AL QAIDA

Part 1 - Overview Of al-qaida

Part 2 - Future Terrorist Caps

Of al-qaida

Part 3 - Recommendations

• Al-qaida or “The Base”. The name “qaida”

can be translated from Arabic into

“foundation” or “base”.

Cleansing the muslim countries from corrupt

and secular leadership, and fight against the

powers that threaten muslim states and the

holy places of islam.

Radicalise existing Islamic groups and create Islamicgps where none existent.

Advocate destruction of the United States, which isseen as the chief obstacle to reform in Muslimsocieties.

Sp Muslim fighters in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bosnia,Chechnya, Eritrea, Kosovo, Pakistan, Somalia,Tajikistan, Philippines and Yemen.

Al-Qaida's main goal is to “unite all Muslims and toestb the Caliphate”.

Al-Qaida's goal, therefore, is to overthrow nearly allthose Muslim govts, which are viewed as corrupt, todrive Western influence from those ctys, andeventually to abolish state bdrys.

• The name al-Qaida, or "the Base," dates back to 1988 and

reportedly originated from the term used to refer to one of bin

Laden's guesthouses.

• Al-Qaida grew out of the Afghan war against the Soviets, and its

core members consist of Afghan war veterans from all over the

Muslim world.

• Based in Afghanistan, bin Laden used an extensive international

network to maintain a loose connection between Muslim

extremists in diverse countries.

• He was in touch with an unknown number of followers all over

the Arab world, as well as in Europe, Asia, the United States and

Canada.

This org structure should not be read as defining a

hierarchical chain of command for specific terrorist

operations.

Means for coord fns and providing material sp to ops.

Once a specific op is decided upon, it would be asg to a

carefully selected CN cell, headed by a snr al-qaida op

who reported pers to Bin Laden.

• Shura/Advisory Council. Dir the overall strat.

• Sharia/Pol Committee. Resp for issuing fatwas.

• Mil Committee. Conceiving and planning

ops, aswell as managing

trg camps.

• Fin Committee. Fund-raising, and the clt

of assets.

• Foreign Purchases Committee. Acqn of foreign arm and

supplies.

• Security Committee. Phy protection, int, and

CI.

• Info Committee. In charge of propaganda.

• Usama bin Laden is the ldr of Al-Qaida.

• Raised in Saudi Arabia in a wealthy, high

profile, family of Yemeni origins.

• The beginning of his radicalisation dates

back to his university studies in Jeddah,

Saudi Arabia, where he was linked to

members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

• Later, his involvement in the Afghan

struggle against the Soviet occupation

played a maj role in shaping his ideology.

During this experience, he found a sense

of purpose and became deeply religious.

• Bin Laden also made contacts with

Islamic fighters from around the world

and participated in victorious struggles

against a secular superpower.

• According to an Arab security service, Al-Qaida consistedof 2,830 members,

• 594 Egyptians,

• 410 Jordanians,

• 291 Yemenis,

• 255 Iraqis,

• 162 Syrians,

• 177 Algerians,

• 111 Sudanese,

• 63 Tunisians,

• 53 Moroccans,

• 32 Palestinians.

• Many Al-Qaida members are Mujahedeen, veterans of theAfghan resistance against the Soviet occupation. Thesemilitants fight not only for their cause, but also becauseit is the only life they know. Most cannot return to theirnative countries because of their militancy.

• In 1998, Bin Laden announced the fmn of

an umbrella organization called “The

Islamic World Front for the struggle

against the Jews and the Crusaders” (Al-

Jabhah al-Islamiyyah al-`Alamiyyah li-

Qital al-Yahud wal-Salibiyyin).

• Among the active members of this

organization are the Egyptian Al-Gama’a

al-Islamiyya and the Egyptian Al-Jihad.

• Both of these groups have been active in

terrorism over the past decade and are

now considered as part and parcel of Al-

Qaida.

The main reasons for Usama Bin Laden to be against United States of America (USA) are the presence of the US forces on the holy land of Arabian Peninsula and an unconditional US support to the Israel against the Palestinians. It is evident from his following Fatwas:-• “Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land

of the Two Holy Places” was issued by Usama Bin Laden in August 1996.

• Later in the same year he said that "Terrorizing the American occupiers (of Islamic Holy Places) is a religious and logical obligation."

• In February 1998 he issued and signed a 'fatwa' which included a decree to all Muslims emphasising that the killing of Americans and their civilian and military allies is a religious duty for each and every Muslim to be carried out in whichever country they are .

