Al-Qaeda
1921
226037115
2008-07-16T15:27:45Z
Glich
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changed Osama Bin Laden to Osama bin Laden. Lower case 'b' in 'bin'.
{{pp-semi-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{Infobox militant organization
|name = al-Qaeda<br />{{rtl-lang|ar|القاعدة}} </small>
|leader = [[Osama bin Laden]] <br /> [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]]
|dates = 1988 – present |
|area = [[Global]]
|ideology = [[Islamism]] <br /> [[Sunni Islam]] <br /> [[Pan-Islamism]]
|allies = Taliban
|enemies = United States, United Nations, United Kingdom, Afghan National Army, Iraqi Armed Forces, Coalition Forces/Tribes, Canada, NATO.
|status = Designated as [[U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations|Foreign Terrorist Organization]] by the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]]<ref name=USTerrorList>{{cite web|url=http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/2002/12535.htm|title=Foreign Terrorist Organizations List|publisher=[[United States Department of State]]|accessdate=2007-08-03}} - [[U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations|USSD Foreign Terrorist Organization]]</ref><br />Designated as [[Terrorism Act 2000|Proscribed Group]] by the [[United Kingdom|UK]] [[Home Office]]<ref name=UKTerrorList>{{cite web|url=http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000011.htm|title=Terrorism Act 2000|publisher=[[Home Office]]|accessdate=2007-08-14}} - [[Terrorism Act 2000]]</ref><br />Designated as terrorist group by [[European Union|EU]] [[Common Foreign and Security Policy]]<ref name=EUTerrorList>{{cite web|url=http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/45394.htm|title=Council Decision|publisher=[[Council of the European Union]]|accessdate=2007-08-14}}</ref>
}}
[[Image:TerroristAttacksAlQaeda.png|thumb|400px|Map of recent major attacks attributed to al-Qaeda]]
'''Al-Qaeda''', alternatively spelled '''al-Qaida''', '''al-Qa'ida''' or '''al-Qa'idah''', ([[Arabic language|Arabic]]: {{rtl-lang|ar|القاعدة}}; {{ArTranslit|'''al-qā‘idah'''}}; [[translation]]: ''The Base'') is an international [[Sunni Islam]]ic organization, or alliance of such organizations, founded in 1988<ref name = "qflihj">Wright, ''Looming Tower'' (2006), p.133-4</ref> by [[Abdullah Yusuf Azzam]] (later replaced by [[Osama bin Laden]]) and other veteran "[[Arab Afghans|Afghan Arabs]]" after the [[Soviet War in Afghanistan]]. Al-Qaeda has [[Al-Qaeda terror campaign|attacked civilian and military targets in various countries]], the most notable being the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|September 11]] attacks in 2001. These actions were followed by the [[Federal government of the United States|US government]] launching a military and intelligence campaign against al-Qaeda called the ''[[War on Terrorism|War on Terror]]''.
Characteristic techniques include use of suicide attacks and simultaneous bombings of different targets.<ref>Wright, ''Looming Tower'', (2006), p.185, 270-1, 107-8</ref> Activities ascribed to it may involve members of the organization, who have taken a pledge of loyalty to bin Laden, or the much more numerous "al-Qaeda-linked" individuals who have undergone training in one of its camps in [[Afghanistan]] or [[Sudan]] but not taken any pledge.<ref>Wright, ''Looming Tower'', (2006), p.270</ref> Al-Qaeda's objectives include the end of foreign influence in [[Muslim world|Muslim countries]] and the creation of a new Islamic [[caliphate]]. Reported beliefs include that a Christian-Jewish alliance is conspiring to destroy Islam,<ref>Fu'ad Husayn `Al-Zarqawi ... "The Second Generation of al-Qa’ida, Part Fourteen," ''Al-Quds al-Arabi'', July 13, 2005</ref> and that the killing of bystanders and civilians is Islamically justified in [[jihad]].<ref>[[Al-Qaeda#The first terrorist attack]]</ref> Its management philosophy has been described as "centralization of decision and decentralization of execution."<ref> al-Hammadi, Khalid, `The Inside Story of al-Qa'ida,` part 4, ''Al-Quds al-Arabi'', March 22, 2005</ref> Following 9/11 and the launching of the [[War on Terrorism]], it is thought al-Qaeda's leadership has "become geographically isolated", leading to the "emergence of decentralized leadership" of regional groups using the al-Qaeda "brand name."<Ref>[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FH13Ak05.html Evolution of the al-Qaeda brand name]</ref><ref>[http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/satran/files/twq06spring_atran.pdf The Moral Logic and Growth of Suicide Terrorism]</ref>
Al-Qaeda has been labeled a ''[[terrorist organization]]'' by the [[United Nations Security Council]],<ref name=UNSC-WORK-RELATED-TO-RESOLUTION-1267>{{cite web|title=Security Council Resolutions Related to the Work of the Committee Established Pursuant to Resolution 1267 (1999) Concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban and Associated Individuals and Entities|publisher=[[United Nations Security Council]]|url=http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/committees/1267/1267ResEng.htm|accessdate=2007-01-09 }}</ref> the [[Secretary General of NATO|North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General]],<ref name="NATOQaeda">{{cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2001/s011122b.htm|title=Press Conference with NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson|accessdate=2006-10-23|author=NATO}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nato.int/structur/library/bibref/them0305.pdf|title=AL QAEDA|author=NATO Library|date=2005|accessdate=2007-06-11}}</ref> the [[Commission of the European Communities]] of the European Union,<ref name="EU">{{cite web|url=http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2004/com2004_0700en01.doc|title=COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT|author=[[Commission of the European Communities]]|date=2004-10-20|accessdate=2007-06-11}}</ref> the [[United States Department of State]],<ref name="US">{{cite web|url=http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm|title=Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)|accessdate = 2006-07-03|author=United States Department of State}}</ref> the [[Australian Government]],<ref name="Australia">{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/agd/www/nationalsecurity.nsf/AllDocs/95FB057CA3DECF30CA256FAB001F7FBD?OpenDocument|title = Listing of Terrorist Organisations|accessdate=2006-07-03|author=Australian Government}}</ref> [[Public Safety Canada]],<ref name="Canada">{{cite web|url=http://www.psepc.gc.ca/prg/ns/le/cle-en.asp|title=Entities list|accessdate=2006-07-03|author=Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada}}</ref> the [[Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]],<ref name="Israel">{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+and+Islamic+Fundamentalism-/Summary+of+indictments+against+Al-Qaeda+terrorists+in+Samaria+21 March 2006.htm|title=Summary of indictments against Al-Qaeda terrorists in Samaria|date=[[21 March]] [[2006]]|accessdate=2007-06-10|author=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs}}</ref> Japan's Diplomatic Bluebook,<ref name="Japan">{{cite web|url=http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/other/bluebook/2002/chap1-b.pdf|title=B. TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM|author=Diplomatic Bluebook|date=2002|accessdate = 2007-06-11}}</ref> [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (South Korea)|South Korean Foreign Ministry]],<ref name="Korea">{{cite news|url=http://www.korea.net/news/news/NewsView.asp?serial_no=20070813015&part=102|title=Seoul confirms release of two Korean hostages in Afghanistan|date=[[August 14]], [[2007]] |accessdate = 2007-09-16|author = Korean Foreign Ministry}}</ref> the [[Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service]],<ref name="Netherlands">{{cite web|url=http://ftp.fas.org/irp/world/netherlands/aivd2004-eng.pdf|title=Annual Report 2004|accessdate=2007-06-11|author = [[General Intelligence and Security Service]]}}</ref> the [[Home Office|United Kingdom Home Office]],<ref name="UK">{{cite web|url=http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/security/terrorism-and-the-law/terrorism-act/proscribed-groups|title=Proscribed terrorist groups|accessdate=2006-07-03|author=United Kingdom Home Office}}</ref> [[Pakistan]], [[Russia]],<ref name="Russia">{{cite news| url=http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/07/28/russiaterrorlist.shtml|title=Russia Outlaws 17 Terror Groups; Hamas, Hezbollah Not Included}}</ref> the [[Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Sweden)|Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sweden.gov.se/content/1/c6/06/12/67/01b99143.pdf|title=Radical Islamist Movements in the Middle East|author=Ministry for Foreign Affairs Sweden|date=March–June 2006|accessdate = 2007-06-11}}</ref> and the [[Swiss Federal Council|Swiss Government]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.efv.admin.ch/d/dokumentation/downloads/themen/finanzkrimi/CH_UNTerror_1201_e.pdf|title=Report on counter-terrorism submitted by Switzerland to the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1373 (2001)|date = [[20 December]] [[2001]]|accessdate=2007-06-11}}</ref>
Due to its secrecy and structure of semi-autonomous cells, al-Qaeda's size and degree of responsibility for particular attacks are difficult to establish.
==Etymology==
In [[Arabic language|Arabic]], ''al-Qaeda'' has four syllables. However, since two of the Arabic consonants in the name (the [[voiceless uvular plosive]] {{IPA|[q]}} and the [[voiced pharyngeal fricative]] {{IPA|[ʕ]}}) are not [[phone]]s found in the [[English language]], the closest naturalized [[English phonology|English pronunciation]] is {{IPAEng|ælˈkɑːiːdə/}}. More commonly, {{IPA|/ælˈkaɪdə/}} and {{IPA|/ælˈkeɪdə/}} are heard. Al-Qaeda's name can also be [[transliteration|transliterated]] as al-Qaida, al-Qa'ida, el-Qaida, or al Qaeda.<ref>[http://ibb7.ibb.gov/pronunciations/sounds/2930.ra Listen to the US pronunciation] ([[RealPlayer]]).</ref>
The name of the organization comes from the Arabic noun ''qā'idah'', which means ''foundation'' or ''basis'' and can also refer to a military base or database. The initial ''al-'' is the Arabic [[Article (grammar)|definite article]] ''the'', hence ''the base''.
[[Osama bin Laden]] explained the origin of the term in a videotaped interview with [[Al Jazeera]] journalist [[Tayseer Alouni]] in October 2001:
<BLOCKQUOTE>The name 'al-Qaeda' was established a long time ago by mere chance. The late [[Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri|Abu Ebeida El-Banashiri]] established the training camps for our [[mujahedeen]] against Russia's terrorism. We used to call the training camp al-Qaeda. The name stayed.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/02/05/binladen.transcript/index.html
|title=Transcript of Bin Laden's October interview
|publisher=[[CNN]]
|date=2002-02-05
|accessdate=2006-10-22}}</ref></BLOCKQUOTE>
[[Saad Al-Faqih]], a Saudi expert in al-Qaida, has stated that the name al-Qaida ''"...originated from a documentation system in the [[Bait al-Ansar guesthouse]] back in the 1980s."<ref name=JamestownId2907>
{{cite news
| url=http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?issue_id=2907
| title=The Essence of Al Qaeda: An Interview With Saad Al-Faqih
| publisher=[[Jamestown Foundation]]
| author=[[Mahan Abedin]]
| date=[[February 5]], [[2004]]
| volume=2
| issue=2
| accessdate=2008-03-15
| quote=The Bait al-Ansar or “Dwelling of the Partisans” was a guesthouse established by Bin Laden in the 1980’s in Peshawar for Arab volunteers wanting to travel to Afghanistan.
}}</ref>
The United Kingdom politician [[Robin Cook]], who served as the United Kingdom [[Foreign Secretary]] and [[Leader of the House of Commons]] described Al-Qaeda as meaning "the database" and a product of western miscalculation. Cook wrote:
<blockquote>[[Al-Qaida]], literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.<ref name='Guardian'>{{cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1523838,00.html | work =[[The Guardian]] | pages = | accessdate = 2008-06-14 | language = }}</ref></blockquote>
In Arabic qa'idah bayanat is database where bayanat is data and qa'idah is base.<ref>Arabic Computer Dictionary: English-Arabic, Arabic-English By Ernest Kay, Multi-lingual International Publishers, 1986</ref>
Giles Foden has also speculated that the name may be derived from the [[Foundation Trilogy]] by [[Isaac Asimov]]<ref>[http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,779530,00.html War of the Worlds], ''[[The Guardian]]'', Saturday 24 August, 2002</ref>.
===History of the name===
There is at least one public reference to the name "al-Qaeda" that pre-dates the 2001 trial. The name appears with the spelling "al-Qaida" in an [[Executive order (United States)|executive order]] issued by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Bill Clinton]] in 1998, less than two weeks after the [[1998 United States embassy bombings|bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania]]. Executive Order 13099, issued on [[August 20]], [[1998]], lists the organization as one of several associated with [[Osama bin Laden]], the others being the [[Islamic Army]], [[Islamic Salvation Foundation]], the Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places, The [[World Islamic Front|World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders]], and [[The Group for the Preservation of the Holy Sites]].<ref>"[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=1998_register&docid=fr25au98-133.pdf Executive Order 13099 of August 20, 1998 Prohibiting transactions with terrorists who threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process (.pdf)]" Retrieved [[15 February]] [[2007]].</ref> The name "al-Qaida" could have been introduced to [[United States Intelligence Community|U.S. intelligence]] by [[Jamal al-Fadl]], who had been providing the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) with intelligence about bin Laden since 1996, before ultimately appearing as a witness in the February 2001 trial of those accused of the [[1998 United States embassy bombings]].
