The US-led invasion of Iraq has accelerated the spread of Osama Bin Laden's Anti-Americanism by Walter Pincus Washington Post 9:00am 6th Apr, 2004   Washington. April 6, 2004    The US-led invasion of Iraq has accelerated the spread of Osama bin Laden's anti-Americanism among once-local Islamic militant movements, increasing danger to the US, according to senior intelligence officials at the CIA and State Department.    At the same time, the Sunni Triangle has become a training ground for foreign Islamic mujahideen who are slipping into Iraq to join former Saddam Hussein loyalists to test themselves against US and coalition forces, these officials say.    Islamic militant organisations in places such as North Africa and South-East Asia, previously focused on changing their local country leadership, "have been caught by bin Laden's vision, and poisoned by it... they will now look at the US, Israel and the Saudis as targets", a senior intelligence official said last week. "That is one manifestation of how bin Laden's views are expanding well beyond Iraq," he said.    Cofer Black, the US State Department co-ordinator for counter-terrorism and a former head of the CIA's Counter-terrorism Centre, gave the same message to a House International Relations subcommittee last Thursday, saying that bin Laden's "virulent anti-American rhetoric... has been picked up by a number of Islamic extremist movements which exist around the globe".    The result, according to the senior intelligence analyst, is that the US war on terrorism after Iraq "may transition from defeating a group to fighting a movement". Mr Black said the spread of bin Laden's ideology "greatly complicates our task in stamping out al-Qaeda and poses a threat in its own right for the foreseeable future".    He described scores of extremist groups such as Jemaah Islamiah that have "gravitated to al-Qaeda in recent years where before such linkages did not exist". In the past, al-Qaeda had given other groups training and finances in bin Laden's hope they would see the world in the same anti-American, anti-Israeli, anti-Saudi terms he saw, the senior analyst said.    'The spread of bin Laden's ideology greatly complicates our task in stamping out al-Qaeda.'- Cofer Black, State Department co-ordinator for counter-terrorism    Since attacks in East Africa, on the USS Cole, and on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11, al-Qaeda has lost its sanctuary in Afghanistan. Its once top-down control of terrorist operations now is in the hands of less-experienced people.    That makes it less clear what roles al-Qaeda played in recent bombings in Bali, Istanbul, Riyadh, Tunisia, Casablanca and Madrid. Authorities said that local extremists carried out these attacks, although Mr Black said a possible al-Qaeda leadership connection to Madrid is still under investigation.    Mr Black and the senior intelligence analyst said it would be a mistake to believe the US faces a monolithic terrorist threat. "Before Iraq, al-Qaeda had some success with like-minded organisations conducting operations," the analyst said.    "It would be fair to say that we are seeing greater co-operation between al-Qaeda and smaller Islamic extremist groups as well as even more localised organisations," Mr Black said.    Adding to the threat are the limited numbers of foreign Islamic fighters, some with experience in Chechnya, Kosovo and Kashmir, who are slipping over the Iraqi borders intent on joining the fight against the US and its coalition partners.    Mujahideen are seeking to use Iraq as a training ground for future battles, according to Mr Black and others.    - Washington Post
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