Al Qaeda
Origins
Al Qaeda means base or foundation.
Sayyid Qutb's ideology is at the heart of Al-Qaeda's philosophy. Qutb had argued in the 1960s and 70s that the Muslim countries aren't following sharia in the way that Arabia was during the 7th century.
In 1988, chief ideologues, Palestine Abdullah al-Azzam and Osama Bin laden meet to lay the foundations of this global franchise during the ongoing war against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Abdullah Azzam tutors and mentors the young bin Laden.
Azzam preached both defensive and offensive jihad by Muslims to help the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invaders. He raised funds, recruited and organised the international Islamic volunteer effort.
Belief that Islam is a way of life, different from other religions as it affects all aspects of the life of Muslims.
Abu Ubaida created a military base to train the young men to fight against the ivcious, arrogant, brutal, terrorising Soviet empire - called the base (Al-Qaeda)
Organisation of Al Qaeda Network
The Network consists of mutating cells which protects the inner leadership from being targeted.
Decision making is centralised but planning and delivery of operations is high decentralised
This approach makes the group largely undetectable hence the intelligence series constantly fighting around the clock to thwart attacks on foreign soil
Curtis: Argues that AQ is an imaginary organisation devised by the US basing his argument upon the use of the term during the trial of Bin Laden and four others in 2001 over the 1998 in East Africa
Unique about AQ is the fact that it rarely relies on orders being given from a central command.
Bin laden didn't rely on instructions from Afghanistan all of the time.
Vast majority of those involved in the attacks in Madrid and London for example were virtually unknown to intellgience forces.
AQ allows autonomy amongst its followers; a lot of responsibility is given to them.
AQ used people who weren't on the radar to get messages back and forth.
Finance and planning of 9/11 took place in Hamburg and German intelligence had no idea - individuals again not on the radar.
Real surnames never used, given nicknames. Surname will be replaced with where they are from
Financing the Global Network
Hawla: informal system of moving black monies. No paper or electronic, passed through people.
Diamond smuggling in Africa.
Creation of network of companies transferring monies (barakat namely had 40 companies).
Charity donations given by Muslims around the world through fundraising.
Drug-trafficking
Offshore accounts in tax havens ensuring anonymity for account holders
Diamonds were sold to buy arms and fund armies
Many wealthy individuals in the Gulf have been accused of funding AQ even the Qatari and Saudi government have been accused of this.
Drug trafficking a source of income - a lot of heroine comes from Afghanistan
AQ Grand Strategy
The Awakening
This phase was supposed to last from 2001to 2003. The goal of the phase is to provoke the United States to attack a Muslim country by executing an attack on US soil that kills many civilians
Opening Eyes
This phase was intended to last from 2003 to 2006 The goal of this phase was to recruit young men to the cause and to transform the al-Qaeda group into a movement.Iraq was supposed to become the centre of all operations with financial and military support for bases in other states.
Arising and Standing up
This phase was supposed to last from 2007 to 2010. In this phase, Al-Qaeda wanted to execute additional attacks and focus their attention on Syria.
Ideological Framework of AQ
Concept of Jihad (Offensive and Defensive)
Rejection of false deities
Elimination of Western hegemony and imposition of Islamic governments based on Sharia (Divine Law)
Al-Wala' Wal-Bara: likeness for Muslims and hatred for disbelievers.
Removal of foreign troops from Muslim lands: American troops were forced out of Saudi Arabia in 2003 and now only have a base in Qatar patrolling the gulf. This was a victory for Al-Qaeda
Liberation of Palestine
Restoration of authentic Islam and removal of vestiges of Jahiliyah
No other deity but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God.
All Muslims must be constantly subservient to Allah.
Jihad isn't just violence - from a spiritual perspective it is associated with the idea of people fighting off the devil from entering their lives.
Many Muslims who volunteered in Afghanistan then returned to their own country with new ideas of what 'jihad' meant, where they would then spread these ideas.
AQ in Iraq
Aims
Abu Musab al-Zaraqawi
At the beginning of Saddam's regime in 1979, Iraq was one of the richest and most developed country's in the region.
