The Change Mariner

Al Qaeda's reach grows, with help from Web

CSMonitor:

"...From Turkey to Iraq and beyond, there are signs that Al Qaeda has become extremely proficient at getting its message out - through television, newspapers, and the Internet, officials say.

Websites continue to crop up more quickly than the CIA can shut them down. The sites are used as vehicles for recruitment - often showing videos of what Al Qaeda members say depict US abuse of Muslims in Iraq, among other places, at the behest of Israel.

On websites this past weekend, for example, two different militant groups claimed responsibility for the attacks in Turkey and warned of other attacks in the works against the US and its allies. Moreover, an Arab language newspaper based in London published a statement purported to be from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigrades, affiliated with Al Qaeda. The group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Turkey and went on to threaten the US and its allies.

Indeed, what bin Laden is doing quite well in the Muslim world, officials and experts say, is constantly casting the US as exploiting and repressing Muslims.

Take the situation in Iraq. "Look at it from bin Laden's point of view," says Robert Baer, a former CIA undercover operative who spent many years in the region. Bin Laden's assumption was that the US used Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction as an excuse to invade Iraq. Now that none have been found, he is exploiting that and the fact that US officials now say Hussein was evil and he had to be removed. "They're using that argument to say the US wants to occupy the Middle East on behalf of Israel."