...Since 1996, al-Qaeda's media operations have grown more sophisticated, pervasive and effective. From a media world in which al-Qaeda and other Islamist leaders repeatedly and simplistically urged Muslims to wage jihad "in God's path," emerged such sophisticated and multi-topic electronic journals as al-Ansar, al-Neda and Sawt al-Jihad. Today, al-Qaeda's media arm provides in-depth religious instruction for Muslims on the justifications for jihad that are found in the Quran, the sayings and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad and Islamic history. Even using selective portions of scripture, al-Qaeda's scholars have fashioned a cogent religious foundation for waging a defensive jihad that has won support among tens of millions of Muslims, and especially among the young. Militants are now armed with religious arguments with which to match, and in their own minds trump, the anti-jihad arguments of those the West regards as "moderate" Muslims.
Al-Qaeda also has developed what can only be judged as a spectacularly successful online university of strategy, tactics and training for guerrilla warfare and terrorist operations (
www.alsakifah.org). In journals such as those mentioned above and others, al-Qaeda's analysts and strategists have developed a worldview that neatly fits the Islamists' struggle into the context of contemporary international relations, explaining why there are solid geopolitical reasons—such as status quo U.S. foreign policies in the Muslim world, and the West's dependence on Muslim oil and need to defend its access thereto—that make al-Qaeda's war aims of "bleeding America to bankruptcy" and "spreading out U.S. forces" attainable...
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