Under Bush's Leadership, Al-Qaeda Becomes Legitimate?

[Coexist]

Just great. What next, their own embassies throughout the Middle East?

Al-Qaeda finds new partner
Salafist Group finds limited success in native Algeria

PARIS - In a video released last month on the Internet, al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, declared that he had "great news." Al-Qaeda, he reported, had joined forces with an obscure Algerian underground network and would work in tandem with the group to "crush the pillars of the crusader alliance."

The Algerian partner, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, had fought the Algerian government in a barbaric civil war for almost a decade. But Zawahiri said the new alliance had different targets in mind. "Our brothers," he said, "will be a thorn in the necks of the American and French crusaders and their allies, and a dagger in the hearts of the French traitors and apostates."

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Overcoming differences
Al-Qaeda forged its alliance with the GSPC in spite of a long history of feuding with Algerian radicals.

In the fall of 2001, according to French and Algerian officials, bin Laden dispatched a Yemeni deputy to Algeria for talks with the radical group. The emissary was reported killed in September 2002 by Algerian security services, but his presence in Algeria marked a turning point, they said.

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