Assessing Al-Qaeda (merged thread)

[Entropy]

This may be applicable here. Leah Farrell, a former Australian counter-terrorism analyst who's writing her PhD dissertation on Al Qaeda, has struck up a relationship with Abu Walid al Masri who she describes as:

...currently an author for the Taliban’s flagship magazine, and self declared “old friend” of al Qaeda. He has an amazing history. One of the first Arabs to go to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets and the first foreigner to swear allegiance to Mullah Omar.

They're in a dialog and Ms Farrell just posted a translation of al Masri's recent questions and as well as her response. There's much more on her site and it's all well worth the time to read.