Page 138 - Privacy in a Cyber Age Policy and Practice

126 PRIVACY IN A CYBER AGE

2013 that “the core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the path
to defeat. Their remaining operatives spend more time thinking about their
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own safety than plotting against us.” He echoed this sentiment in August
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when he stated that “core al Qaeda is on its heels, has been decimated.”
Administration officials have been similarly optimistic regarding the
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diminished terror threat, and Obama “pivoted” U.S. foreign policy away
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from a focus on the Middle East in favor of a focus on East Asia. However,
since then, a steady stream of reports has suggested that much remains to
be done in facing terrorism, that al Qaeda is rebuilding its strength, and
that the pivot to East Asia may well have been premature.
Al Qaeda is regrouping under the banner of “al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula” (AQAP). Ayman al-Zawahiri has taken over Osama bin Laden’s
vacated position. AQAP has expanded from 200–300 members in 2009 to
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more than a thousand today. This group was behind the “most specific
and credible threat” since the 9/11 attacks, a threat that led to the closure
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of dozens of American embassies across the Middle East, and it managed
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to capture and control significant territory in Yemen. AQAP also claimed
responsibility for the January 2015 Paris attacks, which killed 17 people,
including employees at the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper.
Al Qaeda affiliates are growing in strength and spreading into addi-
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tional countries. Al Qaeda increasingly relies on a decentralized network
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of collaborating terrorist affiliates. Affiliates include groups in Africa (a
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network that spans Algeria, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Libya), the Cau-
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casus, Syria, and Somalia. Taken together, “al-Qaeda [sic] franchises and
fellow travelers now control more territory and can call on more fighters,
than at any time since Osama bin Laden created the organization 25 years
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ago.” In 2013, al Qaeda in Iraq started a bombing campaign that killed
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more than three hundred people in three months. The group has trans-
formed Iraq into a staging point for incursions into the Syrian civil war. 34
At the same time, Syria and Iraq are turning into a haven and breed-
ing ground for terrorists. Experts report that Syria is now “an even more
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powerful variant of what Afghanistan was more than 30 years ago.” The
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, which was rejected as too
extremist even by al Qaeda’s leadership, has consolidated its hold over ter-
ritory in Syria, seized swathes of Iraq, and beheaded American and Brit-
ish citizens. Given its high level of discipline, funding, territory, weapons,
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and manpower, and especially its recruitment of thousands of American
and European nationals who could return to carry out terror attacks at
home without having to apply for visas, U.S. officials have branded ISIS
an “imminent threat to every interest we have” and launched airstrikes to
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check its advance. The al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front also remains one
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of the strongest Syrian rebel militias. Western intelligence officials are