May 08, 2007

The Plans of al-Qaeda 3.0

You hear Rusty talk about al-Qaeda 3.0. Where small self starting al-Qaeda inspired cells without direct connections to al-Qaeda's leadership form, plan and direct independent attacks againt the west. Today's arrests in NJ speak to the fact that such cells exist.

Laura Mansfield has posted an explanation of how these al-Qaeda 3.0 cells are formed and how the al-Qaeda leadership views their purpose. Of course the internet plays a crucial role.

Laura Mansfield: News media reports describe this morning's terrorist suspects, who planned an attack on Ft. Dix, NJ, as homegrown with no ties to al Qaeda or any other international terrorist organization.

This isn't surprising in the least.

It is very likely that this cell, like numerous others that have been uncovered in the past year, falls into the category of ?Individual or Small Group Terrorism?, as espoused by the Al Qaeda ideologue Abu Mus?ab al Suri in his book ?Call to Global Islamic Resistance?..

The doctrine of ?Individual or Small Group Terrorism? is a major concept in al Suri?s 1604-page manifesto, published on the internet in December 2004.

Al Suri, who is believed to be currently in US custody, describes three primary phases of Jihad in the book:
# Organizations
# Open Fronts
# Individual/Small Groups

He explains in depth each of these phases, and makes a strong case that the wave of the future is individual and small group terrorists.....

...There's certainly no shortage of training materials for would-be jihadists on the internet ? from instructional videos detailing the brewing of explosives, the construction of a suicide bomb vest, and multiple kinds of improvised explosives devices, to detailed recipes for creating chemical and biological weapons. Detailed training manuals provide the trainee with a roadmap to physical fitness. Online publications, the most famous being Moaskar al Battar, detail how to maintain and use firearms from pistols to automatic weapons, as well as operational plans such as how to plan an ambush, a kidnapping, and an assasination

Security is easier, he believes, because the individuals and groups don?t have to take marching orders from the Al Qaeda leadership. Instead, they can act on their own, inspired by events in their own countries. The glue bonding them to the organization is a shared ideology and theology, and a commitment to jihad.