Introduction to Geopolitics

mujahideen
fighting the Soviets.
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–
Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia in 1957 to a Yemeni father
(to whom he was the seventeenth child of 51) and a Saudi mother. His
father, Mohammed bin Laden, was founder of a construction company,
the Bin Laden Group, which made the family a billion-dollar fortune.
–
During the time of the Soviet invasion, Osama bin Laden was studying
at university in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he earned a degree in civil
engineering and public management.
1988
February—Gorbachev announces a ten-month phased withdrawal of Soviet
troops to begin in May.
■
This same year al-Qaeda is founded by bin Laden, Mohammed Atef, and
Abu Ubaidah al Banshiri—the headquarters are located in Afghanistan and
Peshawar, Pakistan (Alexander and Swetnam, 2001, p. 37).
1989
After the Soviets have evacuated Afghanistan, bin Laden moves to Saudi Arabia.
1991
When American troops move into Saudi following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait,
bin Laden moves to Khartoum, Sudan.
■
“Distraught by the American presence near the holy cities of Mecca and
Medina, Bin Laden decides to move his base elsewhere” (Alexander and
Swetnam, 2001, p. 38).
■
“Al Qaida’s global network, as we know it today, was created while it was
based in Khartoum, from December 1991 till May 1996” (Gunaratna, 2002,
p. 95).
–
“Al Qaida enjoyed the patronage of the Sudanese state until the . . . mid-
1990s” (Gunaratna, 2002, p. 158).
1992
December 29—The first official al-Qaeda attack takes place at a hotel in Aden,
Yemen.
■
“Intended to kill US troops en route to Somalia on a U.N. relief mission,
but the troops had already left the premises” (Alexander and Swetnam, 2001,
p. 39).
1993
February 23—Truck bomb at the World Trade Center in New York kills 6 and
injures over a 1,000.
■
In November of 1997 Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil, two al Qaeda
members, are found guilty of the attack.
October 3–4 —Two Black Hawks are shot down in Mogadishu.
■
“US subsequently learns that Bin Laden’s organization had been heavily
engaged in assisting warlords who attacked US forces in Somalia” (BBC,
2004a).
1994
October—Kandahar falls to Taliban, led by Mullah Mohammed Omar.
■
Two al-Qaeda operatives, Wadih el Hage and Mohammed Sadeek Odeh,
move to Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya respectively—they open multiple
businesses with al-Qaeda funds (Alexander and Swetnam, 2001, p. 40).
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1995
June 26—Attempted assassination of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, in
Addis Ababa.
■
Mubarak was cracking down on extremist Muslim groups in Egypt, and the
attack is therefore thought to be al-Qaeda related (Alexander and Swetnam,
2001, p. 33).
November 13—A car bomb kills five Americans and two Indians in Riyadh,
outside of an American-operated Saudi National Guard training center.
1996
June 25—A truck bomb outside of a US Air Force housing complex in Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia kills 19 US soldiers. Al-Qaeda involvement is suspected.
September 27—Taliban seize Kabul.
■
Al-Qaeda moves from Khartoum back to Afghanistan where the Taliban
offer a safe haven (Alexander and Swetnam, 2001, p. 40).
1998
Bin Laden and various fundamentalist groups from Pakistan and Bangladesh
endorse a 
fatwah
that “states that Muslims should kill Americans, including civil-
ians, wherever they can be found” (Alexander and Swetnam, 2001, p. 41). This
is followed by numerous other similar declarations.
August 7—Bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
August 20—US retaliates with several missile attacks on bases in Afghanistan
and the bombing of a suspected al-Qaeda chemical plant in Sudan.
1999
Al-Qaeda base of operation is moved from Kandahar to Farmihadda, Afghanistan
(Alexander and Swetnam, 2001, p. 44).
July 30—Taliban “reinforce its position to offer Osama bin Laden safe haven 
. . .” (Alexander and Swetnam, 2001, p. 45).
October 16—UN “imposes sanctions on the Taliban until Bin Laden is expelled
from their borders” (Alexander and Swetnam, 2001, p. 45).
2000
June—Pakistan makes claims that the Taliban have shut down al-Qaeda training
camps (Alexander and Swetnam, 2001, p. 48).
October 5—17 American sailors are killed by suicide bombers aboard the USS
Cole in Yemen.
2001
September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
2002
November 28—Attacks in Mombasa, Kenya.
■
Two different attacks targeted Israeli tourists:
–
A missile just missed a Boeing 757 heading to Tel Aviv.
–
A car bomb exploded outside of a hotel taking the lives of 13 victims
plus the 3 bombers (CNN, 2002).
