Global Issues: Terrorism: The Resurgence of Al-Qaeda [The Economist]

The bombs that stopped the happy talk: It was too soon to say that Osama bin Laden’s followers were on the wane—but pessimism should not be overdone.

“ONLY a few months ago, intelligence experts were saying that al-Qaeda and its allies were in decline, both militarily and ideologically. But two bombs less than a week apart, one failed and the other successful, have put an end to such optimism.”

This from a brilliant article in The Economist which outlines the current threat posed by al-Qaeda, but also gives a very good insight into the nature of the organisation. There is also an interesting graph entitled ‘a deadly calculus’ which plots the fatalities in al-Qaeda attacks. Read more here.