Al-Qaeda remains a viable and effective "network of networks" and has been galvanised by the war in Iraq, according to the London-based think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

It says that recent attacks in Spain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia show that the group has fully reconstituted itself after the loss of its base in Afghanistan.

Osama Bin Laden's network has set its sights firmly on the United States and its closest Western allies, the report says.

It would ideally like future operations to make use of weapons of mass destruction.

...

The report also addresses the broader issue of relations between Islam and the West, saying the Bush administration did not fully appreciate that the 11 September attacks were a "violent reaction to America's pre-eminence". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3746205.stm

:|

They really need to hunt these people down, and eliminate them. This is where our money should be spent. What good is medicare reform if we can't protect our citizens?

Of course, if we concentrated on Al-Qaeda, then eventually, you'd see an article that says "Iraq war spurred on Al-qaeda hunt".

The two wars would split US resources and encourage each other.

Originally posted by NJ Refugee
Of course, if we concentrated on Al-Qaeda, then eventually, you'd see an article that says "Iraq war spurred on Al-qaeda hunt".

The two wars would split US resources and encourage each other. I think you misunderstood me. I didn't mean we should drop the Iraq war to go after Al Quaeda. I mean we need to Al Quaeda should have been the focus all along, and should take precedence over certain other policies that drain our resources (eg medicare reform)

They really need to hunt these people down, and eliminate them.

That might prove to be a little difficult, logistically...

...the group is present in more than 60 countries and has "18,000 potential terrorists at large".

Originally posted by Zaphod Beeblebrox


That might prove to be a little difficult, logistically...

Yeah, but you wouldn't have to get all 18,000. I'm sure even Europeans could manage to catch a few. ;) Besides, we're the USA, we can do anything. :cool:

Where do they train?

Like a giant zit, Muslims should be squeezed until all the terrorists are splattered on the mirror.

Originally posted by Snouter
Like a giant zit, Muslims should be squeezed until all the terrorists are splattered on the mirror.
:lol:

nice analogy :p

Fully reconstituted???????? I dont see anything that supports that at all.

Attacks in 2000, Sept 11 in 2001, then the war in Iraq, and silence since then.

We should have 'spurred' Al Qaeda on a long time ago.

Nothing like the sound of silence, eh Sulla. :rolleyes:

# 2002 Singapore embassies terrorist attack plot foiled
# 2002 Ghriba Synagogue Attack in Tunisia
# 2002 May 8 Bus Attack in Karachi
# 2002 June 14 attack outside U.S. Consulate in Karachi
# 2002 Limburg tanker bombing in Yemen
# 2002 Kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl
# 2002 Bali car bombing of holidaymakers
# 2002 Zamboanga bombings in the Philippines
# 2002 Moscow theatre siege
# 2002 Kenyan hotel bombing
# 2002 Beltway sniper attacks
# 2003 Chechen militants carry out several deadly suicide bombings across Russia and nearby provinces, killing more than 250 people.
# 2003 Riyadh Compound Bombings--bombings of United States expat housing compounds in Saudi Arabia kill 26 and injure 160. Al-Qaeda blamed.
# 2003 Casablanca Attacks in Casablanca, Morocco leaves 41 dead. The attack involved 12 bombers and 5 targets. The targets were "Western and Jewish". Attack attributed to a Moroccan al-Qaeda-linked group.
# 2003 Canal Hotel Bombing in Baghdad, Iraq kills 22 people including the top UN representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
# 2003 In response to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, terrorists in that country stage dozens of suicide bombings targeting Iraqi and Coalition targets.
# 2003 Istanbul Bombings: Within five days, truck bombs go off at two synagogues, the British Consulate, and the HSBC Bank in Istanbul, Turkey.
# 2004 109 Kurds are killed in 2 suicide bombings in Arbil, Iraq.
# 2004 Bomb on Moscow subway kills 41.
# 2004 Suicide bombings at Shia holy sites in Iraq kill 181 and wound more than 500.
# 2004 Attack on procession of Shia Muslims in Pakistan kills 43 and wounds 160.
# 2004 March 9, 2004 attack of Istanbul restaurant
# 2004 Bombing of Spanish commuter trains kills 191 people and injures more than 1,400.
# 2004 21 April 2004 Basra bombs
# 2004 April 21 bombing of a security building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills 5.

Half of those are pre Iraq war.

Didn't I post an article here not too long ago about last year having the smallest number of terrorist acts?

