Indeed, the killing of a top Al Qaeda ideologue who made an incredible escape from an American detention centre at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan in 2005 is one of the biggest successes for the US war against the terror network after the killing of the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse...
A deputy to Ayman al
Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
, Al Libi is the latest on the list of more than two dozen senior Al Qaeda operatives killed in the CIA's drone campaign over the past three years. Yet the removal of the old guards often known as 'sheikhs' won't obliterate the group whose centre of gravity appears to have now shifted from Pakistain's tribal region to Yemen and Somalia.
Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight...
Al Qaeda, operating from the Pak borderland, has managed to transform and replenish itself with new recruits. Though the US counterterrorism officials assert that the network has been crippled, and the number of hard-core foreign Death Eaters operating out of the tribal territories is now reduced to less than 200, the reality is that a new Al Qaeda has emerged in Pakistain.
Largely comprising local Death Eaters and Islamic hard boyz from other countries they are replacing the leaders killed in the drone strikes. The network has also grown in strength due to the new alliances it has made with the Pak Taliban and other outlawed turban and Sunni sectarian groups.
Drawn from educated urban middle-class youth splintered from mainstream Islamic parties including Jamaat-e-Islami
...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
, they are the new face of Al Qaeda in Pakistain. Many of them have risen high in the group's hierarchy, presenting a formidable challenge not only to the US coalition forces in Afghanistan, but also to the Pak state.
Ilyas Kashmiri was the prime example of this new breed of non-Arab commanders who occupied a very senior position in the Al Qaeda hierarchy. A veteran member of Harkat ul Jihad Islami, Kashmiri became the main strategist of Al Qaeda and had also been seen as one of the contenders to take over the command of the group after the death of Osama bin Laden.
Kashmiri was believed to be the criminal mastermind behind some of the most spectacular terrorist attacks inside Pakistain, including the one on the Mehran naval base. He was killed in CIA Predator strike in South
Wazoo last year.Among others who became the part of the core group of Al Qaeda in Pakistain were two leading medical doctors from Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
-- Arshad Waheed and Akmal Waheed. Both were active members of the JI before joining Al Qaeda in Waziristan.
Dr Arshad Waheed, a renowned orthopaedic surgeon who took the nom de guerre Sheikh Moaz, not only provided medical help to the forces of Evil but also became a trained fighter. He was killed in March 2008 when a CIA-operated drone struck his hideout near Wana in South Waziristan.
An Al Qaeda videotape released after his death hailed him as a martyr who was "unparalleled in faith, love for his religion, and belief in Allah". Dr Akmal Waheed , a cardiologist, is still active in Al Qaeda somewhere in the border area.
The Waheed brothers' role in Al Qaeda raised questions about the JI's connection with the global jihad network. This was certainly not an isolated case. In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured from the house of a leader of the JI women's wing. There were several other such incidents where JI members were involved in providing shelter to Al Qaeda runaways.
Although there is no evidence of the JI's organizational links with Al Qaeda, many of its members maintained close connections with the group. Their association with Al Qaeda operatives is not accidental.
The country's most powerful Islamic political party was after all the original face of jihad in Pakistain. Thousands of its cadres had fought against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s and later in Kashmire, Bosnia and Chechnya. Though the party leadership denied any links with Al Qaeda, many younger cadres joined the fighting against the US-led occupation forces in Afghanistan.
The cadre Al Qaeda attracted are ideologically and politically motivated. Products of secular educational institutions rather than Islamic seminaries, they have been the planners of many terrorist attacks that heralded the new phase of militancy sweeping the country over the past few years. They include spectacular attacks on high security military installations such as on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and Mehran naval base in Bloody Karachi.
Strongly committed to the cause of global jihad this new Al Qaeda generation acts as a magnet for radicalised Moslems, including a number of western citizens who travel to Pakistain. Then there are sympathisers providing monetary and logistic support, thus giving the group new depth in the country's urban centres.
Though North Waziristan remains the main hub of Al Qaeda activities, the intensification of the CIA drone strikes has forced many Pak operatives to scatter outside the targeted regions. With a strong support network they do not face much difficulty in operating from urban centres.
The rise of small terrorist cells has made the task of countering them harder. These terrorist groups multiplied with the escalation in the Pak military offensives in the northwest and tribal regions. Some of these groups have just four or five members making them hard to detect.
The absence of a coherent counterterrorism strategy has also allowed Al Qaeda-associated groups to operate freely. Most of those set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up!
are freed by the courts either because of lack of evidence or because the judges are threatened. Pakistain is now a major battleground for Al Qaeda and its associated turban groups with dangerous implications for the regional security.