Gilles Kepel predicted almost 5 years ago that Al-Qaeda/Bin Laden/radical islamic jihad's failure to achieve meaningful victory, in the form of genuine power, geographic/political control, would result in a gradual disenchantment and falling away.

For all the "power' Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda have on the American political system and by extension the media, their victories have been meager for all the youthful passion and determination expressed by their "noble" volunteers.

There are some new fronts to their wars ... is Chechnya quiet or just seething or were Beslin and the Moscow Theatre massacres over-the-line far enough to turn the collective stomach on the alliance.

The name "Al-Qaeda" will never die as a trademark for any punk bad-asses out to blow stuff up and make a name for themselves.. and yes, each new generation will hear the stories and dream of what might have been... If Al-Qaeda had fulfilled it's "promise" ... but it didn't. thank god.

Oh, would that this were true. I surely hope it is. All the killing is beyond disgusting and sickening. It has turned America into a killing machine that is good for the Repubs and their right wing religions and their fascist businesses, like the Carlyle Group, and the Bush crime family for profit.

But then what will those same groups do for fun and profit, should such changes take place and become widespread. They will probably focus all of their energy and time into creating more hate in America, or in starting WWIII somewhere else other then the ME. Probably in Russia and China, then the right wingers will focus on Europe for their WWIV.

All because killing for profit and religion is what they do, and do it best of all the things they attempt. After all without killing for profit and political power their is nothing for them to do.

Article is a summary but could do well to provide the reader with some references. namely:

1. The links to the theological and ideological fallout between Zawarhi and his supposed mentor and fellow founding member, Dr. Fadl. The Guardian published them here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/13/heretic.alqaida.part.one

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/13/heretic.alqaida.part.two

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/13/heretic.alqaida.part.three

2. The fact that many have alleged that it was Bin Laden himself who is considered a prime suspect in the murder of his supposed mentor, Abdullah Azzam, a simple reference to Lawrence Wright's book the Looming Tower on pg. 143 would confirm this.

3. The supposed "counter extremist" think tank cited in the article, the Quilliam Foundation, openly admits to having been funded by Kuwaiti and Saudi petro-dollar businessmen along with readily admitting to having no problems taking British taxpayer funds and govt. direction:

http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/faqs.html

http://islamic-considerations.blogspot.com/

http://traditionalislamism.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/frequently-evaded-questions/#comments

4. Lastly, this statement is quite dubious here:

"Several Libyan newspapers published Benotman's open letter to Zawahiri last year. He has been living in London in recent years. He says that he has NEVER been in prison, neither in Libya nor anyplace else."

Any person who knows anything about the maniacal dictatorial regime in Libya, knows that Quaddafi, like Saddam, is not above murdering his political opponents en masse. This is something that SHOULD have been pressed further and validates the claim that he is probably working FOR the regime rather than against terrorism per se.

overall this is rather sloppy journalism and something i'd not expect from Salon.

regards,

Gambit

Considering most terrorism has been targeted against their people in the middle East, I'm not surprised they are getting disenchanted. The 9/11 was a small blimp in terrorism people ahve suffered around the world.

The Bush administration promoted the idea that every revolutionary group, not even tied to Osama, into one terrorist network, that did not really exist.

I'm sure the right will find new enemies in the future. The "communist "enemy was traded in for the "terrorist" enemy.

Al Qaeda does not mean "the basis" in Arabic; it means "the base," and idiomatically it means the foundation of Islam.

Close, but no cigar.

This isn't just about terrorism slowly collapsing. It isn't just about Osama Bin Laden or any of the terror groups slowly being weakened.

It is about conversion by the sword being discredited. It is about fundementalist fear-mongering being discredited.

What we are seeing is the first glimpse of the Arabic rebirth, where some degree of secular common sense is slowly starting to appear after years of time wasted with a holy war.

What we are seeing is the rise of a generation of Arabs who are sick of being afraid.

In assessing the events of 9/11/2001, the perverse gift to the Bush administration and neocons in general, said Bush administration made so many errors and failed to learn so much about the presumed enemy of freedom, the west, the American Dream, etc., ad nauseum, one of the biggest and most stupid failures was to look closely at Libya, which is unique, as are most nations in North Africa and the middle east. Instead, they were all painted with the broadest possible brush in order to create a picture of a wild-eyed, insane tide of Arab/Muslim/Other extremists that the American public would react with fear, loathing and, of course, a blind and idiotic acceptance of any measure proposed by the bumbling, stupid regime which had been poised for such an opportunity in hopes of destroying the very structured and intelligent dynamic freedoms we have taken for granted for so long stateside.

Stupidity cannot stand for long, whether it is contained in a relatively small cohort of random Muslim extremists nor in the constituency of a fabulously stupid American facist regime disguised as saviors of the people from the barbarians at the gate.

The fact that the barbarian group was vastly smaller, less-well organized and not really all that barbarian (other than the carefully selected examples fed to us by the administration and the sensationalist media) helps explain the loss of enthusiasm and jihadist gusto over the past few years. Libya is an excellent example of one of the many locales the Bush administration deliberately "misunderestimated" in terms of its potential for utter unpredictability.

Anyone who has followed the history of the regime of Muammar Khadaffi realizes this man has more in common with Fidel Castro than Osama Bin Laden, which means he is workable, just eccentric as hell. Libyans have in general been a lot more desireous of respect from the west, too, than random malcontents. Most of the rest of the Muslim world is in the same position, but each has its own peculiar subculture (just like Europe or the United States! Imagine!) and so each leader requires a personalized approach (just like -- you guessed it).

The article makes a lot of good, salient points and in general is very encouraging, but there are those of us who knew this was inevitable and could have been brought about much sooner were it not for the incredible stupidity, hubris, greed and lust for power which have been the combined engine of the Bush swampboat.

Funny -- things are changing here in the USA too, in a positive way. Change: the only constant -- aside from stupidity.