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Al Qaeda

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Osama bin Laden with Al-Qaeda members


"Al Qaeda," which roughly translates as "the base" ( القاعدة) in Arabic, is an international Islamist terrorist organization founded in the late 1980s to fight the Red Army of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, during the 1980-89 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Osama bin Bin Ladin and his comrades had their own sources of support and training, and they received little or no assistance from the United States,[1] which only provided funding to indigenous Afghan mujaheddin, which al-Qaeda was not. It is currently led by Osama Bin Laden and is predominantly composed of fanatical Sunni Muslims.

Al Qaeda is responsible for the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and numerous smaller attacks. The group's wing in Iraq is believed to be responsible for many of the attacks and bombings there. The 9/11 Commission Report has tied al-Qaeda to the government of Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein,[2] specifically the alleged harboring of al-Qaeda second-in-command Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and cooperation in Saddam;'s war against the Kurds. The 9/11 Commission Report cites Bin laden meeting with Iraqi intelligence officials in Khartoum as early as 1995. It is unclear if Iraq was funding al-Qaeda operations prior to the 2003 invasion.That being said, the 9/11 Commission wrote that they had "seen no evidence that these or the earlier contacts ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship." Furthermore, they had not seen anything that would lead them to conclude that "Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States."


"However difficult the fight in Iraq has become, we must win it," Mr. Bush said during a commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. "Al Qaeda is public enemy No. 1 for Iraq's young democracy. Al Qaeda is public enemy No. 1 for America as well." [1]

External Links

References

  1. ↑ 9/11 Commission ReportThe Foundation of the New Terrorism, pg. 56.
  2. ↑ 9/11 Commission Report, The Foundation of the New Terrorism.