Al Qaida has 18,000 Jihadists in 100 Nations

Wow this just gets better and better dosen't it.

IISS Report: Al Qaida Has 18,000 'Jihadists' in 100 Nations

U.S. did not foresee Saddam's troops merging with Al Qaida


October 16, 2003

LONDON � The International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its annual report that Al Qaida has formed an alliance with the deposed regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to strike U.S. interests throughout Iraq.

The London-based institute said in a report that the U.S.-led coalition was unprepared for Saddam's strategy of withdrawing his regular forces and converting them into insurgents aligned with Al Qaida.

Al Qaida, the report said, appears unable to stage a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide attacks on New York and Washington. But the group, with an estimated 18,000 trained insurgents spread over 100 countries, remains powerful and could adopt the strategy of Hizbullah when it killed nearly 300 Americans in suicide attacks in Lebanon in the early 1980s.

"Al Qaida may lack the capacity to stage a mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil comparable to 9/11, but it is worth recalling that the operational cycle for large and complex Al Qaida operations can exceed the 25 months that have passed since 9/11," the institute's "Military Balance 2003-2004," said.

"In any case, jihadists could regard a spectacular attack on U.S. personnel in Iraq � like Hizbullah's 1983 suicide-bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, which killed 241 � as a feasible substitute until it is ready to attempt another mass-casualty attack on American soil."

The report said Al Qaida was not affected by the U.S. military withdrawal from Saudi Arabia in September. Instead, the group has enhanced recruitment and intends to develop weapons of mass destruction, including toxins such as ricin as well as procure man-portable air-defence systems available in Iraq.

www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_8.html

Ok...is this country stupid? How could you not forsee this happening? You don't mess with the USA, then all of a sudden, it makes ludicrous charges against you and outs you out of power because of thing's you did in the past. Wouldn't you now consider them a definate enemy and align with others who think of them in the same? Simple logic would tell you this. I swear, the government of this country has it's "head up it's arse"

Anyone else care to comment?

I would agree that this current administration, as with past administrations, have made some major and minor blunders, assumptions, and ill-founded decisions....but I tend to think that "they" were fully unprepared. I tend to loook at it as that "they" assumed that Saddam would fight "tooth and nail", thus eliminating or 'removing' great majorities of Saddam loyalists, etc. I think they did consider this but it was like number 50 on a list of 50 "things" that could happen or come about in going to war with Iraq.

I did find an article that is relative to this and the 'assumption' that this was not "foreseen":
"Al Qaida warning: U.S. has infiltrated our 'holy warriors'"
Link:
www.worldtribune.com...

Posted on Sunday, September 28, 2003.


"AL QAEDA'S NEW COURSE"
Link:
www.nypost.com...

"Reading between the lines, it is clear that al-Zawahiri hopes that a future U.S. administration would get tired of involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and withdraw from both. And if and when that happens, the only organized force capable of seizing power in Baghdad and Kabul would be the Jihadists."

Seems Al-Qaida is hoping for a "terrorist-appeaser" after Bush is 'assumed' beat in the elections?


regards
seekerof

I'm curious what countries are they in?

Originally posted by JamesLimelight
Ok...is this country stupid? How could you not forsee this happening? You don't mess with the USA, then all of a sudden, it makes ludicrous charges against you and outs you out of power because of thing's you did in the past. Wouldn't you now consider them a definate enemy and align with others who think of them in the same? Simple logic would tell you this. I swear, the government of this country has it's "head up it's arse"

Anyone else care to comment?

I can't imagine them not expecting it. The whole war on terror has alot of elements that we as normal everyday people don't hear, see or read about. If we had done nothing and the Bush administration allowed Saddam to stay in power and eventually he(Saddam) let a terrorist group, any for that matter get ahold of a chemical weapon that would eventually end up being used on US interests anywere in the world then we would all criticize because Bush never took Saddam out.

Either way it's a lose-lose situation.

Originally posted by Dreamz

If we had done nothing and the Bush administration allowed Saddam to stay in power and eventually he(Saddam) let a terrorist group, any for that matter get ahold of a chemical weapon that would eventually end up being used on US interests anywere in the world then we would all criticize because Bush never took Saddam out.

Either way it's a lose-lose situation.

You have a very valid point there, but we could have waited until we had rock solid evidence that Saddam indeed did have WOMD's in his country and was in fact producing them. So far, I haven't seen squat. Vive Le Hans Blix!

Lets just hope Bush doesn't use this Al-Qaeda/Saddam Alliance to help his bull# war on Iraq.

i wonder how the US in the time of the defeat with the army of the heaven in the future,ermssss seem like TEXAS will be the samething happen like in the IRAQ right now.