What / who is al-Qaeda?

[NNN0LHI]

Poll question: What / who is al-Qaeda?

[Oregone]

1. The public name given to any group/club/gang of brownish people who don't like the US

[ThomWV]

11. I think it might be the other way around, substitute "any brown people we don't like."

[Oregone]

14. Good point

[Cronus Protagonist]

29. That includes individuals too - it's a CIA database, not an actual organization

And, as far as I can tell, it's pretty easy to get added to the database.

[TheWatcher]

40. Indeed it is.

I would imagine we are approaching a point where if you don't tow the party line of either "Football Team's" accepted paradigm (Whichever "Football Team" happens to be in Power), you could easily end up in that database.

I can see a day coming when merely thinking for yourself or thinking critically will be considered "al-Qaeda".

[timeforpeace]

2. Push poll much?

[anonymous171]

3. It's just your typical run of the mill international terrorist organization.

It has a couple members here and there. Nothing to be worried about.

[Lorien]

9. Without the organization. nt

[seeinfweggos]

4. its a A loose collection of groups and individuals that DOES refer to itself as al-Qaeda

the undie bomber was sent by Al Quaeda on the Arabian Peninsula. The ones in Iraq are Al Quaeda in Mesopotamia.

I doubt they have conventions or even know each other, but they share an ideology and are inspired by bin laden's original al quaeda.

[Oregone]

15. Like a Myspace friends list? Or do they need to get an Al Queda badge from a cereal box first?

[seeinfweggos]

16. more like myspace - no badge required

[wuushew]

5. I voted #2

but you should add an "al-CIAda" option for completeness

[DJ13]

6. Other: A PR firm working for the CIA

[TheWatcher]

41. And That is why thinking people call them Al-CIAda.

[Sebastian Doyle]

7. A fictional construct of the Bush Crime Family

Originally applied to "terraists" who were themselves employed by the Bush Crime Family/CIA (i.e. Osama Bin Laden).

Now the name seems to be used for any two bit dumbass who lights his balls on fire. You can bet Bin Laden is laughing his ass off in Hell right now at the absurdity of it all.

[leftstreet]

10. 'any two bit dumbass who lights his balls on fire'

:spray:

[stray cat]

20. And the Twin Towers are still standing but are invisible?

[Cronus Protagonist]

30. Red Herring

You get extra brownie points for using BOTh a non-sequitur AND a logical fallacy though.

[cutlassmama]

43. this

[LARED]

8. So it's either a

"A super-organised terror network"

or

"A loose collection of groups and individuals that doesn't even refer to itself as al-Qaeda"

(Similar to a Rotary Club for Radical Islamists)


I think I'll pass on this poll.

[PDJane]

12. Actually, it's a loose collection of Islamist mercenaries...

often paid by the CIA. They were used in several conflicts......

[Lorien]

13. According to the BBC it's something that doesn't exist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwDtnxD2O8w

[dipsydoodle]

21. I'd agree with most of that.

Back in the 90's its thought that Bin Laden's group was no more than a handful and he was their fundor. I've read elsehwere its actually more a method of operation than an organisation.

[malaise]

32. That's why I am clueless

Does it exist?

[L0oniX]

17. It certainly was NOT a country that attacked us. Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Mujahideen, Sadam...

the Saudi Arabian 911 attackers ...oh yea that's right we were attacked by Saudi Arabian people ...I almost forgot. pffft

[stray cat]

19. Do you even admit there was an attack?

[Sebastian Doyle]

25. I can admit that JFK is dead

without believing in a Lee Harvey Oswald magic bullet reverse the law of physics fairy tale.

Same applies here. The towers are gone. How they got that way is in serious dispute.

[L0oniX]

27. Yea ...but not by another country ...was that too hard to grasp for ya?

[Cronus Protagonist]

31. The question is, BY WHOM?

???

[stray cat]

18. Incorrect - some of the organizations do call themselves Al Qaeda

in fact they called themselves "the base" before you and I ever heard of them.

[NNN0LHI]

22. Not the base. The database

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jul/08/july7.development

The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means

The G8 must seize the opportunity to address the wider issues at the root of such atrocities

Robin Cook
The Guardian, Friday 8 July 2005 15.00 BST

<snip>Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians. Inexplicably, and with disastrous consequences, it never appears to have occurred to Washington that once Russia was out of the way, Bin Laden's organisation would turn its attention to the west.

