LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Al Qaeda: Bin
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The first direct indication of al Qaeda involvement came in a videotape of bin Laden talking to a group of supporters in November 2001, which was obtained by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in late November and released on December 13, 2001. The videotape was clearly intended for internal al Qaeda use and bin Laden appeared fully aware that the tape was being made. Independent scholars verified that the translation released by the U.S. government is accurate.
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The circumstances of Al Qaeda's development relate to Osama bin Laden's life, and the times and region where he grew up. Here, resources on different points in the origins and evolution of the core group he heads.
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BIN LADEN assigned JABARAH to participate in a terrorist operation in Southeast Asia and, to that end, dispatched JABARAH to meet with senior al Qaeda operative KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED ("KSM") in Karachi, Pakistan. JABARAH stayed with KSM in Karachi for three weeks beginning in mid-August 2001. During that time, JABARAH received advanced terrorist training in stealth travel and surveillance techniques. JABARAH was ... introduced to, and later extensively met with and took direction from, RIDUAN ISOMUDDIN, known as "Hambali" ("HAMBALI"), a leading figure in the Southeast Asia terrorist group known as Jemaah Islamiyah ("JI").
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The challenge of defeating al Qaeda is more complex today than it was in 2001. The organization is more diffuse, and its components operate more independently. Bin Laden continues to influence its direction and provide general guidance and, on occasion, specific instructions. But overall the movement is more loosely structured, which leaves more room for independent and copycat terrorist operations.
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The often cited claims of links between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda were not only ideologically absurd but the global intelligence community believed the claims were ridiculous as well. This was known way before the Bush/PNAC administration announced its intentions to invade Iraq. 9/11 was the excuse for proceeding with PNAC’s decade long desire to take over Iraq so the Bush/PNAC administration had to make this claim otherwise there was no justification at all for invading this already beaten down nation that had not made any threats to any other nation.
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Zarqawi's strategy did prompt criticism from other jihadi groups and some second-guessing within al Qaeda, but it ... succeeded brilliantly. In a letter to Zarqawi dated July 9, 2005, Zawahiri questioned the wisdom of igniting Sunni-Shiite hatred in the Muslim world, and Zarqawi became known within the movement as al Gharib (the Stranger) because of his extreme views. Still, he pressed ahead, and the al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan never challenged him publicly. Although he led only a small percentage of the Sunni militants in Iraq, Zarqawi was at the cutting edge of the insurgency, the engine of the civil war. By late 2004, he had formally proclaimed his allegiance to bin Laden, and bin Laden had anointed him "the prince of al Qaeda in Iraq."
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