The Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda, which means "the foundation," was formally established in 1989 when its base of operations was established in Sudan but had to be moved to Afghanistan due to foreign pressure. Initially consisting of Arab volunteers assisting Muslims in the fight against the Soviet Communists in the early 1980s, the party developed to become one of the world's most frightening terror organizations, carrying out attacks against even the most influential countries such as the United States. The current organization is said to have evolved since the 9/11 incident, in its leadership and mode of operation, but they still have the same goal of attacking America and its policies. Today, most of the group's leaders have either been killed, arrested or scattered, with their headquarters in Afghanistan destroyed. But rather than weakening the group, Al-Qaeda has grown stronger in its ideology which continues to attract individuals in their small cells and who continue to perpetuate acts of terror in their various individual regions (Burke 18).
Following the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, the group underwent major breaches in strategy, finance and communication networks which affected the group's operations. Afterwards, the scattered members continued to carry out operations in their own individual cells recruiting members to carry out attacks on their own whenever possible. Al Qaeda used new strategies including use of the media to spread propaganda against the US government and to search for interested recruits. Today, the cells are spread all across the Middle East, Europe, North America, Africa and Asia and continue to pose a significant threat to security in most countries (Burke 25). Despite the numerous attempts to eradicate Al Qaeda, the group has remained operational and has continued to carry out attacks, which calls for cooperation and better strategies by all nations to do away with terrorism. This paper seeks to analyze the strategies put in place to counter acts of terrorism by the Al Qaeda, the effectiveness of these strategies and the challenges encountered along the path to dealing with terrorism.
Counter Terrorism Strategies
After the September 11th attacks, America needed new strategies to deal with terrorism after which, the Bush administration expanded the government's resources and capabilities to deal with terrorism and placed the issue at the top of the priorities in matters of national security and by the time he completed his term, the country had not faced another major terrorist attack. When Obama took power, he made some changes to the strategy by withdrawing the US forces from overseas and dealing with terrorism from a narrower scope, mainly focusing on Al Qaeda (McCaul 6). Despite the efforts, the US still faces threats from terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and the Syria based ISIS, which calls for a revision of the strategies and approaches. The Department of Homeland Security in a September 2016 report outlined the strategies necessary to combat terror once and for all. The end goal is to ensure security within the country's borders, eradicate terrorism and close all the avenues for the terrorists to rise again and thrive, including completely breaking the movement and creating stable and good governance systems in the countries previously used as safe havens for these terrorist groups.
The current counterterrorism strategy consists of various elements including establishing peace and good governance in the countries used as safe havens by Al Qaeda in order to destroy their bases of operations, cutting the links through which the terrorists access weapons and finances, intensive screening at all border and entry points into the US for all goods and people, creating counter-campaigns to the terrorists' recruitment strategies through sending out messages against radicalization in all social media platforms and encouraging all communities to denounce their vows to jihadists and expose any terrorists who might be hiding amongst them (Adams 13). After the 9/11 attacks, the US raided Afghanistan and destroyed the bases for both Al Qaeda and Taliban forces, denying them the safe havens from where they conducted their operations. However, the leaders of the two groups were not captured as they managed to escape to Pakistan (Adams 11).
In addition to destroying the Afghani base, the US forces in cooperation with international organizations increased efforts to destroy the networks through which Al Qaeda accessed their funding and weapons. After this, Al Qaeda underwent major strains in its organization due to lack of finances. Claims that Al Qaeda was planning to use nuclear weapons were also dismissed after the links to raw materials for weapons were disrupted. Strategies by the UN to regulate the sale of weapons of mass destruction including biological and chemical weapons have also aided in the efforts to deny access of these weapons to terrorists (Adams 11). Other efforts to counter terrorism throughout the years has been to increase screening for all passengers coming into the country through airports, the sea and by road. Furthermore, cargo coming in through the containers by sea is screened to ensure safety for the US citizens. The security agencies were availed with resources for intelligence that assisted in gaining access to personal information for anyone who was suspected of terrorism, without overstepping on the Americans' freedom to privacy (Adams 12). All these strategies have weakened the threat posed by the Al Qaeda but the threat has not completely been neutralized.
