The war on terrorist organizations gets a lot less media attention than does
the war with terrorists. The terrorist violence in Iraq, Israel, Chechnya,
Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia and a few other
places gets a reporters attention. But there are more important developments,
with the terrorist organizations, that we hear little about. There?s a good
reason for that, as the war against the terrorist organizations is an
intelligence operation. Espionage agents, informants, spy satellites and
electronic eavesdropping are the principal weapons. The action, such as it is,
takes place in the shadows, and doesn?t make much noise. 

Because of the
secret war against al Qaeda, a lot is known about the organization. This is
mainly because most of the members are not very well educated in areas like
OPSEC (operational security, keeping the enemy from observing your activities).
Email and phone messages are caught and recorded, while couriers, and what they
are carrying, are captured regularly. Fallujah yielded a large haul of al Qaeda
documents, as have raids in Pakistan and elsewhere. Hardly any of this stuff is
leaked to the media, lest al Qaeda find out how much the infidels know. But
despite their bumbling and amateurish efforts, al Qaeda members are out to kill.
They get their act together from time to time and pull off a major operation.
Until the movement dies out, which may take a generation, the war on terror will
continue.

Al Qaeda is not one organization, like the CIA, MI-6 or Mossad. Al Qaeda is a
coalition of over three dozen terrorist groups that cooperate, often loosely, in
their war against the infidels (non-Moslems). At the moment, the most powerful
branch of al Qaeda is the one operating in Iraq. And that?s because there, al
Qaeda has joined forces with the Baath Party, which is trying to return the
Sunni Arabs to power in Iraq. This reaffirms an old truism in the terrorist
world; you can?t succeed without money and a population to provide support.
Anywhere there are Moslems, you will find some who either approve of al Qaeda?s
goals (converting the world to Islam), or are willing to support al Qaeda
operations. The percentage of approvers is large, often a third or more of
Moslem populations. The percentage of supporters is much smaller. You can see
this from the small number of al Qaeda terrorist operations around the world.
With millions of Moslems in North American and Europe, there have been very few
al Qaeda terror attacks. In fact, those two areas have seen just one in the past
three years. It?s a different story in Moslem countries, where al Qaeda goals
also include replacing the current kings, dictators, or corrupt democracies,
with better government. One thing that must always be kept in mind is that the
Moslem world is, for the most part, poorly governed and economically backward. A
lot of the support for al Qaeda is actually rage at the inability of Moslems to
get their act together in the governance and economics department. Most Moslems
recognize that al Qaeda is just one more bad idea to afflict Islamic nations.
But for the moment, the al Qaeda crowd are winning the PR war. That will change
over time, but for now, al Qaeda is killing people. Most of those being killed
are Moslems.

The most active al Qaeda affiliates are in countries where
there are other issues in play. For example. 

Chechnya- The Chechens have
been part of Russia for over a century, and have been fighting the Russians, on
and off, most of that time. The current bout of violence is winding down, but
has left in its wake a very effective, and bloody minded, group of Islamic
terrorists. The Russians, as they have done so many times before, are in the
process of killing all the Islamic terrorists in Chechnya, or driving them into
exile. But this process still has another year or so to go.

Saudi Arabia-
Al Qaeda's biggest financial supporters are here, as are one of the largest
pools of recruits. Saudi Arabia is the source of the strict, violent and
paranoid form of Islam (Wahhabism) that serves as al Qaeda?s religious
foundation. The family (the al Sauds) that rules Saudi Arabia also subscribes to
Wahhabism. So the battle in this kingdom is over which Wahhabist faction will be
dominant. The smart money is on the al Sauds, but you never
know.

Afghanistan- The Taliban are sort of al Qaeda Lite. Real al Qaeda
are operating in Afghanistan, but many of the Taliban factions are turning
against them. The majority of Afghans care for neither Taliban nor al Qaeda. But
at the moment, the Afghan al Qaeda are getting a lot of money and manpower from
Pakistani, and other, al Qaeda organizations. This is largely because al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden is hiding somewhere along the Afghan/Pakistan border. So
the Afghan al Qaeda will continue to be a minor problem until the outside
support dries up, or bin Laden is caught. 

