As has been noted in these pages (WAR Report), the metastasis of al-Qaeda?s terrorist network has featured the emergence of a swarming front of ?vanguard outpost? cells, acting as militant ?fifth columns,? within countries and societies identified as enemies of al-Qaeda. This metastasis seems energized via native and imported seeding dynamics. At the ideological level, this promulgation occurs via the inspirational resonance of al-Qaeda?s ideology among particular Islamist communities and societies that, in turn, cultivates a reservoir of indigenous local operatives and emergent cells to al-Qaeda militancy. At the operational level, the metastasis seems driven by the proliferation of terrorist tradecraft via the Internet and by via what seems to be a network of veteran al-Qaeda operational consultants for vanguard outpost groups. These consultants have connections to, or orders from, al-Qaeda?s core leadership nucleus who organize, equip, strategically-tactically advise and/or otherwise operationally empower the cells to conduct entrepreneurial attacks to further al-Qaeda?s strategic agenda.

The discussion of the metastasis of al-Qaeda?s global terrorist movement via a viral seeding dynamic of extremist ideology has been discussed in these pages for some time. However, the role of the operational consultants in building ?vanguard outpost? groups is emerging as pronouncedly important in the radicalization, operational competency, and guidance of the groups. As Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post has reported: