History of al-Qaeda and Terrorism against the USA

1979-2002

Foreign Terrorist Organizations• Abu Nidal Organization• Al Qaeda• Armed Islamic Group• Aum Shinrikyo• Gama’a -Islamiyya• Hamas• Harakat Ul-Ansar• Hizballah• Japanese Red Army• Al-Jihad• Kach• Kahane Chi• Khmer Rouge• Kurdistan Worker’s Party• Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

• Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front• Mujahedin-E-Khalq Organization• National Liberation Army• Palestine Islamic Jihad – Shiqaqi• Palestine Liberation Front• Revolutionary Armed Forces of

Columbia• Revolutionary Organization 17

November• Revolutionary People’s Liberation

Party• Shining Path• Tupac Amaru Revolutionary

Movement

What is al-Qaeda?

• Al Qaeda is a stateless (meaning without a country) terrorist organization.

• It is led and financed by followers of the late Osama bin Laden, who was a radical Shi’a Muslim.

Who was Osama bin Laden? Indicted as the architect of U.S. embassy bombings in

Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200 people.

He had declared a “holy war” against all Americans and was the prime suspect for masterminding the September 11 bombing of the world trade center.

“Hostility toward America is a religious duty, and we hope to be awarded for it by God…I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is America.”

Osama bin Laden

Why do they hate the U.S.?• A cultural War – They are

offended by our values• Our presence in the

region offends their fundamentalist values

• Service woman driving in Saudi Arabia caused a riot in the capital when Saudi women saw this and decided to drive

The aim of suicide terror

• Inflicts – physical and psychological punishment on the intended target

• Terrorist promise of more• Cannot be deterred• Creates terror in the mind

of the target population • Economic chaos

Suicide Bombers Can Be Any Age

Justifications…

• The JIHAD: a “Holy War”, invoking the “Fatwa” (official Islamic religious ruling) urging Jihad against America published in 1998 by Osama bin Laden and other Jihad leaders from Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh:

• “… the ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.”

When did al-Qaeda form?

• The beginnings of al-Qaeda go back to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

• 1979 was during the Cold War, a time when the USA was a rival to the Soviet Union. The USA wanted to help Afghans fight the Soviets.

• The CIA sent stinger missiles to Afghans to shoot down Soviet helicopters.

Bin Laden in Afghanistan• Son of a wealthy

Saudi Arabian family, Osama bin Laden made lots of like-minded friends.

• He learned that scantily - armed Muslims could defeat a powerful Christian army

• The Soviet army left in 1988.

Bin Laden moves to Sudan• Bin Laden and his friends, feeling powerful,

wanted to set up a base for future jihads. A jihad is a Muslim word for holy war, usually against Christians. He stayed in Sudan about 5 years. Note: Most Muslims don’t feel that jihads are about car bombs and airliner hijackings.

• In 1983, during the presidency of Ronald Regan, a terrorist group bombed a Marine barracks in Lebanon. Reagan did not retaliate. 283 killed.

Desert Storm (Gulf War I)• In 1990, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein

invaded the tiny, oil-rich country of Kuwait. Kuwait owed Iraq money, so Hussein wanted to secure Kuwaiti oil fields.

Operation Desert Storm• Commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War,

was a war waged by a UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait

Iraqi tanks

U.S. and Saudi coalition• The United States asked the Saudis for

permission to establish military bases in their country. The Saudis had a tough choice to make. Do they allow a Christian army into the holiest country of Islam? Can the Saudis themselves stop Saddam Hussein?

The Saudi’s choice• Osama bin Laden offered the Saudis the use of

his soldiers to fight the Iraqi army because he felt once America established a base, they would not leave. Christian armies have no place in the land of Islam according to bin Laden.

The Saudi’s chose the United States and snubbed Osama bin Laden.

• The United Nations led by American forces liberates Kuwait and pushes the Iraqi army back into Iraq.

Osama bin Laden• Osama bin Laden overtly criticizes the Saudi

government. Saudi Arabia banishes him; his family disowns him (officially).

• Bin Laden leaves Saudi Arabia for Sudan to further build al Qaeda.

