Qaidat al-Jihad : a new name on the road to Palestine

Qa`idat al-JihadOver the past month, the remains of al-Qa`idah have begun to issue new electronic pamphlets via the web sites of their supporters, under a new name-"Qa`idat al-Jihad" (the Jihad base).While the use of the Internet by radical Islamists is nothing new, under the present circumstances of the global war against terrorism, the Internet has become a vital tool, and obviously an easy one to exploit.With the exception Abu Zubaydah and Abu Hafs al-Masri, the hard core leadership of al-Qa`idah has not yet been found or killed, and the war in Afghanistan continues.Thus, it would appear to be imperative to them to get their messages out and prove to their supporters and the Muslim world that they are alive, active, and even engaged in reorganizing their ranks and activities.This has led to the establishment of several tens of personal web sites for various Saudi, Egyptian, and Palestinian radical scholars that grant Islamic legitimacy to global Jihad.Furthermore, some of these web sites are freely registered and run from Western cities, from Saudi Arabia, or from Muslim countries in Asia.For the many Al-Qa`idah supporters in the Muslim world and in Muslim communities in the West, these web sites are an important link.They provide a crucial service in keeping the Islamist supporters in touch with the scholars who developed-and provide Islamist religious legitimacy to-ideological and religious messages in support of attacks against Western culture, the United States, Israel and the Jews in general.Two of the major themes here are the Islamic legitimacy of the September 11 th attacks in the United States, and the use of suicide terrorism against every possible Western targets all over the world, and not only against Israel.So far, three announcements have appeared in the main web sites of Al-Qa`idah supporters[1] under the new name of Qa`idat al-Jihad-on April 9 th , 24 th , and 26 th 2002.However, the trend has been evident since the previous month, when a unique announcement appeared in the name of Osama bin Laden himself, and signed by his own hand-written signature.While it is not clear whether he actually wrote or signed the electronic document, the signature was the same as had been used by him in previous documents.This document [2], which bears the date of early Muharram 1423 (the third part of March 2002), marked the increasingly intensive use of the Internet by the group

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