WASHINGTON: Security agencies in the United States are bracing for a new security threat from groups that draw inspiration from Al Qaeda, even if not directly associated with this network.

Recent reports by US agencies, such as the State Department and the CIA, warn that Al Qaeda is exporting its ideology to other extremist groups.

They divide such groups into two categories: those who draw inspiration from Al Qaeda and those who have had affiliation with the network.

According to these reports, the disintegration of Al Qaeda began in Dec 2001, when the United States toppled the Taliban, depriving the network of its command centres and training camps.

Osama bin Laden, who had arrived in Afghanistan before the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996, was initially disliked by the Taliban because of his links to the former Mujahideen forces. The Taliban blamed the Mujahideen for the disunity and internal fighting that beset Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

But Osama’s dollars that he had inherited from his father and his puritanical beliefs helped the Saudi dissident in cultivating the Taliban. And by 1998, when Al Qaeda struck US embassies in East Africa, killing 224 people, Osama bin Laden’s network had not only established a close working relationship with the Taliban but had also earned their patronage for recruiting and training terrorists from all over the world.

For recruitment, Al Qaeda went to the regions where Muslims were struggling against non-Muslim governments, such as in occupied Kashmir and the southern islands of the Philippines. Recruits were also sought from Muslim nations ruled by unpopular, despotic rulers.

CENTRAL ASIA: A major recruiting ground for Al Qaeda was Central Asia, where former Soviet republics are still mostly run by rulers of the communist era. In some cases, these rulers have even arranged for their children to take over after their retirement.

Central Asian rulers seldom show any respect for human rights and are not averse to using coercive means to perpetuate their control.

Central Asia was also directly affected by the war in Afghanistan. Many Central Asian soldiers had served in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation, and had seen Afghans rising against the Russian occupiers, using Islam as a rallying cry.

The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan also encouraged Central Asia’s Muslim majority to turn to their religion for inspiration against their Russian occupiers and later their own communist rulers.

The situation helped Al Qaeda recruit a large number of Central Asians, some of whom are still believed to have maintained their association with Osama bin Laden.

Besides obvious targets, such as the United States and Israel, Al Qaeda’s list of enemies also included many current Muslim rulers, because they did not contribute to their ideology.

In Pakistan, Al Qaeda and the Taliban trained sectarian groups which are blamed for assassinating hundreds of intellectuals, physicians and lawyers from their rival sects.

Al Qaeda used Afghanistan as launching ground for its outrageous ideas. After the collapse of the Taliban, Al Qaeda also began to lose its controlling position within the network it had created.

Now in total disarray, neither the Taliban nor Al Qaeda leaders were able to provide a central leadership and day-to-day guidance to hundreds of operatives spread across the world. They were also unable to get new recruits.

But the ideology Al Qaeda had carefully crafted did not allow this network to die. Instead, Al Qaeda operatives and their sympathizers split from the central network and established dozens of splinter groups that do not need day-to-day guidance from the headquarters and draw inspiration from this ideology.

That’s why a recent US report warns that despite its defeat, Al Qaeda remained “the primary terrorist threat to the United States in 2004, intent on attacking the US homeland as well as US interests abroad”.