On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists (with strong ties to Al Qaeda), on four separate planes, slaughtered almost 3000 civilians at the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon ("9/11 Attacks"). Al Qaeda is widely known as the most feared terrorist organization. It is a global Islamic militant organization, and its location cannot be determined because of its secrecy and the fact that its militants operate all over the world. It commits acts that are considered terrorism. Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims (Currie 70). Al Qaeda plans to do just this with the terror that they invoke. Al Qaeda did not start as an organization made for terror. Instead, it started as a legitimate military base for the training of the mujahideen, who were the group fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden started Al Qaeda with the money that his wealthy Saudi father left him when he died, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan (Moyer). He called the invasion an attack on Islam itself. Soon enough, though, Al Qaeda grew into a group recruiting bloody jihadis, spreading fear, and punishing those against their views. (Currie 70-71)
Bin Laden only focused on destroying military installations and soldiers and left civilians alone as much as possible in Afghanistan, therefore being constructive. He supplied many resources to the war effort, thereby playing a major role in making the Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan. Bin Laden bought military equipment and recruited many soldiers whose ideas of Islam matched his. Due to the fact that the mujahideen had been more trouble than the Soviets had expected, the Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan. (Currie 72) ...
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...itely evolved into a feared organization. The fear that Al Qaeda causes today, is exactly what bin Laden had wanted. America as a nation should stand up to terrorists and show them that we will not consent to their needs.
Works Cited
Currie, Stephen. "Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda." Terrorists and Terrorist Groups. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2002. 69-83. Print.
Moyer, Bill. "Brief History of Al Qaeda." PBS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. .
"9/11 Attacks." History. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. .
Rawlings, Nate. "A Tale of Two Jihadis." Time Oct.-Nov. 2013: 1. MAS Ultra /iCONN. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
"U.S. Response to Terrorism Follow-up: al Qaeda Leader bin Laden Killed by U.S. Forces in Pakistan." Issues and Controversies on File. N.p., 1 May 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States was incredibly eager to strike back at the nations thought to be responsible for this horrific tragedy. These attacks were quickly attributed to the terrorist group al-Qa’ida, led by Osama bin Laden, and to the Taliban-run government of Afghanistan, which had provided sanctuary to al-Qa’ida. In response, Washington approved a covert plan led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to directly attack those responsible in their Middle East safe haven. Initiated on 26 September 2001 with the approval of the warlords of the Afghan Northern Alliance, with whom the CIA had formed an intelligence liaison relationship, Operation Jawbreaker resulted in the fall of the Taliban regime, the killing and capture of a significant amount of al-Qa’ida leadership, and elimination of a terrorist safe haven by early December 2001. Moreover, the Taliban’s collapse denied al-Qa’ida a pseudo-nation-state partner, serving to reduce the organization’s sanctuary to areas residing along the Pakistani border.
Likewise, Goodwin illustrates how the use of categorical terrorism can be seem being used by Al-Qaida during the attacks of 9/11. Nonetheless, it is evident that Al-Qaida is unusual in terms of using terrorism to influence the rise of unity rather than trying to overthrow a standing state. For the purpose of instigating a pan-Islamic revolutionary movement, Al-Qaida tries to unite all Islamic people under one state to develop umma, or Muslim community. The logic of Al-Qaida remained that if their “revolutionaries” could illicit a reaction from the powerful US state, resulting in oppression of the middle-eastern region, that Al-Qaida could, as a result, unite all Muslims to counter this suggested oppression. Although the end goal of Al-Qaida clear failed, it does suggest the organization’s attempt at implementing categorical terrorism.
The two victims said that they were not involved in terrorist groups, but during the investigation they had visited some Al- Qaeda websites to plan out the bombing. Al- Qaeda is an Islamist group that was found by Osama bin Laden in the 1980s. Al- Qaeda is the same group that did the terroist attacks on September 11, 2001. Al- Qaeda means "the base". In 2010, the Al- Qaeda's magazine had a step by step to make a pressure cooker bomb. The brothers were planning to do some of the same acts in New York City.
