Ten years ago, Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein wrote a book onal-Qaeda's strategy forthe next two decades. It was based oninformation provided bysome ofthe most sought-after terrorists ofal-Qaedas inner circle, such asAbu Musab al-Zarqawi and Seif al-Adl.
Al-Zarqawi was the Jordanian-born founder ofal-Qaeda inIraq an offshoot ofthe larger terror organization who wanted toestablish a Sunni caliphate, or religious state, inthe country afterthe 2003 US invasion.
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AFP 2015 A picture taken with a mobile phone early on May 24, 2014 shows Al-Qaeda militants posing with Al-Qaeda flags in front of a museum in Seiyun, second Yemeni city of Hadramawt province, after launching a massive pre-dawn assault that killed at least 15 soldiers and police[/caption]The man was responsible fora series ofbombings, beheadings, and attacks duringthe Iraq War and was eventually killed ina targeted US airstrike inJune 2006.
Seif al-Adl is an Egyptian former military colonel, explosives expert, and a high-ranking member ofal-Qaeda who is still atlarge. The Egyptian terrorist is suspected oftaking part inthe attacks onthe American Embassies inDar es Salaam and Nairobi in1998, and has a ransom of $5 million onhis head fromthe FBI. Secret services suspect that al-Adl is now inIran.
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AP Photo/ Hussein Malla, File In this Wednesday, June 25, 2014 file photo, Kurdish peshmerga fighters take positions on the front line with militants from the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, in Tuz Khormato, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Kirkuk, northern Iraq[/caption]When Fouad Hussein was a political prisoner, he successfully made contacts withal-Zarqawi and many more ofthe networks leaders, who shared their plan ofaction forthe next two decades.
Back in2005 Fouad Hussein sat downwith the German magazine Der Spiegel toelaborate onthe strategy, which the magazine then described as both frightening and absurd, a lunatic plan conceived byfanatics who live intheir own world, butwho continually manage tobreak intothe real world withtheir brutal acts ofviolence.
Lets have a look atto what extent it has really worked out.
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AP Photo/ Militant website via AP, File In this undated file photo released by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, militants of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave its flags on their vehicles in a convoy on a road leading to Iraq, while riding in Raqqa city in Syria[/caption]An Islamic Caliphate inSeven Steps
In seven phases, the terror network hoped toestablish an Islamic caliphate which the West will then be too weak tofight.
The First Phase, Known as "the awakening" had bythat time already been carried outand was supposed tohave lasted from2000 to2003, or more precisely fromthe terrorist attacks ofSeptember 11, 2001 inNew York and Washington tothe fall ofBaghdad in2003.
The aim ofthe 9/11 attacks was toprovoke the US intodeclaring war onthe Islamic world and thereby "awaken" Muslims.
"The first phase was judged bythe strategists and masterminds behindal-Qaeda asvery successful," wrote Hussein. "The battlefield was opened upand the Americans and their allies became a closer and easier target."
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AFP 2015/ Karim SAHIB An Iraqi walks amid debris outside a maternity clinic in Baghdad after a US-British air raid 02 April 2003. The Red Crescent clinic was hit in air strikes over Baghdad this afternoon[/caption]The Second Phase, "Opening Eyes", was aimed atmaking the Western conspiracy aware ofthe Islamic community" and was supposed tolast until2006.
This was a phase inwhich al-Qaeda wanted its organization todevelop intoa movement.
The network was banking onrecruiting young men duringthat period. Iraq was supposed tobecome the center forall global operations, withan "army" set upthere and bases established inother Arabic states.
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East News/ Pacific Press Members of al-Qaeda with covered face from different nationalities[/caption]The Third Phase, "Arising and Standing Up" was supposed tobe focused onSyria and should have lasted from2007 to2010.
The aim was tomake the terrorist group become a recognized organization.
The next four stages had no titles.
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Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy Syrian city of Homs[/caption]The Fourth Phase, between2010 and 2013, was aimed at bringing aboutthe collapse ofthe hated Arabic governments.
It was estimated that "the creeping loss ofthe regimes' power will lead toa steady growth instrength withinal-Qaeda."
At the same time attacks were supposed tobe carried outagainst oil suppliers and the US economy, which was supposed tobe targeted withthe use ofcyber terrorism.
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AP Photo/ Islamic State social media account via AP, File This undated photo released Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015, file photo, on a social media site used by Islamic State militants, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows smoke from the detonation of the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra[/caption]The Fifth Phase, between2013 and 2016, is the point atwhich an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared.
The plan said that bythis time, Western influence inthe Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared.
Al-Qaeda hoped that bythen the Islamic state would be able tobring abouta new world order.
The Sixth Phase, from2016 onwards, would be a period of "total confrontation."
As soon asthe caliphate was declared, the "Islamic army" could instigate the "fight betweenthe believers and the non-believers" which had so often been predicted byOsama bin Laden.
And, finally, the Seventh Phase, described as "definitive victory."
The rest ofthe world will be so beaten downby the 'one-and-a-half billion Muslims,' the caliphate will undoubtedly succeed.
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AP Photo/ Jake Simkin This Nov. 20, 2014 photo shows an area controlled by the Islamic State group, past the Qada Azadi roundabout, foreground, in Kobani, Syria.[/caption]This phase should be completed by2020, although the war shouldn't last longer thantwo years.
The author, Spiegel then said, obviously believed that this seven-point plan could well become the guiding principle fora whole range ofal-Qaeda fighters.
The outlet, however, provided its own appraisal ofthe master plan.
There is no way the scenario he depicts can be seen asa plan which al-Qaeda can follow step bystep. The terrorist network just doesn't work likethat anymore.
The significance ofthe central leadership has diminished and its direct commands have lost a great deal ofimportance.
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Flickr/ Thierry Ehrmann Sirte was once home to Libya's former dictator Muammar Gaddafi before he was killed by a NATO-led rebellion in 2011.[/caption]The supposed master plan forthe years 2000 to2020 reads inparts more likea group ofideas cobbled together inretrospect, thansomething planned and presented inadvance.
And not tomention the terrorist agenda is simply unworkable: the idea that al-Qaeda could set upa caliphate inthe entire Islamic world is absurd.
The 20-year plan is based mainly onreligious ideas. It hardly has anything todo withreality especially phases four toseven.
However, inthe aftermath ofthe wars inLibya, Iraq and Syria and withthe global war againstthe Islamic State inthe Middle East inmind, one can only draw the conclusion that the group has had some success inmeeting its goals, atleast inpart.
By Sputnik News
