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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGANH1BMVRD.html

Web of Islamic Militants Who Share Bin Laden's Ideology Grew Out of Al-Qaida Recruiting Drive

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The al-Qaida terrorist network, its command structure hit hard by Washington's war on terrorism, is mutating into a hard-to-define web of Islamic militants who share Osama bin Laden's ideology and goals even if they operate under other names.

For months, especially in Iraq where attacks on coalition forces and Iraqis who work with them are near-daily events, little-known groups have been claiming responsibility.

The veracity of the claims remains unknown, but the attacks bear the hallmarks of this new al-Qaida - a loose-knit cluster of small groups not controlled by a mother organization but well aware of what is expected of them and sometimes even recruited by bin Laden's trainees.

At this point, experts say, there is no practical difference.

"If you believe in their ideas, then you are one of them. You are al-Qaida," said Abdel Rahim Ali, an Egyptian expert on radical Islamic groups and author of "Alliance of Terror, Al Qaida Organization."

Al-Qaida, he said, is now "separate and loose groups bound only by an ideology, but working independently. They know the general guidelines and they know what is required to do," he told the AP. "It is (al-Qaida) recruiting by remote control."

The individuals or small groups that act under al-Qaida's umbrella are believed to draw on their own resources or do their own simple fund-raising, such as collecting donations in mosques. However, bin Laden - who is not thought to be issuing direct orders for attacks - clearly remains their inspiration and al-Qaida what they aspire to be.
Saad al-Faqih, a Saudi dissident and head of the Islamic Reform Movement, said al-Qaida had to change after Sept. 11. Since then, Washington has pursued al-Qaida on its turf - in the villages, mountains and caves of Afghanistan - and cut its financing by pushing for global vigilance over money transactions and freezing of assets of suspected backers.

"There is no organization as such that you can call al-Qaida now, but rather followers who believe in the ideas of bin Laden and can organize themselves in small cells and carry out attacks," al-Faqih said.