By IANS
Munich : A deep and intricate web of linkages exist between Al Qaeda and terror cells across the world and the best way to deal with “Al Qaeda-ism” is to “fracture and destroy this movement in its infancy”, top security experts from India and the US have said.
While Indian National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan termed the Al Qaeda as the most pervasive threat to international stability, the US painted a grim picture should Islamist terror groups triumph in Iraq or Afghanistan, or manage to topple the Pakistan government or even one in the Middle East.
Speaking at the Munich conference on security policy Sunday, Narayanan said that the Asian region was the source and destination for proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) for the Al Qaeda.
In Naryanan’s reckoning the Al Qaeda’s elite terrorist network such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Jehad Group (in Central Asia), the Lashkar-e-Taeba, the Jaish-e-Mohd, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami and the Taliban (in South Asia), the Jemiah Islamiah and the Abu Sayyaf Group in Southeast and East Asia represents an intricate web of terrorist networks.
“They have forged common funding structures, common training curricula and have a common resource for obtaining explosives and weapons,” he said.
US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates took a far more serious view of the threat.
“Aside from the chaos that would instantly be sown in the region, success there would beget success on many other fronts as the cancer metastasized further and more rapidly than it already has,” he warned 250 delegates from 50 countries gathered.
“Many more followers could join their ranks, both in the region and in susceptible populations across the globe. With safe havens in the Middle East, and new tactics honed on the battlefield and transmitted via the Internet, violence and terrorism worldwide could surge.”
Gates pointed out that terrorist cells in Europe were not purely home grown or unconnected to events far away – or simply a matter of domestic law and order.
“Some are funded from abroad. Some hate all western democracies, not just the United States. Many who have been arrested have had direct connections to Al Qaeda. Some have met with top leaders or attended training camps abroad. Some are connected to Al Qaeda in Iraq,” he said.
Referring to recent arrest of 14 Islamic extremists in Barcelona suspected of planning suicide attacks against public transport systems in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, and Britain, Gates said the module had deep linkages.
“The Barcelona cell appears to have ties to a terrorist training network run by Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistan-based extremist commander affiliated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda – who we believe was responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” he said.
“I am not indulging in scare tactics. Nor am I exaggerating either the threat or inflating the consequences of a victory for extremists. Nor am I saying that the extremists are 10 feet tall.”
According to Gates, the task is to fracture and destroy this movement in its infancy – to permanently reduce its ability to strike globally and catastrophically, while deflating its ideology.
“Our best opportunity as an alliance to do this is in Afghanistan. Just as the hollowness of communism was laid bare with the collapse of the Soviet Union, so too would success in Afghanistan, as well as in Iraq, strike a decisive blow against what some commentators have called Al Qaeda-ism.”
“This is a steep challenge. But the events of the last year have proven one thing above all else: If we are willing to stand together, we can prevail. It will not be quick, and it will not be easy – but it can be done.”
“Other actors in the global arena – the Hezbollah, Iran and others – are watching what we say and what we do, and making choices about their future course,” said Gates.
“Everyone knows that in 2009 the United States will have a new administration. And this time, next year, you will be hearing from a new Secretary of Defence.”
“But regardless of which party is in power, regardless who stands at this podium, the threats we face now and in the future are real. They will not go away.”
According to Gates what unites the terror groups affiliated to the Al Qaeda is that they are all followers of the same movement – a movement that is no longer tethered to any strict hierarchy but one that has become an independent force of its own.
“It is capable of animating a corps of devoted followers without direct contact. And capable of inspiring violence without direct orders.”
“It is an ideological movement that has, over the years, been methodically built on the illusion of success. After all, about the only thing they have accomplished recently is the death of thousands of innocent Muslims while trying to create discord across the Middle East. So far they have failed. But they have twisted this reality into an aura of success in many parts of the world. ”