Guest MINDSETTER™ Matt Fecteau: al Qaeda’s Perilous Evolution
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Osama Bin Laden was killed on May 2nd 2011. While he died, Bin Laden’s legacy lives on in the al Qaeda ideology he helped spawn globally. al Qaeda metastasized from a hierarchical group into a global ideology that has come to a head in Iraq and Syria.
After the Soviet war in Afghanistan in circa 1989, influenced by radical Islamist author Sayyid Qutb, in Pakistan, Bin Laden created al Qaeda or “the Base” to defend Islam, and establish a pan-Islamic empire (Caliphate). For groups like al Qaeda, the Soviet war in Afghanistan provided operating space to network, train, and recruit. After the war, these experienced radicals would return home more violent than ever.
In 1990, after Iraq annexed Kuwait, the Saudi crown asked the United States to setup bases along the border to deter an Iraqi attack. Following Iraq’s expulsion from Kuwait, the Saudi Crown requested a prolonged US presence in Saudi Arabia to deter any future aggression. This was a recipe for disaster.
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Because of antigovernment activities related to the US presence, Bin Laden was soon expelled from Saudi Arabia, and he would eventually end up in Afghanistan. As a refugee, he continued to plan and carry out attacks against the US in response to its presence in Saudi Arabia and also, support of Arab dictators across the Middle East and North Africa.
His actions culminated into the symbolic date 9/11. Though not a member of al Qaeda, 9/11 mastermind Kalid Sheik Mohammad’s cousin, Ramsei Yousef, laid the groundwork. He perpetuated the first successful strike against the economic epicenter of the west, the twin towers, in 1993.
Bin Laden’s al Qaeda would follow suit. Following a laundry list of other attacks, al Qaeda managed to successfully bring down the twin towers on September 11th 2001. The historically acute Bin Laden likely picked September 11th 1683 because it marks the historic decline of the last authentic Islamic state known as the Ottoman Empire.
Ironically, because 9/11 was so successful, Bin Laden’s influence over its global operations was diminished. Disenfranchised, al Qaeda inspired militants with minimal links to al Qaeda rallied to its cause across the globe. With little or no coordination with al Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan, everything was justified to reestablish the Caliphate including robbery, murder, rape, kidnappings, and even securing a nuclear weapon.
Internationally, al Qaeda did face a number of setbacks. It lost sanctuary in Afghanistan and after the US intervened in Iraq and withdrew from Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of legendary Abu Musab al-Zarqawi killed in 2006, al Qaeda in Iraq’s tactics were repudiated by the Iraqi tribal leaders. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 and al Qaeda in Yemen’s spiritual leader, Anwar al-Awlaki, was also killed in 2011.
This soon changed. Just like the Soviet war in Afghanistan, after the Arab Spring, Syria became a lightning rod for al Qaeda inspired militants. After the Syrian rebellion broke out in 2011, while still on life support, al Qaeda in Iraq sent militants to Syria to regroup filling the power vacuum in northern Syria creating a number of al Qaeda inspired militant groups in the process. Because the US government did not arm the more moderate Syrian rebels, these militants used Syria as a launching pad to expand into Iraq.
Two central al Qaeda inspired groups are in northern Syria: Al-Nusra Front, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Operating predominantly in Lebanon and Syria, the first group, Al-Nusra Front, has sworn allegiance to the central leadership of al Qaeda in Pakistan. Al-Nusra Front are considered more moderate, though still brutal, of the two significant al Qaeda inspired groups operating in northern Syria. Al-Nusra Front has even come to the aid of the more secular Syrian rebels.
The al Qaeda in Iraq’s more direct descendent, ISIS, is al Qaeda inspired, but operates relatively independent of al Qaeda. In fact, ISIS is far more brutal than Al-Nusra Front. ISIS typically uses social media to post atrocities such as crucifixions and amputations. Though they both have ties to al Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS is in the model of al Qaeda in Iraq’s vicious leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Both Al-Nusra Front and ISIS tentatively side with each other and even fight each other.
Al-Nusra Front and ISIS are part of an evolution. These groups have learned from past mistakes, and while still brutal, they are taking a hearts and minds approach by providing critical government services. Similar to Bin Laden, with support from Syrian foes Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both seek to reestablish a Caliphate. To these groups, nationality, geography, and ethnicity are nonexistent. There is only one religion, Islam.
This al Qaeda’s evolution played out over the last several decades. al Qaeda started from a fledging terrorist network in the late 1980s, to a more militant organization in the 1990s, and after 9/11, it turned in to an ideology. al Qaeda inspired militants have indeed become smarter and more adaptable to our determinant, harnessing social media to promote their brutality. However, they are also functioning as a government providing critical services to its constituents. Bin Laden may be dead, but his ideology lives on to this day in a distorted, evolved form.
Matt Fecteau is a Democratic Congressional Candidate for the 1st district of Rhode Island, former White House National Security Intern, and Captain in the US Army Reserves with two tours to Iraq. His website can be found here: MattforRI.com
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