Originally posted by Chris
Nothing like the sound of silence, eh Sulla. :rolleyes:

# 2002 Singapore embassies terrorist attack plot foiled
# 2002 Ghriba Synagogue Attack in Tunisia
# 2002 May 8 Bus Attack in Karachi
# 2002 June 14 attack outside U.S. Consulate in Karachi
# 2002 Limburg tanker bombing in Yemen
# 2002 Kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl
# 2002 Bali car bombing of holidaymakers
# 2002 Zamboanga bombings in the Philippines
# 2002 Moscow theatre siege
# 2002 Kenyan hotel bombing
# 2002 Beltway sniper attacks
# 2003 Chechen militants carry out several deadly suicide bombings across Russia and nearby provinces, killing more than 250 people.
# 2003 Riyadh Compound Bombings--bombings of United States expat housing compounds in Saudi Arabia kill 26 and injure 160. Al-Qaeda blamed.
# 2003 Casablanca Attacks in Casablanca, Morocco leaves 41 dead. The attack involved 12 bombers and 5 targets. The targets were "Western and Jewish". Attack attributed to a Moroccan al-Qaeda-linked group.
# 2003 Canal Hotel Bombing in Baghdad, Iraq kills 22 people including the top UN representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
# 2003 In response to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, terrorists in that country stage dozens of suicide bombings targeting Iraqi and Coalition targets.
# 2003 Istanbul Bombings: Within five days, truck bombs go off at two synagogues, the British Consulate, and the HSBC Bank in Istanbul, Turkey.
# 2004 109 Kurds are killed in 2 suicide bombings in Arbil, Iraq.
# 2004 Bomb on Moscow subway kills 41.
# 2004 Suicide bombings at Shia holy sites in Iraq kill 181 and wound more than 500.
# 2004 Attack on procession of Shia Muslims in Pakistan kills 43 and wounds 160.
# 2004 March 9, 2004 attack of Istanbul restaurant
# 2004 Bombing of Spanish commuter trains kills 191 people and injures more than 1,400.
# 2004 21 April 2004 Basra bombs
# 2004 April 21 bombing of a security building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills 5. Not only are half before the war, it proves the initial assumption false. They were doing this BEFORE the war even started on al qaeda. SO why is it supposed to be evidence of spurring them on again?

The cole, embassy bombings in Africa, 1993 WTC attack so on so forth. Like I said. I se no reason to draw the conclusions the starter thread did. What s different?

By the way,More sectarian Muslim murders. Bombings almost every day. A reminder that this war is not just about the West versus radicalIslam or the u.s. against Iraq, but radical Islam versus the peaceful members of that religion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,1211848,00.html

Originally posted by Chris
Nothing like the sound of silence, eh Sulla. :rolleyes:

# 2002 Singapore embassies terrorist attack plot foiled
# 2002 Ghriba Synagogue Attack in Tunisia
# 2002 May 8 Bus Attack in Karachi
# 2002 June 14 attack outside U.S. Consulate in Karachi
# 2002 Limburg tanker bombing in Yemen
# 2002 Kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl
# 2002 Bali car bombing of holidaymakers
# 2002 Zamboanga bombings in the Philippines
# 2002 Moscow theatre siege
# 2002 Kenyan hotel bombing
# 2002 Beltway sniper attacks
# 2003 Chechen militants carry out several deadly suicide bombings across Russia and nearby provinces, killing more than 250 people.
# 2003 Riyadh Compound Bombings--bombings of United States expat housing compounds in Saudi Arabia kill 26 and injure 160. Al-Qaeda blamed.
# 2003 Casablanca Attacks in Casablanca, Morocco leaves 41 dead. The attack involved 12 bombers and 5 targets. The targets were "Western and Jewish". Attack attributed to a Moroccan al-Qaeda-linked group.
# 2003 Canal Hotel Bombing in Baghdad, Iraq kills 22 people including the top UN representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
# 2003 In response to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, terrorists in that country stage dozens of suicide bombings targeting Iraqi and Coalition targets.
# 2003 Istanbul Bombings: Within five days, truck bombs go off at two synagogues, the British Consulate, and the HSBC Bank in Istanbul, Turkey.
# 2004 109 Kurds are killed in 2 suicide bombings in Arbil, Iraq.
# 2004 Bomb on Moscow subway kills 41.
# 2004 Suicide bombings at Shia holy sites in Iraq kill 181 and wound more than 500.
# 2004 Attack on procession of Shia Muslims in Pakistan kills 43 and wounds 160.
# 2004 March 9, 2004 attack of Istanbul restaurant
# 2004 Bombing of Spanish commuter trains kills 191 people and injures more than 1,400.
# 2004 21 April 2004 Basra bombs
# 2004 April 21 bombing of a security building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills 5.


As has been pointed out to you, half of these are before the war, some of them are not Al Qaeda operations, and NONE of them happened in the United States. :p

It is part of the foreign policy I support that the War on Terror be fought overseas rather than in my streets. So yes, there is nothing like the sound of silence. :)

the group has fully reconstituted itself after the loss of its base in Afghanist

gee, you have to wonder if some think tank can claim this as a fact what our miltary must have planned next.

Aspirin factories in Iran?

This story was posted in another thread, but another source of the same story here...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20040525/ap_on_re_mi_ea/al_qaida

...has some wierd math. I guess the headline is more important than the story.

LONDON - Far from being crippled by the U.S.-led war on terror, al-Qaida has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks, a report said Tuesday......

..... The IISS said its estimate of 18,000 al-Qaida fighters was based on intelligence estimates that the group trained at least 20,000 fighters in its camps in Afghanistan before the United States and its allies ousted the Taliban regime. In the ensuing war on terror, some 2,000 al-Qaida fighters have been killed or captured, the survey said.

