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Al Qaeda
Key Lecture Points:
• On September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda (from the Arabic for “the Base”), an organization previously unknown to the majority of the American public, launched one of the most devastating attacks on American soil. Since the 9/11 attacks, the United States and the West have actively engaged Al Qaeda around the globe. In particular, in Afghanistan, United States military is engaged in an active counterinsurgency war. Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Al Qaeda has successfully built an insurgency infrastructure that is engaging American and Iraqi forces.
• Al Qaeda is a complex and effective organization that has morphed itself into more than just a group of terrorists bent on restoring Islamic rule over the Middle East and central Asia. Its organizational structure is unique and its ideology strikes a chord with a large and disenfranchised population in the Muslim world.
• Al Qaeda’s philosophical origins lie in the Islamic movement of Egypt early in the early 20th century. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood began to call for the abandonment of the nation state in favor of the restoration of Islamic Kingdoms that were governed by “Sharia” , or Islamic Law. The Muslim Brotherhood set its sights on restoring the Islamic Caliphate of the 13th century that stretched from southern Spain, across north Africa, through the Middle East, and deep into Central Asia.
• Al Qaeda established itself in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation of 1979-89. Under the leadership and funding of wealthy Saudi, Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda began as the Afghan Service Bureau, an organization intent on bringing Arab mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. As such, Al Qaeda began as an ally of the United States in the Cold War.
• In 1991, after being an integral part of the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden offered Al Qaeda to Saudi Arabia as a means to eject Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Bin Laden was infuriated by the Saudi rejection of his offer. In his eyes, Saudi Arabia had violated a basic tenet of Islam by allowing a non-Muslim army (including women) to occupy the Holy Land, as opposed to the Mujahideen force he had offered. It was at this point that Al Qaeda began to focus upon the US as a target.
For More Information:
• US State Department Coverage of Al Qaeda: www.state.gov/s/ct/enemy
• BBC News coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/dirty_war/al-qaeda/default.stm
Books For Further Reading:
• Burke, Jason. Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam I. B. Tauris & Company, 2004.
Description: Award-winning reporter Burke shows how the threat from Islamic terrorism comes from the roots of the Islamic world.
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• Wright, Lawrence. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Description: A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.
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• Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 Penguin, 2004 reprint, 738 pages.
Description: To what extent did America's best intelligence analysts grasp the rising threat of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did they fail? Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Steve Coll recounts the history of the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks. Based on scrupulous research and firsthand accounts by key government, intelligence, and military personnel both foreign and American, Coll details the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of bin Laden, and the failed efforts by U.S. forces to find and assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan.
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• Gunaratna, Rohan. Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror Berkley Publishing Group, 416 pages.
Description: Based on over five years of research, "Inside Al Queda" provides the definitive story behind the rise of this small, mysterious group to the notorious organization making headlines today.
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• Qutb, Sayyid. Milestones American Trust Publications; Revised edition (December 1991), 130 pages.
Description: "Milestones" is a valuable primary source for the study of Islamic fundamentalism in the 20th century.
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