al-Qaeda

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Qaeda

al-Qaeda (Arabic: القاعدة, el-Qā‘idah or al-Qā‘idah; "the foundation" or "the base") is the name given to an international Islamic fundamentalist campaign comprised of independent and collaborative cells that all profess the same cause of reducing outside influence upon Islamic affairs. Though al-Qaeda is philosophically heterogeneous, prominent members of the movement are considered to have Salafi beliefs.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) says that al-Qaeda is responsible for a large number of high-profile, violent attacks against civilians, military targets, and commercial institutions in both the west and the Muslim world. The 9/11 Commission Report attributed the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in Arlington and Flight 93 in Pennsylvania to al-Qaeda.

Although the group may have been directly responsible for these attacks, many respected observers such as Michael Scheuer, an ex-CIA terrorism analyst, believe that al-Qaeda has evolved into a movement "...where the jihad is self-sustaining, where Islamic warriors fight America with or without allegiance to al-Qaeda’s bin Laden, and where the name 'al-Qaeda' provides the inspiration for subsequent international attacks."

The origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, when a cadre of non-Afghani, Arab Muslim fighters joined the largely United States and Pakistan-funded Afghan mujāhidīn anti-Russian resistance movement. Osama bin Laden, a member of a prominent Saudi Arabian business family, led an informal grouping which became a leading fundraiser and recruitment agency for the Afghan cause in Muslim countries; it channelled Islamic fighters to the conflict, distributed money and provided logistical skills and resources to both fighting forces and Afghan refugees.

After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 many committed veterans of the war wished to fight for Islamic causes elsewhere. The invasion and occupation of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990 saw US and coalition troops sent to Saudi Arabia in preparedness for expelling Iraqi occupying forces from Kuwait. Al-Qaeda was strongly opposed to the secular regime of Saddam Hussein and bin Laden had offered use of his fighters' services to the Saudi throne, but the deployment of 'infidel' forces to Islamic sacred territory was seen as an act of treachery by bin Laden. He placed the grouping in militant opposition to the United States and its allies. Al-Qaeda came to claim that the U.S. is oppressive toward Muslims citing U.S. support for Israel in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the US military presence in several Islamic countries (particularly Saudi Arabia) and latterly the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, ("Iraq war") as reasons for militant action. snip

Al-Qaeda evolved from the Maktab al-Khadamat (Office of Services, MAK) — a Mujahidin organization fighting to establish an Islamic state during the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Original funding was fosterd by the CIA. Osama bin Laden was a founding member of the MAK, along with Palestinian militant Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. The role of the MAK was to channel funds from a variety of sources (including donations from across the Middle East) into training Mujahidin from around the world in guerrilla combat, and to transport the combatants to Afghanistan. The MAK was mostly funded by donations from wealthy Muslim individuals but was also allegedly aided by the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and indirectly by the United States, which channeled much of its support via the Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate. During the latter half of the 1980s, the MAK was a relatively minor grouping in Afghanistan with no direct combatants; rather it limited its activities to fundraising, logistics, housing, education, refugee care, recruitment and the financing of other mujahideen.

After a protracted and costly war lasting nine years, the Soviet Union finally withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. Mohammed Najibullah's socialist Afghan government was rapidly overthrown by elements of the Mujahidin. With Mujahidin leaders unable to agree on a structure for governance, anarchy ensued with ever-changing control of ill-defined territories falling under constantly reorganising alliances and schisms between regional warlords.