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Al-Qaeda franchising its brand of terror around the world

AFP, Washington
Decimated and financially emasculated, al-Qaeda has franchised its brand of synchronised, devastating terror to smaller, regional groups around the world, posing a major challenge to counterterrorism forces, The Washington Post said yesterday.
With the shared experience of the al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, thousands of terrorists are now communicating via the Internet, passing on bomb and chemical-making techniques, US, European and Arab intelligence analysts and experts told the daily.
Investigators, for example, have found the same type of fuse being used in different continents, the sources said.
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, with most of its leadership killed and its financial structure under increased scrutiny, has turned to inspiring and instigating attacks such as the recent bombings in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and Iraq, the experts
said.
"The threat has moved beyond al-Qaeda," said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at the Singapore-based Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies. "While al-Qaeda was the instigator of recent attacks, very few have actually been carried out by al-Qaeda."
The smaller, regional groups that have fallen under al-Qaeda's influence include Islamic Great East Raiders Front, which claimed Thursday's bombings in Istambul, Jemaah Islamiah in Indonesia and other obscure groups in Pakistan, Morocco the Philippines and Chechnya, the daily said.
Around 20,000 people from 47 countries were trained and indoctrinated in al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan Gunaratna described as "a terrorist Disneyland, where you could meet anyone from any Islamic group."
The al-Qaeda inspired terrorist groups have also caused the financial structure of terrorism to shift, officials
said.
"There is no pool of money now that everyone can draw on," said a senior US official. "There is no longer a fairly knowable group of large donors or entities. Now, groups in Indonesia raise money there. Groups in Malaysia raise money there. There are many more targets, and much harder to find."
Many of the local groups resort to petty crime, drug trafficking and extortion to finance their operations, officials said.
Paul Pillar, a Central Intelligence Agency analyst and terror expert said the franchising of al-Qaeda was partly the result of US success in killing off the terrorist group's leadership and disrupting its sources of finance.
One of bin Laden's major contributions, he added, was "putting the antiAmerican perspective at the forefront.
"It has been so successful that it has thoroughly affected even these groups that are more regionally focused ... AntiAmericanism sells, particularly in the Middle East."