...AMERICAN PULIC UNIVERSITY OSAMA BIN LADEN: FALL OF LEADERSHIP POST 9/11 MIND OF A TERRORIST BY TERI DANIELLE MOUNT SAN DIEGO, CA FEBRUARY 2014 OSAMA BIN LADEN: FALL OF LEADERSHIP POST 9/11 Under Osama bin Laden's leadership, al Qaeda has become the most dangerous terrorist organizaiton in the world, responsible for more than 10,000 deaths (Terrorism [2011], 1). As the leader of this organization, he was strategic, intelligent and knew how to attack his enemy both economically and culturally. He was a mastermind and was able to communicate and exert influence upon his followers, affiliates and to the entire world as we know it. He was also the mastermind behind the tragic act that took the lives of thousands in the United States terrorist attack known as 9/11. However, since the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, bin Laden's ability to communicate and influence others has changed drastically. As al-Qaeda's leader, bin Laden meticouslly planned 9/11 and wanted it to be the attack that caused the United States to “bleed-until-bankrupt” by creating a wars between Americans and the Muslim world (Gartenstein-Ross 2013, 1). As a leader, his strongest form of communication lied in his ability to take down his enemies from behind the scenes. After the attacks on 9/11, he repeatedly made it known that he was not responsible for the attacks. However, did the...
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...Al Qaeda a terrorist group was founded by Osama bin Laden and Mohamad Ataf in 1989. The main objective was to drive the United States of America out of Muslim African countries, Saudi Arabia and the entire Arab Peninsula. The death of Osama bin Laden was a major blow to the group. Prior to his death the group was more coherent and structure with central leadership and smaller units with delegated missions. Even with the demise of its head the terrorist group continues to make world news headlines. Al Qaeda disintegrated into several groups that all embrace the groups initial ideologies and methodologies. The though the group has declined, its influence has soared. These splinter groups all have a connection and have a central agenda. They argue though open source data on the groups' innovation practices are necessarily more sparse, we contrast the doctrinal texts with selected examples, which suggest caution in assuming that group doctrine is necessarily put into practice "as written" (Jackson & Loidolt 2013, p. 233) Byman reviews that with Bin Laden's death, these affiliates retain their operational capacity. They continue to try to undermine U.S. allies and some, such as AQAP, will attempt to strike U.S. targets beyond the region in which they operate. His success has made them all far more lethal, but keeping the ties strong depended heavily on Bin Laden's charisma and his access to funds. Zawahiri is less charismatic than Bin Laden. The group influences like minded...
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...Osama bin Laden: Effect on Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization, boasts of a globe-spanning conglomerate with franchises far and wide. Unfortunately, the organization was dealt a blow when their founding father, Osama bin Laden, was killed in an operation by U.S. commandos in the military garrison city of Abbottabad, Pakistan. Though the death of Osama was a setback to Al-Qaeda, the group is still classified as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” by the U.S. State Department, “Proscribed Group” by the UK Home Office, and “Terrorist Group” by the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. The killing of the man who was charged with running the organization for many years had an effect on its leadership and image (Lüsted, 2012). Osama Bin Laden had achieved mythic status as a symbol of international terrorism. Indeed, as the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama declared war on the US and its allies. He organized and coordinated the attack of the USS Cole in the 1990s, US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, 9/11 attacks, and other attacks in Bali, Madrid and London. The killing of Bin Laden, therefore, had symbolic and informational ramifications on the group. The killing of his deputies, Atiyah al-Rahman, whom he relied on to plan and execute the terrorist acts, dealt a further blow. The organization continues to suffer from the loss of their top leaders. The organization has not succeeded to find a suitable replacement with enough charisma such as Osama Bin Laden...
