The Capabilities And Intentions Of Al-Qaeda Essay

The Capabilities And Intentions Of Al-Qaeda - Essay Example Al-Qaeda is an Islamic terrorist organization that has misused the Islamic teachings to propagate internal resentment of a few fundamentalists caused by desperation against western forces. These resentments are not totally baseless as the western world has down-casted the eastern world since times immemorial by trying to superimpose themselves on the lesser creed. However the methodology to show this anger is infuriated up to the height of absolute hatred for the western nations. Their stated purpose is to remove the U.S. from Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, and if possible, from the world arena (DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, 2001); (Gunaratna, 2002). Al-Qaeda is part of the "The World Islamic Front" (the networks of the networks) which further has many distinguished terrorist organizations from all over the world including, Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida, Al Jihad, the Islamic Group, Jamaat ul Ulema-e-Pakistan, the Moslem Brotherhood, components of the 'black' (operational) network from the defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce Inc. (BCCI), and elements of Abu Nidal's terrorist organization. However, the most successful organization has been Al-Qaeda, especially after the horrifying September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center (DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, 2001). The leader as we know is Osama Bin Ladin however since his hiding, Al-Qaeda was been run by a superior strategist, Ayman al-Zawahiri (Hoffman, 2001); (McCarthy, 2004). Ironically for the United States, which is Al-Qaeda's number 1 enemy, the creation of Al-Qaeda was done thorugh secret channels by the US to drive out the Soviet Union (which was at that time US's number 1 enemy) from Afghanistan. At that time, he muslim fundamentalists were recurited to oppose the Soviet invasion to aid in US's mission in destroying the soviet power which ended in the disparging of Soviet Union in Russia and other countries (Jr., 2002). Attacks List From then onwards, these Muslim fundamentalists formed the Al-Qaeda organization and formed their credo to destroy all those nations that were either practicing a tainted Islamic life or were Non-Islamic nations trying to take over the Islamic nations. Till now, Al-Qaeda has committed numerous acts of violence against such countries using conventional bombings, shoot-outs, and now more recently, suicide bombings. Important and high-level acts of violence include the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, a four month bombing campaign in France in 1995 targeting the metro, the Arc de Triomphe and a Jewish school in Lyon, multiple bombings in Pakistan in 2002, bomb attacks against 4 trains in Madrid in 2004 when terrorists blew themselves up when confronted by police, and 4 explosions in UK in 2005 in tube trains and a bus. (Archive, 2005) Intentions Ever since the formation of Al-Qaeda, their sole objective has been to destroy the western influence on Islamic lives even if it means death and destruction. And they have shown that they are ready to take their own lives to convey their messages to the world. The global media has also been very actively covering Al-Qaeda related news and every once in a while, a video tape of Osama Bin Laden appears on our TV screens, with the Al-Qaeda leader congratulating his people for the attacks and continuously warning America against further attacks. Osama's nominal deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, published a treatise in the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Alsharq al-Awsat in December 2001 with the title "Knights Under the Prophet's Banner." The article painted a picture of Islam under siege by a predatory, Western-dominated world in which "there is no