• In an interview aired on Al Jazira (Doha, Qatar) television he stated: "Our enemy is every American male, whether he is directly fighting us or paying taxes."

The State Dept of US currentlylinks Al-Qaida to many recentterrorist attks, among them themain acts are:-

Feb 1993. A bomb at New York'sWorld Trade Centre killed sixpeople and injured another 1,000.

Nov 1995.A car bomb in SaudiArabia killed five Americanservicemen.

Jun 1996. A car bomb in SaudiArabia shattered an apartmentcomplex housing US servicemen,killing at least 19 and wounding400.

Aug 1998. Bombing at U.S.embassies in Kenya and Tanzaniakilling 224 people - including 12Americans - and injuring thousandsothers.

Dec 1999. Jordanian intelligenceuncovered a plot to attack USinstallations during millenniumcelebrations.

Oct 2000. A suicide bomb off theUSS Cole in the Yemeni port of Adenkilled 17 sailors and injured 39others.

Sep 2001. Four hijacked planescrashed into New York City WorldTrade Centre, Washington Pentagonand Pennsylvania grass field area.Attacks killed more than 5,000people.

Usama Bin Laden’s Pers Assets.

The primary source of funding is believed

to be bin Laden's fortune. Usama bin

Laden is 17th son out of 52 children of

Saudi construction tycoon Muhammad

Awad bin Laden, who amassed a fortune

from successful construction and

contracting companies in Yemen and Saudi

Arabia. Today, the bin Laden family

fortune is estimated at $5 billion, of which

Usama is reported to have received an

estimated $300 million before his family

disavowed him.

In April 1994, after his Saudi citizenship

was revoked, Bin Laden moved to

Khartoum in Sudan where he set up

factories and farms. Among bin Laden’s

numerous Sudanese commercial interests

are: a factory to process goat skins, a

construction company, a bank, a sunflower

plantation, and an import-export

operation.

• Donations. Besides the

personal property of Usama

Bin Laden, it is believed that a

lot of financial support to Al-

Qaida was being provided in

terms of donations by various

Muslims especially from the oil

rich Gulf countries in the

name of support for the Jihad.

Although no worthwhile names

could be found to substantiate

this claim of the US

government.

• Drug Trafficking. Bin Laden isalso alleged to benefit from thedrug trade in Afghanistan, theworld's leading exporter ofheroin. This is quite unlikely asthe Taliban banned poppyproduction in Afghanistan andimplemented that ban veryeffectively. Moreover, sincegrowing poppy and doingbusiness in narcotics is un-Islamic, hence it is not likely thatthe men with a strong belief inthe basics of Islam will benefitfrom drug trafficking.

The trg camps, which the Bush admdescribed as factories churning outterrorists, were focused largely oncreating an army to support theTaliban, who were waging a longground war against the NorthernAlliance.

important facets of trg in Al-Qaida:-• Al-Qaida till 11 September 2001 op

approx 12 trg camps in Afghanistan, inwhich it has reportedly trained as manyas 5,000 militants. These militantshave allegedly created cells in 50 ctys.

• Oath Taking Before the Trg. Everymember was req to undertake an oathbefore starting his trg.

• Phy Trg. Rects are subj torigorous phy trg routine.

• Basic Inf Trg. Most of therecruits received basic infantrytraining that covered the use ofvarious small arms, as well as antiarmour and antiaircraft weapons and,in some cases basic demolition; thedocuments show. The notebooksdiscovered from the destroyedtraining camps go on to describe howto carry out a coordinated infantryassault.

• Elite Trg. A smaller gp of recruits isselected for elite training thatprepare them for terrorist actions."Observing foreign embassies andfacilities," was the subject of one al-qaida espionage course. Anothertaught "shooting the personality andhis guard from a motorcycle."

• Trg for Sabotage. "Training wasimparted to Al-Qaida men forsabotage of electric plants, gasplants, airports, railroads, largecorporations and hotels whereconferences are held." Anotheradvanced class was on suchmatters as "hit teams" and"hijacking of air, bus, ship."

• Making of Explosives. AnArabic language explosivescurriculum found in the vacatedhouses gave detailed instructionson how to make and handle arange of substances: nitro-glycerine, HMDT, RDX, C-4, C-3,dynamite and ammonium nitrate.