2003
May 12—Four near simultaneous suicide bombings occur at compounds that
house Westerners in Riyadh.
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■
23 victims and 12 bombers killed.
■
“Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, who authorities said has deep ties
to al Qaeda, surrendered” in connection with the planning of these bomb-
ings (CNN, 2003).
2004
March 11—Al-Qaeda claim responsibility for coordinated bombing attacks on
commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, citing the deployment of Spanish troops in
Iraq. Some 191 people were killed and 1,460 injured.
2005
July 7—London, Great Britain. In the morning rush hour three bombs are deton-
ated by suicide bombers simultaneously in separate locations on the London
Underground. An hour later, a fourth suicide-bomb is detonated on a bus. Some
56 people, including the bombers, are killed and 700 injured. This is the first
incident of suicide bombing in Western Europe. Bombers are believed to have
had ties to British Islamist groups connected to al-Qaeda.
July 21—London, Great Britain. Four attempted bombings in the London
Underground system, but only the detonators explode. No fatalities or injuries.
Four suspects subsequently arrested.
The metageography of al-Qaeda
Following other terrorist organizations, al-Qaeda is made up of separate cells that can
vary greatly in size. Some cells consist of only two people in a location and the network
is designed so that the arrest or destruction of one cell would not affect the others: “Cells
assigned for special missions like 9/11 . . . are coordinated through an agent-handling
system where a cell leader reports only to his controller or agent-handler. Most agent-
handlers live near the target location or in the ‘hostile zone’—Europe or North America”
(Gunaratna, 2002, p. 97). In other words, the controller provides the connection between
the cells, or nodes of the network so that knowledge of the connectivity of the network
is limited.
For example, the cells used as “launchpads” for the 9/11 attacks were independent
ones operating in the United Arab Emirates, Germany, and Malaysia: “They were
secured by strict compartmentalization but a few select members were permitted to liaise
between the compartmentalized cells” (Gunaratna, 2002, p. 104). Furthermore, the
network was not determined by strict centralized control. “Individual Groups or cells
appear to have a high degree of autonomy, raising their own money, often through petty
crime, and making contact with other groups only when necessary” (BBC, 2004b).
There was an identity or organization to the network based upon a different form 
of metageography, national identity. Members of al-Qaeda operated within the “family”
of their national group: with the families divided by function as well as by place of
origin. For example, “Al Qaida’s Libyans managed the documentation and passports
office in Afghanistan; its Algerians ran fraudulent credit card operations in Europe; 
and the Egyptians looked after most of the training facilities worldwide” (Gunaratna,
2002, p. 97).
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The al-Qaeda network overlays other political geographies in another way too. Rather
than being a network operating under one determining ideology or mission, the network
cells are established through ties with other like-minded groups that are already in exist-
ence in various parts of the world. The ideological views shared by al-Qaeda and smaller
localized terrorist organizations are mainly structured around Islamic law. In terms of a
geopolitical code, “Westerners” are seen as the enemy partly because of their actions
and partly due to propaganda promoted by certain groups that influence young Muslims
to join in the 
jihad
against them.
Al-Qaeda’s proclaimed objectives in summary are:
■
Oppose all nations not governed according to their particular interpreta-
tion of Islam
– i.e.) US—secular law
– i.e.) Saudi Arabia—misinterpreted Islamic law, according to Al Qaeda
■
Oppose the presence of US forces in the Middle East, especially near
Mecca and Medina
■
“Attack the enemies of God”
■
Eventually create a unified Muslim nation-state (stretching from Spain to
South East Asia)
(Alexander and Swetnam, 2002, p. 2)
Establishing ties with already-formed groups aids al-Qaeda in its avoidance of
counter-terrorist organizations whose jurisdiction is based upon the metageography 
of state boundaries. Cells based in the local culture and landscape help al-Qaeda to
recruit and operate in places where central government actions are hostile, but do not
have popular support, for example northern Pakistan. Furthermore, in the wake of the
increased policing of boundaries “Osama and al Zawahiri realized that establishing 
a network from scratch would not be easy and therefore decided upon ideological
infiltration” (Gunaratna, 2002, p. 114). In other words, the cells of the network and form 
of connectivity were associated with the “opportunities” provided by local conflicts 
and capabilities.
Recent examination of Southeast Asia terrorist groups indicates, for example, that
they have had ties with al-Qaeda for many years.
Authorities are now unearthing and piecing together evidence that, far from
being locally-contained separatist groups, many terrorist organizations in the
region in fact have close and long-running connections not only with each other,
but to Osama bin Laden’s