In this trial, Jamal al-Fadl testified<ref>"[http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/binladen.htm Transcripts of the testimony of prosecution witness Jamal Ahmad Al-Fadl delivered on the 6th, 7th and 13th February, 2001 at the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, in the trial of United States v. Usama bin Laden et al., defendants.]" Retrieved [[20 May]], [[2007]].</ref> that al-Qaeda was established in either late 1989 or early 1990 to continue the jihad after the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] withdrawal from [[Afghanistan]]. He claimed that during the [[Soviet war in Afghanistan|war against the Soviets]], bin Laden had been funding a group called [[Maktab al-Khadamat]], which was led by [[Abdallah Azzam]]. This organization was based in [[Pakistan]] and provided training, money and other support for Muslims who would cross the border into Afghanistan to fight. According to al-Fadl, the [[Maktab al-Khadamat]] was disbanded following the Soviet withdrawal, but bin Laden wanted to establish a new group to continue the [[jihad]]ist cause on other fronts. Al-Fadl testified that al-Qaeda's leader was initially [[Abu Ayoub al-Iraqi]], who was later replaced by [[Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri]], but that both of these leaders nevertheless "reported to" bin-Laden. Al-Fadl claims the group initially went by two different names "al-Qaeda" and "Islamic Army", before eventually settling on the former. A meeting was apparently held in Khost, Afghanistan to establish the new group, which al-Fadl claims to have attended. Al-Fadl's recollection was that this occurred in either late 1989 or early 1990.
Others such as CNN journalist [[Peter Bergen]] and author [[Lawrence Wright]] dispute Burke's contention. Bergen argues that two documents seized from the [[Sarajevo]] office of the [[Illinois]]-based [[Benevolence International Foundation]] show that the organization was established in August, 1988. Both of these documents contain minutes of meetings held to establish a new military group and contain the term "al-qaeda". <ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2006/1/18/13810/7770
|title=Excerpt: The Osama bin Laden I know by Peter Bergen
|publisher=New York: [[Free Press]]
|date=2006
|accessdate=2007-06-12}}</ref>
Author Lawrence Wright also quotes this document (an exhibit from the "Tareek Osama" document presented in ''United States v. Enaam M. Arnaout''<ref>[http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/bif/usarnaout10603prof.pdf ''United States v. Enaam M. Arnaout'']</ref>), in his book ''[[The Looming Tower]].'' Notes of a meeting of bin Laden and others on August 20, 1988 indicate "the military base" (''"al-qaeda al-askariya"''), was a formal group: `basically an organized Islamic faction, its goal is to lift the word of God, to make His religion victorious.` A list of requirements for membership itemized "listening and obedient ... good manners" and making a pledge ([[bayat]]) to obey superiors. <ref name = "qflihj"/> According to Wright, "[t]he name al-Qaeda was not used," in public pronouncements like the 1998 fatwa to kill Americans and their allies<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1998.html 1998 Fatwa]</ref> because "its existence was still a closely held secret."<ref>Wright, ''Looming Tower'', (2006), p.260</ref> Wright writes that Al-Qaeda was formed at a August 11, 1988 meeting of "with several senior leaders" of [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]], ([[Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif]], [[Ayman Al-Zawahiri]], and others), [[Abdullah Azzam]], and [[Osama bin Laden]], where it was agreed to join bin Laden's money with the expertise of the Islamic Jihad organization and continue jihad elsewhere after the Soviets withdrew from [[Afghanistan]].<ref name="RebellionWright">[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/02/080602fa_fact_wright?currentPage=all The Rebellion Within, An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism. by Lawrence Wright. newyorker.com, June 2, 2008]</ref>
===Merger with EIJ===
In April 2002, the group assumed the name ''Qa'idat al-Jihad'', which means "the base of Jihad". According to [[Diaa Rashwan]], this was "...apparently as a result of the merger of the overseas branch of Egypt's [[al-Jihad]] (EIJ) group, led by [[Ayman El-Zawahiri]], with the groups Bin Laden brought under his control after his return to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s."<ref>"[http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/619/op13.htm After Mombassa]", ''[[Al-Ahram Weekly Online]]'', 2–8 January 2003 (Issue No. 619). Retrieved [[3 September]] [[2006]].</ref>
===Organization v. concept===
When asked about the possibility of Al Qaeda's connection to the [[7 July 2005 London bombings]] in 2005, Metropolitan Police Commissioner [[Sir Ian Blair]] said:
<blockquote>"Al Qaeda is not an organization. Al Qaeda is a way of working ... but this has the hallmark of that approach."<ref name='foxnewsblair'>{{cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Cops: London Attacks Were Homicide Blasts | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162476,00.html | work =[[Fox News]] | pages = | accessdate = 2008-06-15 | language = }}</ref></blockquote>
After recognising Al Qaeda as an approach he went on to also recognise Al Qaeda as an actual organistation:
<blockquote>"Al Qaeda clearly has the ability to provide training ... to provide expertise ... and I think that is what has occurred here,"<ref name='foxnewsblair'>{{cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Cops: London Attacks Were Homicide Blasts | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162476,00.html | work =[[Fox News]] | pages = | accessdate = 2008-06-15 | language = }}</ref></blockquote>
What exactly al-Qaeda is, or was, remains in dispute. In the [[BBC]] documentary ''[[The Power of Nightmares]]'', writer and journalist [[Adam Curtis]] contends that the idea of al-Qaeda as a formal organization is primarily an American invention. Curtis contends the name "al-Qaeda" was first brought to the attention of the public in the 2001 trial of Osama bin Laden and the four men accused of the [[1998 United States embassy bombings]] in East Africa. As a matter of law, the [[United States Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]] needed to show that Osama bin Laden was the leader of a criminal organization in order to charge him ''[[in absentia]]'' under the [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]], also known as the RICO statutes. The name of the organization and details of its structure were provided in the testimony of [[Jamal al-Fadl]], who claimed to be a founding member of the organization and a former employee of Osama bin Laden.<ref>[http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/binladen.htm "WMD Terrorism and Usama bin Laden" by The Center for Nonproliferation Studies]</ref> To quote the documentary directly:
<blockquote>The reality was that bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri had become the focus of a loose association of disillusioned Islamist militants who were attracted by the new strategy. But there was no organization. These were militants who mostly planned their own operations and looked to bin Laden for funding and assistance. He was not their commander. There is also no evidence that bin Laden used the term "al-Qaeda" to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the term the Americans had given it.<ref>[http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2081592330319789254#0h5m53s Relevant excerpt from the series], [[The Power of Nightmares]]</ref></blockquote>
Questions about the reliability of al-Fadl's testimony have been raised by a number of sources because of his history of dishonesty and because he was delivering it as part of a plea bargain agreement after being convicted of conspiring to attack U.S. military establishments.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/LAW/02/13/Embassy.bombings.trial/
|title=Witness: Bin Laden planned attack on U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia
|publisher=[[CNN]]
|date=2001-02-13
|accessdate=2007-06-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,999237,00.html
|title=A Traitor's Tale By Johanna McGeary
|publisher=[[Time]]
|date=2001-02-19
|accessdate=2007-06-12}}</ref> Sam Schmidt, a defense lawyer from the trial, had the following to say about al-Fadl's testimony:
<blockquote>There were selective portions of al-Fadl's testimony that I believe was false, to help support the picture that he helped the Americans join together. I think he lied in a number of specific testimony about a unified image of what this organization was. It made al-Qaeda the new Mafia or the new Communists. It made them identifiable as a group and therefore made it easier to prosecute any person associated with al-Qaeda for any acts or statements made by bin Laden.<ref>''[[The Power of Nightmares]]''. [[BBC]] documentary by [[Adam Curtis]].</ref></blockquote>
==History==
===Background===
====Qutbism====
{{main|Qutbism}}
The radical Islamist movement in general and al-Qaeda in particular developed during the [[Islamic revival]] and [[Islamism|Islamist movement]] of the last three decades of the 20th century along with less extreme movements.
Some have argued that "without the writings" of Islamic author and thinker [[Sayyid Qutb]] "al-Qaeda would not have existed."<ref>Wright, ''Looming Tower'' (2006), p.332</ref> Qutb preached that because of the lack of [[sharia]] law the Muslim world was no longer Muslim, having reverted to pre-Islamic ignorance known as [[jahiliyyah]]. To restore Islam, a vanguard movement of righteous Muslims was needed to implement Sharia and rid the Muslim world of any non-Muslim influences, such as concepts like socialism or nationalism. Enemies of Islam included "treacherous Orientalists!" <ref>Qutb, ''Milestones,'' (2003) p.63 p.69</ref> and "world Jewry", who plotted "conspiracies" and "wicked[ly]" opposed Islam.
In the words of Mohammed Jamal Khalia, a close college friend of Osama bin Laden: ''Islam is different from any other religion; it's a way of life. We [Khalia and bin Laden] were trying to understand what Islam has to say about how we eat, who we marry, how we talk. We read Sayyid Qutb. He was the one who most affected our generation.''<ref>Wright, ''Looming Towers,'' (2006), p.79</ref>
Qutb had an even greater influence on Osama bin Laden's mentor and another leading member of al-Qaeda,<ref>[http://gemsofislamism.tripod.com/qutb_milest_influence_obl.html How Did Sayyid Qutb Influence Osama bin Laden?]</ref> Ayman al-Zawahiri. Zawahiri's uncle and maternal family patriarch, Mafouz Azzam, was Qutb's student, then protégé, then personal lawyer and finally executor of his estate - one of the last people to see Qutb before his execution. "Young Ayman al-Zawahiri heard again and again from his beloved uncle Mahfouz about the purity of Qutb's character and the torment he had endured in prison."<ref>[[Lawrence Wright]], who interviewed Azzam. Wright, ''Looming Tower'', 2006, p.36</ref> Zawahiri paid homage to Qutb in his work ''Knights under the Prophet's Banner.'' <ref>[http://gemsofislamism.tripod.com/milestones_qutb.html#footnote_24 Sayyid Qutb's Milestones (footnote 24)]</ref>
One of the most powerful effects of Qutb's ideas was the idea that many who said they were Muslims were not, i.e. they were [[apostate]]s. These included leaders of Muslims countries since they failed to enforce sharia law.<ref>http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/07spring/eikmeier.htm Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic-Fascism DALE C. EIKMEIER From ''Parameters'', Spring 2007, pp. 85-98.</ref>
===Jihad in Afghanistan===
{{main|Soviet war in Afghanistan|Afghan Arabs}}
The origins of the group can be traced to the [[Soviet war in Afghanistan]]. The [[United States]] viewed the conflict in Afghanistan, with the Afghan Marxists and allied Soviet troops on one side and the native Afghan mujahedeen on the other, as a blatant case of Soviet expansionism and aggression. The U.S. channelled funds through [[Pakistan]]'s [[Inter-Services Intelligence]] agency to the native Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviet occupation in a CIA program called [[Operation Cyclone]].<ref name=HOW-THE-CIA-CREATED-OSAMA-BIN-LADEN>{{cite news
|title=How the CIA created Osama bin Laden
|url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/2001/465/25199
|date=[[2001-09-19]]
|publisher=[[Green Left Weekly]]
|accessdate=2007-01-09 }}</ref><ref name=1986-1992-CIA-AND-BRITISH-RECRUIT-AND-TRAIN-MILITANTS-WORLDWIDE-TO-HELP-FIGHT-AFGHAN-WAR>{{cite web
|title=1986-1992: CIA and British Recruit and Train Militants Worldwide to Help Fight Afghan War
|url=http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a86operationcyclone
|publisher=Cooperative Research History Commons
|accessdate=2007-01-09}}</ref>
At the same time, a growing number of foreign Arab [[mujahedeen]] (also called [[Afghan Arabs]]) joined the jihad against the [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghan Marxist regime]], facilitated by international Muslim organizations, particularly the [[Maktab al-Khidamat]],<ref name=MAKTAB-AL-KHIDAMAT-GLOBALSECURITY>{{cite web
|title=Maktab al-Khidamat
|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/profiles/maktab_al-khidamat.htm
|publisher=[[GlobalSecurity.org]]
|date=[[2006-01-11]]
|accessdate=2007-02-11 }}</ref> whose funds came from some of the $600 million a year donated to the jihad by the Saudi Arabia government and individual Muslims - particularly wealthy Saudis who were approached by Osama bin Laden.<ref>Wright, ''Looming Tower'', (2006)</ref> Maktab al-Khidamat was established by [[Abdullah Azzam]] and [[Bin Laden]] in [[Peshawar]], [[Pakistan]], in 1984. From 1986 it began to set up a network of recruiting offices in the US, the hub of which was the [[Al Kifah Refugee Center]] at the Farouq Mosque in [[Brooklyn]]'s Atlantic Avenue. This was a "place of pivotal importance for [[Operation Cyclone]]".<ref>Andrew Marshall, [http://www.geocities.com/libertystrikesback/blowback.html "Terror 'blowback' burns CIA: America's spies paid and trained their nation's worst enemies"], ''Independent On Sunday'' (copy), Nov. 1, 1998.</ref> Among notable figures at the Brooklyn center were "double agent" [[Ali Mohamed]], whom FBI special agent Jack Cloonan called "bin Laden's first trainer";<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline//////torture/interviews/cloonan.html Cloonan ''Frontline'' interview], PBS, July 13, 2005.</ref> and "Blind Sheikh" [[Omar Abdel-Rahman]], a leading recruiter of [[mujahideen]] for Afghanistan, who obtained US entry visas with CIA help in 1987 and 1990.<ref>Richard Labévière, Dollars For Terror (Algora, 2000), pp.221-4 (he refers to Newsweek as confirming the visa story, but fails to give a specific reference)</ref><ref>Peter L Bergen, ''Holy War, Inc: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden'' (Weidenfield & Nicholson, London, 2001), pp.72-3.</ref> Al-Kifah had a training camp in [[Connecticut]], where "Recruits received brief paramilitary training and weapons induction, according to evidence in [subsequent terrorist] trials". Several former members of the "active service" of the CIA were employed there as "expert consultants".<ref>Marshall, "Blowback ..."</ref><ref>Labévière, ''Dollars For Terror'', pp.223-4.</ref>
The Afghan Mujahedeen of the 1980s have been alleged to be the inspiration for terrorist groups in nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Chechnya, and the former Yugoslavia.<ref>Demokratizatsiya, Spring 2003, re-published at Find Articles, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3996/is_200304/ai_n9199132</ref> According to Russian sources, the perpetrators of the first [[World Trade Center bombing]] in 1993 allegedly used a manual allegedly written by the CIA for the Mujihadeen fighters in Afghanistan on how to make explosives.<ref>Demokratizatsiya, Spring 2003, re-published at Find Articles, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3996/is_200304/ai_n9199132/pg_6; "Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism," by ABC News correspondent John K. Cooley</ref>
====Alleged CIA involvement====
{{main|Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden}}
Whether or not the al-Qaeda attacks were "[[blowback]]" from the American CIA's "Operation Cyclone" program to help the Afghan mujahideen is a matter of some debate. [[Robin Cook]], former British Foreign Secretary from 1997-2001, has written that al-Qaeda and Bin Laden were "a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies," and that the mujahideen that formed al-Qaeda were "originally ... recruited and trained with help from the CIA".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1523838,00.html|title=The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means|author=Cook, Robin|publisher=Guardian Unlimited|accessdate=2005-07-08}}</ref></blockquote>
A variety of sources - CNN journalist Peter Bergen, Pakistani ISI Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, and CIA operatives involved in the afghan program such as Vincent Cannistraro and Milton Bearden - deny that the CIA or other American officials, had contact with the Afghan Arabs (foreign mujahideen) or Bin Laden, let alone armed, trained, coached or indoctrinated them. These sources argue that there was no need to recruit foreigners unfamiliar with the local language, customs or lay of the land since there were a quarter of a million local Afghans willing to fight<ref>[[Steve Coll]], ''[[Ghost Wars]]'' (Penguin, 2005 edn), pp.145-6, 155-6.</ref>; that Arab Afghans themselves would have no need for American funds since they received several hundred million dollars a year from non-American, Muslim sources; that Americans could not train mujahideen because Pakistani officials would not allow more than a handful of them to operate in Pakistan and none in Afghanistan; and that the Afghan Arabs were almost invariably militant Islamists reflexively hostile to Westerners uninterested in the fact that some Westerners were helping the mujahideen.