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...Al-Qaeda From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search al-Qaeda القاعدة Participant in the Persian Gulf War, the Global War on Terrorism, the War in Afghanistan, the Iraq War, and the Syrian Civil War Active 1988-present Ideology Sunni Islamism[1][2] Islamic fundamentalism[3] Takfirism[4] Pan-Islamism Worldwide Caliphate[5][6][7][8][9] Qutbism Wahhabism[10] Salafist Jihadism[11][12] Leaders Abdullah Yusuf Azzam (1988-1989) Osama bin Laden (1989-2011) Ayman al-Zawahiri (2011-present) Area of operations Worldwide (predominantly in the Middle East) Strength In Afghanistan – 50–100[13] In Egypt –Unknown In Iraq – 2,500[14] In the Maghreb – 300–800 In Nigeria –Unknown In Pakistan – 300[15] In Philippines – Unknown In Saudi Arabia – Unknown In Somalia – Unknown In Syria Unknown In Thailand -Unknown In Yemen –500–600[16] Allies Taliban Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan East Turkestan Islamic Movement Al-Shabaab Islamic Courts Union (dis) Jundallah Lashkar-e-Taiba Jaish-e-Mohammed Jemaah Islamiyah Boko Haram Abu Sayyaf Iraqi insurgents Caucasus Emirate FARC[17][18] Syria (alleged)[19][20] Qatar (alleged)[21] Opponents United States of America Israel International Security Assistance Force Syria Iran Afghanistan Pakistan Turkey Yemen Egypt Algeria Colombia Al-Qaeda...
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...world at large. Focusing upon Osama bin Laden, how would you compare and contrast his ability to communicate and exert influence upon these various audiences from the years preceding 9/11 until his death? Summary Al Qaeda leaders and affiliates have conducted sophisticated public relations and media campaigns since the mid-1990s. Terrorism analysts believe that these campaigns have been designed to elicit psychological reactions and communicate complex political messages to a global audience as well as to specific subpopulations in the Islamic world, the United States, Europe, and Asia. Some officials and analysts believe that Al Qaeda’s messages contain signals that inform and instruct operatives to prepare for and carry out new attacks. Bin Laden and other leading Al Qaeda figures have referred to their public statements as important primary sources for parties seeking to understand Al Qaeda’s ideology and political demands. Global counterterrorism operations since 2001 appear to have limited Bin Laden’s ability to provide command and control leadership to Al Qaeda operatives and affiliated groups. Other Al Qaeda leaders and affiliates continue to release statements that encourage and provide guidance for terrorist operations. Iraq has become a focal point for jihadist rhetoric, underscoring Al Qaeda leaders’ interest in Iraq and support for the ongoing insurgency. Statements released by Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahiri since late 2004 have rekindled...
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...Why al Qaeda attacked us Steve Elsey March 9, 2011 POLS 3100 The attacks on September 11, 2001 were one of the most shocking things to happen on U.S. soil. The attacks are regarded as the most deadly terrorist attack to ever happen on American soil. It is one of the events that will happen in your life where you remember exactly where you were when you heard about it. I remember being in a high school photography class, where we didn’t even do anything to with photography that day, we just watched the news to see what was happening. Most of the American people wondered why we would be attacked in such a way, and what would possibly cause someone to hate us so badly. Osama bin Laden issued a letter to Americans explaining his reasoning behind the attacks, and their desire to continue attacking afterwards. The reasons he gives are that we attack them and continue to attack them; we have oppression and aggression towards them; and finally, they attack civilians because civilians chose our government, and are thereby responsible for the government actions. He also tells us what is required for them to stop attacking, which include: being called to Islam; stop our “oppression, lies, immortality and debauchery; to take an honest stance with ourselves to find that we are “a nation without principles or manners, and that the values and principles to you are something which you merely demand from others, not that which you yourself must adhere to”; stop supporting Israel; leave th...
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...limited to: Bombing, hijacking, cross border terrorist activities and massacres on a massive scale, in addition to many others not listed. Its consequences are very frightening. Though much effort is put into eliminating terrorism, it is impossible to get rid of it until some strict laws are devised. Whenever and wherever society is victim to brutality, injustice, wrongs and intolerance, terrorism cannot be eradicated. There are many terrorist groups out there, of many different origins and sects. The group that will be discussed is Al Qaeda, which is the most well-known out of the groups listed. The questions and statements that will be answered and debated are: 1.) A brief explanation of Al Qaeda and the summarization of its origins, 2.) Al Qaeda's major motivations, (beliefs or causes), and/or the justifications for engaging in terrorism, 3.) Al Qaeda's major source of both financial and non-financial support, 4.) The evaluation of the importance of Al Qaeda's use of the media, the image being portrayed, and the preferred method of communication for the group, 5.) The determination whether or not the group has a legitimate complaint or...