Poisons and Poisonous Gases.A finalsection dealt with maj poisons and poisongases, which can be extracted in variousways. The docus listed the toxins - inclresin, botulism and cyanide - anddescribed how to manufacture and usethem. In one of the lessons, the studentswatched their trainers kill a dog in a boxwith homemade cyanide gas, and learnedhow this crude chemical weapon could beplaced near the air intakes of office andapartment buildings.

Tech Sophistication. Al-Qaida membersare familiar with modern communicationsand have been reported to use encryptede-mail, cellular phones, satellitecommunications, and training manuals onCD-ROMs.

The core of Al-Qaida is made up of Usama Bin Laden working close with a

Majlis-e-Shura consisting of about 10 members

Below are the adm parts of the organisation, made up of 4 executive

committees covering these 4 fields: military activity and training; religious

education; commercial activity; media relations.

Each cell operates independently with its members not knowing the identity

of other cells.

If one group is arrested they will not be able to betray others.

Strong Conviction. The activists of Al-Qaida have a strongconviction. They are fully convinced that they have a just cause anda sound reasoning to carry out their mission which they call asJihad.

Devotion to Cause. The people in Al-Qaida are fully devoted totheir cause/mission. They do not have any other purpose of theirlives but to attain the goals of Al-Qaida.

Unity of Command. Usama bin laden is the commander andspiritual leader of Al-Qaida. He is the sole authority to make anymajor decisions thus resulting in complete coordination of actionsby all.

Blind Obedience of the Leader. The activists of Al-Qaidafollow the instructions of their leader in letter and spirit withoutquestioning their validity. This reflects the highest level of trust andcohesion they have in each other and is the reason for failure of theUSA in breaking this organisation by creating the differencesamongst the members.

Selflessness. All the members of Al-Qaida haveabsolutely no political, financial or personal gains from theacts of Al-Qaida. They can not be bought and there are nocases of corruption or moral turpitude against them.

Lack of Fear of Death. The people in Al-Qaida areready to sacrifice their lives for the attainment of theirmission. To them, their cause is the most sacred.

Highest Level of Motivation. Motivation of everyonein Al-Qaida is the highest possible. They never getdemoralised if they have suffered any failures; insteadthey keep on trying again and again till such time themission given to them is accomplished.

Simple Living Style. Everyone including the leaderlives a simple life despite the vast financial resources attheir disposal. The commanders at all levels live likeordinary workers and have simple food and clothing.

Highest Level of Secrecy. The highest level of

secrecy of plans is maintained by all the concerned.

This made them to execute the plans of the scale of

9/11 and no one could get a substantial clue of it.

International Reach. Al-Qaida is an organisation

with international reach as its members are spread

all over the world. Hence, they can strike at their

targets at the time and place of their choosing.

Vast Financial Resources. Al-Qaida has

sufficient money to support and sustain all of its

operations. This money mostly comes from Usama

Bin Laden and the donations by the people.

Violence. Al-Qaida seeks to achieve its ends by violentmeans like bombing, hijacking the aircrafts, shooting thepeople and terrorising the innocent civilians. It is because ofthis violence that the world has organised a global war toeradicate the Al-Qaida.

Loose Network. Al-Qaida does not have a well definedhierarchical organised structure. This makes command andcontrol of the people difficult. Once the instructions are tobe passed or feed back is to be taken, it becomes quitecumbersome.

Faulty Strategy. It is being alleged by the internationalcommunity that Al-Qaida planned and executed the 9/11terrorist attacks on USA. It did bring a lot of media coverageand the cause of Al-Qaida was amply highlighted. But, Al-Qaida never thought that the world would join hands in afight to annihilate them and Taliban from Afghanistan. Thiswrong strategy led to destruction of its entire infrastructurein Afghanistan and loss of so many of its members.

One Man Show. Al-Qaida revolves around Usama Bin

laden, he being the leader and spiritual head of the

organisation. If Usama bin laden is eliminated or

arrested, it is likely that the organisation will break

up and will not be able to sustain.

Rigidity. One common quality of all the members of

Al-Qaida is the rigidity in their thought. They can not

be convinced by any logic or reasoning to give up

their current path of violence which they call as

Jihad.

FUTURE OF AL-QAIDA

Bio wpns. Al Qaida has

progressed much further toward

dev a particular biological wpn

than the world realise. The int

community was surprised by al

Qaida's advs in a virulent strain

in the disease, identified by the

commission only as "Agent X”. Al

Qaida is also believed to have

acquired tech sp from certain

multinational drug coys who are

sympathetic their cause.