According to [[Peter Bergen]], known for conducting the first television interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997, the idea that "the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden ... a folk myth. There's no evidence of this. ... Bin Laden had his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently. ... The real story here is the CIA didn't really have a clue about who this guy was until 1996 when they set up a unit to really start tracking him."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/08/15/bergen.answers/index.html|title= Bergen: Bin Laden, CIA links hogwash|author=Bergen, Peter|publisher=CNN|accessdate=2006-08-15}}</ref> But as Bergen himself admitted, in one "strange incident" the CIA ''did'' appear to give visa help to [[mujahideen]]-recruiter [[Omar Abdel-Rahman]].<ref>Bergen, ''Holy War, Inc'' (Weidenfield & Nicholson, 2001), pp.72-3.</ref>
====Origins in Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK)====
Al-Qaeda evolved from the [[Maktab al-Khadamat]] (Services Office), a Muslim organization founded in 1980 to raise and channel funds and recruit foreign [[mujahadeen]] for the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was founded by [[Abdullah Yusuf Azzam]], a Palestinian Islamic scholar and member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Maktab al-Khadamat organized guest houses in Peshawar, in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, and paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan to prepare international non-Afghan recruits for the Afghan war front. Azzam persuaded Bin Laden to join MAK, to use his own money and use his connections with "the Saudi royal family and the petro-billionaires of the Gulf" to raise more to help the mujahideen.<ref>Wright, ''Looming Tower'', (2006), p.103</ref> The role played by MAK and foreign Muslim volunteers, or "Afghan Arabs", in the war was not a major one. While 250,000 Afghan Mujahideen fought the Soviets and Marxist Afghan government, it is estimated that were never more than 2000 foreign mujahideen in the field at any one time.<ref>Wright, ''Looming Tower'' (2006), p.137</ref> Nonetheless, foreign mujahedeen volunteers came from 43 countries and the number that participated in the Afghan movement between 1982 and 1992 is reported to have been 35,000.<ref name=THE-WAR-ON-TERROR-AND-THE-POLITICS-OF-VIOLENCE-IN-PAKISTAN>{{cite web
|title=The War on Terror and the Politics of Violence in Pakistan
|url=http://www.jamestown.org/news_details.php?news_id=54
|date=[[2004-07-02]]
|publisher=[[The Jamestown Foundation]]
|accessdate=2007-01-09}}</ref>
[[Soviet Union|The Soviet Union]] finally withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. To the surprise of many, [[Mohammed Najibullah]]'s Marxist Afghan government hung on for three more years before being overrun by elements of the mujahedeen. With mujahedeen leaders unable to agree on a structure for governance, chaos ensued, with constantly reorganizing alliances fighting for control of ill-defined territories, leaving the country devastated.
The CIA was watching Osama bin Laden at least as early as 1995{{Fact|date=June 2008}}, due to the discovery of the [[Oplan Bojinka]] plot, which in part involved a suicide airplane attack on CIA Headquarters.{{Fact|date=August 2007}}
===Expanding operations===
Toward the end of the [[Red Army|Soviet military]] mission in Afghanistan, some mujahedeen wanted to expand their operations to include Islamist struggles in other parts of the world, such as Israel and Kashmir. A number of overlapping and interrelated organizations were formed to further those aspirations.
One of these was the organization that would eventually be called al-Qaeda, formed by Osama bin Laden with an initial meeting held on [[August 11]], [[1988]].<ref name=THE-OSAMA-BIN-LADEN-I-KNOW>{{cite web
|title=The Osama bin Laden I know
|url=http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2006/1/18/13810/7770
|date=[[2006-01-18]]
|accessdate=2007-01-09 }}</ref> Bin Laden wished to establish nonmilitary operations in other parts of the world; Azzam, in contrast, wanted to remain focused on military campaigns. After Azzam was assassinated in 1989, the MAK split, with a significant number joining bin Laden's organization.
In November 1989, [[Ali Mohamed]], a former [[special forces]] Sergeant stationed at [[Fort Bragg]], [[North Carolina]], left military service and moved to [[Santa Clara, California]]. He traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and became "deeply involved with bin Laden's plans."<ref>{{cite book|
|last=Wright
|first=Lawrence
|title=Looming Tower
|pages=181
|date=2006
|isbn=1400030846
}}</ref>. A year later, on [[November 8]], [[1990]], the FBI raided the New Jersey home of Mohammed's associate [[El Sayyid Nosair]], discovering a great deal of evidence of terrorist plots, including plans to blow up New York City skyscrapers.<ref>[http://www.tkb.org/CaseHome.jsp?caseid=332 MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Nosair was eventually convicted in connection to the 1993 [[World Trade Center bombing]], and for the murder of [[Rabbi]] [[Meir Kahane]] on November 5, 1990. In 1991, Ali Mohammed is said to have helped orchestrate Osama bin Laden's relocation to Sudan.<ref name=>{{cite web
|title=Osama bin Laden: The Past
|url=http://www.iacsp.com/itobli3.html
|accessdate=2007-01-12 }}</ref>
===Gulf War and the start of U.S. enmity===
{{main|Gulf War}}
[[Image:Cheney meeting with Prince Sultan.jpg|thumb|left|[[Dick Cheney]] meets with [[Sultan, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia|Prince Sultan]], Saudi Minister of Defense]]
Following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan, [[Osama bin Laden]] returned to Saudi Arabia. The [[Iraq]]i [[invasion of Kuwait]] in 1990 had put the country of Saudi Arabia and its ruling [[House of Saud]] at risk as Saudi's most valuable [[oil field]]s (Hama) were within easy striking distance of Iraqi forces in Kuwait,<ref>See Wikipedia article on the [[Gulf War#Possibility of attack on Saudi Arabia|Gulf War]] for more.</ref> and Saddam's call to pan-Arab/Islamism could potentially rally internal dissent. In the face of a seemingly massive Iraqi military presence, Saudi Arabia's own forces were well armed but far outnumbered. Bin Laden offered the services of his mujahedeen to [[Fahd of Saudi Arabia|King Fahd]] to protect Saudi Arabia from the Iraqi army. The Saudi monarch refused bin Laden's offer, opting instead to allow U.S. and allied forces to deploy on Saudi territory<ref>Douglas Jehl, "Holy War lured Saudis as Rulers Looked Away", ''New York Times'' December 27, 2001 [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E0DD1031F934A15751C1A9679C8B63]</ref>.
The deployment angered Bin Laden, as he believed the presence of foreign troops in the "land of the two mosques" ([[Mecca]] and [[Medina]]) profaned sacred soil. After speaking publicly against the Saudi government for harboring American troops, he was quickly forced into exile to Sudan and on [[April 9]], [[1994]] his Saudi [[citizenship]] was revoked.<ref name=OSAMA-BIN-LADEN-A-CHRONOLOGY-OF-HIS-POLITICAL-LIFE>{{cite web
|title=Osama bin Laden: A Chronology of His Political Life
|publisher=[[PBS]]
|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline///shows/binladen/etc/cron.html
|accessdate=2007-01-12 }}</ref> His family publicly disowned him. There is controversy over whether and to what extent he continued to garner support from members of his family and/or the Saudi government.<ref name=CONTEXT-OF-SHORTLLY-AFTER-APRIL-1994>{{cite web
|title=Context of 'Shortly After April 1994'
|url=http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a94familydisown
|publisher=[[Cooperative Research History Commons]]
|accessdate=2007-01-12 }}</ref>
===Sudan===
From approximately 1992 to 1996, al-Qaeda and bin Laden were located in [[Sudan]], coming at the invitation of Islamist theoretician [[Hassan al Turabi]] following an Islamist coup d'état, and leaving after being expelled by the Sudanese government. During this time bin Laden assisted the Sudanese government, bought or set up various business enterprises, and established training camps where insurgents trained. But in Sudan bin Laden lost his Saudi passport and source of income in response to his verbal attacks on the Saudi king. <ref>Wright, ''Looming Towers'' (2006), p.195</ref>
Zawahiri and the EIJ, who served as the core of al-Qaeda but also engaged in separate operations against the Egyptian government, had even worse luck in Sudan. In 1993, a young schoolgirl was killed in an unsuccessful EIJ attempt on the life of the Egyptian Interior Minister, [[Hasan al-Alfi]]. Egyptian public opinion turned against Islamist bombings and <ref>Wright, 2006, p.186</ref> the police arrested 280 more of al-Jihad's members and executed six. In 1995 an even more ill-fated [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad#Mubarak assassination attempt| attempt to assassinate Egyptian president Mubarak]] led to the expulsion of EIJ and not long after of bin Laden by the Sudanese government.
===Refuge in Afghanistan===
{{main|Taliban}}
After the Soviet withdrawal, Afghanistan was effectively ungoverned for seven years and plagued by constant infighting between former allies and various mujahedeen groups.
Throughout the 1990s, a new force began to emerge. The origins of the [[Taliban]] (literally "students") lay in the children of Afghanistan, many of them orphaned by the war, and many of whom had been educated in the rapidly expanding network of Islamic schools ([[madrassa]]s) either in [[Kandahar]] or in the refugee camps on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
According to Ahmed Rashid, five leaders of the Taliban were graduates of a single madrassa, Darul Uloom Haqqania (also known as “the University of Jihad",)<ref>[http://www.husainhaqqani.com/reforming/journal%20articles/1/1.htm Islam's Medieval Outposts<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> in the small town of Akora Khattak near [[Peshawar]], situated in Pakistan but largely attended by [[Afghan refugees]].<ref>{{citation|title=Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia |author= Ahmed Rashid|year= 2002|publisher=I.B.Tauris|id=ISBN 1860648304}}</ref> This institution reflected Salafi beliefs in its teachings, and much of its funding came from private donations from wealthy Arabs, for whom bin Laden provided conduit. A further four leading figures (including the perceived Taliban leader Mullah [[Mohammed Omar]] Mujahed) attended a similarly funded and influenced madrassa in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Many of the mujahedeen who later joined the Taliban fought alongside Afghan warlord [[Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi]]'s Harkat i Inqilabi group at the time of the [[Russia]]n invasion. This group also enjoyed the loyalty of most Afghan Arab fighters.
