Angry Outsiders Boosting al-Qaida's Ranks

[deadparrot]

LONDON - They had roots in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Jamaica: the suspected al-Qaida foot soldiers in Britain were immigrants or were children of immigrants — a new breed of recruits that underscores the changes in the organization since the Sept. 11 attacks, say experts studying the London bombings.

These experts, who include a pioneer in personality profiling, say al-Qaida, always loosely knit, is mutating into satellites that attract local operatives bound by disenchantment with the Western societies in which they grew up. It is no longer a hierarchy with
Osama bin Laden calling the shots, they say.

"Al-Qaida version 1.0 is functionally dead," said Jerrold Post, a founding director of the CIA's Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. "Al-Qaida version 2.0 is almost more an ideology. ... It's an adaptive organization responding to a crisis."

With its founding fathers in hiding, and dozens of key operatives under watch, al-Qaida has changed. No longer considered capable of large transnational attacks, it is taking advantage of people who don't have to cross borders, receive cash from abroad or engage in other international transactions that might alert authorities, said Brian Jenkins, a senior adviser to the president of the Rand Corp.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/al_qaida_new_generation

[msongs]

1. these malcontents ought to move to where the society they want exists

instead of being parasites and suckers. have the courage of their convictions and leave, go somewhere else. kinda like the christians group that wants to pack up and take over south carolina. at least they are being true to their beliefs, like them or not.

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[barb162]

4. that would probably be the "caliphate" that Osama speaks of ,

you know, sort of a glorified 10th century Islamic staten with no "crusaders" present.

[Kagemusha]

2. Why should we act like this wasn't Osama's goal from the start?

Why should we pretend we didn't know this was his whole objective, not to be an international army with a killable head and a killable heart?

[fedsron2us]

3. The article is full of contradictions

It states that the new Al Qaeda does not cross borders or engage in international transactions yet then provides a list of overseas links for those involved in the London bombings. In fact some of the individuals involved in these attacks are known to have spent time in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia in the past few years. Some in the British Muslim community had already warned the authorities about their activities. Their warnings were ignored

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1737432005

[bemildred]

8. Yes, its babble.

I think the idea is to spread the idea that they have done something about al Qaeda, and that the current round of bombings is "new" or something. It says they have done severe damage to the "old" al Qaeda but provides no argument for that, and then proceeds to babble about how tricky the "new" al Qaeda is.

[daleo]

5. You can only kill an idea with a better idea

Clearly, the Bush administration is not up to such a struggle.

[MisterP]

6. they're practically unarmed in that department

[Roy]

7. My question is.....

Does Al Qaida regularly report to thes idiots that speak so knowingly about their every move and thought?

Do they wear ID badges, is this how they know that dead bodies and body parts can be identified as AQ?

How can AQ work so freely when ALL THESE "EXPERTS" know all there is to know about their movements, thoughts, and finances?

[bemildred]

9. And the answer is ...

Jerrold and Co. pulled this pretty much out of their ass.

[psychopomp]

10. How is Al Qaeda an organization? It's not.

It never was...it was a fiction that there was ever any substantial trans-national organization called "Al Qaeda." BBC did a good documentary called "The Power of Nightmares" on just this topic.

The real threat of a dangerous network of terrorists is in Iraq today because of the US-led invasion; it is the new training ground for a new breed of terrorists, one where urban guerrilla war is the focus of their tactics.