Terrorism will not die with Bin Laden

French specialists in international relations debated the future of Al-Qaeda yesterday. They concluded that the destruction of the Taleban regime in Afghanistan and the death of Osama Bin Laden do not mean that international terrorism will finish.

“The nebulous Al-Qaeda will not become weaker with the death of Bin Laden”, said Jean-Francois Daguzan, an investigator from the strategic investigation organism, FRS. Another member of FRS, Jean-Luc Marret, stated that “Al-Qaeda is constituted by autonomous cells which will continue to exist”.

Al-Qaeda, it is revealed, identified between 130 and 150 targets four or five years ago and communicated the identity of these targets to the various terrorist organisations around the world. Each cell is responsible for its own organisation and is autonomous in its movements until the strike, according to M. Marret.

For this reason, it is impossible to deactivate the network by removing the head. It must be prised out of existence, tentacle by tentacle, like an octopus.

The “sleeper” cells can always attack at any time without counting on the tens of other terrorists who are already being investigated, according to the experts. The general consensus of opinion was that all the terrorists connected to Al-Qaeda have been educated into a mind-set which makes them extremely determined and fearless, because they believe what they are doing is right.

Olivier Lepick, a specialist in weapons of mass destruction, said that is would not be difficult for Al-Qaeda to obtain chemical or biological weapons, although it is thought that Osama Bin Laden’s organisation does not have biological weapons, only chemical and probably not nuclear, despite declarations by Osama Bin Laden recently. However, the threat is being taken seriously.

The meeting concluded that there is no place in today’s world for international terrorism.

Emilie ACQUITAINE PRAVDA.Ru PARIS FRANCE