A Pakistani Taliban militant firing a machine gun in Waziristan Ishtiaq Mahsud/AP
The Rise of Al-Qaeda 2.0
The terrorism network is now diffuse and lacks a coherent center, but it is still just as deadly. By Frud Bezhan
Early on, Al-Qaeda was a close-knit band of extremists with common cause, a centralized leadership, and a base from which to launch global operations.
With the death of Osama bin Laden, the loss of a host of top commanders, and its retreat from Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda has become a diffuse group with no coherent center. But the emerging network of Al-Qaeda offshoots, with operations around the world, is no less dangerous.
Call it Al-Qaeda 2.0 -- the evolution of a group whose directives once came from the top into a network of affiliates who are essentially on their own to export a fundamentalist brand of Islam and upstage secular governments in the Muslim world.
Read more at The Atlantic.