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1 Terrorist Organization – Al-Qaeda Tarris J. Johnson American Military University HLSS 320 Dr. Jeffrey Gardner 23 May 2021

2 Introduction Terrorism and acts of terrorism have been around for decades. Terrorists have their ideologies that guide their strategies to implement terrorist attacks. Al-Qaeda is one of the notorious terrorist groups responsible for many terrorist attacks globally (Nadeem et al. 2020, pp. 106). The September 11, 2001 attack, which was adequately planned and executed by Al-Qaeda, indicates that America can face imminent attacks from Al-Qaeda, the same way the September 11 th attack unfolded. Ideologies of Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda is a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national terrorist organization. Osama Bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and other Arab volunteers founded the organization in 1988 during the Soviet-Afghan War. It consists of a network of Islamic extremists and Salafist Jihadists. Al- Qaeda operates to remove all foreign influences in Muslim countries. They, therefore, believe that killing non-combatants is sacred to them. The group has an aversion to human-made laws and wants to replace the existing human-made laws with Islamic law, Sharia law. Al-Qaeda believes that Muslims are under attack everywhere. The group considers other teachings that are not in conformity with Islam abominable and against their religion. The group, for instance, believes that there is a Christian – Jewish conspiracy that aims to wipe out Islam (Burke et al. 2021, pp. 2). Thus, the group justifies attacks against Jews and Christian states with this belief. It encourages its supporters and followers to retaliate against Christians and Jews because they are fighting and attacking Islam. The group also believes that people who are against Islamic teachings oppress Muslims, and thus their group and its followers are fighting the oppressors of Islam. The group believes that the human-made laws that are not in conformity with the Sharia laws cause poverty,

3 oppression, and exploitation against Muslims. Thus, the oppression justifies the attacks and their operations (Burke et al., 2021, pp. 8). Additionally, the organization believes that only Al-Qaeda and its followers are fighting the oppressors of Islam; Everyone else that is against the operations of the group support oppressors of Muslims. Therefore, members of the group fight determinedly against Muslim oppression, with violence because of lack of support from other people. Lastly, members of Al-Qaeda believe that if you are not supporting Al-Qaeda, you are supporting the oppressors of Al-Qaeda (Burke et al. 2021, pp. 5). Nations and people who reprimand the group's actions thus remain the group's target and victims of attacks. These ideologies bind Al-Qaeda together as it seeks to obtain its goals. Objectives and Goals of Al-Qaeda The Al-Qaeda operations aim to draw psychological reactions and communicate complex political messages to global nations and specific populations in the Islamic nations, the United States, Europe, and Asia. The September 11 th attack against the United States is one of the deadliest attacks that the group executed. The group's primary goal is to inspire, plan and carry out attacks against the United States, Jews, and their allies worldwide (Hamming, 2021, pp. 21). In 1998, the group attacked the United States embassy in Kenya to declare war against American allies. The group mainly targets economy and energy infrastructure and triggering unrest in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf states, and neighboring Israel. The root cause of Al-Qaeda's retaliation towards the United States was America's support of infidel governments, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, along with America's involvement in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and in Somalia’s Operation Restore Hope Mission (Bacon & Arsenault, 2017, pp. 229). Al- Qaeda also exists to take on future holy wars globally.

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4 Besides attacking the United States and its allies, Al-Qaeda aims to drive western influence from Islamic lands and facilitating the establishment of Sharia law in south Asia. Because America intervened in Islamic states (Henne, 2018, pp. 67), most of Al-Qaeda's objectives aim to destroy The United States of America. For instance, Al-Qaeda aims to terrorize the United States into retreating from the world stage and use long wars to bleed the United States further financially. Al-Qaeda aims to defend the rights of Muslims and dominate global nations through a violent Islamic caliphate. Leadership, Funding, and Terrorist Capabilities in Al-Qaeda Ayan Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is the current leader of the militia group, Al-Qaeda. Several functional groups exist within Al-Qaeda, which consults with leadership during the preparation of attacks. Together with the Islamist organizations, they orchestrate attacks in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and some in North America and Europe. The leaders of Al-Qaeda indirectly control their day-to-day operations; They use the centralization in decision-making and decentralization to execute attacks. The top leaders in Al-Qaeda define the organizations and ideology and guiding strategy. The leaders provide for articulated messages which their members can quickly receive. There are mid-level terrorist organizations connected to Al-Qaeda which have the autonomy to execute small-scale attacks. They, however, seek permission to execute large-scale attacks and associations. There are top management committees, including the Shura council and the committees on military operations, finance, and information sharing. After the September 11 th attack and the declaration of the war on terror, the leadership in Al-Qaeda has become decentralized. The organization has now become regionalized into several Al-Qaeda groups.

