Al-Qaeda Threats

Al Qaeda was founded in 1988 by the most wanted terrorist in America, Osama Bin Laden, to bring together Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Invasion. Al Qaeda works with allied Islamic extremist groups to take over regimes it deems "non-Islamic" and remove Westerners from Muslin countries. The organization first began with three members and now there are approximately 200 to 1,000 current members. Al-Qaeda began to construct and offer training camps and guesthouses to its recruits; while they also attempted to pull in U.S. citizens for financial, communication, and operation reasons for the benefit of Al-Qaeda and its other affiliations. By 1990 Al-Qaeda was providing military and intelligence training in various areas including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Sudan.

Before the 9/11 attacks, Al Qaeda’s history is packed with mostly unsuccessful attempts to fulfill its most enduring goal: the unification of other militant Islamic groups under its strategic leadership. Osama Bin Laden’s efforts to build an “Islamic Army” began in the mid-1990s when he was based in Sudan. However, his mission failed because he had no ideology around which to build unity and attract new fighters and other terrorist organizations.

Al Qaeda is the group that started as an Islamic Army that fought against the Soviets in

To some, he is the most hated and most hateful man in the world, and at one point was the most wanted criminal on the face of the planet. Osama bin Laden, in 1988, founded an Islamist network called al-Qaeda; the foundation built from his faith in God. This network would soon become a feared terrorist group from different countries across the globe. Bin Laden built his network with intentions of harming others that did not share his beliefs. Among his methods were: armed terrorism, suicide bombings, and alleged financial manipulation as the world has seen through attacks throughout history. The fear of al-Qaeda’s ability to use chemical terrorism was prominent with the rise of Islamic extremism. Al-Qaeda, throughout time, combines

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an infidel is defined as, “a person who does not believe in a religion that someone regards as the true religion” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). In this case, the infidels that Osama bin Laden were referring to do not believe in what he considers to be the “true religion” of Islam. In addition, according to Bin Laden, Muslims who do not take note of this religious decree would be deemed as individuals who have forsaken their Islamic faith. ("CT2Learn :: The National Counterterrorism Center Counterterrorism 2014 Calendar", p. 4)

When we talk about the super power of the world, would you imagine that there would be an enemy so small but so able to provoke the super power of the world The United States. Al-Qaeda is an international terrorist network, which is considered the most significant terrorist threat to the United States. Al-Qaeda is a prominent group among the hundreds of terrorist organizations that despise The United States. Al-Qaeda was established around 1988 by Osama bin Laden. This terrorist organization is comprised of thousands of fighters from different countries all over the world. Osama bin Laden first formed this organization to take part in the resistance to defeat the Soviet Union. At a time when the Soviet Union was invading Afghanistan. An analysis of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda reveals that it is challenging for the United States to win a war that is not physical in nature but primarily psychological. Terrorist groups tend to wage a war that is physical in some aspects but the key to victory for a terrorist organization is to win through psychological attacks and tactics. Al-Qaeda is an important terrorist group not only because they are a well-known group that poses a significant threat to the United States and western interest, but for the reason that it has survived and been in operation for over four decades.

During the1970s, The USSR was the biggest threat to America and radical Islam were not as a concern of the USA. With this being known the USA began funding and training Islamic militants to fight Russian in Afghanistan (Cganemccalle, Newsome.com, 2011). These militants, known as the Mujahedeen would rebel the Russians out of Afghanistan and later become known as the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the most prominent members of the mujahedeen, was a wealthy son of a Saudi Arabian businessman named Osama Bin Laden. One of the first non-Afghan volunteers to join the ranks of the mujahedeen was Osama bin Laden, a civil engineer and business from a wealthy construction family in

This first declaration exemplifies Bin Laden’s mobilization of Muslims; it served as a propaganda strategy. The document even begins by stating that the main objective of the religious organization is to form an Islamic state to practice their form of Islam. Bin Laden knew that in order to support his change in ideology, by targeting the “far enemy”, he needed to have a much larger network of loyal Muslims. Toward the end of the document, Bin Laden even addresses the youth of Islam, “I say to the youth of Islam who have waged jihad in Afghanistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina, with their financial, spiritual, linguistic, and scholarly resources, that the battle is not yet over” . Bin Laden is molding the minds of the youth, and expressing that they will be called upon to support their God.

