeda is actively trying to recruit members using the Internet. They are believed to use public ]s. | |||
| A website associated with al-Qaeda posted a ] of a man named ] being decapitated in ]. Other decapitation videos and pictures, namely that of ] and ], were first posted onto internet websites. The ] video was leaked to a jihadist site and also has a presence on the Internet. | |||
| In December 2004, bin Laden released an audio message to the public by posting it directly to a website rather than sending a copy to al-Jazeera as he usually did. Some speculated that he did this in order to be certain that it would be available unedited, out of fear that his criticism of Saudi Arabia -- which was much more vehement than usual in this speech, which went on for over an hour -- might be edited out by al-Jazeera editors worried about offending the touchy Saudi royal family. | |||
| ==Notes on naming== | |||
| Al-Qaeda's name can also be ] as al-Qaida, al-Qa'ida, al-Quaida, el-Qaida, or al Qaeda. In Arabic it is spelled القاعدة. Its ] pronunciation (] {{IPA|/ɛlˈqɑːʕidʌ/}}) can be approximated as IPA {{IPA|/ɛl 'kɑ:-idʌ/}}, which for ] speakers could be spelled "el-keh-AWee-deh," with the emphasized "AW" and "ee" blending into one syllable (because the "ee" is an unwritten vowel). However, English speakers more commonly pronounce it in a manner influenced by its spelling - IPA {{IPA|/ɑɫ 'kaɪdɑ/}} for ], {{IPA|/ɑ:ɫ 'kaɪdɑ:/}} in ]. (]). | |||
| Al-Qaeda has other names, such as: | |||
| * ]ic ] | |||
| * Islamic Army for the Liberation of the ] Places | |||
| * Osama bin Laden Network | |||
| * Osama bin Laden Organization | |||
| * ]ic ] Foundation | |||
| * The Group for the Preservation of the Holy Sites | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ]; BBC documentary | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ]: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * | |||
| * BBC report | |||
| * from | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| *Peter Marsden | |||
| *Brendan O'Neill | |||
| *Al-Qaida has more connections to Britain than to Iraq | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| *; BBC; ] ]. | |||
| *; Robb, John -- Superpower "baiting" | |||
| *; Robb, John -- How al Qaeda will finance operations in the future. | |||
| *; Alan Cullison, The Atlantic Monthly, September 2004. | |||
| * Professor of history Juan Cole explains the al-Qaeda world-view | |||
| *; Guardian; ] | |||
| *; A three-part BBC documentary about the ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
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Revision as of 13:07, 7 July 2005
You Idiotic Bastards,,,,, What the shit you have done. I always know it was you who bombed London. You would always kill innocent people...........
- (