5 Al-Qaeda has financial networks that fund its activities. The networks trace back to the financing networks established to support anti-Soviet Jihad activities in Afghanistan. The networks made wide-ranging use of Muslim charitable organizations and businesses mainly from Saudi Arabia and worldwide (Levi & Yusuf, 2019, pp. 2). The funds enabled Al-Qaeda to develop into an international terrorist movement. Al-Qaeda infiltrated a series of international Muslim charities that collected and camouflaged the funds it needed. Sympathetic Arab financial facilitators from Saudi Arabia and the gulf channeled their charities and donations towards the organization (Levi & Yusuf, 2019, pp. 1). Osama's funds and businesses also funded the group and facilitated its operations to date. The funds were from deals in conflict diamonds and the international drug trade, and other multiple resources. The organization still raises funds from donors in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region, and other countries worldwide. They use bogus and legitimate charities, shell companies, and legitimate businesses to cover their contributions to the organization (Eaddy, 2019, pp. 2). A considerable amount of funding also comes from Southeast Asia and some from Europe. Financial facilitators in Europe remain anonymous. Financers like Osama's brother-in-law still channel funds towards the organization by conducting business affairs in Saudi Arabia. Youssef Nada and Idris Nasreddin, well-known financers to Al-Qaeda, continue to manipulate their assets from their headquarters in Campion d'Italia and Rabat, Morocco. Influential organizations worldwide engaging in educational, religious, social, and humanitarian programs still fund the group’s activities (Eaddy, 2019, pp. 1). Al-Qaeda has the potential of conducting nuclear terrorism. Al-Qaeda has access to readily usable chemical and nuclear weapons. It can produce radiological weapons after collecting nuclear materials and recruiting rogue scientists to build bombs (Tu, 2017, pp. 115). Although the acquisition of nuclear weapons is complex for Al-Qaeda, they still insist that the

6 possession of the weapons is a religious duty (Tu, 2017, pp. 118). If allowed to have them, they can conduct deadly nuclear attacks. Al-Qaeda employs melee weapons like knives, box cutters, axes in pots, and attacks against many western democracies (Kovacevic & Talijan, 2017, pp. 370). However, do not use melee weapons frequently; on very few occasions do they use them. They use firearms to execute most of their attacks. There are many attacks executed by the group which used firearms. For instance, in the Garissa attack in Kenya in 2015 and the Westside mall attack, they used firearms to kill people (Kovacevic & Tajilan, 2017, pp. 371). The group similarly assassinated the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van using a firearm. In 2011, there was a shooting spree in Arid Uka that used firearms. Out of 1,909 incidents of terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda, almost 692 involve the use of firearms. The group also uses improvised explosive devices in attacks (Kovacevic & Talijan, 2017, pp. 390). In Europe, two of the most lethal attacks, the Madrid train bombing in 2004 and the London 7/7 bombing in 2005, used improvised explosive devices. Other than weapons, the group also uses ramming attacks, where the attacks target people in vehicles. The September 11 th attack is one of the most lethal ramming attacks executed by the group. The December 2021 Disneyland Park Attack; A Hypothetical Attack Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California gets thousands of visitors from all over the world, especially in December because of the Christmas festive season. Al-Qaeda saw an excellent opportunity to target thousands of visitors worldwide and carry out a well-planned explosive attack on Disneyland. The attack took at least three years to plan. It began with the group planting observers from the United States who entered America as people looking for work. Ten members have been investigating how Disneyland visits operate for the past three