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...you’ll receive is Al-Qaeda, which is an Islamic terrorist group, located primarily in the Middle East. Many join these extremists due to political, economical, cultural, or military Issues coupled with the groups’ ideology of the “global Salafi jihad”(freeman 41). There is no clear solution to Al-Qaeda, but many of the responses to the terrorist group are primarily military actions including the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with a plan made for the modern age; cyber planning. Up until 2002 not much was know about the origins of Al-Qaeda when in March of that year the Bosnian authorities seized many documents of Osama Bin Laden’s first initial meeting taking place in his own home located in Peshawar (Bergen and Cruickshank 3). These documents studied by Peter Bergen of the National Security Studies Program and Paul Cruickshank from the Center on Law and...
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...“This Time is Different: Comparing Al-Qaeda’s Unique Place in the History of Terrorism with the Freedom Fighters of the Irish Republican Army” Al Qaeda and the Irish Republican Army are two of the most complex and famous terrorist organizations in modern history. While both groups share some principles with one another, and undoubtedly have committed and continue to commit horrible acts, the world’s perception of each is undoubtedly different from the other. There is an apparent contradiction in Karl Heinzen’s famous quote: “If to kill is always a crime, then it is forbidden equally to all; if it is not a crime, then it is permitted equally to all.”[1] This difference in public perception is a result of several key tenets of each organization’s strategy and structure. The IRA fights to protect and support the liberties of the Irish people, while Al Qaeda relies upon the religious doctrine of a radical Islamic minority to carry out jihad against Western infidels. Al Qaeda, while claiming to represent the entire Muslim world, has never had a real home or a consistent base to draw upon; inversely, a large proportion of the Irish people are steadfast in their support for the cause. Al Qaeda’s indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians has resulted in a falling out with a large percentage of its former supporters. Finally, the IRA had a distinct, tangible, and realistic goal of expelling the British from Ireland, while Al Qaeda seeks to establish a new caliphate based...
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...Osama Bin Laden Biography Osama bin Laden and His fusion of Terrorism Introduction: Osama bin Laden, born in 1957, comes from a wealthy Saudi Arabian family that owns a multinational construction business. He used his inborn wealth to finance Afghan forces fighting the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980's. After the 1991 Gulf War, he was distressed that Saudi Arabia allowed U.S. forces to remain in the Arabian Peninsula. To advance his agenda of expelling the U.S. from the Islamic world, he worked with other anti-Western fundamentalists to organize a secretive, highly compartmentalized terrorist network, known as al-Qaida. It is through his upbringing, education, culture, and wars in Islamic countries, that Osama bin Laden has sought to purge the Islamic world of the influences that he believes have corrupted and degraded it. Osama bin Laden’s family: Osama Bin Laden was the 17th son of 51 children of Muhammad bin Laden. His father was of Yemeni descent, and his mother was from Saudi Arabia. Osama's father was the dominant figure in the family, and Osama may have obtained his strong Islamic heritage from his father. "He had a tough discipline and observed all the children with strict religious and social code. He maintained a special daily program and obliged his children to follow.1 Over and above the strict Islamic teachings that he received from his father; Osama bin Laden also received religious indoctrination...
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...In his speech to his followers in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden “declared war” on the United States, with the belief that they were persecuting Muslims. He states that by discontinuing the use of American goods coupled with Mujahedeen militant operations, they will be able to defeat the Americans. Bin Laden then motivates his audience by listing their previous attacks on the US and the lack of reciprocated action. He continues to rally his followers by comparing the motivation of the radical Islamic youth to that of US soldiers, which he deems inferior. He states that the USA in conjunction with the Saudi regime are responsible for the blood of innocent children and closes by calling all tribes of the Arab Peninsula to fight the US in the name...
