Stripped of its pre-Sept. 11 base in Afghanistan, al Qaeda has found a way to stay in business by establishing small, decentralized training camps in countries where large numbers of people are sympathetic to its goals, analysts say. At the same time, the terrorist organization has settled on a strategy of small- and medium-scale attacks that can still cause serious death and destruction, as happened in Monday’s coordinated bombings in Saudi Arabia that killed 34 people. “Al Qaeda can’t do operations on the scale of Sept. 11 anymore, but they’re able to do operations like this one and the ones (last year) in Bali and Mombassa (Kenya),” said Rohan Gunaratna, author of “Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.” Though authorities have, over the past few months, made a number of arrests of prominent al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, the United States must concentrate now on countries in other regions if it wants to combat Osama bin Laden, according to Gunaratna and other terrorism experts. Full Story
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