Pakistan- Before al Qaeda came
along, Pakistan already had a lot of Islamic terrorists. Most of their battles
were with each other, the Pakistani government, or Indian police in the disputed
border province of Kashmir. Current cooperation with al Qaeda is out of
convenience. Al Qaeda itself is not popular, because many terror attacks have
just killed lots of Pakistanis. 

Indonesia/Philippines- Much of the al
Qaeda fervor in this region is because of continued friction between Moslems and
non-Moslems. The local governments are corrupt and incompetent, thus making it
easy for al Qaeda to maintain some out-of-the-way camps. Most of the locals
don?t care for al Qaeda, but a minority does.

Europe- With some twenty
million Moslems, this is a good area for fund raising, recruiting and hiding
out. The recruits are usually born in Europe and have no first hand knowledge of
the dark side of Moslem rule. But the whole al Qaeda bit is terribly romantic
and inspiring to these lads. So they give money, and sometimes their lives, for
the cause. The Europeans, usually tolerant to a fault, are growing impatient
with these al Qaeda fans, and are cracking down.

Israel- The Palestinians
turned to terror four years ago when they did not get what they wanted through
negotiations. The terror campaign failed, but the terrorist groups that evolved
in the meantime don?t want to stop, even though most Palestinians do. The
Israelis were successful at shutting down the terror attacks on Israelis, and
it?s feared that many of the Palestinian terrorists will flee to other parts of
the world, and keep on killing after a Palestinian civil war to decide the
future of the war with Israel.

Lebanon- The Shia minority, in order to
repay Iran for aid during the 1975-90 civil war, allowed the terrorist group
Hizbollah to set up shop in Lebanon. Hizbollah makes war on Israel as well, and
has been aiding Palestinian terrorists. Allied with al Qaeda, Hizbollah sees
itself as an ?elder brother.? Syria and Lebanon (and Israel) want to shut down
Hizbollah, and send the survivors back to Iran. That may eventually
happen.

Iran- Although most of the population wants nothing to do with
Islamic terrorism, the current constitution gives the Islamic radical minority
veto power over government actions. The Islamic radicals will fight to death if
the majority attempts to change the constitution. Right now, most Iranians are
not willing to fight for their freedom. Iranian Moslems are Shia, and al Qaeda
considers Shia heretics (and has murdered many of them.) The Iranian Islamic
radicals overlook this at the moment, because they, and al Qaeda both have the
same goal, planet wide Islamic rule. Unfortunately, al Qaeda wants everyone to
be Sunni Moslems. That will cause problems with the Shia Moslems in Iran, who
want a Shia world. About five percent of all Moslems are Shia (most live in Iran
and Iraq. ) So Iran provides some support for al Qaeda. 

Central Asia-
The al Qaeda leadership from this part of the world were killed in Afghanistan
during the late 2001 fighting. But they are slowly rebuilding.

Algeria-
Islamic terrorists have been fighting the government, and most Algerians, for
over a decade. However, the Islamic radicals have been losing, and are
dispersing to other countries. So you will see Algerian terrorists showing up in
other countries more than in Algeria. 

Somalia- The country has been
without a government for over a decade. Some al Qaeda groups have set up shop
here. But because of the chaos, there is not a lot they can do. American Special
Forces and commandoes keep an eye on the situation, occasionally going in to
take prisoners or stop something from happening. No press releases are issued
about these operations.

Sub-Saharan Africa- Lots of Islamic radicalism
here, but not a lot of enthusiasm for al Qaeda. Islamic radicals are seen as a
bunch of ruthless killers, and treated as such.

South America- Moslem
criminal gangs provide some support services for al Qaeda, but otherwise there
is not a lot of support. Moslems are a very small minority down there, and they
don?t want to trigger an anti-Islamic attitude because of al Qaeda terrorism in
the region.

There is some al Qaeda activity in any country with a Moslem population. Al
Qaeda encourages anyone to join in. Kill some people and get your message out to
the media. It's a system that first developed in the late 19th century (via the
Anarchist, and other, movements.) It still works. And there's still no quick
cure.