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...Terrorism and Homeland Defense Fundamentals Weekly Assignment 3.2 Part One: 1. Describe the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947. For two years after the end of WWII, the world was in constant flux. New countries and boundaries were being drawn and one of the most contested and controversial was the creation of an Israeli/ Palestinian state. The Learning Network (2011) states the following: On Nov. 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews, allowing for the formation of the Jewish state of Israel. Since 1917, Palestine had been under the control of Britain, which supported the creation of a Jewish state in the holy land. Sympathy for the Jewish cause grew during the genocide of European Jews during the Holocaust. In 1946, the Palestine issue was brought before the newly created United Nations, which drafted a partition plan. The plan, which organized Palestine into three Jewish sections, four Arab sections and the internationally-administered city of Jerusalem, had strong support in Western nations as well as the Soviet Union. It was opposed by Arab nations. US Central Intelligence Agency (para. 1-3) 2. Why do you think that Palestinian terrorists concentrate on soft targets? The concentration on soft targets is a result of the need to draw attention of a global audience that is increasingly challenging to traumatize, the growing sophistication of the terrorists...
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...OSAMA BIN LADEN – American’s Most WANTED Osama Bin Laden: Early Life Osama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957 or 1958. He was the 17th of 52 children born to Mohammed bin Laden, a Yemeni immigrant who owned the largest construction company in the Saudi kingdom. Young Osama had a privileged, cosseted upbringing. His siblings were educated in the West and went to work for his father’s company, but Osama bin Laden stayed close to home. He went to school in Jiddah, married young and, like many Saudi men, joined the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Osama bin Laden is a terrorist extremist who claimed for the attacks on the World Trade Center in Sep 11th 2001 and is intent on driving Western influence from the Muslim world. Osama Bin Laden: The Pan-Islamist Idea For Bin Laden, Islam is more than just a region: it shaped his political beliefs and influenced every decision he made. While he was at college at the late 1970’s, he became a follower of the radical Pan-Islamist scholar Abdullah Azzam, who believed that all Muslims should rise up in jihad, or holy war, to create a single Islamic state. This idea appealed to the young bin Laden, who resented what he saw as a growing Western influence on Middle Eastern life. In 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan; soon afterward, Azzam and bin Laden traveled to Peshawar, a Pakistani city on the border with Afghanistan, to join the resistance. They did not become fighters themselves, but they used their extensive...
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...Introduction: Afghanistan has a history of a high degree of decentralization, and resistance to foreign invasion and occupation. Some have termed it the “graveyard of empires.” Afghanistan is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east. Since the late 1970s Afghanistan has suffered brutal civil war in addition to foreign interventions in the form of the 1979 Soviet invasion and the 2001 U.S. invasion. The strategic interests of the great powers of the day in Afghanistan pitched against the potential threat of terrorism, religious extremism, smuggling and drug trafficking substantiates the assertion that Afghan security situation has the potential to generate effects far beyond its borders. Afghanistan had experienced several coups since 1973, when the Afghan monarchy was overthrown by Daud Khan, who was sympathetic to Soviet overtures. Subsequent coups reflected struggles within Afghanistan among factions with different ideas about how Afghanistan should be governed and whether it should be communist, and with degrees warmth toward the Soviet Union. The Soviets intervened following the overthrow of a pro-communist leader. In late December 1979, after several months of evident military preparation, they invaded Afganistan. At that time, the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in the Cold War, a global competition for the fealty of other nations. The United States was, thus, deeply interested...
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...What is al-Qaeda? Al-Qaeda, Arabic for "the Base," is an international terrorist network founded by Osama Bin Laden in the late 1980s. It seeks to rid Muslim countries of what it sees as the profane influence of the West and replace their governments with fundamentalist Islamic regimes. After al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks, the United States launched a war in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda's bases there and overthrow the Taliban, the country's Muslim fundamentalist rulers who harbored bin Laden and his followers. Like his predecessor George W. Bush, President Barack Obama has committed U.S. strategy to destroying al-Qaeda’s safe haven in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, and limiting the group's ability to strike U.S. targets. What are al-Qaeda's origins? Al-Qaeda grew out of the Services Office, a clearinghouse for the international Muslim brigade opposed to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, the Services Office--run by bin Laden and the Palestinian religious scholar Abdullah Assam--recruited, trained, and financed thousands of foreign mujahedeen, or holy warriors, from more than fifty countries. Bin Laden wanted these fighters to continue the "holy war" beyond Afghanistan. He formed al-Qaeda around 1988. Where does al-Qaeda operate? There is no single headquarters. From 1991 to 1996, al-Qaeda worked out of Pakistan along the Afghan border, or inside Pakistani cities. During the Taliban's reign al-Qaeda shifted its base of operations into Afghanistan...
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