The continuing internecine strife between various factions, and accompanying lawlessness following the Soviet withdrawal, enabled the growing and well-disciplined Taliban to expand their control over territory in Afghanistan, and they came to establish an enclave which it called the [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]]. In 1994, they captured the regional center of [[Kandahar]], and after making rapid territorial gains thereafter, conquered the capital city [[Kabul]] in September 1996.
After [[Sudan]] made it clear that bin Laden and his group were no longer welcome that year, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan—with previously established connections between the groups, a similar outlook on world affairs and largely isolated from American political influence and military power—provided a perfect location for al-Qaeda to establish its headquarters. Al-Qaeda enjoyed the Taliban's protection and a measure of legitimacy as part of their Ministry of Defense, although only [[Pakistan]], [[Saudi Arabia]], and the [[United Arab Emirates]] recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
[[Al-Qaeda training camps]] in Afghanistan and the Pakistani border regions are alleged to have trained militant Muslims from around the world.{{Fact|date=May 2007}} Despite the perception of some people, al-Qaeda members are ethnically diverse and connected by their radical version of Islam.
An ever-expanding network of supporters thus enjoyed a safe haven in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan until the Taliban were defeated by a combination of [[Afghan Northern Alliance|local forces]] and United States [[close air support|air power]] in 2001 (see section ''[[#September 11, 2001 attacks and the United States response|September 11, attacks and the United States response]]''). Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders are still believed to be located in areas where the population is sympathetic to the Taliban in Afghanistan or the border [[Tribal Areas of Pakistan]].
===Militant operations pre-dating the September 11, 2001 attacks===
====The first terrorist attack====
On [[December 29]], [[1992]], al-Qaeda's first terrorist attack took place as two bombs were detonated in [[Aden]], [[Yemen]]. The first target was the Movenpick Hotel and the second was the parking lot of the Goldmohur Hotel. The bombings were an attempt to eliminate American soldiers on their way to Somalia to take part in the international famine relief effort, [[Operation Restore Hope]]. Internally, al-Qaeda considered the bombing a victory that frightened the Americans away, but in the United States the attack was barely noticed. No Americans were killed because the soldiers were staying in a different hotel altogether, and they went on to Somalia as scheduled. However, little noticed, the attack was pivotal as it was the beginning of al-Qaeda's change in direction, from fighting armies to killing [[civilian]]s.<ref name = "lernpm">Wright, ''Looming Tower'', (2006), p.174</ref> Two people were killed in the bombing, an Australian tourist and a Yemeni hotel worker. Seven other mostly Yemenis, were severely injured.
Two ''[[fatwa]]'' are said to have been appointed by the most theologically knowledgeable of al-Qaeda's members, [[Mamdouh Mahmud Salim]], aka Abu Hajer al Iraqi, to justify the killings according to Islamic law. Mamdouh Mahmud Salim referred to the thirteenth-century scholar [[Ibn Taymiyyah]], much admired by Wahhabis. In a famous fatwa, Ibn Tamiyyah had ruled that Muslims should kill the invading Mongols, and so too Salim said al-Qaeda should kill American soldiers. The second fatwa followed another of Ibn Tamiyyah's, that Muslims should not only kill Mongols but anyone who aided the Mongols, who bought goods from them or sold to them. In addition the killing of someone merely standing near a Mongol was justified as well. He ruled these killings just because any innocent bystander, like the Yemenite hotel worker, would find their proper reward in death, going to Paradise if they were good Muslims and to hell if they were bad.<ref>testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, U.S. v. Usama bin Laden, et.al.</ref> This became al-Qaeda's justification for killing civilians.<ref name = "lernpm"/>
====First World Trade Center bombing====
{{main|World Trade Center bombing}}
In 1993, [[Ramzi Yousef]] used a truck bomb to attack the [[World Trade Center]] in [[New York City]]. The attack was intended to break the foundation of Tower One knocking it into Tower Two, bringing the entire complex down. Yousef hoped this would kill 250,000 people. The towers shook and swayed but the foundation held and he succeeded in killing only six people (although he injured 1,042 others and caused nearly $300 million in property damage).<ref name = "ttctry">Wright, ''Looming Tower'', (2006), p.178</ref><ref name = "xodtxk">Reeve, Simon.
''The new jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama Bin Laden and the future of terrorism'', Boston: Northeastern University Press, c1999</ref><ref name=>{{cite web
|url=http://www.cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/wtc93.htm
|title=February 1993 Bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City
|publisher=[[Center for Nonproliferation Studies]]
|date=[[2001-11-12]]
|accessdate=2007-01-09}}</ref>
After the attack, Yousef fled to Pakistan and later moved to [[Manila]]. There he began developing the [[Bojinka Plot]] plans to blow up a dozen American airliners simultaneously, to assassinate Pope [[John Paul II]] and President Bill Clinton, and to crash a private plane into CIA headquarters. He was later captured in Pakistan.<ref name = "ttctry"/><ref name = "xodtxk"/>
None of the U.S. government's indictments against Osama bin Laden have suggested that he had any connection with this bombing, but Ramzi Yousef is known to have attended a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. After his capture, Yousef declared that his primary justification for the attack was to punish the United States for its support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and made no mention of any religious motivations.<ref name=>{{cite web
|url=http://www.cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/wtc93.htm
|title=February 1993 Bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City
|publisher=[[Center for Nonproliferation Studies]]
|date=[[2001-11-12]]
|accessdate=2007-01-09}}</ref>
====1995-2000 fatwa declarations and bomb attacks====
{{main|1998 United States embassy bombings|USS Cole bombing}}
On November 13 1995 a van containing a hundred pounds of Semtex explosive blew up near the communications center for the Saudi National Guard in downtown Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where some American military contractors and Army officers had been training the Saudi National Guard. Seven people were killed, and sixty people were injured. The Saudi government arrested four men, "torturing confessions" out of them that they had been inspired by bin Laden's speeches and trained at al-Qaeda's camp in Afghanistan, and quickly executed them. It is unclear if they had anything to do with the crime. As with many bombings suspected to be the work of al-Qaeda, bin Laden praised the attacks but denied authorizing the attack or training the bombers.<ref>Wright, Looming Towers'', (2006), p.211-2</ref>
In 1996, al-Qaeda announced its [[jihad]] to expel foreign troops and interests from what they felt were Islamic lands. [[Osama bin Laden|Bin Laden]] issued a fatwa,<ref name=>{{cite news
|title=Bin Laden's Fatwa
|url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html
|publisher=[[Al Quds Al Arabi]]
|date=August 1996
|accessdate=2007-01-09}}</ref> which amounted to a public declaration of war against the [[United States]] and any of its allies, and began to focus al-Qaeda's resources towards attacking the [[United States]] and its interests. Also occurring on June 25th, 1996 was the bombing of the Khobar towers, located in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
On [[February 23]], [[1998]], Osama bin Laden and [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]], a leader of [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]], along with three other Islamist leaders, co-signed and issued a fatwa (binding religious edict) under the banner of the '''[[World Islamic Front|World Islamic Front for Combat Against the Jews and Crusaders]]''' (''al-Jabhah al-Islamiyya al-'Alamiyya li-Qital al-Yahud wal-Salibiyyin'') declaring:
<blockquote>[T]he ruling to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the [[al-Aqsa Mosque]] (in [[Jerusalem]]) and the holy mosque (in [[Makka]]) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty [[Allah]], 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah'.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ict.org.il/articles/fatwah.htm|title=Text of Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans|accessdate=2006-05-15}}</ref></blockquote>
Neither bin Laden nor al-Zawahiri possessed the traditional Islamic scholarly qualifications to issue a fatwa of any kind; however, they rejected the authority of the contemporary [[ulema]] (seen as the paid servants of ''[[jahiliyya]]'' rulers) and took it upon themselves.<ref>{{cite book |last=Benjamin |first=Daniel |authorlink=Daniel Benjamin |coauthors=Steven Simon |title=The Age of Sacred Terror |year= 2002 |publisher=Random House |pages=p. 117 |chapter=The Warrior Prince |quote = By issuing fatwas, bin Laden and his followers are ah ing out a kind of self-appointment as [[alim]]: they are asserting their rights as interpreters of Islamic law }}</ref><!--questionable statement as at least one of the other signers of the fatwa may have indeed been able to issue such an edict -- bin Laden and al-Zawahiri were co-signers--> Assassinated former FSB agent [[Alexander Litvinenko]] alleged that the Russian [[Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation|FSB]] trained al-Zawahiri in a camp in Dagestan eight months before the 1998 fatwa.<ref>{{cite web| last = Nyquist| first = J.R. | title = Is Al Qaeda a Kremlin Proxy?| work = | publisher = jrnyquist.com| date = [[13 August]] [[2005]]| url = http://www.jrnyquist.com/nyquist_2005_0813.htm| accessdate = 2008-04-17 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title = Obituary: Alexander Litvinenko | publisher = BBC News| date = [[24 November]] [[2006]]| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6163502.stm| accessdate = 2008-04-16 }}</ref> 1998 was also the year of the first major terrorist attack reliably attributed to al-Qaeda: the [[1998 U.S. embassy bombings|U.S. embassy bombings]] in East Africa, resulting in upward of 300 deaths, mostly locals. A barrage of [[cruise missile]]s launched by the U.S. military in response devastated an al-Qaeda base in [[Khost]], Afghanistan, but the network's capacity was unharmed.
Bin Laden then turned his sights towards the [[United States Navy]]. In October 2000, al-Qaeda militants in [[Yemen]] bombed the missile [[destroyer]] [[USS Cole bombing|U.S.S. Cole]] in a suicide attack, killing 17 U.S. servicemen and damaging the vessel while it lay offshore. Inspired by the success of such a brazen attack, al-Qaeda's command core began to prepare for an attack on the United States itself.
===September 11, 2001, attacks and the United States response===
{{main|September 11, 2001 attacks|War on Terrorism}}
{{seealso|Responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks}}
[[Image:September 17 2001 Ground Zero 01.jpg|thumb|250px|Aftermath of the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|September 11 attacks]]]]
The attacks were the most devastating terrorist acts in [[United States|American]] history, killing nearly 3,000 people, destroying four commercial airliners, leveling the [[World Trade Center]] towers, and damaging [[The Pentagon]], the headquarters of the [[United States Department of Defense]].
The [[September 11, 2001, attacks]] were conducted by al-Qaeda, acting in accord with the [[Fatāwā of Osama bin Laden#1998 Fatwa|1998 ''fatwa'']] issued against the United States and its allies by military forces under the command of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and others.<ref>{{citeweb|url=http://www.ict.org.il/articles/fatwah.htm|title=Text of Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans| accessdate=2006-07-05| year=February 23, 1998}}</ref> Evidence points to suicide squads led by al-Qaeda military commander [[Mohammed Atta]] as the culprits of the attacks, with [[Osama Bin Laden|bin Laden]], [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]], [[Khalid Shaikh Mohammed]], and [[Hambali]] as the key planners and part of the political and military command. Messages issued by bin Laden after [[September 11]],[[2001]] praised the attacks, and explained their motivation while denying any involvement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/inv.binladen.denial/| title=Bin Laden says he wasn't behind attacks| publisher=[[CNN]]| accessdate=2006-07-06| year=September 17, 2001}}</ref> Bin Laden legitimized the attacks by identifying grievances felt by both mainstream and Islamist Muslims, such as the general perception that the United States was actively oppressing Muslims.<ref>J. Esposito 'Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam' 2002. New York, [[Oxford University Press]]. p22 </ref> Bin Laden asserted that America was massacring Muslims in '[[Palestinian National Authority|Palestine]], [[Chechnya]], [[Kashmir]] and [[Iraq]]' and that Muslims should retain the 'right to attack in reprisal'. He also claimed the 9/11 attacks were not targeted at women and children, but 'America's icons of military and economic power'.<ref>Hamid Miir 'Osama claims he has nukes: If U.S. uses N-arms it will get the same response' "Dawn: the Internet Edition" November 10, 2001 </ref>
Evidence has since come to light that the original targets for the attack may have been nuclear power stations on the east coast of the U.S. The targets were later altered by al-Qaeda, as it was thought that the US retaliation would be too great.<ref name=AL-QAIDA-LEADERS-SAY-NUCLEAR-POWER-STATIONS-WERE-ORIGINAL-TARGETS>{{cite news
|title=Al-Qaida leaders say nuclear power stations were original targets
|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,788431,00.html
|publisher=[[The Guardian]]
|date=[[2002-09-09]]
|accessdate=2007-01-11 }}</ref><ref name=Al-Qaeda-SCALED-BACK-10-PLANE-PLOT>{{cite news
|title=Al Qaeda Scaled Back 10-Plane Plot
|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45853-2004Jun16_2.html
|publisher=[[Washington Post]]
|date=[[2004-06-17]]
|accessdate=2007-01-11 }}</ref>
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]] [[Authorization for Use of Military Force|decided to respond militarily]], and began to prepare its [[Military of the United States|armed forces]] to overthrow the Taliban regime it believed was harboring al-Qaeda. Before the United States attacked, it offered Taliban leader [[Mohammed Omar|Mullah Omar]] a chance to surrender bin Laden and his top associates. The Taliban 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. [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[George W. Bush]] responded by saying: "We know he's guilty. Turn him over",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seacoastonline.com/2001news/10_15_w1.htm| title=U.S. Jets Pound Targets Around Kabul| work=[[The Portsmouth Herald]]| date=[[October 15]],[[2001]]|accessdate=2006-07-06}}</ref> and British Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] warned the Taliban regime: "Surrender bin Laden, or surrender power". Soon thereafter the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan, and together with the [[Afghan Northern Alliance]] removed the Taliban government in the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|war in Afghanistan]].
