According to British intelligence experts, the concept of Al Qaeda as we know it – a hegemonic global hierarchal terrorist organization with a central command and a supreme commander – is a fictitious creation of the FBI and the CIA based on the witness of a single well-paid Sudanese witness who was the first to propose the name.
There are sporadic groups of radical militants who recruit disgruntled youth and who may seek collaboration on certain jobs or seek funding from Bin Laden, but there is no singular hierarchal structure, no binding central command, no supreme leader who sits atop a global organization. There is no Al Qaeda.
According to experts, the myth of Al Qaeda was meticulously crafted to justify neo-con military expansionism. It was also necessitated to help the FBI prosecute Bin Laden in the absence of direct evidence against him. Using the familiar Mafia model, if there is an organized crime structure, then Bin Laden can be directly prosecuted as its chief, with or without the burden of proof against his person.
By the way, speaking of “Al Qaeda”, where is Bin Laden, and how come no one is talking about him anymore, let alone looking for him?
There has been limited mainstream media coverage of the above, including documentaries. Below is an excerpt from coverage by the BBC:
Video description:
There is no such thing as “al Qaeda”, there is no one on earth who calls himself a member of “al Qaeda”. “al Qaeda” is a term made up by the U.S. government to be applied to anyone killed during in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no formal organization. There is no secret terrorist network. What there is a is a phantom enemy, a boogyman that was easily sold to the American people for the benefit of the Bush Administration and their friends at PNAC.
Further Suggested viewing: The Power of Nightmares, a documentary by Adam Curtis
Ahmed Rehab is a civil rights activist, columnist, media commentator, and social entrepreneur. 
The existence and formation of Al-Qaeda needs to be questioned here especially when Gadhaffi had alleged the hands of Al-Qaeda behind the appraisals. Al-Qaeda is no where in the picture of the changes happening in the Middle East. An analysis can be this that Al-Qaeda was a creation of US to serve their interests in the Middle East and when the matters went out of their hands Al-Qaeda too had to be submerged so that their interests are not exposed. Now America doesn’t know what its role is in these uprisings as they never expected such a thing to emerge.
Well Said Taha
While I agree with your thoughts on Bin Laden (I am convinced he has been dead for a decade now) I have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that AQ, as we have heard, is a myth.
Most of us who paid attention knew of AQ’s existence as early as 1996, well before PNAC’s white paper on needing a “Pear Harbor event” in 1998.
Steven Coll’s “Ghost Wars” (written in 2004) is a fantastic read, with plenty of sourcing, about AQ’s formation. What I believe has happened is after 9/11 and the Battle of Tora Bora, any organization was either smashed, killed, or scattered. AQ, as we thought we understood it, hasn’t existed for almost 10 years. Bin Laden is dead.
But to say it never existed is too far of a stretch to me. Musharaff, in his book “In the Line of Fire” details out how the decentralized AQ functioned.
My overall conclusion: There once was a tight knit organization which recruited radical youths to commit acts of terror, but in the post 9/11 era was quickly destroyed. Since KSM’s arrest in Pakistan in 2003, no such organization has functioned
No What! No al-Qaeda. I was terrified that they might have been taking over the world but I think if there anyone should be afraid of anything they should look…
*Yawn*
If people used the Quran and Sunnah to analyze world events the truth would be discovered sooner.
Everyone knows now that Al-Qaeda is Al-CIA’duh.
Al Qaeda commander in Tripoli is leading the “Free Syrian Army” to stage terrorist attacks in Syria from staging areas in Turkey and Lebanon.
http://www.voltairenet.org/What-Is-Really-Going-On-In-Syria