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 Al-Qaida,
Arabic for "the base," formed in the late 1980s in the war-torn nation
of Afghanistan. A radical offshoot of the mujahadeen, a loose coalition
of Islamists fighting the Soviet Union, al-Qaida is headed by Saudi
exile Osama bin Laden and the head of another radical group, the Egyptian
Islamic Jihad, Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
Al-Qaida, along with other militants, formed the International Islamic
Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders, a group aimed at organizing
Islamic militant groups with the intent of undermining non-Islamic governments.
The group began training militants at former mujahadeen bases in Afghanistan
as well as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Angered by the U.S.
presence in Saudi Arabia during and following the first Gulf War and
the American intervention in Somalia's civil war in late 1992, bin Laden
reportedly directed more and more attention to waging war on the United
States.
In December 1992, al-Qaida launched its first known attack on an American
target, bombing a hotel in Yemen where soldiers destined for Somalia
were staying. No one was hurt, but only two months later, al-Qaida operative
Ramsi Yousef bombed the World Trade Center in New York City. The attack
killed six and injured more than 1,000.
Even as America investigated the World Trade Center strike, al-Qaida
was reportedly focusing on Somalia, establishing a training base there
to instruct anti-American forces on how to ambush and how to shoot down
helicopters with rocket propelled grenades. Eight months after the trade
center bombing, suspected al-Qaida-trained militants shot down two U.S.
Black Hawk helicopters. In the clashes that followed, 18 Americans died.
Following the botched American operation, U.S. forces ended their mission
to Somalia.
In 1996 and again in 1998, bin Laden issued orders, or fatwahs, calling
for the expulsion of Americans from Saudi Arabia and later expanding
the list of acceptable targets to include any American, civilian or
military, anywhere in the world.
Although the group staged smaller stacks and bombings during this time,
in August 1998, al-Qaida more clearly emerged onto the international
scene, staging simultaneously car bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania. Some 234 died in the blasts, including 12 Americans, and
more than 5,000 were injured. The U.S. government responded by launching
cruise missiles against suspected al-Qaida sites in Sudan and Afghanistan.
In 1999, the American Department of Justice placed bin Laden on its
10 Most Wanted list and indicted al-Qaida military chief Muhammed Atef
on 224 murder charges stemming from the East Africa bombings.
On Dec. 14, 1999, Ahmed Ressam was arrested crossing the U.S.-Canadian
border with a car laden with explosives. Investigators believe Ressam,
who trained at al-Qaida bases in Afghanistan, hoped to bomb the Los
Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve.
In October of 2000, al-Qaida operatives launched a suicide attack against
the USS Cole as it sat anchored in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen
sailors died in the attack. In recent investigations of pre-9/11 intelligence
efforts, American officials quickly ascertained that the attacks were
the work of al-Qaida. Neither President Clinton nor President Bush launched
any military response to the Cole bombing.
The al-Qaida attacks did prompt American officials to weigh both assassinating
bin Laden and launching more substantial anti-terrorism efforts. On
Sept. 4, 2001, President Bush approved a new, more aggressive policy
toward international terrorism.
"We ... moved to develop a new and comprehensive strategy to eliminate
the al-Qaida terrorist network. President Bush understood the threat,
and he understood its importance. He made clear to us that he did not
want to respond to al-Qaida one attack at a time. He told me he was
'tired of swatting flies,'" Condoleezza Rice told the commission investigating
the pre-9/11 war against terrorism.
A week later, nearly 3,000 people died in attacks in New York, Washington
and Pennsylvania.
--By
Lee Banville, Online NewsHour
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Investigating
September 11 |
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The
independent commission established by Congress to investigate the
September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States has scrutinized
the practices, procedures, and policies of federal, state, and local
agencies before and after the attacks. |
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When
hijackers crashed passenger jetliners into the World Trade Center, the
Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people,
the war against al-Qaida moved from the courtroom and intelligence agencies
onto the battlefield. 