Effectiveness of Strategies
According to an article by David Sedney, who a senior associate in the Center for Strategic and International studies, the US counterterrorism approach and strategy is not effective enough to neutralize the threat posed by terrorists to the American citizens. The strategy which involves drone strikes, offensive raids and elite units trained to kill terrorists and more so the core leaders has only managed to degrade the capabilities for short periods of time rather than render the organizations completely incapable. In the long run, the tactics used by the US forces have only led to the breeding of more hardened and dangerous extremists who are willing to risk their lives at the aim or quest of killing Americans. The strategy to kill terrorists has resulted into vengeful fellows who want to avenge their friends and a wrong perception of the world viewing America as the evil nation. There is a need to change approach by trying to solve the social problems facing the citizens in the nations overtaken by the extremists and a change in the moral values in the fight with terrorists (Sedney n.p).
Moreover, America failed to initially understand the scope of the threat by targeting a single group of the Al Qaeda, rather than dealing with the ideology of the organization which was spreading at a global scale. The problems experienced in Middle East such as social failures, failing economy and the authoritarian rules made it hard for the US forces to completely destroy the bases of operations for the al Qaeda and as soon as the US troops were withdrawn from overseas, the extremists regrouped again to try and regain their power and lost territory (Sedney n.p). However, major steps have been taken to undermine the group with positive results such as the killing of key leaders such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, which greatly contributed to heavy financial losses incurred by the Al Qaeda and the dispersion of the members without central leadership, which has made the planning of mass attacks very difficult. With the loss of major leaders and the revelation of their true nature, most followers have lost faith in Al Qaeda which has made recruitment efforts difficult.
Nevertheless, the threat has not completely been eradicated as it is evident in the reemergence of subgroups all over the globe including the Alshabab in Somalia and the Boko Haram in Nigeria, who all seem to align their ideologies with the violent nature of Al Qaeda. These groups continue to carry out regional attacks and with proper organization, they could pose a major threat to America and the world. Hence there is need to increase efforts to deal with extremists once and for all (Sedney n.p).
Challenges in the Efforts to Counterterrorism
There are many factors that are curbing the success of the counterterrorism strategies laid by the US; key among them is the fact that the use of military action on foreign soil is being propagandized by the jihadists to look like an invasion, and an undermining of the locals. There has been rumors that the forces have ulterior motives in their country. This has made it easy for radicalization to take place thus giving rise to new fighters for the terrorists. This means that there will be a cycle of the same sort with the issue of terrorism (Jenkins 6).
States like Iran have been accused of funding and training terrorists to attack American and Israeli citizens. On several occasions Iranian trained men have been captured and their plots throttled in countries like Kenya, Azerbaijan and even in the US. It may be said that Iran is having a payback on the US and the Israel for preventing the development of nuclear weapons by sanctions and sabotage of the facilities and to some extreme extent assassination of the nuclear scientists (Jenkins 13).
Conclusion
Policy makers and law enforcers can learn lessons such as the much needed political and economic reform in the Middle East as the first step towards defeating Al Qaeda. The citizens in this region do not have freedom of making choices and therefore abide by the ideologies set by the extremists. By setting the citizens free, it is possible to diminish the radical ideologies in an effort to destroy the base of operations for these terrorists. There is also need to win more allies' support because war on terrorism is a global affair. By changing the moral values driving us towards the fight against terrorists, we will be able to turn more people to the side seeking peace including the radicalized followers, therefore making recruitment efforts for the terrorists more difficult.
Past success on the war on terror by America has depended on intelligence sharing which has helped thwart numerous attacks both on the homeland and foreign grounds. Cooperation between major security agencies has had an impact on the successful capturing and killing of terrorists in recent years. For example, the killing of Osama bin Laden was a major blow to the Al Qaeda, which was as a result of reliable intelligence and courage of the officers who carried out the raid. Further counter messages to the Jihadist's messages of war and radicalization has also been an effective measures to reducing the appeal of terrorism and revealing its true nature of blood shed of innocent people. As a result, more people have backed out from Al Qaeda and turned away from its ideologies, hardening Al Qaeda's efforts in gaining new recruits.

Works Cited
Adams, Nick. Counterterrorism Since 9/11 | Evaluating the Efficacy of Controversial Tactics. Breakthrough Institute. Oakland: The Breakthrough Institute Press, 2011. Document. 5 April 2017.
Burke, Jason. "Al Qaeda." Think Again (2003): 18-26. Document. 5 April 2017.
Jenkins, Brian Michael. "New Challenges to the US Counterterrorism Efforts." 11 July 2012. Rand corporation. Website. 5 April 2017. .
McCaul, Michael T. "A national strategy to win the war against Islamist terror." Conference Report. 2016. Document. 5 April 2017.
Sedney, David. "America's counterterrorism policy is failing." TIME 21 January 2015: n.p. Web. 5 April 2017. .