Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi Research Paper

We first publicly hear about ISIS in 2014 when it overran the city of Mosul, Iraq and quickly moved south towards Baghdad. This marked the birth of the Islamic State on June 28, 2014 which was the first day of Ramadan, under the control of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It seemed at the time that this group had just showed up as America withdrew all of its troops, quickly took over cities in Iraq and Syria and were well armed and financed. Where did this group come from and how were they so big in numbers and trained enough to take over cities? The birth of ISIS happened well before 2014 and can be credited to one man, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

In recent years, there has been significant media coverage on Iraq partly because of the violence that is happening daily. Anti-Western terrorists groups, such as Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and ISIS have originated in this country. Even though these groups are anti-Western,

The methods of the former intelligence officers of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist military apparatus has created a foundation that allowed the Islamic State to flourish as both an insurgency and a terrorist organization. Angry over Western attempts to influence Islamic culture, the Islamic State has disguised itself in Islamic garb and elicited operatives in over 18 countries to incite violence and spread their violent ideology. Yet, upon using techniques such as structured analytical processes, and a highly capable collection capability, it has exposed the fact that the Islamic State is not Islamic in any of their actions, in their actions to recruit future terrorist through their online capabilities and their calculated planning for killing innocent civilians in Europe and the West. In fact, the only constant is their determination to expand the

International counter-terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna’s book Inside Al Qaeda is an analysis of leadership, ideology, structure and strategies, of the ‘first multinational terrorist group’ [1] of the twenty-first century. Based on five years of research and extensive interviews with over 200 militants, the book traces the genesis of al-Qaeda and its rise to prominence leading up to the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Though Inside Al Qaeda has elicited effusive praise from the Western media, some of the claims made by the author in this book had been widely challenged by the Australian media, the Malaysian government and scholars. As for the ordinary reader, Inside Al Qaeda may come across as a ‘data dump’[2]  than a comprehensive commentary on the subject.

On September 11th, 2001, the entire world witnessed the revolutionary terrorist acts of global militant group Al Qaeda, as US commercial airplanes were high jacked and crashed onto American soil leading to the death of thousands of innocent lives, shining a new light onto the face of global terrorism (The 9/11 Commission, 2004). Although this tragedy was recognized and publicized more extensively than others, the idea of Al Qaeda has existed for approximately 30 years,

For over the last two decades the Middle East has gradually gathered attention and has come to the forefront of U.S. foreign policy. The focus on this region began primarily after the attacks on the two World Trade Center’s in New York City on September 11th, 2001. Iraq was the initial target in the response to the devastating tragedy. This “response” involved an indefinite occupation with the intention of eliminating “weapons of mass destruction”, with intelligence under the Bush Administration allegedly confirming their existence. As this undeclared war on Iraq took place, U.S. foreign policy was initiated. It consisted of bringing down an authoritarian regime and establishing democracy within the state of Iraq, along with decimating any potential threats to the U.S. homeland. The major threat lying with terrorist organizations in the region such as Al-Qaeda, who were to blame for the 9/11 attacks on U.S. soil. Eventually the deployment of troops into Iraq was left without any particular cause, due to the revelation that Saddam Hussein’s regime had no possession of any nuclear weapons. And as U.S. troops struggled to figure out exactly what they were fighting for, an insurgency began to emerge.

Terrorism has become the lead issue in today’s society, dominating the political agenda when discussing counter terrorism and national security (Walsh, 2016). Terrorist often act on emotional actions rather than rational or intellectual thoughts using unconventional violence in order to create a sense of fear (Walsh, 2016). Osama Bin laden leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist group became one of the most powerful, fearful and well known terrorist group in the world, to this day Citation. The Al Qaeda terrorist group is one of the wealthiest terrorist groups to date giving thousands of trained and motivated fighter’s access to deadly weapons Citation. Many of these Solders carried out vicious acts contributing in the killings of thousands. The research shown below will help explore the reasoning behind the Al Qaeda terrorist group, specifically focusing on Osama Bin Laden and the history of the organization, the objectives and strategy of the Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda’s beliefs and Ideologies, The scale of operation and finally the fate of the organization.

In 2006 al-Qaeda became known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and eventually took its final form as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). ISIL is believed to be a response to western military intervention in the Muslim world. In fact, prior to the war in Iraq there was no Taliban in Pakistan and significant extremist groups. Also, before Operation Iraqi Freedom al-Qaeda did not even exist. This exemplifies the idea that whenever the United States gets involved in foreign affairs rebel groups form in response. Unfortunately, rather than take responsibility for the rise of ISIL, the United states only focuses on how they can get rid of the problem. This shows a lack of responsibility by the United States, and instills a level of distrust by United States citizens. ISIL groups have ravaged terror into this region since they were first established, and they have gotten more malicious in response to military endeavors in their country. For example, ISIL declared war on the Shiites in Iraq in response to their collaborations with the United States in attacking Sunni villages that were harboring ISIL members. This is believed to be a key event in the emergence of ISIL and the high interest that people had in joining. Although the ISIL members were once in collaboration with Sunni Muslims, their relations fell apart because ISIL could not follow the Islamic laws that pertained

Does the ISIS phenomenon challenge the construct of the Middle East, and America’s imperial ambitions? My argument is that neo-colonial relations - between the United States and the Arab world – is responsible for the radicalization of terrorist, particularly ISIS. Considering America’s involvement in the construction of the modern Middle East, and its continued involvement in the region.

