Basic Overview
Al-Qaeda, or “the Base” in Arabic, is an arrangement of extremists initially organized by Osama Bin Laden. Al-Qaeda originated throughout the uprising against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Thousands of volunteers from around the Middle East came to Afghanistan as mujahideen, warriors fighting to defend fellow Muslims. Bin Laden returned to his native Saudi Arabia after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan and founded an organization to help veterans of the Afghan war, thus creating the basis of al-Qaeda. The death of Bin Laden, who was killed in a joint operation by US troops and CI operatives in May 2011, complicated the future of al-Qaeda. Some speculated that the group might seek retaliation, while others wondered if they would wallow without their supreme leader. More than a month after bin Laden’s death, al-Qaeda named Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri as their new leader. Following bin Laden’s death another powerful top ranking al-Qaeda leader, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, was killed in June. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was the leader of al-Qaeda in East Africa and was responsible for the organized US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998.
Al-Qaeda’s leadership masterminds a loosely organized network of cells, with a small, mobile and decentralized infrastructure. It recruits members from thousands of Arab Afghan veterans and radicals around the world, with each cell operating independently with its members not knowing the identity of other cells.
Al Qaeda was founded in 1988 by the most wanted terrorist in America, Osama Bin Laden, to bring together Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Invasion. Al Qaeda works with allied Islamic extremist groups to take over regimes it deems "non-Islamic" and remove Westerners from Muslin countries. The organization first began with three members and now there are approximately 200 to 1,000 current members. Al-Qaeda began to construct and offer training camps and guesthouses to its recruits; while they also attempted to pull in U.S. citizens for financial, communication, and operation reasons for the benefit of Al-Qaeda and its other affiliations. By 1990 Al-Qaeda was providing military and intelligence training in various areas including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Sudan.
Bin Laden was on the FBI’s most wanted list for 10 years until the SEAL aided by the CIA captured him on May 2, 2011 in Abbottabad . Osama was one of the main founders of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda that targeted not only American citizens, but also anyone who stood in the way of what their beliefs were and what they thought to be their mission on Earth. Al-Qaeda was formed in 1988. Bin Laden formed the Al-Qaeda network whose job was to carry out global strikes against Western interests (Osama Bin Laden Biography). He is believed to have orchestrated at least a dozen attacks, some were successful,while others ,were not. Among the worst of these were two truck bombings, in which more than 200 people were killed , both happened on August 7, 1998, of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (Osama Bin
Before the 9/11 attacks, Al Qaeda’s history is packed with mostly unsuccessful attempts to fulfill its most enduring goal: the unification of other militant Islamic groups under its strategic leadership. Osama Bin Laden’s efforts to build an “Islamic Army” began in the mid-1990s when he was based in Sudan. However, his mission failed because he had no ideology around which to build unity and attract new fighters and other terrorist organizations.
Al Qaeda began with the recruitment of members of the Afghan army who Osama met and perceived to be obedient and loyal. The goal of the organization was to create one unified Islamic State and to spread the jihadist cause throughout the world. Al Qaeda claimed “responsibility for killing tourists in Egypt, and in 1998 they bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Tanzania, killing nearly 300 people in the process” (“Osama bin Laden”). However, Osama did not expect the U.S. to have their own team of specialists. Seal Team 6 was developed as “a counterterrorist team that could operate under the utmost secrecy” (Minute Help Guides 6). Hybrids between soldier and spy, Seal Team 6 is “one of the nation’s most mythologized, most secretive
Al Qaeda is one of the major terrorist organizations in the world, they are responsible for at least thirty attacks worldwide and three on US soil, most famously they are responsible for the attacks on September 11th 2001. Al Qaeda started in nineteen eighty-eight by the leader Osama Bin Laden, who has been the leader for both attacks in New York City. The major attack was the deadliest attack on US soil, which was the
This fanatic gathering was going by Osama Bin Laden a Saudi Arabian son of a very rich Construction tycoon. Bin Laden was conceived from his father’s tenth spouse and he was the seventh of 50 offspring to his father. At the point when the Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan in 1979, Bin Laden joined the Afghan resistance, trusting it was his obligation as a Muslim to battle the occupation. He migrated to Peshawar, Afghanistan utilizing help from the United States under the CIA program Operation Cyclone. Bin Laden then started preparing a mujahideen, a gathering of Islamic jihadists. At the point when the Soviets pulled back from the nation in 1989, Bin Laden came back to Saudi Arabia as a legend, and the United States alluded to him and his officers as "Flexibility Fighters." Bin Laden talked openly against the Saudi government's dependence on American troops, trusting their nearness befouled consecrated soil. After a few endeavors to hush Bin Laden the Saudis expelled the previous war legend. Bin Laden started executing his savage arrangements, with the objective of drawing the United States into war. His trust was that Muslims, bound together by the fight, would make a solitary, genuine Islamic state. In 1996, to forward his objective, Al Qaeda exploded truck bombs against U.S. drives in Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda then asserted obligation regarding slaughtering voyagers in Egypt, and in 1998 the bombarding of the U.S. consulates in Nairobi, Kenya, and Tanzania, executing about 300 individuals. (Biography.com Editors,
Osama bin Laden founded al-Qaeda in 1988 with the goal to rid Muslims countries of western influences and replace their governments with Islamic regimes. Born in an extraordinarily wealthy family, Osama bin Laden used his family’s money to found the terroristic organization. Abdullah Yusus Azzam was an influential Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar who mentored bin Laden and persuaded him to come to Afghanistan. The main goals of al-Qaeda are to: spread Islam through the world with or without the consent of the occupants, destroy Israel and it’s affiliates, terrorize the United States of America, financially bleed the United States, and fight to defend the rights of Muslims. The organization’s numerous attacks against the United States, and all of humanity (except the Muslims) have changed the world’s perception of terrorism. There are numerous religious affiliates of al-Qaeda, some of which include, Sunni Islamism, Takfirism, and Qutbism. There are very few supporters of al-Qaeda’s beliefs and actions. Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa, a ruling point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority, which eventually amounted to a public declaration of war against the United States and its allies. There is a tremendous amount of confusion about the connections between the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Although the two have ties, they are completely separate and distinct groups who have different goals. Starting in the late 1980s, an international terrorist network, al Qaeda, changed the
Al-Qaeda grew from the Service Office founded in 1980 lead by the infamous Osama bin Laden. This was an office that was tasked with destroying Muslim brigade that stood in the way of the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan. However, Laden did not want to stop after this task. He began to train and recruit warriors from over 20 countries. With these fighters, Bin Laden planned to carry the holy war past Afghanistan. This lead to the creation on Al-Qaeda in 1988. The group was focused on removing western influence from Muslim theocracy and create strict Islamic governments.
