Source: Asia Times:

Early on, al-Qaeda was a close-knit band of extremists with common cause, with a centralized leadership, and a base from which to launch global operations.

With the death of Osama bin Laden, the loss of a host of top commanders, and its retreat from Afghanistan, al-Qaeda has become a diffuse group with no coherent center. But the emerging network of al-Qaeda offshoots, with operations around the world, is no less dangerous.

Call it al-Qaeda 2.0 – the evolution of a group whose directives once came from the top into a network of affiliates who are essentially on their own to export a fundamentalist brand of Islam and upstage secular governments in the Muslim world.

Al-Qaeda’s growing list of affiliates, by feeding off local grievances and exploiting political turmoil, are showing their strength in a number of countries, including Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Mali.

Their rise, which has come with little tutelage from what remains of the al-Qaeda brain trust in Pakistan, has sparked fears that they will continue to expand by exploiting local conflicts as battlegrounds for global jihad.

US Congressman Brad Sherman (California), the top Democrat at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, said during a hearing on July 18 that the evolved al-Qaeda remains a viable threat.

“Al-Qaeda has failed to carry out a major attack in the United States since 9/11,” Sherman said. “However, the danger posed by al-Qaeda to the United States is still significant. al-Qaeda’s structure has become more decentralized, less of an integrated corporation, and closer to a franchise. Its chief terrorist activities are now being conducted by its local and regional affiliates.”

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