The 1988 meeting that shaped the world we live in today

In August 1988, 9 people met at Osama bin Laden's house in the Pakistani Peshitwar to create a group that would play a dramatic role in shaping the United States of the XXI century. They called the Al-Qaeda grouping, which in Arabic means “base”.

As a result of its terrorist activities, the U.S. would experience the deadliest attack ever undertaken on its territory, start a war already lasting 17 years, spend about $2.8 trillion to protect itself from further attacks, according to a recent report by Stimson Centre, and would see a substantial change in its policies.

In the course of that founding meeting, Al-Qaeda documents show, that the organisation's “work began on September 10, 1988” -- 30 years ago. Last month it was 20 years, since Al-Qaeda made its effort to show that it was aimed at a global war against the United States when it bombed American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people.

Meanwhile 17 years ago, Al-Qaeda killed 2,977 people in the United States. Despite the background of this history of violence, what is the threat that favors today to the United States by jihadist terrorists? In a new report, think-tank “America”, reveals that since the 11 September attacks, the jihadist threat has changed a lot.

Since that tragic day, Al-Qaeda has not successfully led any deadly attacks within the United States. And no other jihadist terrorist organization. This represents great success in the efforts of the United States against terrorism since the September 11th attacks. Few analysts in the months and years following the attacks would have predicted that the United States would be so successful in avoiding attacks.

Thanks to the hard work of law enforcement agencies, secret service and the military, as well as greater public awareness, the threat to the homeland is much more limited today than it was on September 11, 2001. But this has certainly come at a trillion-dollar cost, unprecedented security measures at airports and public places, as well as a heated public debate on immigration and law enforcement.

Yet, the United States is again facing a new and varied threat of jihadists: Endid individuals motivated by jihadist ideology, but without an operational direction from a foreign terrorist organisation. Such individuals have carried out 13 deadly attacks, killing 104 people in the United States since the 11 September attacks, according to the research of” New America”.

The rise of the breakaway al-Qaeda faction, I SIS, led this threat to a new level.

Three quarters of people killed by jihadist extremists in the United States since September 11 have been killed since 2014 and on, year when I The SIS announced the establishment of its Caliphat.

Eight of the 13 deadly attacks in the US since 11 September have occurred in that period of time, and 7 of them have been partly motivated by I's propaganda. SIS. In 2015, 80 Americans were charged with jihadist crimes linked to terrorism, almost all inspired in some way by I SIS study America”

But even at the height of his power in Iraq and Syria, I SIS failed to organize a deadly attack within the United States. With the territorial wrinkle of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the threat to the US has further decreased. The number of cases of jihadist terrorism, including Americans, has declined every year since the peak of 80 cases in 2015.

By the end of August, only 8 Americans have been charged with jihadist crimes linked to terrorism in 2018.

Despite great fear of the threat of the “foreign fighters” from those Westerners who joined I SIS and other militant groups abroad few of them were Americans. And even fewer of them have returned. There is only one known case of an American man who fought in Syria or Iraq, planning acts of violence after returning to the United States, while no returnee has undertaken an attack.

However, Americans should not expect the threat to disappear with Califat's territorial wrinkle. This lecture was best illustrated when Sydalo Saipov, a 29-year-old permanent resident from Uzbekistan, killed 8 people in a truck attack on a Manhattan bicycle road in October 2017, the same month as the self-declared capital of I SIS, Raka was freed from the Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by Americans.

In fact, the challenge of jihadist terrorism facing the United States may not be used entirely by jihadist ideology. Many of the jihadists had personal issues, including stories of non-political violence and mental health problems, and some seem to have been influenced by numerous ideology, and not only by jihadism.

The US is also facing the threat of public violence, motivated by different ideology from jihadism, including extreme right violence, which has killed 73 people since 11 September. The only thing the U.S. should not do is not embrace the anti-terror-oriented approach even against immigration, promoted by the Trump administration, which the president must end.

The threat today is “raised at home”, and not the result of foreign infiltrate. Nineteen foreign kidnappers who entered the United States with visas not as immigrants carried out the 11 September attacks. That threat image, it's “informed” since that time of threatening perception.

As of September 11, however, only half of the 449 jihadist extremists charged in the United States have been born as American citizens, and 84 percent are citizens or permanent residents.

About 3 in 10 of them are converted to Islam. The ban on travel by several Muslim countries to the US would not have prevented a single deadly attack since September 11th, nor would the 11 September attacks itself. What the United States has to do is exploit the territorial collapse of I SIS in Syria and Iraq, to reevaluate and answer fundamental questions about its approach to terrorism.

Administration Trump, has made no strategy to fight terrorism public, and the United States continues to wage a war based on an authorisation for using the Military Force (AUMF) that is turning 17 and whose importance to I SIS, a group out of al-Qaeda, and where many of its members had not yet been born or were young children at the time of the 11 September attacks, is controversial.

The Trump administration must publish a strategy against terrorism, and Congress must pass an updated authorisation for the use of military force. It is said to have made substantial changes in policies related to the attacks on terrorism, giving authority to commanders, and canceling the criteria of targets that present an immediate <x0 threat” to Americans.

Since September 11th, the United States has spent $2.8 trillion on anti-terrorism efforts, including the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria -- almost 15 percent of government spending on the same period and there is no unified spending estimate, as recorded by the Stimson Center.

The ISIS managed to carry out five attacks in Europe since 2014, killing more people in those five attacks than jihadists have killed in the US since the 11 September attacks. The aviation remains a key target. I SIS killed 224 people with a bomb explosion on a flight from Egypt to Russia in October 2015.

The increasing use of fears by terrorist groups, and effective use of vehicle crashes by a host of groups, indicate the innovative potential of American terrorist opponents. More than a quarter of Americans are too young to recall the 11 September attacks, and 1 in 5 of them were not even born at the time, as The Washington Post” reported, but the attacks continue to determine many ways the American Army, intelligence and law services do their job. And they continue to influence American politics substantially.