War with Israel
Spread Jihad across the region and beyond.
Expulsion of American forces from Iraq
The Iraqis originally welcomed the American's in 1990 as they toppled statues of Saddam Hussein and they believed the American's would be able to topple him but he remained in power for 13 more years. People wanted to see Saddam overthrown as Iraq was going backwards
Creates an Islamic authority in Iraq and establish a caliphate
Born: Jordan, 1966
Died: Assassinated by USA in Iraq, 2006
Founded Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999
Planned and executed a programme to resist US occupation of Iraq waging a bloody insurgency between 2003-2006 in Sunni heartlands
Declared war on infidels and primarily targetted Shias in Iraq, inflaming sectarian tensions and killing thousands of people in the process
Aftermath of US invasion of Iraw in 2003 led to the formation of AQ in Iraq
People wanted to see the back of the Americans as they unleashed aerial bombings across Iraq: therefore it is easy to see why people turned to AQI.
The Republican Guard: Strongest guard of the Iraqi Army is obliterated leaving very few people who wanted to remain fighting for Iraq.
A tsunami of jihadist activity is launched against the Americans: the insurgency which started small becomes a lot bigger.
The insurgency which started out on small scale and becomes quite big
The godfather of Islamic State (even though he died before its creation)
Origins of Islamic State
The Islamic State of Iraq was led by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri until they were killed in a US-Iraqi operation in 2010, after which Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the group's leader.
In 2011, following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, ISI delegated a mission into Syria to establish a large presence in Sunni-majority provinces, such as Aleppo.
In 2013, al-Baghdadi decreed the reunification of the Syrian al-Nusra Front with ISI to form the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Al-Baghdadi believed 2013/4 was the right time to form a caliphate in Iraq and Syria however AQ disagreed, believing it to be too early. (as the Messiah is thought to only come near the end of times, which they believed wouldn't happen soon)
Many historians argue that AQ lost momentum in Iraq because they launched a bloodbath against the Shias.
Jbhat Al-Nusra (AQ affiliate) wanted to eliminate foreign Muslim fighters from Syria and keep it purely for Syrian Muslims. This is because foreign jihadis brought different aims and various factions which could create
Tensions between AQ and AQI
In 2005, Ayman Al-Zawahiri (current AQ leader) condemned the attacks against Shiites in Iraq carried out by AQI
Al-Zawahiri argued that the practice of the indiscriminate killings of Shiites was in opposition to AQ 's grand plan which was to defeat the West and Israel.
But in 2007, Al-Zawahiri endorsed the group but made an appeal that innocent civilians should not be targeted.
From mid-2006, AQI began to be pushed out of their strongholds in rural Anbar Province by tribal leaders in open war. These tribal sheiks were given cash gifts and salaries to get their support.
Historiography
Rashid
It wasn't until Al-Qaeda involvement that the Taliban began to see USA as an enemy.
Through his alliance with the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden recieved an entire country as a base of operations and was able to gather around him thousands of Islamic extremists and extend his operations around the world
The support base in Pakistan was to prove critical to Al-Qaeda's survival after 9/11 as between 1996 and 2001, Al-Qaeda trained an estimated thirty thousand militants from around the world.
Al-Qaeda's conscription of thousands of young men to fight their wars created widespread public resentment.
Gerges
Argues that it was localism, not globalism which informed the thinking and actions of jihadis who had initially fought in Afghanistan. The extent of their international ambition was to expel the Russians from Afganistan and bring about an Islamic government there
Argues that 9/11 was a dramatic shift away from targeting the near enemy to targeting the far enemy.
Gerges arguments ignore how Bin Laden's strategy seemed much more global than just Afghanistan. Particularly in the 90s when Bin Laden declared war on the West in 1996 and then the US embassy bombings in 1998.
Argues that throughout the 1980s, the US was not very high on jihadi's lists of targets
Gerges argument that the US wasn't high on their agenda in the 1980s is correct although this is because they had to deal with the Russians in Afghanistan and US was funding them so they could not be overly critical of the US regime. Even despite this, Azzam called for international jihad in America in 1988.