Word: jihadists
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...retaken that position, according to European intelligence sources. "The degree to which Islamist extremists around the world have dropped their previous obsession with Iraq and now focus on the Afghan-Pakistan area has been astounding," says one French counter-terrorism official. "No one recruiting for or seeking to join jihadist fighting in Europe are trying to get to Iraq: it's all Afghanistan now," he reports "No one raising money for jihad is directing funds to Iraq, either. The Afghan-Pakistan region has regained the power of attraction it had prior to September...
Though the number of European radicals who have actually tried to make it to Afghanistan via Pakistan have been minimal - less than a dozen, at most - the country's reinvigorated jihadist allure is unmistakable. "It was the original jihad against occupying infidels, and it was long al Qaeda's terror sanctuary - bin Laden still lurks there somewhere!" notes a French intelligence official, explaining the thinking of European radicals. "Afghanistan isn't just about killing Americans, but fighting the assembled forces of the world they accuse of attacking Islam...
...generally assumed that Pakistan's tribal wilds are where bin Laden and al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, continue to operate. Even if the Pakistani security forces were playing both sides, the NATO campaign next door rallied the tribesmen of the Pakistani west behind local jihadist radicals, who are a growing threat not only in their home provinces, but also in some of Pakistan's key cities...
...more effective than Musharraf in response to rising militancy or in curbing the Taliban - indeed, the government has made clear that it favors a less confrontational attitude to the Islamists than Musharraf had taken. And, as frustrating as Musharraf had been to the U.S. on issues ranging from jihadist militancy to nuclear proliferation by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, as long as he was in power, there was a single address for complaints and demands. Musharraf leaves behind something of a power vacuum, in which authority is necessarily more diffuse. Indeed, General Pervez Musharraf's journey from military command...
...resentment and humiliation. It reminded Russia how the U.S. had undermined it in the Middle East, peeling off Egypt, South Yemen, Iraq and Syria from its sphere of influence over the decades. But more than anything else, Russia would never forget that it was Washington that created the Sunni jihadist Frankenstein in Afghanistan. That was an arrow pointed straight at the heart of Russia. With Muslims making up 10% to 15% of Russia's population, the Afghan-born jihad became an existential threat to Russia proper. Indeed, it would slosh across the continent into Chechnya...