The Al-Qaeda is the deadliest terrorist group in the world responsible for the worst attacks across the globe. The group is Wahhabi organization that was founded by Osama Bin Laden alongside Abdullah Azzam and other influential militants. When Osama Bin Laden died, it was a big drawback to the group, however, was a big setback for the prominent terrorist group, it still managed to maintain its grounds and grow stronger over the years (Bergen, 2011). Al-Qaeda is responsible for the April 2007 Ashoura massacre and also contributed to the September 11th attack on American soil. Al-Qaeda has very many training grounds spread across the globe with the largest one been the Khalden training camp located in Shorabak in Pakistan that was apparently destroyed by the American military. The core lesson taught at the training camps is the interpretation of the Muslim Sharia law. The Al-Qaeda group has one mission, vision, and objective, to form global jihad to unite all Muslims across the globe (Shahzad, 2011). The Al-Qaeda group has a characteristic way of carrying its attacks via the use suicide bombers who are sent to carry out suicide missions. Al-Qaeda also owns numerous aircraft such as Boeing 727s as well as multiple executive jets.
5). During this time, Islam became more than just a religion to bin Laden, he began to adopt a more radicalized view of the world and extreme his religious ideals began to shape his political views. By the late seventies, bin Laden was actively involved with the extremist group and joined in “the jihad” (holy war) against the Soviets when they invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Bin Laden used his connections and wealth to help finance and support recruitment and training of jihads against the Soviets, in addition to developing a “Golden Chain” of financiers that helped fund recruits into Afghanistan. During this time, the United States and Saudi Arabia were spending billions of dollars of assistance into training rebels in Afghanistan in order to fight against the Soviets. It was during this time that bin Laden and his associate Abdullah Azzam created Al ‘Qaeda (the base). The U.S. was unaware that they were providing training and secret assistance to a future enemy. The Soviets finally pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, but bin Laden and his associate had already decided that al ‘Qaeda would not dissolve. Azzam was killed later that year, and bin Laden became head of the organization. The organization remained relatively underground whilst it prepared for its fight against the West. The tipping point for Osama bin Laden was when Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Saudi
On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists who were members of the Islamic terrorist organization named al-Qaeda, hijacked four commercial airplanes and committed suicide attacks against the United States. Two of the planes were ran into the towers of the World Trade Center (Twin Towers) in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside of Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in mass death and destruction, triggering the United States initiatives to fight terrorism and defend our country. Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., among these people were more than 400 police officers and 300 firefighters, these heros lost their lives
Terrorists do not engage openly like their insurgent counterparts. Instead, they tend to avoid being in the open and take no effort to directly control a population. According to Hoffman, this is due to the terrorist being “constrained both numerically and logistically.” Rather than limiting themselves to combatants and overthrowing governments, the terrorists focus on utilizing any means necessary. These acts range from bombings, assassinations, murder, kidnappings, suicide attacks, as well as the occasional guerilla attack. Another key to successful terrorism networking. The most successful terrorist cells utilize networks as a means to de-centralize. These networks are filled with like-minded individuals who belong to a movement or leader but do not take direct orders. Because of this, there is no direct chain of command. Due to this strategy, terrorist cells do not coordinate attacks but rather act independently of one another. Because of this, it is exceedingly difficult for law enforcement agencies to completely wipe out a terrorist movement. Al Qaeda utilizes this strategy quite efficiently. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s theoretician, used this as a means to gather like-minded individuals to target Americans and Jewish populations as a means to incite fear and
There are several terrorist groups throughout the world today. All the terrorist groups have one common goal and that is to rid the world of Americans and western influence from the Muslim world. There is one organization that has ties to most of all the terrorist groups in the world and is the most infamous group in the world today and that is the group called Al-Qaeda The word Al-Qaeda means “the base” in Muslim. As an international terrorist organization led by Osama bin Laden. The group seeks to rid Muslim countries of western influence and replace them with fundamentalist Islamic regimes. Al-Qaeda grew out of the of the ashes of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1988, after it helped expel the Soviet
Al Qaeda is the international terrorist group responsible for these two attacks. The mastermind behind the attacks was named Fazul Abdullah Mohammed. He was recruited by Osama Bin Laden who was a Saudi millionaire. Osama was the leader that funded and supported Al Qaeda. For
The Islamic State (ISIS) has been on the rise this past decade. They have been committing acts of terrorism to restore the caliphate to the Muslim religion. The caliphate is a form of Islamic government led by a caliph a successor of the Islamic prophet Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. These acts of terror have included the decapitation of Christian’s, where they videotaped the execution and put the decapitated heads in the town square for everyone to see as well as the recent bombing attacks on Paris which killed hundreds.