....okay. :rolleyes:

I don't see how that math is weird.

Originally posted by Zaphod Beeblebrox
I don't see how that math is weird.


When people have supported such a disastrous policy they will say anything to cover their behinds..

It's sick people are even defending these actions still..

Originally posted by Zaphod Beeblebrox
I don't see how that math is weird.
" the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks, a report said Tuesday......"

Operative word here gentlemen is SWELLING. They went from 20,000 to 18000.....

in math negative numbers sorta mean the opposite of swelling

Ah, yes, I missed that. Weird indeed.

I swear both of those are wrong, maybe they are just only terrorists or just the ones the west know of. But as fr as i knew, Osama Bin Laden had a bigger army than UK. I am not sure how many troops the UK has but i am sure it is far more than 20k.

But they are not all terrorists. He does just have a private army, which fight wars through loyalty. I mean he fought alongside Al-Mujahideen and he offered his hand to SAudi against Saddam, Saddam was at his prime then so if he could have matched Saddam even then, 13 years ago, then he must have had some mass army and decent weapons. I know he has tonnes of stingers and stuff... one stiger missile is now £9m. Now imagine how well finded he must be, the west claims he has £300m, i think it may be something more like £500m. And he may have about 50,000 men. Mate, he could invade Bangladesh, drive out the yanks, and hook into the oil...hmm, then he could have more money... why doesn't he? It would be funny if we hear on the news tommorw 'Osama Bin Laden has invaded Bagnladesh'!

Salah, if He had a bigger army than Britian he wouldn't be hiding. The British Army is around 50K troops, never mind the Navy and the RAF ;) If he had anywhere near that number of troops he would be found faster than you can say "there you are" Why? Do you have any idea how much food 50K men eat, or how many boots they need ;)

And numbers aren't enough. His troops are no where near up to the standard of training of the British and US armys, never mind their special forces, and they have no where near the same level of equipment as either of these two forces. In a straight fight between equal numbers he would lose and lose badly. Thats why his men aren't trained for that, they are trained as terrorists.

Hugs

lilnymph

I never said that he would beat the british, i know everything you just said. Me and my mate discussed this today on the bus. UK would easily win, i know. They are not all at one place. Some of them are enrolled, then just go back home, when he needs them he calls them up, a bit like the english 900 years ago. Also they fight through loyalty, they never really go out and stay and don not get paid as such. And have you never heard of the 14 pakistani private armies? They are huge, for small armies and live off the land, farming etc. I 'think' the biggest private army is something like 5000 men. That is big for a private army, and huge for a chunk of farms to feed.

And not all his men are trained let alone as terrorists. The Mujahideen are not terrorists, nor are the ones that fought alongside him in the 60s and 70s. They were freedom fighters, of a sort... actually they were just conscripts. There were 100s of thousands of those, but most just went back home after the soviet union and communism fell.

They do not wear boots, they wear sandles...:p
And like i said, they feed and cloth themselves, he just if they need to, trains a few, and gives the AK74s or some of them AK47. I think they use some High Powered assault rifles too, aswell as their standard low powered AKM. And he has 300m/500m pounds, i think that is ample to feed and clothe 50,000 men for a while.

Lastly, i said why didnt he invade Banlgladesh, not why doesnt he attack england.

Originally posted by Salah Ed-din Yusuf
And he has 300m/500m pounds, i think that is ample to feed and clothe 50,000 men for a while.

I am pretty sure that wouldn't last the british army very long ;)

hugs

lilnymph

this report is not all gloom and doom.

http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040526.asp#1

numbe 2;
For a five-page PDF of IISS Director John Chipman’s press statement summarizing the report: www.iiss.org
http://www.iiss.org/showdocument.php?docID=364

Overall, risks of terrorism to Westerners and Western assets in Arab countries appeared to increase after the Iraq war began in March 2003. With the military invasion and occupation of Iraq, the United States sought to change the political status quo in the Arab world to advance American strategic and political interests. Al-Qaeda seeks, among other things, to purge the Arab and larger Muslim world of US influence. Accordingly, the Iraq intervention was always likely in the short term to enhance jihadist recruitment and intensify al-Qaeda’s motivation to encourage and assist terrorist operations. The May 2003 attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, the gathering of foreign jihadists in Iraq, and the November 2003 attacks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey confirmed this expectation. The Madrid bombings in March 2004 reinforced the perception that al-Qaeda had fully reconstituted, set its sights firmly on the US and its closest Western allies in Europe and established a new and effective modus operandi that increasingly exploited local affiliates. Al-Qaeda must be expected to keep trying to develop more promising plans for terrorist operations in North America and Europe, potentially involving weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, soft targets encompassing Americans, Europeans and Israelis, and aiding the insurgency in Iraq, will suffice. Given the group’s maximalist objectives, its ubiquity and its covertness, stiff operational counter-terrorist measures, inter-governmentally coordinated, are still acutely required. Progress in marginalising transnational Islamist terrorists will come incrementally. It is likely to accelerate only with currently elusive political developments that would broadly depress recruitment and motivation, such as the stable democratisation of Iraq or resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict....