Counter-terrorism official urges allies to be flexible
WASHINGTON, D.C. --- The U.S. coordinator for counter-terrorism says cooperation among nations fighting terrorism has been responsible for drastically reducing the number of al-Qaeda members available to plan or carry out attacks.
Ambassador Cofer Black told members of Congress April 1 that 70 percent of al-Qaeda’s senior leadership and 3,400 of its lower-level operatives and associates have been killed or detained since Sept. 11, 2001.
Moreover, he told the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Terrorism that approximately $200 million in terrorism-related financial assets and accounts have been seized or frozen.
These actions, as well as the loss of Afghanistan as a safe haven and training ground for terrorists following the removal of the Taliban regime, has forced al-Qaeda to “evolve in ways not entirely by its own choosing,” Black said.
Without easy sanctuary, he explained, the leadership of al-Qaeda must spend much of its time avoiding capture and, as a result, is isolated from its operatives, with whom communication and coordination have become more difficult. New leaders are stepping forward, but they are less experienced, Black said, and “we are relentlessly going after [them] as they are identified.”
However, despite being deeply wounded, al-Qaeda remains a potent force, the ambassador said. “There are growing indications that a number of largely Sunni Islamic extremist groups are moving to pick up al-Qaeda’s standard and attempting to pursue global jihad against the United States and our allies.”
al-Qaeda’s ideology and “virulent anti-American rhetoric” appear to be spreading to a number of radical Islamic movements beyond the Middle East, Black noted. He pointed to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat and Salifiya Jihadia, both of which operate mainly in North Africa, and Jemaah Islamiya and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
“While it would be a mistake to believe that we are now confronted by a monolithic threat posed by legions of like-minded terrorist groups working in concert against our interests, it would be fair to say that we are seeing greater cooperation between al-Qaeda and smaller Islamic extremist groups, as well as even more localized organizations,” he said.
Black also referred to the al-Qaeda-related Zarqawi network, responsible for attacking Iraqi civilian targets as well as coalition forces in Iraq. “Iraq is currently serving as a focal point for foreign jihadist fighters,” he said, adding that the coalition is “aggressively rooting [them] out.”
The official said al-Qaeda is “a patient, resourceful and flexible organization and is able to draw from a global support base of jihadists and an international mujahedin movement. It must be denied safe haven and kept on the run, while we starve it of its resources, dismantle its cells, and apprehend its foot soldiers at our borders. We must more than match its flexibility and resolve and commit to combat al-Qaeda over the long haul, for there can be no accommodation with this evil.”