The Al-Qaida Network
What do Osama bin Laden, Muhammad Atef, terrorism, and Islamic militants all have in common? They are all associated with Al-Qaida (the Base). What is Al-Qaida (the Base)? Al-Qaida is a multi-national support group which funds and orchestrates the activities of Islamic militants worldwide. It grew out of the Afghan war against the Soviets, and its core members consist of afghan war veterans from all over the Muslim world. Al-Qaida was established around 1988 by the Saudi militant Osama bin Laden. Based in Afghanistan, bin Laden uses an extensive international network to maintain a loose connection between Muslim extremists in diverse countries. Working through high-tech means, such as faxes, satellite
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He transferred his business to Afghanistan--including several hundred loyal workmen and heavy construction tools--and set out to liberate the land from the infidel invader. Recognizing at once that the Afghans were lacking both infrastructure and manpower to fight a protracted conflict, he set about solving both problems at once. The first step was to set up an organized program of conscription. Together with Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdellah Azzam, he organized a recruiting office--Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK-Services Office). MAK advertised all over the Arab world for young Muslims to come fight in Afghanistan and set up branch recruiting offices all over the world, including in the U.S. and Europe. Bin Laden paid for the transportation of the new recruits to Afghanistan, and set up facilities to train them. The Afghan government donated land and resources, while bin Laden brought in experts from all over the world on querilla warfare, sabotage, and covert operations. Within a little over a year he had thousands of volunteers in training in his private bootcamps. It is estimated that as many as 10,000 fighters received training and combat experience in Afghanistan, with only a fraction coming from the native Afghan population. Nearly half of the fighting force came from bin Laden’s native Saudi Arabia. Others came from Algeria(roughly 3,000), from Egypt(2,000), with thousands more
One cannot listen to the news or commentaries without hearing a controversial story that will cause you to pause and emit an "ahem sigh". In view of the recent tragedies around the world that affect America and Americans, one might reach a point of bewilderment and become reluctant to watch or listen to the news, however; if you are enrolled in a political science class, it is necessary to involve yourself in current events. The questionable killing of an American citizen was a forerunner event that caused discussion and debate. His name was Anwar-al-Awlaki who was killed in Yemen.
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.
He was the 17th of 52 children born to Mohammed bin Laden, a Yemeni immigrant who owned the largest construction company in the Saudi kingdom ( History.com Staff ). Osama lived a privileged, and carefree youth. His siblings were educated in the West and would later go and become employees at his father's company. Osama bin Laden chose rather to stay close to home. He went to school in Jeddah, decided to married young and, alike all if not most Saudi men, Osama decided to join the pact of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. In 1988, bin Laden created a new group of anti-american semites called al Qaida, that would focus on acts of terrorism instead of trying to start military campaigns. After the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, bin Laden saw this as a golden option so he returned to Saudi Arabia to step up fundraising for this new and more complicated project. After al Qaeda started to really blossom, Osama decided it was time to better protect himself and his family from arrest, or death, and win even more recruits to al Qaeda's mission, bin Laden moved from Sudan to Afghanistan in 1996. During the movement of bin Laden, the scale of al Qaeda's attacks continued to increase. Osama and his forces began to ramp up their attacks. Now bin Laden was conducting large scale raids, attacks, and incersions, such as the attacks on two United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam,
Usama bin Laden, born in 1957, comes from a wealthy Saudi Arabian family that owns a multinational construction business. He used his inherited wealth to finance Afghan forces fighting the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980’s. After the 1991 Gulf War, he was distressed that Saudi Arabia allowed U.S. forces to remain in the Arabian Peninsula. To advance his agenda of expelling the U.S. from the Islamic world, he worked with other anti-Western fundamentalists to organize a secretive, highly compartmentalized terrorist network, known as al-Qaida. It is through his upbringing, education, culture, and wars in Islamic countries, that Usama bin Laden has sought to purge the
On the clear day of the 11th of September 2001, Americans and citizens from other nations suffered a trauma that will be remembered for generations to come (Halliday 5). On September 11th al Qaeda terrorist under the command of Osama bin Laden hijacked two American Airline (AA) flights and two United Airline (UA) flights that would never again land. All of the planes that day would not go down without a fight. Although there were many heroic people that day, 9/11 ended as the worst terrorist attack in American history because of 19 men hijacking four planes that lead to 2,996 people dead (Statistic Brain).
