Word: arabize
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...might have been before 9/11, but the arrival of hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops in the Gulf region, and the long-term occupation and reconstruction mission in Iraq, dramatically increases the number of targets of opportunity available to al-Qaeda and allied organizations in their own backyard. Pan-Arab anger at the U.S. invasion of Iraq will almost certainly have swelled the ranks of locals willing to be recruited by al-Qaeda, and whereas before 9/11 that might have meant a trip to a camp in Afghanistan, the new al-Qaeda is more likely to bring the training...
...While maintaining the threat of attacks against the U.S. mainland, recent statements purporting to be from al-Qaeda emphasize a new focus on operations in the Arab world. "Among the priorities of Al-Qaeda's new strategy, besides strikes at the heart of the United States, are operations in the Gulf countries an countries allied to America, particularly Egypt and Jordan," says an email sent to a Saudi newspaper last week ostensibly from Al Qaeda operative al-Ablaj...
...Saudi attacks raise a further question: Will al-Qaeda now move to translate its hostility to U.S.-allied Arab regimes into direct attacks on those regimes, or will it simply target U.S. personnel and civilians on their soil? Palestinian Islamist groups, for example, tend to challenge the Palestinian Authority not by targeting Palestinian security personnel, but by sending suicide bombers into Israel at times when the PA is seeking to implement cease-fires. There would certainly be a danger of a backlash against Bin Laden even from sympathetic Saudis if he launched a campaign of violence at home against fellow...
...Qaeda's recent statements also speak of a reorganization, deploying new leadership and new structures to repair the damage wrought by the U.S. and its allies since 9/11. Thabet bin Qais, who used a known al-Qaeda's communication channel with the Arab media to announce himself as the movement's new spokesman, warned in an email that al-Qaeda had "carried out changes in its leadership and sidelined the September 11, 2001 team," and that it would take the U.S. a long time to comprehend the movement's new form. That could simply be bravado in the face...
...reminder that al-Qaeda is very much alive after 18 months of the war on terror. But while an occasional attempt to mount a spectacular attack on the U.S. mainland remains a real danger, changed circumstances and opportunities may tempt the network to focus its efforts in the Arab territories whose "liberation" from U.S. influence remains one of the movement's founding objectives...