[baldguy]

23. It's a CIA op used against the USSR that went rogue after they left Afghanistan.

You can thank Ronald Reagan, Bill Casey, and Bush Sr for what happened on 9/11/2001.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[seeinfweggos]

47. correct

they are blowback (at leat the original aq - the bi laden/ zawahiri aq.) imho

[HysteryDiagnosis]

24. Al Qaiada is blowback

http://www.amazon.com/Blowback-Second-Consequences-American-Project/dp/0805075593/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262470000&sr=8-1

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PYQAHC20L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg
If the 20th century was the American century, the 21st century may be a time of reckoning for the United States. Chalmers Johnson, an authority on Japan and its economy, offers a troubling prognosis of what's to come. Blowback--the title refers to a CIA neologism describing the unintended consequences of American activity--is a call for the United States to rethink its position in the world. "The evidence is building up that in the decade following the end of the Cold War, the United States largely abandoned a reliance on diplomacy, economic aid, international law, and multilateral institutions in carrying out its foreign policies and resorted much of the time to bluster, military force, and financial manipulation," writes Johnson. "The world is not a safer place as a result." Individual chapters focus on Okinawa (where American servicemen were accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in "Asia's last colony"), the two Koreas, China, and Japan. The result is a liberal-leaning (and Asia-centric) call for the United States to disengage from many of its global commitments. Critics will call Johnson an isolationist, but friends (perhaps admirers of Patrick Buchanan's A Republic, Not an Empire) will say he simply speaks good sense. All will agree he is an earnest voice: "I believe our very hubris ensures our undoing." --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

[leveymg]

33. Al-Qaeda was so last decade's terrorism.

Just wait until the Big Boys -- the global hedgies and speculators -- start working on knocking down the Dollar and inflating commodity prices and restricting access to bandwidth. They'll make us all miss the Good Old Days of the GWOT.

[WT Fuheck]

28. al Qaeda is whoever

our "government" needs them to be in order to justify whatever they need justified at the moment.

[TheWatcher]

38. BINGO! We have a winner!

Now, you might want to duck, because the "Message Discipline" Bots will be along any minute to suffocate you with their Pom-Poms.

That being said, you are dead on.

We just need to get the rest of We The People to open their eyes to that fact.

[Jazzgirl]

34. I get so sick of hearing al-Qaeda. Yech.

It is a database of names of suspected/actual terrorists. They have used it to scare the shit out of the public and tried to make it look like a cohesive group. I will be glad when somebody finally calls them out on it.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

35. A handy fundraiser for the MIC.

[spanone]

36. anybody and everybody who wants to harm anyone..i.e. the bogeyman

[marmar]

37. An outfit with more No. 2s than the Papermate factory.....

Eighty Percent Of Al-Qaeda No. 2s Now Dead

February 1, 2006 | Issue 42•05
Related Articles


WASHINGTON, DC—The Pentagon announced Monday that 80 percent of Osama bin Laden's seconds-in-command have been eliminated. "Nearly 1,600 al-Qaeda leaders ranked number two have been wiped out," Lt. Col. Mark Allison said. "That leaves only 400 of Osama bin Laden's right-hand men in the organization." Following the apparent failure to kill bin Laden's No. 2 man Ayman al-Zawahri in a missile strike on a Pakistani border town on Jan. 13, American forces intensified the search for al-Qaeda second-in-command Ahmed Al-Zahnami, or, failing that, No. 2 man Amman al-Zaharani, or No. 2 man Ahmed al-Zafarani.


http://www.theonion.com/content/node/44900

[varelse]

46. that needs to be a poll option (nt)

[Taitertots]

39. A blanket term to describe anyone associated radical islam n/t

[TexasObserver]

42. It's a name for something that sort of exists, but is really just a catch all

It's a name for something that sort of exists, but is really just a catch all for the groups around the world who coalesce around old school, anti imperialist, pro home rule far right Islamic ideals. There aren't many, but they have a following, and among their recruits are a handful of lost young men. These young men are alienated from their world, typically well educated and torn between a family that is western influenced and acquaintances who appeal to their religious and cultural history.

There's no central organization or center of power.

Once again, we had the intel to stop an attack, but lacked the coordination among agencies to get that information acted upon wisely. Once again, we act as if the problem is everything BUT the failure of government agencies to respond reasonably and promptly.

[StarfarerBill]

44. "The Power of Nightmares" is an excellent documentary detailing the rise of Islamic and Christian...

...fundamentalism, including al-Qaeda.

[TransitJohn]

45. Disgruntled former assests of the CIA giving the USA blowback. n/t

n/t