Osama bin Laden, son of a wealthy Saudi contractor, joined many young Arab men of his generation in Afghanistan. While he appears to have played a very minor role in the fighting, his wealth enabled him to recruit, train, and supply fighters for the insurgency. It was founded in Afghanistan. America started to support israel against palestine which made al qaeda mad and wanted to fight back against the US which lead to the truck bombing in 1993.

“Believers have every right to build their politics on basic religious ideals such as truth, justice and the welfare of all people,” (Viewpoint, 10). They take teachings from the Qur’an and alienate them into radicalized ideas. One of the main branches of Islam, that they use, is Wahhabism. “The faith that drives Osama bin Laden and his followers is a particularly austere and conservative brand of Islam known as Wahhabism, which was instrumental in creating the Saudi monarchy, and if sufficiently alienated, could tear it down,” (Middle East, paragraph 1). They change the lessons into a much stronger and harsher version of what they actually are. “Saudi rulers essentially owe their power to the Wahhabis,” (Middle East, paragraph 15). “Wahhabis believe their faith should spread, not giving ground in any place they have conquered. Thus Saudi Arabia was a main financial backer of the mujahedeen fighting,” (Middle East, paragraph 5). Wahhabism originated from Saudi Arabia and Saudis have very strong beliefs about their faith. They try to expand their religion into other areas in the

The story begins in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to defend a puppet dictator against rebels. Many men from the Middle East traveled to fight alongside the rebels as they see it as a religious battle. Among these rebels were Osama bin-Laden and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, the rebels went home, at this time Osama bin-Laden forms Al-Qaeda while Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi forms his own group. Bin-Laden grew Al-Qaeda to be a global force while Zarqawi’s organization dwindled. They later returned to Afghanistan which was under Taliban control around 1996. On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda attacked the United States from its base in Afghanistan. The United States then invaded Afghanistan and Bin-Laden fled

The main leader of Al Qaeda is Ayman al Zawahiri, who was born in 1951 in Cairo. He comes from an Egyptian middle class family. Even though he was trained to be a doctor, during his teens he became extremely involved in Islamist groups. He decided to join the Islamic Jihad in 1973. At this time, the Jihad aimed at overthrowing the government in Egypt. He was accused and imprisoned in 1981 for having something to do with the assasination of Anwar al Sadat, the president of Egypt. He went to Pakistan in 1985 to assist in the fight against Soviet troops fighting in Afghanistan. He decided to join Osama bin Laden in 1998 and became one of the most important spokespersons for al Qaeda’s ideaology during the 2000s. When bin Laden was killed

Additionally, Al Qaeda has grown in the last ten years and currently runs global operations in: Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, Algeria, Libya, Indonesia and the Philippines. (site) Before September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda was a several hundred member organization in Sudan and the caves of Afghanistan. They have since grown to a global terrorist network that is on the rise. This displays the global expansion of Al Qaeda and how it has continued to grow despite United States and international efforts to eliminate the terrorist organization. Also, there are hundreds of Al Qaeda sponsored terrorist cells in nearly one hundred countries including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. (Site)This poses a significant threat to the security of Western nations as these cells could be activated at any moment to create havoc in a targeted country. Equally important, Al Qaeda works in congruence with many other terrorist organizations such as the: Armed Islamic Group, Hezbollah, Salafist Group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Islamic Army

There are several terrorist groups throughout the world today. All the terrorist groups have one common goal and that is to rid the world of Americans and western influence from the Muslim world. There is one organization that has ties to most of all the terrorist groups in the world and is the most infamous group in the world today and that is the group called Al-Qaeda The word Al-Qaeda means “the base” in Muslim. As an international terrorist organization led by Osama bin Laden. The group seeks to rid Muslim countries of western influence and replace them with fundamentalist Islamic regimes. Al-Qaeda grew out of the of the ashes of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1988, after it helped expel the Soviet

Yes it absolutely poses a threat to U.S. Interests, mainly the financial markets since that is the target. When a terrorist attack happens, it has always changed prices in the every stock market index in the world and not for the better. After 9/11, when the stock market opened again after being closed for 4 days, it sparked a crash of 12% in the first week that stocks resumed trading, and dropping almost 900 point on the Dow Jones industrial average (Shell, 2014). Depending on the target it can also affect economic sectors such as airlines, oil and gas companies and the banking industry. An attack also hurts the economy by instilling fear and the fear of the unknown