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7 years. They observed how the security systems work, and they visited Disneyland six times each in the three years. They observed all areas they can plant explosives without anyone noticing. The second group arrived in America on December 10, 2021, as tourists from different countries. Two of them are from the United Arab Emirates, and three of them are from Ethiopia, one from Ghana and one from South Africa. The 'tourists' communicate with the group staying in the United States for three years, and they instruct them on how to maneuver at the security systems with the weapons they carried. One tourist from Ghana had a bomb attached to his body that was set to explode at the reception and allow the rest of the members to disperse and plant bombs in different site locations. Forty minutes into the 'tourists' arrival, one bomb explodes, and approximately 200 people sustain injuries. The commotion caused by the first explosion allows the rest of the members to execute their attacks by threatening security personnel at different stations with deadly weapons. They take control of firearms owned by security men and begin a shooting spree. Meanwhile, five of their members receive instructions from their cells in Somalia, which comprises seven members. They all receive the orders to conduct a suicide attack. The five set their bombs to explode in intervals of 10 minutes, each targeting locations with many people. One bomb explodes at the French Market Restaurant, killing almost 150 people, the other explodes near the Tomorrowland Station restrooms, killing 70 people, and two others explode near the Sleeping Beauty Castle, killing 150 more people. The first group to arrive three years ago has firearms that they use first to kill security who were summoned, and they also embark on a shooting spree. The men seize many parts of Disneyland, shooting dead anyone who comes near their location. Some of their men disguise themselves as police officers, pretending to rescue people

8 and ending up killing more people. When police discover that the terrorists disguised themselves as police officers, they mistakenly shoot dead 57 genuine police officers but later manage to shoot six Al-Qaeda members disguising themselves as police officers. By the time the police had control of the situation, approximately 5,000 lives were lost, 2,000 people were injured, and 120 police officers were killed in the process. Among the seventeen members of Al-Qaeda, eleven died in the process, and police officers captured seven. The seven men undergo a series of interrogations, and they reveal that they had planned significant attacks in other tourist sites after their Disneyland plan unfolds successfully. As a result, the government shut down visits to all sites for the remainder of the festive season as they continue to conduct investigations on the Disneyland attack. Conclusion Al-Qaeda has been blamed for innumerable killings and other violent attacks across the world since launching the holy war against the United States, Jews, and their allies. Osama bin Laden was forced to go into hiding after the September 11 th attacks and the United States' declaration of war on Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. After ten long years, Osama Bin Laden was finally apprehended and executed by Navy SEALS. Although Zawahiri is still alive and continues to release comments from his hiding in Pakistan, the foundation of the organization has ultimately been defeated. Despite being weakened, Al-Qaeda has discreetly begun to revive its ranks and capabilities.

9 References Nadeem, M. A., Liu, Z., Xu, Y., Nawaz, K., Malik, M. Y., & Younis, A. (2020). Impacts of terrorism, governance structure, military expenditures, and infrastructures upon tourism: Empirical evidence from an emerging economy. Eurasian Business Review , 10 (1), 185- 206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40821-020-00152-y Burke, P., Elnakhala, D., & Miller, S. (2021). Introduction to global jihadist terrorism. Global Jihadist Terrorism , 1-8. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800371309.00007 Hamming, T. R. (2017). Undefined. Terrorism and Political Violence , 32 (1), 20-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2017.1342634 Tu, A. (2017). Undefined. Chemical and Biological Weapons and Terrorism , 115-128. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315305516-6 Kovacevic, N., & Talijan, M. (2017). Weapons used by terrorists. Vojno Delo , 69 (4), 370-391. https://doi.org/10.5937/vojdelo1703370k Eaddy, A. (2019). Innovation in Terrorist Financing: Interrogating Varying Levels of Cryptocurrency Adoption in Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Islamic State (Doctoral dissertation). Bacon, T., & Arsenault, E. G. (2017). undefined. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 42 (3), 229- 263. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610x.2017.1373895 United Nations General Assembly resolution 56/1 (On the condemnation of terrorist attacks in the United States of America). (n.d.). International Law & World Order: Weston's & Carlson's Basic Documents . https://doi.org/10.1163/2211-4394_rwilwo_com_031755

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1 0 Levy, I., & Yusuf, A. (2019). How do terrorist organizations make money? Terrorist funding and innovation in the case of al-Shabaab. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610x.2019.1628622 Henne, P. S. (2018). Government interference in religious institutions and terrorism. Religion, State and Society , 47 (1), 67-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2018.1533691

JohnsonHLSS320Midterm

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