Al Qaeda on the March

Al Qaeda will be "on the march in 2007," predicts journalist and terrorism expert Ahmed Rashid. "Osama bin Laden has not been driven underground or lost touch with his followers," he writes. "Al-Qaeda is using the internet extensively to communicate with its supporters and to further its aim of creating new bases from which to organise terrorist attacks. ... If any single individual is responsible for the continuing expansion of al-Qaeda, it is President Bush. America's failed policies in the Middle East and Afghanistan, its failure to rebuild either Iraq or Afghanistan after invading them, and its support for Israel's roles in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories, have created unprecedented anger in the Muslim world."