The tentacles of Al-Quaeda

The world's most infamous terrorist organisation is experiencing an exponential growth fuelled by the jihadist sentiment I discussed in my previous post.
This worrying trend is acquiring a whole new level of relevance in contemporary society as Al-Quaeda seeks to infiltrate foreign countries with its extremist ideology; it has recently been reported that some attempts have taken place on the social network Facebook. Not only friends request though: allegedly, informations such "operational and tactical information, including bomb recipes and weapons maintenance" are shared. Furthermore, it appears to be "a gateway to extremist forums; a media outlet for propaganda; and a source of remote reconnaissance for targeting purposes".
Media outlets such as forums have also been used to recently threaten France, both in relation to their presence in Afghanistan and their ban on burqa. Even though France firmly rejected any form of negotiation with Bin Laden and his organisation, let alone the possibility of National policies being "dictated by anyone outside", this issue does not fail in raising concerns about Al-Qaeda's threat. 
The recent terrorist attack in Stockholm, albeit partially failing, provided fresh material to bolster the confidence of terrorist supporters, such as Abu Suleiman al-Ansari - a high-ranking Al-Qaeda and "world jihad" supporter- who directs this audio message to NATO's nations: "Your security measures will not be able to stop our attacks against you. Your only way to safety is withdrawing from Afghanistan". He follows on by celebrating the Stockholm attack as "the beginning of a new era for world jihad", threatening every country that has troops in Afghanistan with attacks from "people that crave death more than they desire life".
The problem becomes significant when considering that many of those attackers hold passports from countries beyond any suspect, such as the author of the Stockholm bombing that was an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen, who also successfully completed tertiary education in England. 
Similar patterns took place even in Australia, where in February five men received sentences ranging from 23 to 28 years of jail on conspiracy charges for plotting a terrorist attack. More recently, a new addition into the Gold Coast bikie gangs scene is increasing the stakes in their aggressiveness and crimes. The Sons of Islam are beginning to raise serious concerns among the Police and the public, especially since portrays of Osama Bin Laden were discovered during a raid on one of their members' property; in addition, some of these members are allegedly former Iraqi soldiers familiar with weapons due to their paramilitary training.
Wether the tentacles of Al-Quaeda are infiltrating other countries or these recent events are just a few isolated cases blown out of proportion, only time will tell.


Vieri