A Research On Al Qaeda Terrorist Group And Measures To Counter It

Recent years have seen several debates directed towards understanding the threat posed by terrorist groups in the 21st century. Traditionally, Al Qaeda used suicide bombings, kidnappings, armed assaults, and hostage-taking, among other mechanisms to achieve their objectives. However, by understanding the organizational structure, tactics, strategies, funding mechanisms, and recruitment strategies that boost the existence and prosperity of such groups, the U. S. government gains access to vital information that dictates the intervention mechanisms to employ. While technological advancements have nurtured Al Qaeda’s operations and allowed the terror group to expand beyond regional and national struggles, the United States has advanced its counterterrorism measures and the policies directed towards neutralizing the threat posed by such terror groups.

Al Qaeda’s History

Al Qaeda rose in 1989 as an Afghanistan opposition group against Soviet invaders. When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden capitalized on the already established network to globalize jihad. Initially, Bin Laden envisioned the expansion of Al Qaeda through the creation of vanguard elite fighters who could champion their global mission of uplifting struggling jihadist groups and bringing them under a common umbrella. Al Qaeda shifted its focus in the mid-1990s towards the United States – the enemy Bin Laden believed to be fostering corruption in Afghanistan. Later, other jihadist groups pledged allegiance to Bin Laden to gain access to a plethora of assets and financial support. Thus, Bin Laden served as the vital element in creating and running the entity both financially and politically.

Strategies and Tactics

Al Qaeda employs a blend of strategies in achieving its goals and objectives. According to Byman (2015), the organization targets the United States by plotting terrorist acts intended to magnify the presence of the Muslim world globally. Additionally, the organization focuses on convincing the U. S. to withdraw its emissaries from the Muslim countries. Further, the organization also encourages other Islamic insurgents to rise against the U. S. and the “corrupt” regimes the United States supports (Byman, 2015, par. 17). Another strategy applied include propagation of propaganda to motivate other Muslims to back the obligation bestowed upon them by jihad. Therefore, the tactics employed by Al Qaeda not only focuses on strengthening the already established base but also on expanding the group and creating intense hatred against the U. S.

Geographical Area

Al Qaeda has established different global areas of operation. However, the organization rejects the artificial boundaries put in place to divide the Islamic people. Mostly, the Al Qaeda view these boundaries, such as the Islamic Maghreb and Arabian Peninsula, as the fighting fronts only by geographic expressions (Thomas, 2018, p. 7). For the group, unity is essential for the execution of their unitary goal. In their view, the United States pursues a strategy intended to divide the Muslim people into shards of states without the potential to unanimously rise against the shackles of the West. Though the United States dismantled the organization’s core base in Afghanistan after the September 11 incidence, the group managed to build a strong support network in Afghanistan by the year 2015. Moreover, Al Qaeda has garnered affiliates who continually raise the Al Qaeda flag through perpetual terror operations (Wright et al. , 2017, p. 29). Furthermore, Al Qaeda also maintains a secret presence in Western countries. Thus, Al Qaeda still pursues its initial mission of bringing struggling groups under the same leadership and achieving its primary objective.

Recruitment Strategies

The formal process of joining Al Qaeda prove to be challenging for growing terrorist groups as opposed to individuals willing to join. However, Al Qaeda has evolved to include online recruitment through propaganda. Embracing this mode of recruitment occurred as a response to the securitization in most of the print media and audiovisual platforms. Initially, Al Qaeda depended on mechanisms that were geographically and technologically constrained since print and audiovisual channels only offered limited access. Currently, social networking provides a convenient mode of propaganda propagation, where they can create targeted content to specific recruits, both demographically and geographically. In result, radicalization has become a more straightforward pull game that results in an explosion of new adherent recruits who flock Al Qaeda to advance their terrorist cause. The organization also employs other recruitment mechanisms where it focuses on political flashpoints and local populations. Through this approach, the organization ensures that the group remains sustainable since local buy-ins prove to be more reliable. Thus, Al Qaeda recruitment strategy not only focuses on gaining numbers but also on acquiring loyal recruits who can remain staunch to their cause.

Goals and Objectives

Over recent years, the Al Qaeda movement has transformed, and so has some of its objectives and goals. However, Al Qaeda pursues a long-term objective to reform the Islamic society and ensure that Muslims governance strictly complies with Sharia teachings. To achieve this objective, Al Qaeda heavily invests on integrating local Islamist movements and embedding them within its uprising goal. The rationale behind their actions is to create a stronger base united under a common purpose (Wright et al. , 2017, p. 7). Thus, Al Qaeda possesses a great potential to rise as the greatest jihadist threat, and the U. S. should be careful not to undermine the organization.

