Al-Qaeda seeking to broaden reach: experts

Secure in its haven in northwestern Pakistan, a resurgent al-Qaeda is trying to expand its network...

Secure in its haven in northwestern Pakistan, a resurgent al-Qaeda is trying to expand its network, in some cases by executing corporate-style takeovers of regional Islamic extremist groups, according to US intelligence officials and counter-terrorism experts.

Though not always successful, these moves indicate a shift in strategy by the terrorist network as it seeks to broaden its reach and renew its ability to strike Western targets, including the United States, officials and experts say. “Certainly we do see al-Qaeda trying to influence the broader movement and to control some of these affiliates in a more direct way,” a senior Bush administration counter-terrorism

official said.

“The word I would use is co-opt as opposed to simply associating with or encouraging. “By that I mean target selection, types of attacks, methodology, funding, all of the things that would make an affiliate suddenly a subsidiary.”

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The senior official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the subject matter. That person’s assessment coincided with those offered by current and former government authorities and private sector experts. Bruce Riedel, a senior CIA counter-terrorism official until late last year, said al-Qaeda “central” stands to gain hundreds or even thousands of foot soldiers, many of whom already have been radicalised, carry European passports and don’t require a visa to travel to the United States. “I think what we are seeing is the reconstitution of their capabilities to strike targets in Western Europe and ultimately North America on a scale identical or bigger than September 11,” said Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

From northwest Pakistan, these current and former officials say, al-Qaeda leaders have rebuilt a network of field commanders that was largely decimated in the post-September 11 attacks on its bases in Afghanistan. These new mid-level operatives are reestablishing connections with affiliates that traditionally have been fairly independent. But they also are reaching past those groups to new organisations and even tribal and clan leaders. Al-Qaeda’s efforts do not always pan out. In some cases, it has pulled back after making an initial approach. And some groups have rebuffed Osama Bin Laden’ss organisation.

Sometimes, it is not clear exactly what influence senior al-Qaeda leaders have. Three men arrested in September in Germany for allegedly plotting attacks there against Americans have been linked to an extremist group based in Uzbekistan that broke away from an organisation long under al-Qaeda’s umbrella. Authorities fear that the group, the Islamic Jihad Union , might have been drawn tightly into al-Qaeda’s orbit and aimed far beyond its previous targets in Central Asia. From its early years in the 1990s, al-Qaeda has been an umbrella organisation of groups from Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia.

Al-Qaeda’s links to many outlying parts of its network were severed after the post-September 11 attacks. Signs of the rebuilding effort began to become apparent at least two years ago, but they have intensified since then. US intelligence and counter-terrorism officials say they have seen indications in numerous terrorist plots and attacks and other extremist violence in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. In congressional testimony last week , FBI Director Robert S Mueller III said al-Qaeda’s “mergers with regional groups have created a more diffuse violent Islamic extremist threat that complicates the task of detecting and deterring plots against the homeland.”