The United States in Somalia• Dec. 4, 1992, George H.W. Bush sends 28,000

American troops to Somalia.• Bush wanted to help the Somali people since all

attempts to send food to them were intercepted by war lords.

Black Hawk Down• In 1993, 18 Americans

died when their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down over Mogadishu, Somalia.

al Qaeda?• U.S. intelligenge indicates that al Qaeda

operatives taught the Somalian’s how to shoot down helicopters just like they did in Afghanistan against the Soviets.

Iraqi terrorism

• In 1993, agents working with the full support of Saddam Hussein tried to kill former President George H.W. Bush.

• President Clinton responded by destroying their intelligence center.

World Trade Center bombing• 9-11 was not the first terrorist attack on the

World Trade Center in New York. In 1993, a man rented a Ryder truck and detonated a large bomb in the parking garage in one of the towers hoping to knock it over onto the other tower.

Ramzi Yousef• He was a planner of the

W.T.C. bombing. He was a member/leader of al Qaeda.

• Yousef stated, "Yes, I am a terrorist, and proud of it as long as it is against the U.S. government."

• Spoke 7 languages and had college degrees in both engineering and chemistry.

• Currently serving a life sentence.

1993 WTC bombing

The bomb killed 6 people and injured over 1000 others.

1995 Oklahoma City bombing • Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols

detonated a large truck bomb at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City

• 168 people died and many more were injured, including children in the day care at the bottom.

Was there a link to al Qaeda?• Terry Nichols, Ramzi Yousef, and 9-11 mastermind

Khalid Sheik Muhammad were in the Philippine city of Cebu on the same days. Is there a connection?

• According to Richard Clarke, the main counter-terrorism czar for Clinton and GW Bush, Nichols’s bombs detonated only days after he returned from the Philippines

Khalid Sheik MuhhamadTerry Nichols

1996 car bombing of Khobar Towers

• The Khobar Towers provided housing for American military stationed in Saudi Arabia. 19 Americans were killed and hundreds injured. Linked to al Qaida operatives.

Fatwa• In August of 1998, Osama bin Laden and four

of his close associates sign and distribute a statement declaring “it is the individual duty for every Muslim who can do it” to kill Americans.

Kenyan embassy bombings• Two American embassies in

Kenya and Tanzania were bombed simultaneously in 1998. A total of 220 people were killed. Linked to al Qaida.

Al Qaeda training camps in the Sudan and Afghanistan were destroyed in

retaliation but Osama somehow managed to survive the attack.

Millennium Attacks Foiled!• Jordanian police halted four bombings that

were to occur on January 1, 2000. Sixteen al Qaeda members were arrested.

• June 23, 2000 Four al Qaeda terrorists were arrested after one tried to cross the Canadian border with nitroglycerin in his spare tire. They had set out to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

USS Cole attack Oct. 2000• In Yemen, Al Qaeda

operatives sent a suicide bomber using a small boat near the U.S.S. Cole and detonated its bomb, blowing a large hole in the U.S. Navy ship. 17 U.S. sailors killed.

Where is Sudan and Yemen?

September 11, 2001• Four airplanes were hijacked by al Qaeda

terrorists.• Two crashed into the two World Trade

Center towers.• One crashed into the Pentagon, the

headquarters of the United States armed forces.

• One crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, because passengers fought back and the plane down in the struggle.

• 2819 people were killed• 343 firefighters, police

officers and paramedics gave their lives in an attempt to rescue those trapped

Khalid Sheik Muhhamad was the centralplanner of 9/11. Most terrorists (at right)who overpowered flight crews were from

Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately• Bin Laden’s followers are very smart.

They are probably hiding inside the lawless region of Pakistan, near the Afghan border.

• Pakistan is a powerful Muslim country who has cooperated with the United States for years.

• While the Pakistani government likes the United States, many of its citizens don’t.

Pakistan cont. . .• If the Pakistani government goes after al Qaeda

and its leadership too strongly, the Muslim people could overthrow the government and be the first al Qaeda-dominated nuclear power. This is what al Qaeda is hoping for.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad

• In September 2002, Pakistani officials arrested the 9/11 mastermind.

• In reality, he was more dangerous than bin Laden.

Tomorrow

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Shoes people left behind to run faster.

Looking for loved ones.