The evolving threat of al-Qaeda By Gordon Corera BBC security correspondent In recent years, the notion of al-Qaeda as a decentralised organisation - a group that inspires attacks rather than organising and planning them itself - has gained common currency. But now senior counter-terrorist officials have told the BBC that they have seen evidence that this is no longer the case and that the threat has evolved. It is believed that al-Qaeda has in fact regrouped in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region and now poses a more direct threat, particularly to the UK. Its communication channels and training facilities, which were heavily disrupted after the fall of the Taleban in Afghanistan, have been rebuilt and it is once more able to recruit members, communicate internationally and direct attacks. New recruits are carefully selected and go through a process of indoctrination Officials also believe that the close connections between communities in the UK and Pakistan mean that even though al-Qaeda would also like to attack the United States and other countries, the UK is likely to be the primary target because of the volume of travel and contact between the two countries. There were 400,000 visits by UK residents to Pakistan in 2004 and a very small number of those are thought to have involved trips to training camps linked to al-Qaeda. New recruits are carefully selected and go through a process of indoctrination. They go on to form organised, self-contained cells which bear some similarities in their structure to those formed by the Provisional IRA in the past. What concerns the authorities is the ease with which those who either drop out or are arrested can be replaced by other willing recruits Different individuals will have different functions, often with one person acting as an overall leader and another in charge of getting hold of weapons or bomb-making. In addition, there will be a number of foot-soldiers. What concerns the authorities is the ease with which those who either drop out or are arrested can be replaced by other willing recruits. The cat and mouse game between the authorities and these groups is also becoming increasingly complex. The cells are increasingly aware of the attempts by authorities to conduct surveillance activity and are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their attempts to evade eavesdropping. This often involves conducting conversations in public spaces and other methods, again used by Irish Republican groups in the past. Both the volume of activity and its increased sophistication has made officials worry that the 7/7 bombings last year may simply have been the start of what could be a prolonged campaign. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/6066732.stm [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
