Friday, July 08, 2005
The New Al Qaeda
Peter Taylor has some scary insight into Al Qaeda's new strategy:
I'm not sure how you figure out who's a terrorist and who's not, with Al Qaeda actively recruiting drinkers and drug dealers. They seem quite flexible, but sticking to their goals. AND, they mean what they say:
Look for Taylor on a new BBC series-The New Al Qaeda
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Al-Qaida's new modus operandi is a combination of strategy and necessity. After the US coalition destroyed its training bases in Afghanistan, word went out, allegedly from Bin Laden himself, that jihadi veterans should return home to their countries of origin, recruit locally and prepare to attack domestic targets. The attacks in Casablanca and Madrid were illustrations of this. What made the Madrid bombers so difficult to detect was that some members of the cell were takfiris, Islamist militants committed to jihad while continuing to live a western lifestyle, drinking, smoking and taking drugs. The leaders of the cell deliberately set out to radicalise and recruit street criminals so they could bring their expertise to the cause. Jamal Ahmidan, the Madrid takfiri who got hold of the explosives, was a drug dealer. One of the critical questions to be answered is: where did the London bombers come from? Were they British jihadis, some of whom, Peter Clarke admits, have gone to fight in Iraq?
I'm not sure how you figure out who's a terrorist and who's not, with Al Qaeda actively recruiting drinkers and drug dealers. They seem quite flexible, but sticking to their goals. AND, they mean what they say:
...The former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, Mike Scheuer, tellingly told me that al-Qaida's policy was to launch warning attacks against countries helping America in Iraq and Afghanistan: "At one point Bin Laden and Zawahiri [his number two] named 23 countries that deserved to be punished. All 23 have been hit. It's a pretty good record of consistency."
And now London. It seemed only a matter of time. Yesterday was the day the nightmare came true.
Look for Taylor on a new BBC series-The New Al Qaeda