During the mid-1996s, Bin Laden’s organization was very weak, he declared war on the United States in an effort to attract other terrorism cells to join in the fight against the global hegemon; again, this failed to attract fighters. When he realized that it would be difficult to persuade other extremists to join his organization, Bin Laden chose a new approach: bullying weaker groups into aligning with Al
Although bin Laden was an inspirational leader, Al Qaeda is a religious, separatist organization whose ideology resonates within a wide group of people in the Middle East. Bin Laden’s spiritual teachings brought in members, but he was not their prime-recruiting tool. If Al Qaeda had revolved entirely around bin Laden’s personal logic and ideals it would have collapsed with him, but because of their broad ideology Al Qaeda, has been able to stay strong.
Once said by, Malala Yousafzai: “In many parts of the world, especially Pakistan and Afghanistan, terrorism, war and conflict stop children to go to their schools. We are really tired of these wars. Women and children are suffering.” Many terrorist groups are taking over Afghanistan and fighting with governments to keep old traditions and cultures around in the country. Al-Qaeda groups were created by Osama Bin Laden. He was a man who fought to keep people and islamics culture together they were called “freedom fighters”. By the 1980’s, he was working to build roads and hideouts and made a base camp for training terrorists. When the Soviet Union separated from Afghanistan in 1989 and Saudi Arabia began to support the United States and move away from Islamic principles, Bin Laden became an outspoken critic of the
The government’s response to the September 11, 2001 events was quick and decisive. Government officials attributed responsibility for the attack to Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda organization. One result was an announced policy shift from deterrence to preemption, generally referred to as the “Bush Doctrine.” (National Security Strategy, [http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html].) Given the potential consequences of terrorist attacks employing weapons of mass destruction, government decision makers felt that the nation could not afford to sit back, wait for attacks to occur, and then respond. The nation was mobilized; combating terrorism and crippling Al Qaeda became top national priorities. The use of military force against different terrorist groups and infrastructure gained increasing acceptance in Government policy circles. In addition, a February 14, 2003, National Strategy for Combating Terrorism [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030214-7.html] gave more emphasis to the role of international cooperation, law enforcement and economic development in countering terrorism.
To some, he is the most hated and most hateful man in the world, and at one point was the most wanted criminal on the face of the planet. Osama bin Laden, in 1988, founded an Islamist network called al-Qaeda; the foundation built from his faith in God. This network would soon become a feared terrorist group from different countries across the globe. Bin Laden built his network with intentions of harming others that did not share his beliefs. Among his methods were: armed terrorism, suicide bombings, and alleged financial manipulation as the world has seen through attacks throughout history. The fear of al-Qaeda’s ability to use chemical terrorism was prominent with the rise of Islamic extremism. Al-Qaeda, throughout time, combines
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 is a Sunni sunni Islamistislamist organization that was founded by Osama bin Laden. They have made an impact on many parts of the world. Impacts that would cause casualties that is. Just three organizations Al-Qaeda is tied to are the Haqqani, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Taliban. Although Al-Qaeda has few agents left in Afghanistan they still managed and manage to cause devastating acts of violence. One of the ways they were and still are able to make such an impact is by working with other organizations with similar views for their ideal future.
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.
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
The Al-Shabaab is regarded as one of the most dangerous African terrorist organizations. Al-Shabaab is a multiethnic militant group out of Somalia that uses many terrorist tactics in attempts to gain control over the country of Somalia. They use many forms of terrorism that include ideological revolutionary, dissident, and nationalist terrorism, as they have the motive to gain power over a territory by overthrowing the government. The Al-Shabaab is suspected to have taken part in many terrorist attacks, including the 1998 United States embassies bombings. The motive behind their violence is their goal of creating an Islamic state in Somalia, which they believe is morally justified by the ideological beliefs. An important psychological