LA Times analysiert Qaida-Bedrohung

--- Die LA Times fasst heute in einem längeren Artikel die gegenwärtige Bedrohung durch al-Qaida zusammen und zieht Vergleiche zur Zeit vor dem 9. September. Eine Zusammenfassung aus der Infobox des Beitrags: Despite the arrests of several high-profile leaders, anti-terrorism experts believe that Al Qaeda has managed to reemerge as a lethal ideological movement. Dispersed operatives — loosely organized or acting alone — recruit and quickly train local terrorist groups for small but deadly attacks. ... In operations such as the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa and the Sept. 11 attacks, Al Qaeda leaders exercised considerable control over operations. Today, Al Qaeda appears to have become more ideology than network, spreading globally among cells inspired by Sept. 11. ... 'In Iraq, a problem has been created that didn't exist there before. The events in Iraq have had a profound impact on the entirety of the jihad movement.' Judge Jean-Louis Brugulere, French anti-terrorism investigator. ... 'Once these guys have gone to Iraq to train, they know how to use weapons and explosives. That's the first level: Iraq as a new Afghanistan, a Chechnya.' Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, director of Frances intelligence agency. ... 'By now we have no evidence, not even credible intelligence, that the Madrid group was steered, financed, organized from the outside. So that might be the biggest success of Bin Laden.' A senior European counter-terrorism official.