[[Image:Anaconda-helicopter.jpg|thumb|left|U.S. troops in Afghanistan]]
As a result of the [[United States]] using its [[special forces]] and providing [[close air support|air support]] for the Northern Alliance [[infantry|ground forces]], both Taliban and [[Derunta training camp|al-Qaeda training camps]] were destroyed, and much of the operating structure of al-Qaeda is believed to have been disrupted. After being driven from their key positions in the [[Tora Bora]] area of [[Afghanistan]], many al-Qaeda fighters tried to regroup in the rugged [[Gardez]] region of the nation. Again, under the cover of intense [[Aerial bombing of cities|aerial bombardment]], U.S. [[infantry]] and local Afghan forces attacked, shattering the al-Qaeda position and killing or capturing many of the militants. By early 2002, al-Qaeda had been dealt a serious blow to its operational capacity, and the Afghan invasion appeared an initial success. Nevertheless, a significant [[Taliban insurgency]] remains in [[Afghanistan]], and al-Qaeda's top two leaders, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, evaded capture.
Debate raged about the exact nature of al-Qaeda's role in the 9/11 attacks, and after the U.S. invasion began, the [[United States State Department|U.S. State Department]] also released a [[Videos of Osama bin Laden#Tape released by the U.S. government|videotape]] showing bin Laden speaking with a small group of associates somewhere in Afghanistan shortly before the Taliban was removed from power.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2001/b12132001_bt630-01.html| title=U.S. RELEASES VIDEOTAPE OF OSAMA BIN LADEN| accessdate=2006-07-04| year=December 13, 2001}}</ref> Although its authenticity has been questioned by some,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,619188,00.html| author=Morris, Steven| title=US urged to detail origin of tape| publisher=The Guardian| accessdate=2006-07-11| year=December 15, 2001}}</ref> the tape appears to implicate bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the [[September 11]] attacks and was aired on many [[television channels]] all over the world, with an accompanying [http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/tape.transcript/ English translation] provided by the [[United States Defense Department]].
In September 2004, the [[9/11 Commission|U.S. government commission]] investigating the September 11 attacks officially concluded that the attacks were conceived and implemented by al-Qaeda operatives.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.9-11commission.gov/| title=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States| accessdate=2006-04-27| year=September 20, 2004}}</ref> In October 2004, bin Laden appeared to claim responsibility for the attacks in a [[2004 Osama bin Laden video|videotape]] released through Al Jazeera, saying he was inspired by Israeli attacks on [[high-rise]]s in the 1982 [[1982 Lebanon War|invasion of Lebanon]]: "As I looked at those demolished towers in [[Lebanon]], it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children."<ref>{{cite web| url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm| title=Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech| publisher=Al Jazeera| accessdate=2006-07-12| year=November 1, 2004}}</ref>
By the end of 2004, the U.S. government claimed that two-thirds of the top leaders of al-Qaeda from 2001 were in custody (including [[Ramzi bin al-Shibh]], [[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]], [[Abu Zubaydah]], [[Saif al Islam el Masry]], and [[Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri]]) or dead (including [[Mohammed Atef]]). Despite the capture or death of many senior al-Qaeda operatives, the U.S. government continues to warn that the organization is not yet defeated, and battles between U.S. forces and al-Qaeda-related groups continue.
In the meantime, autonomous regional branches of al-Qaeda continue to emerge around the world.
==Other regional activities==
{{Expand|date=August 2007}}
===Africa===
====Algeria====
{{main|Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb|Islamic insurgency in Algeria (2002-present)}}
{{seealso|11 December 2007 Algiers bombings}}
An insurgency is being waged by the [[Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat]] (which is called today as the [[al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb]]) against the [[Algeria]]n government. It is a spin-off to the [[Algerian Civil War]] that ended in 2002, and has been linked to bombings in [[2007 Algiers bombings|Algiers]], [[2007 Batna bombing|Batna]] and [[2007 Dellys bombing|Dellys]].
The group has declared its intention to attack Algerian, [[France|French]], American and Spanish targets. It has been designated as a [[U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations|Foreign Terrorist Organization]] by the [[United States Department of State|U.S. Department of State]], and similarly classed as a terrorist organization by the [[European Union]].
====Eritrea====
As soon as the allied Somali and Ethiopian forces drove the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) out of Somalia in January 2007, U.S. accused Eritrea of providing safe haven for some of their leadership.<ref>[http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-04/2007-04-23-voa66.cfm?CFID=144318625&CFTOKEN=43657409 U.S. accuses Eritrea on supporting islamists]</ref> America also condemned Eritrea since it continued to "fund, arm, train and advise the insurgents" attacking the Somalia government.<ref>[http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2007-04-26-voa3.cfm U.S. condemns Eritrean assistance of islamists]</ref><ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2052758,00.html US blames Eritrea over Somalian insurgency]</ref> According to a regional Somali government, some Eritrean soldiers were also sited working with Arab and al-Qaeda fighters against the Somalia government, and the foreign alliance attacked government positions.<ref>[http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Somalia_27/Islamist_supporters_al-Qaeda_terrorists_attacked_us_Somalia_governor.shtml allied ICU, Al-Qaeda and Eritrean fighters attack government positions]</ref>
In 2007 there were reports that the Eritrean government is sheltering the leadership of the insurgency in Somalia.<ref>[http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9597711 "The Economist" sites alliance of the islamists and Eritrea]</ref> The United Nations continued to report of Eritrean assistance to Somalis with alleged links to al-Qaeda. Accordingly, the UN Security Council said that Eritrea has secretly supplied "huge quantities of arms" to a Somali insurgent group with alleged ties to al Qaeda, in violation of an international arms embargo and despite the deployment of African peacekeepers" adding that it has been "provided to the [[Al-Shabaab (Somalia)|al-Shabaab]] (an extremist group which emerged within the ICU’s armed forces and is led by a kinsman and [[protégé]] of the ICU council leader Sheikh [[Hassan Dahir Aweys]], [[Aden Hashi Farah "Eyrow"]], who trained in Afghanistan with al-Qaeda before returning to Somalia after 9/11<ref>[http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2883&Itemid=5821 Al Shabaab and the insurgency in Somalia]</ref>) by and through Eritrea" since December 2006.<ref>[http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/07/26/somalia.arms.ap/index.html the Eritrean government is giving arms to Somalis with Al Qaeda ties]</ref> Sheikh Aweys himself and other members of the Islamic Courts Union who are wanted by the U.S. over suspected links to al-Qaeda (the UN has Sheikh Aweys on a list of individuals "belonging to or associated with" al Qaeda, which he denies<ref>[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06862375.htm Somali on the United Nations list of individuals "belonging to or associated with" al Qaeda]</ref>) organized a [[congress]] in Eritrea to strengthen their militant opposition to the Somalia transitional government.<ref>[http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B54AA636-A618-459C-9FC3-C785A5FC7D39.htm Islamic Courts Union leaders wanted by the US over suspected links to al-Qaeda.]</ref>
====Libya====
On [[November 3]], [[2007]], al-Zawahiri claimed in a 28-minute recording posted on an Islamic website that "... members of the [[Fighting Islamic Group]] in [[Libya]] announce that they are joining the al-Qaeda group ..." According to al-Jazeera news service, [[Abu al-Laith]] appeared to be the leader of the new Libyan wing. Fighting Islamic Group first announced its presence in 1995, vowing to overthrow [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]], the Libyan leader. In 2001, the group was added to a UN list of individuals and institutions "belonging to, or associated with, al-Qaeda".<ref>[http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1BA708B9-39ED-4B51-BED9-9B5322E75A8E.htm Zawahri: Libya group joins al-Qaeda] accessed November 3, 2007</ref>
====Somalia and Kenya====
{{main|Somali Civil War}}
{{seealso|Islamic Courts Union}}
Activities of al-Qaeda in Somalia are alleged to have begun as early as 1992.<ref name=EDITORIAL-SUDAN-RE-RUN-IN-SOMALIA>{{cite news
|title=EDITORIAL: Sudan re-run in Somalia
|publisher=Daily Times
|url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C12%5C30%5Cstory_30-12-2006_pg3_1
|date=[[2006-12-30]]
|accessdate=2007-01-08 }}</ref> The organization's role during the course of the 1992–1994 UN missions was limited to a handful of trainers. [[Ali Mohamed]] and other al-Qaeda members purportedly trained forces loyal to [[warlord]] [[Mohammed Farah Aidid]].<ref name=>{{cite web
|title=Context of 'October 3-4, 1993'
|url=http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a100393mogadishu
|publisher=Cooperative Research History Commons
|accessdate=2007-01-08}}</ref> Osama bin Laden himself claimed in an interview with [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s [[John Miller]] to have sent al-Qaeda operatives to Somalia. One of the al-Qaeda fighters present during the interview claimed to have personally slit the throats of three American soldiers in Somalia.<ref name=GREETINGS-AMERICA-MY-NAME-IS-OSAMA-BIN-LADEN>{{cite news
|title=Greetings America, My Name is Osama bin Laden
|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/miller.html
|date=[[1999-02-01]]
|publisher=[[Esquire Magazine]]
|accessdate=2007-01-08}}</ref> [[Mark Bowden]], author of ''[[Black Hawk Down (book)|Black Hawk Down]]'', states the terrorist organization did train some of Aidid's men, but they were not personally part of the fight with US forces in the [[Battle of Mogadishu (1993)|1993 battle of Mogadishu]].<ref name=THE-TRUTH-ABOUT-MOGADISHU>{{cite news
|title=The truth about Mogadishu
|url=http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/people/women/15703906.htm
|publisher=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]
|date=[[2006-10-08]]
|accessdate=2007-01-08 }}</ref>
In 2002 an another successful terrorist attack in [[Kenya]] after the [[1998 United States embassy bombings|U.S. embassy bombing]], [[Kenyan hotel bombing|a car-bomb placed in a resort hotel]] popular among Israeli tourists claimed the lives of 15 people. The hotel bombing occurred 20 minutes after a failed attack on an airplane, when a terrorist fired an [[SA-7]] [[MANPAD]] against an Israeli airliner carrying 261 passengers, which was taking off from the airport; the missile seemingly failed to track its target, nor did it detonate, and landed in an empty field.
Lately, al-Qaeda was also linked to militant [[Islamic Courts Union]] (ICU) front in Somalia. It is believed several terrorist attacks were orchestrated from [[Ras Kamboni]], in the extreme southern tip of Somalia adjacent to Kenya, including the 1998 United States embassy bombings and the 2002 Mombasa hotel bombing.<ref>Abdi Abdi, [http://www.ena.gov.et/Link/The%20Talibanisation%20of%20Somalia.asp "The Talibanisation of Somalia"], ''Ethiopian News Agency'', 12 July 2006</ref> On [[June 22]], [[2006]], [[Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs|Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs]] [[Jendayi Frazer]] announced the U.S. was seeking the assistance of the ICU in the apprehension of suspects who carried out attacks against its East African embassies and a hotel in Kenya.<ref name=US-SEEKS-ISLAMIC-COURTS-HELP>[http://www.somalilandtimes.net/sl/2005/231/4.shtml US Seeks Islamic Courts’ Help To Catch Somali Extremists] Somaliland Times</ref> She listed the following persons as suspected of being in Somalia (name and nationality): [[Fazul Abdullah Mohamed]] (Comoros), [[Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan]] (Kenya), and [[Abu Taha al-Sudan]] (Sudan). When the ICU did not cooperate, the U.S. first financed the rival warlord factions, and then followed with limited air strikes as the ICU rule in Mogadishu fell in the face of [[Ethiopian Army]] assault. The Pentagon said a high level al-Qaeda member from the ICU was captured in Somalia and transferred to the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6729015.stm Pentagon captures high level Al-Qaeda member in Somalia]</ref><ref>[http://www.knx1070.com/pages/551987.php?contentType=4&contentId=584302 U.S. detains Al-Qaeda member]</ref>
====Sudan====
In 1991, [[Sudan]]'s [[National Islamic Front]], an Islamist group that had recently gained power, invited al-Qaeda to move operations to Sudan.<ref name=TESTIMONY-OF-JT-CARUSO>{{cite web
|title= Testimony of J. T. Caruso, Acting Assistant Director, CounterTerrorism Division, FBI Before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism, Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate - [[December 18]], [[2001]] - "Al-Qaeda International"
|url=http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress01/caruso121801.htm
|date=[[2001-12-18]]
|publisher=[[FBI]]
|accessdate=2007-01-18}}</ref> For several years, al-Qaeda operated several businesses (including import/export, farm, and construction firms) in what might be considered a period of financial consolidation. The group built a major 1200-km (845-mi) highway connecting the capital [[Khartoum]] with [[Port Sudan]].<ref name=INSIDE-AL-QAEDA>{{cite web
|title= Inside Al-Qaeda
|url=http://www.mideastweb.org/alqaeda.htm
|accessdate=2007-01-18}}</ref> However, they also ran a number of camps where they trained operatives in the use of firearms and explosives.
