Word: bins
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...international nature of al-Qaeda makes the task of defeating it that much harder. There are thought to be sympathizers and operatives in dozens of countries, all sharing a messianic vision of an Islamic holy war and posing new challenges to the forces of counterterrorism. Many of bin Laden's foot soldiers have combat and logistical experience gained in the Afghan war of 1979-89; indeed, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan turns out to have been one of those events that unexpectedly changes the world. It hastened the demise of the Soviet Union, as poorly trained young Soviet troops...
Hence early, armed retaliation is likely to be limited to Afghanistan. From 1994 through 1996, the Islamic extremist Taliban moved to fill the power vacuum that had existed since the end of the war. Although the Taliban frequently claims to keep bin Laden in a box, in practice it has defended him. Opposition sources say a brigade of his fighters has been on the front lines in the Taliban's war against the Northern Alliance, led by Ahmed Shah Massood. (In what may turn out to be an indication of trouble to come, Massood was the victim of a suicide...
...supported Massood--hates it for providing aid to Chechen rebels and destabilizing Tajikistan, whose hard-pressed armed forces are assisted by Russian ones. China is worried that Muslim Uighur separatists are being trained in Afghan camps. India is desperate to stop the flow to Kashmir of fighters trained by bin Laden. Iran, a nation of Shi'ite Muslims, detests the Taliban because it consists of Sunni extremists; moreover, Tehran has to deal both with Afghan refugees and with drug runners who have been fighting a low-level war with Iranian border guards. Iran itself has a history of sponsoring terrorism...
...intelligence officials in the government of President Pervez Musharraf held a series of intense meetings. They sized up their options and decided to throw in their lot with the Americans, despite concerns over the reaction on the street. Pakistani officials, sources say, realized that the U.S. action against bin Laden was likely to be "massive and indiscriminate" and saw little reason that their own nation should want to be collateral damage. Musharraf, said Rifaat Hussain, a defense expert at an Islamabad university, "can either swim with the international current or sink with the Taliban." The decision to back...
...against al-Qaeda will be a conflict like no other. A loose network of two dozen terrorist groups united by Osama Bin Laden's pan-Islamic vision, "the Base" may have as many as 5,000 members in terrorist cells in at least 50 countries, including...