Al Qaeda’s Funding

For a more significant part of Al Qaeda’s history, financing the group’s operations was a robust process since it depended on sympathizers and private donations. Notable sources were contributions made from extremely wealthy people and Muslim groups in support of their jihadist cause. Moreover, the internet later proved to be an efficient tool where they solicited money and other resources. However, the terror group has shifted its efforts towards a new mode of funding. Al Qaeda has budged from over-reliance on donor funds towards self-financing techniques by mainly focusing on gaining control over its territories. Some of the mechanisms include possession of land from which they can extract resources, engaging in drug trafficking, and continuous money transfer through offshore banks which are challenging for governments to trace. Thus, Al Qaeda concentrates on diversifying its sources of funds to ensure that their operations continue unaffected by U. S. measures and that their finances remain undetected. Future Plans and Goals While the emergence of Islamic State came to overshadow the presence of Al Qaeda in the terrorism world, the group focuses on restrategizing to have a profound impact than it did before. In result, for the United States to establish the link between past terror acts, current position, and its future endeavors, it is paramount that the U. S. views the organization as goal-driven. Moreover, the emergence of ISIS and its prosperity over Al Qaeda alongside several failed terror attempts by Al Qaeda do not augur well. While the organization currently faces an uncertain future, it has survived over almost two decades of paralysis by the U. S. counterterror units, and yet, it continues to grow in numbers and power. Thus, though the future of the organization remains unknown, Al Qaeda pursues the initial goals and objectives and also adopts new techniques that can render the group an even more significant threat than it was before.

Counterterrorism Measures

The threat posed by terror groups to the U. S. and other countries globally continues to evolve year after year. Similarly, the techniques and policies intended to combat terrorism gradually evolve to keep ahead of the actions of terror groups. As Thomas (2018, p. 14) informs, the United States engages different external approaches in safeguarding its people from terror groups. Some of these mechanisms include the deployment of military officers, financial sanctions, and implementing programs directed towards counterterrorism, among others. However, as Thomas (2018, p. 14) explains, the approaches employed in combating different Al Qaeda affiliates differ based on the capabilities of local forces, operating environments, and legal considerations. Thus, the response policies and techniques used by the U. S. relies not only on the power wielded by the U. S. but also on creating alliances with relevant bodies in different target countries and complying with the set international policies. Countering the terror activities by Al Qaeda require that the U. S. work closely with local security and military forces in susceptible countries. By joining forces, the U. S. creates room for a stronger alliance with unrivaled power to bring down terror actions by Al Qaeda and also to overcome regional security challenges.

By building a cohesive military force, the U. S. and local government combines their objectives, reduces the number of American troops present on the ground, and prevents any chances of creation of sanctuaries for Al Qaeda that could be used to launch any kind of attack against the U. S. (Thomas, 2018, p. 18). Therefore, embracing union with local military forces bolsters the chances of the United States effectively combating and paralyzing all Al Qaeda activities that pose internal and external threats to the U. S. Terror activities thrive on financial support from sympathizers and other illegal funding mechanisms. Therefore, the U. S. can cripple their funding processes to thwart all their plans. In this case, the United States and other international bodies need to block any financial support directed towards the terror group. The strategy will resemble a former one as applied post the September 11 ordeal. The best entity to lead such an action is the U. S. Treasury Department by creating a robust system that interrupts any financial connections to Al Qaeda and also protects the international monetary policy against abuse by terror groups. Thus, the U. S. needs to device a system that hamstrings all Al Qaeda’s financial operations, including those of its affiliates and other rising terror groups.

Conclusion

Keeping a country safe requires pronounced vigilance by security agencies, both internally and externally. With recent technological advancements, terror groups have also proved to be challenging to level down. Therefore, the U. S. government needs to continually update and upgrade its policies and counterterror mechanisms to ensure that no internal or external threats can succeed. Importantly, the U. S. should focus on dismantling all kinds of terror groups if terrorism is to become an ideology rather than a reality. While the United States has directed substantial efforts and resources towards fighting terrorism, the quest still requires more input to ensure the end of terrorism both inside and outside the U. S. borders.

References

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