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Beyond al-Qaeda: Part 1: The Global Jihadist Movement (Pt. 1)

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Following the tragedy of 9/11, the U.S. Air Force sponsored a study by the RAND Corporation of the phenomenon of terrorism that is the terrorist organizations and operations that constituted a threat to national security. This study was completed in 2004 and published as a two volume book set in 2006. The Rand team that put this study together did what the U.S. Intelligence Community IC) has so conspicuously failed to do; that is analyze the structural organization, ideology, financial structure, leadership of the al Qaeda and other groups that are affiliated with Osama bin Laden and track both their organizational and operational evolution. The common factor that they believe these groups hold is their adherence to an ideology referred to as "Jiahdist-Salifism" by Gilles Kepel in his book "Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam" (Harvard 2002) which he defines as " respect for the sacred texts in their most literal form [and] an absolute commitment to Jihad." Perhaps their key finding was that with the loss of their Afghan sanctuary, al Qaeda transformed into what another Rand study ("Networks and Netwars" Arquilla et al 2001) called a network type of organization and bin Laden with his immediate entourage transformed from a central command into more of a symbolic and ideological center. The network type of organization which the authors of this study refer to (perhaps more accurately) as the "al Qaeda Nebula" is an organization consisting of groups and individuals focused around several common themes and the "Jihadist-Salifism" ideology. They are held together through such 21st Century devices as the Internet and cell phones. With bin Laden serving as the nominal leader and more importantly as a living symbol of their ideology. This study of course provides considerably more information on al Qaeda modus operandi, financing, and strategic goals all of which appears to be pretty accurate. One would think this would be required reading for the folks manning the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), but very unlikely.