Isis was created in 1999 but became known by the world in 2014 after a number of terrorist attacks and beheadings of journalists who were captured in the middle east. The current leader of Isis is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the founder in 1999 was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Isis was first a small group who allied with Al- Qaeda but since then have turned into the most powerful terrorist group in the world today. Isis has proven this by taking over land in Syria and Iraq creating the Islamic state. Obama tried to stop this while groups of men and women where in the middle east fighting Al- Qaeda but it quickly got out of hand in 2007 America started withdrawing troops and in 2011 the last troop left the middle east for that time being. The Islamic State’s influence and model are spreading. Even in many Muslim countries where the Islamic State does not have a strong presence, its rise is radicalizing their populations, fomenting sectarianism, and making a troubled region worse. The Islamic State’s successes in Syria and Iraq alarmed many in Washington and prompted the Obama administration to overcome its longstanding hesitation to become more militarily involved in Iraq and Syria. But there is one person for whom the Islamic State’s rise is even more frightening: Ayman al-Zawahiri. Although the Al Qaeda leader might be expected to rejoice at the emergence of a strong jihadist

Since the events of September 11, 2001, the American Public has been fascinated with what has become known as the “Global War on Terror.” Public support of the War on Terror has fluctuated since the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, with support significantly dropping as the wars continued. This waning support has caused many to question the effectiveness of the War on Terror in the Middle East. By examining research conducted both prior to and after the September 11 attacks and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, this paper demonstrates that overall participation in organized terror activities has increased overtime; therefore, the “War on Terror” has had minimal success in reducing the number of violent terror attacks and political violence groups in the Middle East. This paper will begin by defining terrorism and “War on Terror”, as both terms are disputed by scholars. Afterwards, two other major points found in literature will be discussed—growth of organized terror organizations and impact that the War on Terror has had on these organizations. Next, the paper will discuss insurgency, which is another common type of political violence that occurs in the Middle East. Afterwards, the paper will discuss the shortcomings in the U.S. approach to counterinsurgency and two ways that the war on terror has failed to stop insurgency. The U.S. role in the War on Terror will then be analyzed through the use of drones in counterterrorism and the ways in

The radical Islamic terrorist organization, recently re-titled “the Islamic State”, has existed under several names since the 1990s. Its history is an epic of how modern terrorism progressed from a religious and political ideal into an obliterating cult. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a properly-armed group that is a threat to the global security. ISIS, whose merciless members delight in murdering innocent people, must be destroyed before its fanatical followers carry out further genocides. There is an ongoing debate on whether the United States ought to take stronger military actions against the extremist organization, ISIS, or not. Supposing that the United State does not act

One of the most pressing issues in modern geopolitics is the rise of a radical and violent terrorist sect in the Middle East. Most prominently associated with Al Qaeda during the early half of the 21st century and as of 2015 it’s even more extreme splinter group The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. While many in the West are shocked by the violent motivations and anti-Western philosophy of these movements the truth is that Islamic Radicalism has roots that stretch far back through the fog of history to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of European economic, social, and military might in the region. With the partitioning of the old Ottoman territories after World War I and subsequent occupation by Western European colonial powers, the historical strategy of colonization came into play; place a foreign-backed minority-led government into power to serve as a puppet regime acting for the benefit of the controlling foreign interest. This socially unsustainable colonial strategy placed the majority of many countries, including Egypt and Syria, into conflict with the empowered minority. Other more homogeneous countries, such as Iraq and Iran, discontent to live under the oppressive de-facto rule of a foreign power, grew embittered towards their colonial patrons and puppet dictatorships and turned towards the perceived purity and social benefits of embracing political movements based in Islam and Pan-Arabism.

While Syria has a civil war to contend with, terrorist groups have begun to take advantage of the situation in order to further expand their reign of influence. Terrorist groups similar to the Islamic State have begun to infiltrate Syria in hopes of creating new camps and to take control of Syria as a whole. “The second factor is to recognize the fact that the real threat is not Bashar Assad but the Islamic State. “The collapse of the Assad regime would be the worst possible outcome for American interests—depriving Syria of its remaining state institutions and creating more space for the Islamic State and other extremists to spread mayhem” (How). With their involvement it has made the conflict even greater and has only increased the involvement of foreign nations. With the regime and rebels having to fight in both

As sweat drips off of your body you round the corner of the street. You take a moment to admire that it’s a beautiful day in Boston and there’s nothing you’d rather be doing then running the marathon. As you pump your arms and continue to run euphoria takes over as the “runner 's high” spreads throughout your body. Suddenly you’re thrown to the ground by as an explosion goes off to your left. Ears ringing, you stumble up and look around. There are people all over, bleeding, crying, and dead. The only feeling you have now is horror. Terrorist groups all over the world are destroying communities and families by recruiting their young children and killing innocent people. Terrorism is sweeping the world and it’s growing steadily. With a constant inflow of young soldiers, terrorist groups are stronger than before. They have surely mastered the art of recruiting the weak and vulnerable and using their weaknesses to carry out dangerous and deadly missions. There are hundreds of extremist groups carrying out terrorist acts all over the world. Throughout history terrorism has been a consistent issue in the Middle East. There are however a few that have had detrimental impacts on countries throughout the Middle East.