In 1996, Osama bin Laden was asked to leave Sudan after the United States put the regime under extreme pressure to expel him, citing possible connections to the 1994 attempted assassination of [[Egypt]]ian President [[Hosni Mubarak]] while his motorcade was in [[Addis Ababa, Ethiopia]]. Controversy exists regarding whether Sudan offered to turn bin Laden over to the U.S. prior to the expulsion. There is an audio tape ([http://www.newsmax.com/audio/BILLVH.mp3 Audio]) ([http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/9/10/181819.shtml?s=ic Transcript]) recording of former President Bill Clinton talking about the offer from the Sudanese government. There are conflicting reports on whether the Sudanese government indeed made such an offer, but they were in fact prepared to turn him over to Saudi Arabia, who declined to take him.<ref>"Newsmax" http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/9/10/181819.shtml?s=ic </ref>
Osama bin Laden finally left Sudan in a well-executed operation, arriving at [[Jalalabad, Afghanistan]] by air in late 1996 with over 200 of his supporters and their families.
===Europe===
{{main|2003 Istanbul bombings}}
====Bosnia and Herzegovina====
{{main|Bosnian mujahideen}}
Following the end of the [[Bosnian War]] and, especially, after the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center, the links between the [[Bosnian mujahideen]], Al Qaeda and the radicalization of some European Muslims has become more widely discussed. In an interview with US journalist [[Jim Leherer]] former US peace envoy to Bosnia [[Richard Holbrooke]] states:
<blockquote>There were over 1,000 people in the country who belonged to what we then called Mujahideen freedom fighters. We now know that that was al-Qaida. I'd never heard the word before, but we knew who they were. And if you look at the 9/11 hijackers, several of those hijackers were trained or fought in Bosnia. We cleaned them out, and they had to move much further east into Afghanistan. So if it hadn't been for Dayton, we would have been fighting the terrorists deep in the ravines and caves of Central Bosnia in the heart of Europe.<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/bosnia/july-dec05/holbrooke_11-22.html PBS Newshour with Jim Jim Leherer], A New Constitution for Bosnia, 22 November 2005</ref> </blockquote>
In 1996, in a book titled "Offensive In the Balkans", Mr. [[Yossef Bodansky]], Director of the Republican Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US House of Representatives, wrote as follows on the "Bosnian Jehad":
<blockquote>"...The build-up of new Islamist units was completed in Bosnia- Herzegovina in the Spring of 1995. These forces are closely associated with the Armed Islamist Movement (AIM) and Islamist international terrorismsuicide terrorists), both veteran Arabs and newly trained Bosnians.<ref>http://www.saag.org/papers4/paper306.html South Asia Analysis Group], Bosnia & Hyderabad, by B.Raman, 3 September 2001</ref></blockquote>
London's [[The Spectator]] has noted, "If Western intervention in Afghanistan created the mujahedin, Western intervention in Bosnia appears to have globalised it." Several current and former top al-Qaeda militants and financers reportedly participated in the Bosnian civil war with the full support of the United States. It was for the Bosnian jihad that the 9/11 'paymaster', Omar Sheikh, was reportedly recruited to fight by the CIA and MI6. Al-Qada, in addition to his reported financing of the Bosnian jihad, has been identified as one of Osama bin Laden's "chief money launderers".<ref>[http://www.theamericanmonitor.com/scratching.html The American Monitor], Scratching the Surface, by Devlin Buckley, 16 November 2006</ref> In his paper on the connection between Bosnian mujahideen and 'home grown' terrorists in Europe, terrorism expert [[Evan F. Kohlmann]] writes that:
<blockquote>Indeed, some of the most important factors behind the contemporary radicalization of European Muslim youth can be found in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the cream of the Arab mujahideen from Afghanistan tested their battle skills in the post-Soviet era and mobilized a new generation of pan-Islamic revolutionaries.<ref>[http://www.fhs.se/upload/Webbadmin/Organisation/CATS/Kohlmann.doc The Afghan-Bosnian Mujahideen Network in Europe], by Evan F. Kohlmann</ref></blockquote>
On 19 October 2005 Bosnian police raided the apartment of a Swedish national of Bosnian heritage in Sarajevo, finding explosives, rifles, other arms and a videotape pledging vengeance for the "brothers" killed fighting Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to western intelligence officials the cache belonged to an underground group that was aiming to blow up the British Embassy in Sarajevo. The raid confirmed a suspicion among intelligence agents that Bosnia was becoming a launching pad for terrorist attacks in Europe. In particular, Islamic radicals were believe to be looking to create cells of so-called "[[White al Qaeda]]", non-Arab members who can evade [[racial profiling]] used by police to watch for potential terrorists. According to one Western intelligence agent "They want to look European to carry out operations in Europe,... It's yet another evolution in the tools used by terrorists."<ref name = "psyqzi">[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113002098.html Terrorist Cells Find Foothold in Balkans, Arrests Point to Attacks Within Europe], by Rade Maroevic and Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service, Thursday, December 1, 2005</ref>
U.S. and NATO country intelligence officers have long worked together in Sarajevo to keep an eye on Islamic radicals in Bosnia. After the September 11, 2001, attacks, the CIA and other foreign agencies set up a joint, fortified headquarters to keep tabs on terrorism suspects in Bosnia-Herzegovina.<ref name = "psyqzi"/>
===Asia===
====Afghanistan====
{{main|Civil war in Afghanistan (1996-2001)|War in Afghanistan (2001–present)}}
{{seealso|Taliban}}
====Pakistan and India====
{{main|Waziristan War|Lashkar-e-Toiba}}
====Indonesia====
{{main|Jemaah Islamiyah}}
{{seealso|2002 Bali bombings|2003 Marriott Hotel bombing|2004 Australian embassy bombing|2005 Bali bombings}}
====Philippines====
{{main|Abu Sayyaf}}
===The Middle East===
[[Image:Riyadhbomb.jpg|thumb|Aftermath of one of the [[Riyadh compound bombings|Riyadh bombings]] in Saudi Arabia]]
{{seealso|Ghriba synagogue bombing|Riyadh compound bombings|29 May 2004 Al-Khobar massacres|2005 Amman bombings|2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks}}
====Iraq====
{{main|Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida|Al-Qaeda in Iraq}}
{{See also|Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad|Mujahideen Shura Council|Islamic State of Iraq}}
[[Image:UN DF-SD-04-02188.JPEG|thumb|Aftermath of the [[Canal Hotel bombing]]]]
Osama bin Laden first took interest in [[Iraq]] when the country invaded [[Kuwait]] in 1990, raising concerns the secular [[Baath]]ist government of Iraq might next set its sights on Saudi Arabia, homeland of bin Laden and Islam itself. In a letter sent to [[Fahd of Saudi Arabia|King Fahd]], he offered to send an army of mujahedeen to defend Saudi Arabia, but the offer was rebuffed.<ref>{{cite web|date= [[2006-05-28]] | title=Who is Osama Bin Laden? | work=BBC News | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1551100.stm | accessmonthday=29 May | accessyear=2006}}</ref> During the [[Gulf War]], the organization's interests became split between outrage at the intervention of the United Nations in the region and hatred of Saddam Hussein's secular government.
Links between Saddam's regime and al-Qaeda, as claimed by the Bush Administration (which formed a crucial part of the [[WMD]] justification for the Iraq invasion), were non-existent or exaggerated, according to the report of both the United States Government's 9/11 Commission<ref>{{cite web|date= [[2004-07-22]] | title=The 9/11 Commission Report, p.334 | work=United States Government Printing Office | url=http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/pdf/sec10.pdf | accessmonthday=2 May | accessyear=2007}}</ref> and the Pentagon;<ref>[http://wpherald.com/articles/4137/1/Pentagon-report-There-was-no-Saddam-al-Qaida-connection/CIA-in-2002-found-no-cooperation.html World Peace Herald: ''Pentagon report: There was no Saddam-al Qaida connection'']</ref> despite these conclusions, [[dick cheney|Vice President Dick Cheney]] has continued to publicly assert an Iraqi–al-Qaeda link.<ref>{{cite web|date= [[2006-09-10]] | title=Cheney reasserts Iraq/al-Qaeda links | work=Financial Times | url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1f27d8e4-4106-11db-827f-0000779e2340.html| accessmonthday=10 May | accessyear=2007}}</ref>
Recently, the US has acknowledged that the role of al-Qaeda in post-invasion violence in Iraq was overstated.<ref>{{cite web|date= [[2006-04-18]] | title=Who is behind "Al Qaeda in Iraq"? Pentagon acknowledges fabricating a "Zarqawi Legend" | work=Centre for Research on Globalization | url=http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060418&articleId=2275| accessmonthday=14 May | accessyear=2007}}</ref> The US also claimed that al-Qaeda was in contact with the [[Kurds|Kurdish]] Islamist group [[Ansar al-Islam]] from its inception in 1999; however, Ansar al-Islam's founder, [[Mullah Krekar]], has staunchly denied any such link.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2713749.stm | title=Mullah denies Iraq al-Qaeda link | publisher=BBC News | author=Pam O'Toole | date=2003-01-31}}</ref>
Since the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], [[Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad|elements at first loosely associated with al-Qaeda]], commanded by [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]], have supported local resistance to the occupying coalition forces and the emerging government, particularly targeting Iraq's [[Shi'a Islam|Shia]] majority.<ref name="aljazeera">{{cite news|url = http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/407AAE91-AF72-45D7-83E9-486063C0E5EA.htm|work = [[Al Jazeera]]|title = Al-Zarqawi declares war on Iraqi Shia|date = [[September 14]] [[2005]] }}</ref> They have been implicated in the bombing of the [[United Nations]] headquarters in Iraq,<ref>{{cite press release|publisher=[[U.S. Department of State]]|date=[[October 15]] [[2004]]|title=Foreign Terrorist Organization: Designation of Jama?at al-Tawhid wa?al-Jihad and Aliases|url=http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2004/37130.htm|accessdate=2006-04-21}}</ref> as well as hundreds of other small and large scale attacks on the military and civilian targets.<ref>{{cite news | first=Jim | last=Miklaszewski | title=With Tuesday’s attacks, Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with ties to al-Qaida, is now blamed for more than 700 terrorist killings in Iraq. | date=[[March 2]] [[2004]]|publisher=NBC News|url=http://drinkingliberally.org/blogs/louisville/archives/2006/03/ }}</ref> Eventually, al-Zarqawi [[Al-Qaeda in Iraq|claimed allegiance to bin Laden]] in October 2004.
Al-Zarqawi was killed by U.S. [[air strikes]] on a safe house near [[Baqubah]] on [[June 7]], [[2006]]. Before his death, he was allegedly trying to use Iraq as a launching pad for international terrorism, most notably dispatching suicide bombers to attack hotels and government targets in [[Jordan]].<ref>{{cite news|title= Furious Jordanians take to streets|date=[[November 11]] [[2005]]|publisher=[[CNN]] | url=http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/10/jordan.blasts/index.html }}</ref> Since the killing of al-Zarqawi, it was believed that [[Abu Ayyub al-Masri]] took over as head of "al-Qaeda in Iraq". On [[September 3]], [[2006]] the second-in-command of "al-Qaeda in Iraq", [[Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi|Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi]] (also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana), was arrested north of Baghdad, along with a group of his aides and followers.<ref>[[USA Today]]: [http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-09-03-al-Qaeda-arrest_x.htm Suspected No. 2 al-Qaeda leader arrested], [[4 September]] [[2006]]</ref>
In a 39 page document retrieved in November and a 16 page document retrieved in October gives insight on how Al-Qaeda in Iraq is in panic and fear. The documents reveal how local fighters are being mistreated by the foreign fighters and labeled as "scoundrels, sectarians, and non-believers." Abu-Tariq, states that the number of fighters has dwindled from 600 to 20 fighters. <ref>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3346386.ece Al-Qaeda leaders admit: 'We are in crisis. There is panic and fear']</ref>
{{seealso|Canal Hotel bombing|Al-Askari Mosque bombing (2006)|2007 al-Askari Mosque bombing}}
====Israel and Palestine====
Bin Laden's and Ayman al-Zawahiri's repeatedly refer to the [[Palestinians|Palestinian]] cause in their manifestos and interviews. The [[Palestinian Islamic Jihad]], and organization formed in the [[Gaza Strip]] during the 1970s by [[Fathi Shaqaqi]] and [[Abd Al Aziz Awda]] as a branch of the [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]], an organization currently led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, is active in its attacks against Israel.
