The Motivational influences on the terrorist group Al Qaeda Essay

The Motivational influences on the terrorist group Al Qaeda - Essay Example However, in the last decade, the county has been under occupation of NATO since the US led invasion in 2001 which resulted to the ouster of Taliban rule in 2001. During the period under NATO occupation, remarkable gains have been achieved in disabling the network including the killing of group’s leader, Osama bin Laden last year. This paper is factual and analytical evaluation of the al Qaeda network with focus on its idioelogies, motivations and organisational structure. According to NCTC (2006) al-Qaeda is â€Å"a movement comprising of many networks of Islamic groups sharing the same ideologies†. Mythens (2008, p59) defines al-Qaeda as a â€Å"network of networks† of various Islamic factions across the world. There are three critical elements that make up the al-Qaeda structure. They include the al-Qaeda nucleus or core, the networks linked to the terror organisation and finally, cell and al-Qaeda inspired networks (Gilles, 2002, pp65-76). Al-Qaeda core consists of senior inspirational leaders who define the ideologies of the organisation. Osama bin Laden was until his death in 2011 the senior most leader of the al-Qaeda. His deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri is currently the senior most leaders of the organisation. Currently the global war on terrorism has disrupted its leadership structure significantly. The second important components of al-Qaida are several terror organisations, with direct link to the terror group. These networks share common ideologies with al-Qaeda besides having direct linkage with the group (Blanchard, 2007). Some of the current and active al-Qaida networks include the Alshabaab in Somalia, Eastern Africa. Finally, there exists factions or cells inspired by al-Qaida’s ideologies but do not have direct contact with the organization. Such groups exhibit autonomous stance from al Qaeda in their areas of operation. Examples include Jemaah Islaamiya in Indonesia that executed the Bali bombings in