Assessing Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda Strikes Back - Bruce Riedel, Saban Center for Middle East Policy

Al-Qaeda is a more dangerous enemy today than it has ever been before.

Al-Qaeda's relocation to Pakistan has provided new opportunities for the group to expand its reach in the West, especially the UK. In November 2006, Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director general of the British Security Service said that some 200 networks of Muslims of South Asian descent were being monitored in the UK. At "the extreme end of this spectrum," she said, "are resilient networks directed from al-Qaeda in Pakistan."

Gaza is another prime candidate: it is already divided between Hamas and Fatah, and there is evidence that a small al-Qaeda apparatus is forming there. Al-Qaeda is still too weak to overthrow established governments equipped with effective security services; it needs failed states to thrive.

(Foreign Affairs)

UPDATES:

U.S. Seeks Closing of Visa Loophole for Britons of Pakistani Origin - Jane Perlez
Omar Khyam, the ringleader of the thwarted London bomb plot who was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday, could have entered the U.S. without a visa, like many of an estimated 800,000 Britons of Pakistani origin.
(New York Times)


MI5 Watching 2,000 Terror Suspects - Frank Gardner
The [British] Secret Service and police are monitoring about 2,000 individuals who they say are actively involved in supporting al-Qaeda.
(BBC News)