{{Citations broken|date=April 2008}}
Al-Qaeda is suspected to have planned and carried out two nearly simultaneous attacks against [[Israel]]i civilian targets in [[Mombasa, Kenya]], on [[November 28]], [[2002]]. Al-Qaeda also increased its external operations in 2005 by claiming credit for attacks including<ref name="Organizations">"[http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2005/65275.htm Foreign Terrorist Organizations]", ''[[Country Reports on Terrorism]]'', [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]], 28 April 2006.</ref> a [[missile|rocket attack]] that narrowly missed [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] ship in [[Eilat]], Israel, and the firing of several ''[[Katyusha]]'' rockets into Israel from [[Lebanon]].
An extremist Gaza Strip group calling itself [[Army of Islam (Palestine)|Army of Islam]] or "the organization of al-Qaeda in Palestine",<ref>Kershner, Isabel. "[http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/21/news/22mideast.php Bombing at U.S.-backed school in Gaza]", ''[[International Herald Tribune]]'', [[April 21|04-21]]-2007. Retrieved [[April 30|04-30]]-2007.</ref> which gained notoriety with kidnapping of [[Alan Johnston]], draws inspiration from al-Qaeda.<ref>[[Reuters]]. "BBC's Johnston shown in tape wearing explosives", [[Reuters]], [[June 24|06-24]]-2007.</ref>
====Lebanon====
{{main|2007 North Lebanon conflict}}
[[Shakir al-Abssi]], a former associate of al-Qaeda in Iraq, recruited Palestinian refugees in Lebanon into [[Fatah al-Islam]] and rose against the government.<ref> Mekhennet, Souad/Moss, Michael. "[http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/15/news/lebanon.php A new face of Al Qaeda emerges in Lebanon]", ''[[International Herald Tribune]]'', [[March 15|03-15]]-2007. Retrieved [[March 23|03-23]]-2007.</ref> The exact nature of the group's al-Qaeda links remains a matter of controversy.
On the 9th of May 2008, after the clashes between the [[Hezbollah]] and government loyalists, Al-Qaeda declared war on Hezbollah.<ref>"[http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=54916§ionid=351020203 Presstv.]"</ref>
==Organization structure and membership==
[[Image:Bin laden 12 27a.jpg|thumb|right|Osama bin Laden in the December 2001 video]]
[[Image:Zarqawideathtribute.jpg|thumb|Al-Zawahiri praising al-Zarqawi after the death of the latter in 2006]]
===The chain of command===
Though the current structure of al-Qaeda is unknown, information mostly acquired from [[Jamal al-Fadl]] provided American authorities with a rough picture of how the group was organized. While the veracity of the information provided by al-Fadl and the motivation for his cooperation are both disputed, American authorities base much of their current knowledge of al-Qaeda on his testimony.<ref name="rename">[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,999237,00.html A Traitor's Tale], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 19 February 2001</ref>
[[Osama bin Laden]] is the [[emir]] and Senior Operations Chief of al-Qaeda (although originally this role may have been filled by [[Abu Ayoub al-Iraqi]]), advised by a Shura Council, which consists of senior al-Qaeda members, estimated by Western officials at about twenty to thirty people.
[[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] is al-Qaeda's Deputy Operations Chief and [[Abu Ayyub al-Masri]] is possibly the senior leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
* The Military Committee is responsible for training operatives, acquiring weapons, and planning attacks.
* The Money/Business Committee runs business operations, provides air tickets and false [[passport]]s, pays al-Qaeda members, and oversees profit-driven businesses. In the 9/11 Commission Report, it is estimated that al-Qaeda requires $30,000,000 USD per year to conduct its operations.
* 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 handled [[public relations]].
* In 2005, al Qaeda formed [[As-Sahab]], a media production house, to supply its video and audio materials.
The number of individuals belonging to the organization is also unknown. According to the controversial [[BBC]] documentary ''[[The Power of Nightmares]]'', al-Qaeda is so weakly linked together that it is hard to say it exists apart from Osama bin Laden 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. Therefore the extent and nature of al-Qaeda remains a topic of dispute.<ref>{{cite book
| last = Gerges
| first = Fawaz A
| authorlink =
| coauthors =
| title = The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
|date= 2005-09-05
| id = ISBN 0-521-79140-5}}</ref>
Its rank and file has been described as changing from being "predominantly Arab," in its first years of operation, to "largely Pakistani," as of 2007.<ref>[http://www.meforum.org/article/1710 Jihad's New Leaders] by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Kyle Dabruzzi, ''Middle East Quarterly'', Summer 2007</ref> It has been estimated that 62% of al-Qaeda members have university education.<ref>[http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=c841b52c-b2e7-4e41-b27e-33d10245b935&k=0 Today's jihadists: educated, wealthy and bent on killing?]</ref>
===Individuals identified as "al-Qaeda members"===
{{col-start}}
{{col-break}}
'''9/11 hijackers (American Airlines 11):'''
* [[Mohammed Atta]]
* [[Satam al-Suqami]]
* [[Waleed al-Shehri]]
* [[Wail al-Shehri]]
* [[Abdulaziz al-Omari]]
'''9/11 hijackers (United Airlines 175):'''
* [[Marwan al-Shehhi]]
* [[Fayez Banihammad]]
* [[Mohand al-Shehri]]
* [[Hamza al-Ghamdi]]
* [[Ahmed al-Ghamdi]]
'''9/11 hijackers (American Airlines 77):'''
* [[Hani Hanjour]]
* [[Khalid al-Mihdhar]]
* [[Majed Moqed]]
* [[Nawaf al-Hazmi]]
* [[Salem al-Hazmi]]
'''9/11 hijackers (United Airlines 93):'''
* [[Ziad Jarrah]]
* [[Ahmed al-Nami]]
* [[Saeed al-Ghamdi]]
* [[Ahmed al-Haznawi]]
{{col-break}}
'''Suspects at large'''
([[1998 United States embassy bombings|1998 Embassy Bombings]] and [[Kenyan hotel bombing|2002 Kenya hotel bombing]]):
* [[Fazul Abdullah Mohamed]]
* [[Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan]]
* [[Abu Taha al-Sudan]]
'''Other al-Qaeda leaders:'''
* [[Osama Bin Laden]]
* [[Saif al-Adel]]
* [[Sulaiman Abu Ghaith]]
* [[Abu Hafiza]]
* [[Abu Faraj al-Libbi]] (arrested in Pakistan, 2005)<ref>{{cite web|date= [[2005-05-04]] | title= Pakistan 'catches al-Qaeda chief' | work=BBC News | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4512885.stm | accessmonthday=29 May | accessyear=2006}}</ref>
* [[Abu Mohammed al-Masri]]
* [[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]] (captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, 2003)<ref>{{cite web |date=2003-03-11 | title=How mobile phones and an £18m bribe trapped 9/11 mastermind | work=Guardian Unlimited | url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,911860,00.html | accessmonthday=29 May | accessyear=2006}}</ref>
* [[Thirwat Salah Shirhata]]
* [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]] (killed in June 2006)<ref>{{cite web |date=2006-06-08 | title= Airstrike kills terror leader al-Zarqawi in Iraq | work=CNN.com | url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/08/iraq.al.zarqawi/index.html | accessmonthday=8 June | accessyear=2006}}</ref>
* [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]]
* [[Abu Zubaydah]] (captured in 2002)
* [[Abu Ayyub al-Masri]] (unconfirmed reports killed in a clash May 1, 2007)<ref>{{cite web |date=2007-05-01 | title=Al-Qaeda denies death of Iraq chief | work=Al Jazeera English | url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A276CC09-A0AD-4AB4-A5B8-6DF511F8187A.htm | accessmonthday=1 May | accessyear=2007}}</ref> Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq.
{{col-end}}
==Criticism==
===Islamic sources===
According to a number of sources there has been a "rising tide of anger in the Islamic world toward Al Qaeda and its affiliates" by "religious scholars, former fighters, and militants ... alarmed" by Al Qaeda's [[takfir]] and killing of Muslims in Muslim countries, especially Iraq. <ref>[http://www.tnr.com/toc/story.html?id=702bf6d5-a37a-4e3e-a491-fd72bf6a9da1 The
Unraveling by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank. The jihadist revolt against bin Laden]</ref><ref name="RebellionWright">[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/02/080602fa_fact_wright?currentPage=all The Rebellion Within, An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism. by Lawrence Wright. newyorker.com, June 2, 2008]</ref>
[[Noman Benotman]], a former Afghan Arab and militant of the [[Libyan Islamic Fighting Group]], went public with an open letter of criticism to [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] in November 2007 after persuading imprisoned senior leadership of his former group to enter into peace negotiations with the Libyan regime. While Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the affiliation of the group with al-Qaeda in November 2007, the Libyan government released 90 members of the group from prison several months later after "they were said to have renounced violence." <ref>[http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AA64F530-BCA8-40B0-8226-22154CCD1032.htm Libya releases scores of prisoners APRIL 09, 2008]</ref>
In 2007, around the sixth anniversary of September 11, Sheikh [[Salman al-Ouda]], a Saudi religious scholar and one of the fathers of the Sahwa, the fundamentalist awakening movement that swept through Saudi Arabia in the '80s, delivering a personal rebuke to [[Osama bin Laden]]. Al Ouda addressed [[Al Qaeda]]'s leader on [[Middle East Broadcasting Center|MBC]], a widely watched Middle East TV network, asking him
<blockquote>My brother Osama, how much blood has been spilt? How many innocent people, children, elderly, and women have been killed ... in the name of [[Al Qaeda]]? Will you be happy to meet God Almighty carrying the burden of these hundreds of thousands or millions [of victims] on your back? <ref>[http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=702bf6d5-a37a-4e3e-a491-fd72bf6a9da1&k= The Unraveling by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank. The jihadist revolt against bin Laden ]</ref></blockquote>
In 2007, the imprisoned [[Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif]], an influential Afghan Arab, "ideological godfather of Al Qaeda", and former supporter of takfir, sensationally withdrew his support from al Qaeda with a book ''[[Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif#Rationalizing Jihad in Egypt and the World|Wathiqat Tarshid Al-'Aml Al-Jihadi fi Misr w'Al-'Alam]]'' ("Document of Right Guidance for Jihad Activity in Egypt and the World").
Usama Hassan, an Imam in London and former supporter of al-Qaeda who traveled to Afghanistan to train as jihadi was alienated by the July 2005 bombings in London and now preaches against bin Laden and helped launch the [[Quilliam Foundation]].<ref>[http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=702bf6d5-a37a-4e3e-a491-fd72bf6a9da1&k= The Unraveling by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank. The jihadist revolt against bin Laden ]</ref>
According to Pew polls, support for Al Qaeda has been dropping around the Muslim world in recent years.<ref>[http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/5457 strata-sphere.com al-Qaeda Losing Support On Muslim Street, Terrorist Attacks Down 40% Since 2001]</ref> The numbers supporting suicide bombings in Indonesia, Lebanon, and Bangladesh, for instance, have dropped by half or more in the last five years. In Saudi Arabia, only 10 percent now have a favorable view of Al Qaeda, according to a December poll by Terror Free Tomorrow, a Washington-based think tank.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/12/17/saudi.poll/index.html December 18, 2007 Poll: Most Saudis oppose al Qaeda]</ref>
==Attacks==
{{main|Timeline of al-Qaeda attacks}}
===Internet activities===
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Shosei Koda.jpg|thumb|Iraq hostage [[beheading video]] attributed to [[al-Qaeda in Iraq]]]] -->
In the wake of its evacuation from Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and its successors have migrated online to escape detection in an atmosphere of increased international vigilance. As a result, the organization’s use of the Internet has grown more sophisticated, encompassing financing, recruitment, networking, mobilization, publicity, as well as information dissemination, gathering, and sharing.<ref>Timothy Thomas, [http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/03spring/thomas.pdf "Al Qaeda and the Internet: The Danger of Cyberplanning"] Retrieved [[February 14]] [[2007]].</ref> [[Abu Ayyub al-Masri]]’s al-Qaeda movement in [[Iraq]] regularly releases short videos glorifying the activity of jihadist suicide bombers. In addition, both before and after the death of [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]] (the former leader of [[al-Qaeda in Iraq]]), the umbrella organization to which al-Qaeda in Iraq belongs, the [[Mujahideen Shura Council]], has a regular presence on the web where pronouncements are given by [[Murasel]]. This growing range of multimedia content includes guerrilla training clips, stills of victims about to be murdered, testimonials of suicide bombers, and epic-themed videos with high production values that romanticize participation in jihad through stylized portraits of mosques and musical scores. A website associated with al-Qaeda, for example, posted a video of captured American entrepreneur [[Nick Berg]] being decapitated in Iraq. Other decapitation videos and pictures, including those of [[Paul Johnson (hostage)|Paul Johnson]], [[Kim Sun-il]], and [[Daniel Pearl]], were first posted on jihadist websites.
