Group aims to hit U.S. even harder
Wounded al Qaeda aims to hit U.S. even harder
Thursday, June 17, 2004
BY J. SCOTT ORR
STAR-LEDGER WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Since the 9/11 attacks, al Qaeda has become decentralized, lost its bases in Afghanistan, seen many of its leaders and financiers captured or killed and had its funding base devastated.
Still, according to a report issued yesterday by the 9/11 commission, U.S. intelligence authorities expect "the trend toward attacks intended to cause ever higher casualties will continue."
The terrorist group behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- which killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in western Pennsylvania -- "remains extremely interested in conducting chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attacks."
"It may modify traditional tactics in order to prevent detection or interdiction by counterterrorist forces. Regardless of the tactic, al Qaeda is actively striving to attack the United States and inflict mass casualties," the report by the commission's staff said.
In some ways, the report said, the decentralization makes al Qaeda operations more difficult to detect and prevent as the leaders of individual cells take on larger planning and decision-making responsibilities.
The flow of cash into al Qaeda's war coffers has slowed because of disruptions in its financing systems and a reduction, "perhaps drastically," in money coming from Saudi Arabia -- which has increasingly become the target of terrorist attacks.
Still, the danger remains. For one thing, al Qaeda's expenses, once though to be about $30 million a year, have declined significantly because it is no longer running its terrorist training camps and paying tens of millions of dollars to support the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Funding terrorist attacks is not that expensive. The entire cost of the 9/11 attacks, according to a separate report issued by the commission yesterday, was $500,000.
"Despite the apparent reduction in overall funding, it remains relatively easy for al Qaeda to find the relatively small sums required to fund terrorist operations," the commission said.
"After al Qaeda lost Afghanistan after 9/11, it fundamentally changed," the report said, describing today's al Qaeda as "a loose collection of regional networks with a greatly weakened central organization."
The report said bin Laden "continues to inspire many of the operatives he trained and dispersed, as well as smaller Islamic extremist groups and individual fighters who share his ideology."
Al Qaeda leadership "pushes these networks to carry out attacks and assists them by providing guidance, funding and training in skills such as bomb-making or urban combat."
Today's al Qaeda, the report said, could also maintain weapons technologies developed before 9/11, including "an ambitious biological weapons program (that) was making advances in its ability to produce anthrax."
"According to Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, al Qaeda's ability to conduct an anthrax attack is one of the most immediate threats the United States is likely to face. Similarly, al Qaeda may seek to conduct a chemical attack by using widely available industrial chemicals, or by attacking a chemical plant or a shipment of hazardous materials," the report said.
The report traced al Qaeda's roots to the 1980s when a large number of Muslims from the Middle East were engaged in Afghanistan's fight against invading forces from the Soviet Union.
Its first incarnation was called "Afghan Arabs," with bin Laden a significant player. After the defeat of the Soviet forces in Afghanistan, bin Laden returned to his homeland of Saudi Arabia but was expelled because of his opposition to the ruling family there. He then formed "The Foundation," or al Qaeda, initially based in Sudan.
Though his family has vast wealth, al Qaeda was not financed personally by bin Laden, whose family denied him a $300 million inheritance after he was forced out of Saudi Arabia.
In 1996, the Sudanese government expelled bin Laden and he moved al Qaeda to Afghanistan, where he established multifaceted training camps that turned out thousands for fighters for the Taliban and offered elite terrorist training "to the best and most ardent recruits."
"As time passed and al Qaeda repeatedly and successfully hit U.S. targets, bin Laden became a legendary figure among jihadists both inside and outside of Afghanistan. He lectured at the camps. His perceived stature and charisma reinforced the zeal of the trainees. Bin Laden also personally evaluated trainees' suitability for terrorist operations," the report said.
Bin Laden used Afghanistan as "a war room to strategize, plan attacks and dispatch operatives worldwide. Bin Laden approved all al Qaeda operations, often selecting the targets and operatives." Still he encouraged his terror students to "think creatively about ways to commit mass murder."
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