Terrorism: Al-Qaeda 'weaker' after 9/11 but still a threat

Rome, 10 Sept. (AKI) - Eight years since Al-Qaeda's '9/11' attacks against US cities, the terrorist network has been weakened, but remains a serious security threat, experts have told Adnkronos International (AKI). The suicide attacks against the World Trade Centre in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington DC on 11 September 2001 killed almost 3,000 people in the deadliest attack ever carried out on US soil. "Al-Qaeda is no longer capable of carrying out a big attack. Its capability appear to have been degraded over the years," said Brian Michael Jenkins, an advisor to the president of the US Rand Corporation think-tank. "It has had great difficulty in sustaining a global campaign of terrorism," he added.Jenkins said greater cooperation between intelligence and law enforcement agencies worldwide had made Al-Qaeda's operations more difficult.There have been fewer jihadist terror attacks on the West in recent years, while the number of bungling 'homegrown' plotters has grown, he argued. Jenkins cited as an example the botched June 2007 firebombing of Glasgow airport in Scotland by a group of Muslim doctors and researchers working in Britain. Two members of the group were severely burned when they rammed a jeep loaded with propane gas cannisters into the airport terminal. The jeep driver later died of his injuries. "The pace of terrorist operations outside Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq has declined. Outside these countries, there is a problem of 'quality control'. Individuals lack the competence of their predecessors," Jenkins stated."Until 2006, Al-Qaeda was carrying out an attack every two months," Jenkins said. "We now see occasional attacks, especially the recent attacks by a splinter group of Jemaah Islamiyah in Jakarta," he said, referring to the Al-Qaeda linked southeast Asan terror network.Terror attacks in Indonesia, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Spain galvanised governments into taking action against Al-Qaeda, Jenkins noted. "They no longer saw Al-Qaeda as engaged in a direct contest between Al-Qaeda and the United States but as a threat to their own countries," he said.Al-Qaeda's indiscriminately murderous attacks have angered many Muslims, who have found themselves targeted as well as "infidels". The attacks have even provoked debate among jihadist strategists themselves, Jenkins argued.But he doubted such an ideological group as Al-Qaeda would be deterred by a lack of popularity. "It's a tiny little army determined to carry out its 'God-mandated' struggle," he said."It is 100 little conflicts linked by a network of like-minded extremists across the globe, a cove of terrorists hiding out in Pakistan...an active communications system and a successful brand name picked up by local followers."..more..http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3753557736