With the rise of “locally rooted, globally inspired” terrorists, counter-terrorism experts are currently studying how al-Qaeda is using the Internet – through websites, chat rooms, discussion forums, instant messaging, and so on – to inspire a worldwide network of support. The [[July 7]], [[2005]] bombers, some of whom were well integrated into their local communities, are an example of such “globally inspired” terrorists, and they reportedly used the Internet to plan and coordinate. A group called the "Secret Organization of al-Qaeda in Europe" has claimed responsibility for these London attacks on a militant Islamist website – another popular use of the Internet by terrorists seeking publicity.<ref> [http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8925 "Phony reports link Al Qaeda to London attacks"] Retrieved [[February 14]] [[2007]].</ref>
The publicity opportunities offered by the Internet have been particularly exploited by al-Qaeda. In December 2004, for example, bin Laden released an audio message by posting it directly to a website, rather than sending a copy to [[al Jazeera]] as he had done in the past. Some analysts speculated that he did this to be certain it would be available unedited, out of fear that his criticism of Saudi Arabia — which was much more vehement than usual in this speech, lasting over an hour — might be removed by al Jazeera editors concerned about offending the [[Saudi royal family]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}} With the assistance of two influential broadcast anchors, al-Qaeda's reach through video over the Internet and TV has significantly expanded.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070601/ap_on_re_mi_ea/al_qaida_video_offensive</ref>
In the past, [[Alneda|Alneda.com]] and [[Jehad.net]] were perhaps the most significant al-Qaeda websites. Alneda was initially taken down by American [[Jon Messner]], but the operators resisted by shifting the site to various servers and strategically shifting content. The U.S. is currently attempting to extradite an information technology specialist, [[Babar Ahmad]], from the UK, who is the creator of various English-language al-Qaeda websites such as Azzam.com.<ref>{{cite web |date=2005-08-08 | author=Whitlock, Craig| year=2005| title=Briton Used Internet As His Bully Pulpit | format=http | work=WashingtonPost.com | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/07/AR2005080700890.html | accessmonthday=29 May | accessyear=2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2004-10-06 | title=Babar Ahmad Indicted on Terrorism Charges | work=United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut|url=http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ct/Press2004/20041006.html|accessmonthday=29 May |accessyear=2006}}</ref> Ahmad's extradition is opposed by various British Muslim organizations, such as the [[Muslim Association of Britain]].
Finally, at a mid-2005 presentation for U.S. government terrorism analysts, Dennis Pluchinsky called the global jihadist movement “Web-directed,” and former CIA deputy director [[John E. McLaughlin]] has also said it is now primarily driven today by “ideology and the Internet.”{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
==See also==
{{col-start}}
{{col-break}}
* [[9/11 Commission]]
* [[Adam Yahiye Gadahn]] - (Arabic: آدم يحيى غدن; born<br /> [[September 1]], [[1978]]) is an American-born member of<br /> the al-Qaeda organization
* [[Al Barakaat]]
* [[Bin Laden Issue Station]] (CIA unit for tracking bin Laden, 1996-2005)
* [[Destructive cult#Terrorism|Terrorist organizations as destructive cults]]
* [[Insurgency in Saudi Arabia]]
* [[Fatāwā of Osama bin Laden|Ladenese epistle]]
* [[List of terrorist organisations]]
* [[Operation Cannonball]]
{{col-break}}
{{Wikinews|Internally distributed DHS memo: al-Qaeda and Hezbollah may attack U.S. within three years}}
{{Wikinews|DHS video confirms details of leaked internal memo on al-Qaeda threat, and more}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [[Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal]]
* [[Videos of Osama bin Laden]]
* ''[[The Power of Nightmares]]'' (BBC documentary)
* [[Psychological operations]]
* [[Religious terrorism]]
* [[Steven Emerson]]
* [[Takfir Wal Hijira]]
* [[Terrorist incidents]]
* [[Islamofascism]]
* [[Islam]]
* [[Bosnian Mujahideen]]
* [[Nuclear 9/11]]
{{col-end}}
==Notes & references==
{{reflist|2}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite book
| last = Alexander
| first = Yonah
| authorlink = Yonah Alexander
| coauthors = Michael S. Swetnam
| title = Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network
| year = 2001
| publisher = Transnational Publishers, Incorporated
| id = ISBN 1-57105-219-4
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Bell
| first = J. Bowyer
| authorlink = J. Bowyer Bell
| title = Murders on the Nile: The World Trade Center and Global Terror
| edition = 1st edition
| year = 2002
| publisher = Encounter Books
| id = ISBN 1-893554-63-5
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Bergen
| first = Peter
| authorlink = Peter Bergen
| title = [[Holy War, Inc.]]: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden
| edition = 1st Touchstone edition
| year = 2002
| publisher = Free Press
| id = ISBN 0-7432-3495-2
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Bergen
| first = Peter
| authorlink = Peter Bergen
| title = The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader
| edition = reprint edition
| year = 2006
| publisher = Free Press
| id = ISBN 0-7432-7892-5
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Bin Laden
| first = Osama
| authorlink = Osama bin Laden
| editor = Bruce Lawrence (Ed.)
| others = James Howarth (Translator)
| title = Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden
| year = 2005
| publisher = Verso
| id = ISBN 1-84467-045-7
}}
*{{cite book
|last = Burke
|first = Jason
|authorlink = Jason Burke
|year = 2004
|title = [[Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror]]
|publisher = I. B. Tauris
|id = ISBN 1-85043-396-8
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Coll
| first = Steve
| authorlink = Steve Coll
| title = [[Ghost Wars|Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001]]
| edition = reprint edition
| year = 2004
| publisher = Penguin (Non-Classics)
| id = ISBN 0-14-303466-9
}}
*{{cite book
|last = Corbin
|first = Jane
|authorlink = Jane Corbin
|year = 2003
|title = Al-Qaeda: In Search of the Terror Network that Threatens the World
|publisher = Nation Books
|id = ISBN 1-56025-523-4
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Devji
| first = Faisal
| authorlink = Faisal Devji
| title = Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity
| year = 2005
| publisher = Cornell University Press
| id = ISBN 0-8014-4437-3
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Esposito
| first = John L.
| authorlink = John L. Esposito
| title = Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam
| year = 2002
| publisher = Oxford University Press, USA
| id = ISBN 0-19-515435-5
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Friedman
| first = George
| authorlink = George Friedman
| title = [[America's Secret War]]: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between the United States and Its Enemies
| edition = reprint edition
| year = 2005
| publisher = Broadway
| id = ISBN 0-7679-1785-5
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Gerges
| first = Fawaz A.
| authorlink = Fawaz A. Gerges
| title = The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global
| year = 2005
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| id = ISBN 0-521-79140-5
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Gerges
| first = Fawaz A.
| authorlink = Fawaz A. Gerges
| title = Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy
| year = 2006
| publisher = Harcourt
| id = ISBN 0-15-101213-X
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Gunaratna
| first = Rohan
| authorlink = Rohan Gunaratna
| title = Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror
| edition = reissue edition
| year = 2003
| publisher = Berkley Trade
| id = ISBN 0-425-19114-1
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Habeck
| first = Mary
| authorlink = Mary Habeck
| title = Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror
| year = 2006
| publisher = Yale University Press
| id = ISBN 0-300-11306-4
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Hamud
| first = Randall B.
| authorlink = Randall B. Hamud
| editor = (Ed.)
| title = Osama Bin Laden: America's Enemy in His Own Words
| edition = 1st edition
| year = 2005
| publisher = Nadeem Publishing
| id = ISBN 0-9770935-0-6
}}
*{{cite book
|last = Kepel
|first = Gilles
|authorlink = Gilles Kepel
|year = 2004
|title = [[Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam]]
|publisher = I. B. Tauris
|id = ISBN 1-85043-722-X
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Mamdani
| first = Mahmood
| authorlink = Mahmood Mamdani
| title = Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror
| year = 2004
| publisher = Pantheon
| id = ISBN 0-375-42285-4
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Reynalds
| first = Jermey
| authorlink = Jermey Reynalds
| title = War of the Web: Fighting the Online Jihad
| year = October
| month = 2007
| publisher = World Ahead Publishing
| id = ISBN 0-9746701-7-0
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Roy
| first = Olivier
| authorlink = Olivier Roy
| title = Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah
| year = 2004
| publisher = Columbia University Press
| id = ISBN 0-231-13498-3
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Sageman
| first = Marc
| authorlink = Marc Sageman
| title = Understanding Terror Networks
| year = 2004
| publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press
| id = ISBN 0812238087
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Scheuer
| first = Michael
| authorlink = Michael Scheuer
| title = Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America
| edition = revised edition
| year = 2006
| publisher = Potomac Books
| id = ISBN 1-57488-967-2
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Smucker
| first = Philip
| authorlink = Philip Smucker
| title = Al Qaeda's Great Escape: The Military and the Media on Terror's Trail
| year = 2004
| publisher = Potomac Books
| id = ISBN 1-57488-628-2
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Whelan
| first = Richard
| title = Al-Qaedaism: The Threat to Islam, The Threat to the World
| edition = 1st edition
| year = 2005
| publisher = Ashfield Press
| id = ISBN 1-901658-54-6
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Williams
| first = Paul L.
| authorlink = Paul L. Williams
| title = Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror
| year = 2002
| edition = 1st edition
| publisher = Alpha
| id = ISBN 0-02-864352-6
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Williams
| first = Paul L.
| authorlink = Paul L. Williams
| title = The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, And the Coming Apocalypse
| year = 2005
| publisher = Prometheus Books
| id = ISBN 1-59102-349-1
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Wright
| first = Lawrence
| authorlink = Lawrence Wright
| title = The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
| year = 2006
| publisher = Knopf
| id = ISBN 0-375-41486-X
}}
</div>
==Videos==
*[http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ai=214&ar=862wmv&ak=null (1) Al-Qaeda Internet News Broadcast Celebrates U.S. Hurricanes and Gaza Pullout, Reports Zarqawi's Anti-Shiite Campaign and Chemical Mortar Shells in Iraq] at [[MEMRI]]
*[http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ai=214&ar=869wmv&ak=null (2) Al-Qaeda's Internet News Broadcast Expresses Solidarity with Al-Jazeera Reporter Tayseer 'Alouni Who Was Sentenced to Seven Years in Jail by a "Crusader Infidel Spanish Court"] at [[MEMRI]]
*[[Inside 9/11]] (2005) from The [[National Geographic Society]]. An Emmy nominated documentary that covers the events, principles, and organizations that lead to 9/11.
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cuHVLyX6Fc Al-qaeda Training Video].
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS8nqBuvrBo&mode=related&search= Al-qaeda and Suicide Bombers].
==External links==
*[http://www.athenaintelligence.org/index2.html Athena Intelligence] Advanced Research Network on Insurgency and Terrorism
*[http://www.tariqjamil.org/Forum/how-i-found-islam/inside-the-real-tablighi-jamaat/0/ Al-Qaeda and Talbighi Jamaat]
*[http://www.crusade-media.com/news57.html Al Qaeda’s Battle Plan 2007 and beyond - Crusade Media News]
*[http://www.crusade-media.com/news1.html Al Qaeda's Nuclear Weapons by Crusade Media News]
*[http://www.agentura.ru/english/terrorism/alqaedanc/ Al Qaeda. The role in the North Caucasus] Agentura.Ru Studies and Research Centre /ASRC/:
*[http://www.jihadmonitor.org/ JihadMonitor.org] Open Sources Project on Jihadist Terrorism
*[http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/ Rewards for Justice - Most Wanted Terrorists]
*[https://crusade-media.com/news78.html Is this Al Qaeda's Final Warning?] [[May 29]], [[2007]] - Crusade Media News
*U.S. Dept. of Justice, [http://web.archive.org/web/20050331091340/http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/trainingmanual.htm Al Qaeda Training Manual].
*[http://spaces.brad.ac.uk:8080/display/ssispsru/Home The Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU)]
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front PBS FRONTLINE "Al Qaeda's New Front" January 2005]
*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,649744,00.html Al-Qaida has been more active in Britain]
*[http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200409/cullison Inside Al-Qaeda's Hard Drive]; Alan Cullison, [[The Atlantic Monthly]], September 2004.
*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html The making of the terror myth]; Guardian; [[October 15]] [[2004]]
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3755686.stm The Power of Nightmares]; A three-part BBC documentary about the [[War on Terrorism]]
*[http://www.crusade-media.com Al Qaeda Terrorism Coverage]
*[http://memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S5&P1=139 Middle East Media Research Institute TV clips]
*{{dmoz|Society/Issues/Terrorism/Terrorist_Organizations/Al-Qaida|Al-Qaida}}
* [http://www.thefi.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=84 ''Al-Qaedaism: The Threat To Islam, The Threat To The World''] Book Review
* [http://spaces.brad.ac.uk:8080/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=984 The Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU) - Extremism and Terrorism Section]
* [http://daveedgr.com/publications/internet-journals/osamas-big-lie/ Osama's Big Lie]
* [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3478471,00.html Al-Qaeda] at Ynetnews Lexicon
{{Islamism}}
{{War on Terrorism}}
[[Category:Islamic terrorism]]
[[Category:Islamism]]
[[Category:Al-Qaeda| ]]
[[Category:U.S. State Department designated terrorist organizations]]
[[Category:Canada Public Safety designated terrorist entities]]
[[Category:Russian Federal Security Service designated terrorist organizations]]
[[Category:Government of Kazakhstan designated terrorist organizations]]
[[Category:UK Home Office designated terrorist groups]]
[[Category:Islam-related controversies]]
[[Category:Supraorganizations]]
[[Category:Jihadist organizations]]
[[Category:Terrorism]]
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