Chem Wpn

Al Qaida leaders have shown an interest in

acquiring and employing chemical weapons, as

indicated by experiments testing the use of

hydrogen cyanide on animals in Al Qaida camps in

Afghanistan prior to the September 11 attacks on

the United States in 2001.

In addition to other docs showing ongoing research

on chemical weapons, al Qaida planned and then

aborted a chemical attack on the New York

City subway system in 2005.

Al Qaida initiated chlorine attacks in Iraq in 2007.

It is believed by analysts that Al Qaida ldrs would

not hesitate to use any chem, bio, radiological, or

nuc weapons that they might acquire.

Al Qaida openly issued a public invitation for

Muslim chemists, biologists, and physicists to join

their cause.

Unfortunately, a substantial amount of information

on how to manufacture chemical weapons already

exists in the public domain, particularly on the

Internet, which is within reach of individuals and

groups worldwide.

Nuc wpns.

In 1986, the Nuc Con Institute, in coop with

the Institute for Studies in Intl Terrorism of

the State University of New York, convened

the International Task Force on Prevention

of Nuc Terrorism, comprised of 26 nuclear

scientists and industrialists, current and

former government officials, and experts on

terrorism from nine countries.

The Task Force warned that the "probability

of nuclear terrorism is increasing" because

of a number of factors including "the

growing incidence, sophistication and

lethality of conventional forms of

terrorism," as well as the vulnerability of

nuclear power and research reactors to

sabotage and of weapons-usable nuclear

materials to theft.

There is now intense national and

international attention to the risks of

nuclear terrorism.

The possibilities that Al Qaida might acquire

the materials and the knowledge for

building nuclear weapons or "dirty bombs"

or might attack commercial nuclear-power

facilities to trigger a nuclear meltdown are

of particular concern.

The Nuclear Control Institute has been

alerting the public and policymakers to

these risks, seeking emergency measures to

reduce the vuln, and monitoring and

assessing the responses of industry, govts

and intl agencies.

With regards to nuc proliferation, ctys incl

Iran, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan and some

cen asian republics are viewed with

particular concern by the intl community.

Cyber Terrorism.

Besides disposable cellular phones and indefinablecellular sim cards, for instance made in Switzerland,Al qaida uses free based email boxes at Hotmail,Yahoo!, etc for messaging and exchanging ofinformation, where it is impossible to intercept them.

John Hamre, Deputy Secretary of Defence (1997-1999) said that on Al qaida's laptops, which they hadgot our hands on, there had been all these probing ofsites dealing with programming of supervisory controland data acquisition (SCADA) systems and control ofSCADA systems within electrical and other powercompany scenarios.

Osama bin Laden showed the importance of Internetwhen he created an original hacker school at thefaculty of electronics in his university.

Most troubling, the campaign of terror planned in1993 and the September 11, 2001, attacks on theWTC and Pentagon indicates that Al-Qaida has notonly the patience and resources for meticulous, long-term planning but a willingness to undertake terroristactions of a scale hitherto unknown.

FBI cyber security experts believe that the threat isvery different to earlier financial disruptions causedby hackers or viruses. Instead, they fear the targetswill be physical structures such as dams and powerstations controlled by computers. They believe Al-Qaida has been quietly probing such systems usingcomputers in the Middle East and South-east Asia.

Economic terrorism. Osama bin laden plans strategies based

on his victory over the Soviets inAfghanistan during the 1980s.

He believes the way to bring down asuperpower is to weaken its economythrough protracted guerrilla warfare.

AL Qaeda bled Russia for ten years untilit went bankrupt and was forced towithdraw in defeat.

"We are continuing in the same policy tomake America bleed profusely to thepoint of bankruptcy," said bin Laden.

To bring the U.S. to suffer a fate similarto that of the Soviet Union, the terroristsneed to drain America's resources andbring it to the point it can no longerafford to preserve its military andeconomic dominance.

Methods of Economic War

The first is the destruction of high-cost

qualitative targets by low-cost qualitative

means.

The 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre is a

perfect example of how terrorists can get more

bang for their cheap buck.

Bin Laden cited estimates that Al qaida spent

$500,000 to carry out the attacks of September

11, which caused America to lose more than $500

billion. "Every dollar of Al qaida defeated a

million US dollars," bin Laden concluded.

Bin Laden's second form of economic warfare involves

forcing the U.S. to sink unsustainable amounts of funding

into its defence agencies.

The more the U.S. invests in defence, the more its

domestic investment suffers neglect.

