Terrorism And Al-Queda
...organizations in the world. Al-Qaeda means, “The base” and is composed of many Afghan war veterans. It was founded by Osama bin Laden and developed in Afghanistan. One of the main reasons this terrorist organization was founded was because of the invasion by the Soviets into Afghanistan. At this time, the Afghan fighters were actually supported by the United States in an attempt to also stop the power of the Soviets. Al-Qaeda was born in the last stages of the Soviet-Afghan War (Malloy, pg. 262).
In 1988, the birth of al-Qaeda came because of a split between Bin Laden and Abdallah Azzam. Bin Laden continued his focus on doing work the Jihad and moved his attention to carrying on the war to other countries. Al-Qaeda first operated in the country of Sudan. Here it is said that Bin Laden started up many businesses to help the Sudanese government and also built training camps for his insurgents. Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda stayed in Sudan until 1994 when they expelled bin Laden because of increased pressure from the Saudis and U.S. He then moved all of his people and camps to Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, bin Laden set up his insurgent training camps and businesses just like he had done in Sudan. It is around this time where al-Qaeda starts becoming more and more powerful and known. However, al-Qaeda was not run by bin Laden single-handedly. Bin Laden is helped out largely by his top advisor who is Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. He is thought to be al-Qaeda’s theological leader and probable successor of bin Laden. He met bin Laden after he came to Afghanistan after he was released from prison because of a possible connection with the assassination of Anwar Sadat. Zawahiri is also thought to have played a major role in shaping bin Laden’s political evolution.
The structure of al-Qaeda is much different than any other terrorist organization in the world....
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