Church, Kenneth. “Jihad.” Collateral Language. Ed. John Collins and Ross Glover. New York: NYU Press, 2000. 109-123.
“The hunt for KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed” by analytical reporters Terry McDermont and Josh Meyer, is an attention-grabbing account of how one of Al Qaeda’s most outstanding terrorist, KSM, took part in one of the deadliest terrorist operations in history. The book includes an intense description of the decade-long determination of the CIA and FBI investigators to the successful capture of KSM and his acquaintances. However, as portrayed by the authors, it took a long time in their pursuit to identify KSM and take him into custody.
Response to terrorism. FreeRepublic, LLC, 10 Febuary 2001. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/537799/posts.
In 1986, Reagan took violent action on his war against terrorism. Reagan started his presidency in 1981 beginning his war on terrorism. The United States has been struggling with having good relations with Libya, specifically relations with Muammar Gaddafi (El-Gadhafi, Quadaffi, Qadhafi). Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator first came to power in 1969. Over the past few decades, the United States tried to solve conflicts with Libya diplomatically (SOURCE). Once Reagan was elected president, he tried to continue the tradition of solving issues using diplomatic ways, however Gaddafi refused to take Reagan’s threats seriously. The conflict with Libya and the United States escalated when it was discovered that Gaddafi was behind the discotheque bombings in West Berlin on April 5th 1986. Gaddafi has violently attacked not only innocent civilians, but had planned assassination attempts on United States officials that were abroad (SOURCE). Gaddafi’s previous actions, led to the bombings in Libya on April 14th 1986, when Operation El Dorado Canyon took place. President Reagan later justified these bombings in his address to the nation the evening the bombings took place (SOURCE?).
On September 11, 2001, the most disastrous terrorist attack in U.S. history left a countless number of innocent Americans both dead and missing. The Taliban’s assault on the Pentagon and annihilation of New York’s World Trade Center caused the entire country to wonder what was going on in the rest of the world to cause so much animosity toward our great nation. Little did many American citizens know that this shocking catastrophe was the result of years of unrest and chaos in the Middle East. The tragic events of September 11th occurred as a result of the recent, political history of Afghanistan, the development of the radical Islamic group, the Taliban, and the monetary and military support that the Taliban has received.
Khashan, Hilal. “The New World Order and the Tempo of Militant Islam.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. Volume 24, Issue 1 (1997. 5), 5-24.
Herman, E. & Sullivan, G. O.1989. The Terrorism Industry: The Experts and Institutions That Shape Our View of Terror. New York: Pantheon.
middle of paper ... ... The U.S. in a sense used the Mujahideen to defeat the Soviet Union but in the end radical groups would turn on the U.S. with terrorist attacks. The Soviet-Afghan War saw the end of communism but the rise of terrorism. Afghanistan would continue to be a breeding ground for terrorist groups and the U.S. would get involved in Afghanistan in 2001 to fight Taliban and Al Qaeda groups, who developed after the Soviet-Afghan War.
Al Qaeda is leading by Osama bin laden that was born and grown up in Saudi Arabia; his family was very rich and respected by Saudi Royal household and the public. When he finished his University in Saudi Arabia, he becomes an extreme religious person. Osama started to help Islamist movement against communist in Yemen (Gunaratna, 2005) . In December 1997 when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan he went to Pakistan and then Afghanistan to help Afghan group to protect it from Soviet Union. At the time a Palestinian Jordanian, Dr Abdullah Azzam esta...
Shah, Zahid. "Jihad And Terrorism: A Comparative Study." Dialogue (1819-6462) 4.4 (2009): 526-554. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 May 2014
Cruickshank, Paul. Al Qaeda: Critical Concepts in Political Science. Milton Park, Abringdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013. Print
...declared war and President Bush had no choice but to fight. Al Qaeda killed thousands of civilians when taking down the World Trade Center. He believes they chose America as a place to spread their Islamic views and power. IPS, Jim Lobe notes, “Al Qaeda appears to have largely succeeded in its hopes of accelerating the decline of U.S. global power, if not bringing it to the brink of collapse” (Shah)