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Al Qaeda on the Run--Or On the March?

NCJ Number
219119
Journal
Homeland Defense Journal Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2007 Pages: 70,72,74
Author(s)
Bruce Hoffman
Date Published
April 2007
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article argues that the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies have not resulted in putting al Qaeda "on the run," as President Bush declared in October 2006, but rather have facilitated conditions for al Qaeda to be "on the march."
Abstract
Al Qaeda is now functioning exactly as its founder and leader Osama bin Laden envisioned. Al Qaeda continues to function effectively as the core inspirational, promotional, and operational core of the radical Islamist jihadist movement globally. As it always has, al Qaeda combines both a "bottom up" approach that encourages decentralized, independent planning and action against al Qaeda's enemies as well as a "top down" strategy of issuing orders and coordinating major attacks conceived by core al Qaeda leaders. The most significant threat for a massive lethal and disabling attack on America and its allies continues to be from al Qaeda's core leadership and those affiliates and associates who maintain direct contact with and loyalty to the agenda of the core leadership; however, there is an additional and challenging threat posed by less sophisticated but more unpredictable elements among the large number of Muslim immigrants in Europe. There is evidence that marginalized Muslim youth throughout Europe are vulnerable to the appeals of radical Muslim jihadism as an outlet for their frustration and anger at how they are treated by the non-Muslim cultures and societies where they are living. These dynamics that have continued to energize al Qaeda's agenda have been fueled by the Bush Administration's commitment to a full-scale military operation in the Muslim country of Iraq, further reinforcing al Qaeda's contention that Islam is under attack and the threat of occupation from the non-Muslim west.