Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda ({{lang-ar|???????}}, al-Q??idah; "the foundation" or "the base") is the name given to an international Islamic fundamentalist campaign comprised of independent and collaborative cells that all profess the same cause of reducing outside influence upon Islamic affairs. Though al-Qaeda is philosophically heterogeneous, prominent members of the movement are considered to have Salafi beliefs. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8524679

Is al-Qaeda real?

Al-Qaeda has no clear structure, and this permits debate as to how many members make up the organization, whether it is millions scattered across the globe, or whether it is even zero. According to the controversial BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, al-Qaeda is so weakly linked together that it is hard to say it exists apart from Osama bin Laden and a small clique of close associates. The lack of any significant numbers of convicted al-Qaeda members despite a large number of arrests on terrorism charges is cited by the documentary as a reason to doubt whether a widespread entity that meets the description of al-Qaeda exists at all. Still, the extent and nature of al-Qaeda remains a topic of dispute.

Related Topics:
BBC - The Power of Nightmares - Osama bin Laden

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The al-Qaeda name itself does not seem to have been used by bin Laden himself to apply to his organization until after the September 11 attacks. Previous attacks attributed to bin Laden and al-Qaeda were, at the time, claimed by organizations under a variety of names. Bin Laden himself has since attributed the al-Qaeda name to the MAK base in Pakistan, dating from the Afghan war days. Daniel Benjamin in "The Age of Sacred Terror" cites an incident in the early 1990s where a document titled "The Foundation", Arabic "Al-Qa'eda", was found on an associate of Ramzi Youssef. http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html

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Other alleged al-Qaeda leaders include:

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• Saif al-Adel
• Sulaiman Abu Ghaith
• Abu Hafiza
• Abu Faraj al-Libbi (arrested in Pakistan, 2005) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4512885.stm
• Abu Mohammed al-Masri
• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in 2003) http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,911860,00.html
• Thirwat Salah Shirhata
• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
• Ayman al-Zawahri
• Abu Zubaydah (captured in 2002)