It is important when considering our continued mission in Afghanistan to understand the original reason for the deployment, which was to deny terrorists the use of safe havens. These are defined in the US Country Reports on Terrorism 2010 as ‘ungoverned, under-governed, or ill-governed physical areas where terrorists are able to organize, plan, raise funds, communicate, recruit, train, transit, and operate in relative security because of inadequate governance capacity, political will, or both.’ 106 Some of the perpetrators of 9/11 were known to have trained in Afghanistan, as well as several other high profile terrorists. 107 The Taliban were embroiled in this as they gave sanctuary to Al-Qaeda, which made them a legitimate target at the time. It is a contested issue if this rational still applies. Al-Qaeda Have Been Disrupted And Dispersed The war in Afghanistan is no longer deterring Al-Qaeda based terrorism. This is predominantly because although the groups’ presence in the country has diminished significantly, they have simply relocated to other parts of the world. This was recognised in the UK Foreign Affairs Committee’s 2011 report The UK’s Foreign Policy Approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The report claimed that the original justification for the continued presence in Afghanistan, which was in the interests of national security, might have already been achieved.108 The report also cites a speech in September 2010 by the Director General of the Security Service,109 Jonathan Evans, who when referring to the threat from Al-Qaeda only mentioned the tribal areas of Pakistan. 110 Also, in October 2009 the US National Security Advisor James Jones, said that the ‘“maximum estimate” of Al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan itself was less than 100 and there were no Al-Qaeda bases there.’ 111 Lastly, the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, Contest, recognised in its July 2011 review that the majority of terrorist plots against the UK have emanated from Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia,112 and not Afghanistan. Certainly the US Army soldier Nidal Malik Hasan, 113 who shot and killed 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in the United States, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit underwear bomber, 114 were both radicalised by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – the Yemen based Al-Qaeda franchise - and had no connections to Afghanistan. These factors considered, there is a strong argument that Al-Qaeda attacks are no longer planned from Afghanistan. The hypothesis that Al-Qaeda no longer operates in Afghanistan makes sense, as it is likely that military action against them would have had the effect of squeezing them out of the country. Indeed, it was very telling that Osama Bin Laden was eventually located in Pakistan, and that the head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, is also believed to be in Northern Pakistan. We can see further evidence of this theory with investigation of the London 7/7 bombers. Bruce Hoffman highlights how none of the 106
U.S. Department of State, Chapter 5: Terrorist Safe Havens and Tactics and Tools for Disrupting or
Eliminating Safe Havens, Country Reports on Terrorism 2009, p. 1. 107
The 9/11 Commission Report, The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the US, 2004, p.
225. 108
Foreign Affairs Committee, Op. Cit., p. 77.
109
Also known as MI5.
110
Foreign Affairs Committee, Op. Cit., p. 77.
111
Ibid.
112
Home Office, Contest - The United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering Terrorism, July 2011, p. 48.
113
Ibid., p. 25.
114
Ibid., p. 29. The Spectrum | edition 03 64