Broad term 'al Qaeda' gives few clues on attackers

[deminks]

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=802276§ion=news&src=rss/uk/topNews

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials linking attacks in Britain and Egypt to al Qaeda are using a vague shorthand for Islamic militant violence which says little about who is truly behind the bloodshed, officials and experts say.

"It's just easier to say 'al Qaeda,'" said Gen. Russell Howard, an army terrorism expert who retired this month.

One U.S. government official who declined to speak on the record said different government officials used "al Qaeda" to describe different things, from decentralized militant groups to bin Laden himself.

Roger Cressey, a terrorism expert who formerly served in the Bush White House, said officials were applying the al Qaeda label so broadly it shed little light on the actual command and control structure behind the attacks.

[TahitiNut]

1. "al Bogeymen" did it.

:eyes: Our "officials" seem to find new and different ways of deceiving us, their employers, every fucking day.

[TomClash]

2. Look in the White House

I hear there's a nest of criminals there.

[NJmaverick]

3. It's not the term used that is important

It is the fact that republican bumbling on the war against Al Qaeda has allowed them to morph into this nearly unstoppable conglomerate.