Not much is needed, bin Laden reasons, to provoke

America into expensive military interventions: "All that

we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest

point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written Al

Qaida, in order to make generals race there to cause

America to suffer human, economic and political losses

without their achieving anything.“

America now spends an extra $100 billion per year on its

military. Add to this the creation of a $30 billion-per-year

Department of Homeland Security, and the billions

directed to the State Department and other agencies

aiding allies in the War on Terror and we discover a price

tag of at least $150 billion annually to defend the U.S.

against terrorism.

Oil, which jihadists call "the provision line and thefeeding to the artery of the life of the crusader'snation," is the third component of bin Laden'sstrategy.

Oil facilities and oil workers have been attackedaround the world. In Iraq more than 190 attackstargeted oil pipelines. Rising oil prices partly reflectthe "fear premium" added by oil terrorism. For theUS, an importer of more than 10 million barrels a day,the spike in oil prices means a loss of over $50 billionin one year.

Attacks on oil serve jihadists in another, subtler way.Higher oil prices mean a historic transfer of wealthfrom oil-consuming countries -- primarily the U.S. --to the Muslim world, where three quarters of globaloil reserves are concentrated.

Meeting the Demands. One of the basic ways

to solve a conflict is to meet the demands of the

aggrieved party. In the present scenario if the

declared demands of Al-Qaida; establishing rule

of Shariah in the Arab Monarchies and

extrication of US forces from the Arab holy

places is met, it is very likely that Al-Qaida will

cease to exist, or at least it will loose popular

support of the followers of her ideology.

However, meeting of these demands either by

the Arab countries or USA is not at all likely.

• US Foreign Policies Based on Justice for All.

Since the main target of Al-Qaida has been

USA only; hence to eradicate it, the world in

general and USA in particular has to adopt the

uniform just policies for all the nations

irrespective of their religion, or geographical

location. The reinforcement of United Nations

Security Council resolutions is equally essential in

all the matters and for all the nationalities, may it

be Iraq, Libya, Iran, Israel, India or any other

nation. The USA, being the only superpower shares

the maximum blame of injustice.

Resolution of Palestine Issue. Palestine Issuebeing one of the oldest issues still unresolveddespite numerous United Nations SecurityCouncil resolutions, needs to be resolved justlyat the top most priority as the first step tocounter Al-Qaida. The USA has to stopunconditionally supporting Israel and show to theworld that she is in favour of a just solution ofthe Issue. Unless the USA seriously follows a justpolicy on Palestine and keeps on supporting themass killings by the Israel, the desperateinnocent youths of Palestine will keep on goingfor suicide attacks to make their voice heard asall of their hopes through other means have beenfailing for the past half century.

Restoring Law and Order in Afghanistan,

Somalia and Other Such Like Countries. To

deny Al-Qaida a base of operations and a safe

heaven, law and order has to be brought in

Afghanistan, Somalia and other such like

countries. Unless a rule of law exists in these

countries, the war lords will keep on giving

shelter to all type of terrorist organisations for

the want of money.

Drying Up the Financial Resources. Drying upthe financial resources of terror is vital to end theterrorist threat. More than 112 nations have issuedblocking orders and frozen assets used to financeoperation of Al-Qaida, which have been foundeverywhere from bank accounts in the United Statesto relief organizations in Europe and chains ofhoney shops in the Middle East. The 29-nationFinancial Action Task Force has played a particularlyactive role in coordinating efforts to identify andstop financial flows to terrorist organizations. Ifeffective financial control can be maintained onresources of Al-Qaida, then it will run out of thefuel necessary to keep the flames of terrorism alive.

• Military Action. Military action against Al-Qaida and Taliban has brought quite encouraging results. The network of Al-Qaida has been disrupted and many of their hardcore members have either been killed or arrested. A few of the top executives including Usama Bin Laden are still at large. Once arrested, all suspected Al-Qaida members involved in various terrorist acts should be brought to justice through open and fair court trials. Inhuman acts of torture to the arrested members being kept at various US military bases like Camp Delta in Guantanmao as shown by world media will invite retaliatory attacks and will further aggravate the situation.

• Infil of al Qaida Network. There can be no

better way to defeat al qaida than from the

inside. It reqs an int collaboration on the intl

forum especially of those ctys with high stakes in

the global war on terrorism (GWOT). The

knowledge of their future plan coupled with their

modus operandi would result in unearthing

complete cells of al qaida.