Experts say al Qaeda ‘franchises’ threaten West

BEIRUT, Lebanon – The groups are small, little known and highly militant, with ideologies like al Qaeda’s.

They have struck around the world, carrying out suicide bombings in Morocco, kidnapping civilians in Iraq and attacking Western residential compounds in Saudi Arabia.

The emergence of these groups is making the fight against terrorism more challenging. Instead of targeting one enemy – just al Qaeda – the West and its allies now face many “al Qaedas,” splinter groups that are mostly unrelated to each other but are bound by the same hatred of the West – especially the United States and its allies, including Israel.

“It’s like McDonald’s giving out franchises,” said Dia’a Rashwan, an Egyptian expert on militant groups.

“All they have to do is follow the company’s manual. They don’t consult with headquarters every time they want to produce a meal.”

A key conclusion in last month’s Sept. 11 commission report said that even though Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda has been weakened, its imitators pose a “catastrophic threat” to the United States.

“The enemy is not just ‘terrorism,’ some generic evil,” said the report.

“The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism – especially the al Qaeda network, its affiliates and its ideology.”

“The second enemy is gathering, and will menace Americans and American interests long after … Bin Laden and his cohorts are killed or captured,” the report said.

Two recent sweeps have dealt a further blow to bin Laden’s network.

At least 20 people have been detained in Pakistan in the past month, and Britain arrested more than a dozen men in raids this past week.

British police on Thursday announced the arrest of another man, wanted in the United States for allegedly helping finance terrorist activity.

Yet bin Laden is still able to rattle the United States.

That was highlighted Aug. 1, when Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned of possible terrorist attacks against “iconic” financial institutions in New York City, Washington and Newark, N.J. That is consistent with bin Laden’s strategy of striking at U.S. financial targets.

The different “franchises” act under different names. For instance, the group behind last month’s abduction of four Jordanians in Iraq called itself “Mujahedeen of Iraq, the Group of Death.”

“Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” is the umbrella group for militants active in the kingdom.