Reply #88: Well, for example look at your preferred description. What does it mean? Who is it?

[Prometheus Bound]

Sorry, ZombieHorde, this was supposed to respond to your post #87

Your description in bold. My comments in normal font.

The base. Basically meaningless. I once read that Bin Laden called their Afghanistan training camp the base when they were allied and funded by the U.S. He said that's where the name came from.

Militant organization formed circa 1986 by Osama bin Laden to channel fighters and funds for the Afghan resistance movement. Allied with and supported by the U.S.

Became a vehicle for the declaration of international military struggle against governments and Western representatives and institutions in the Muslim world, America, and other parts of the West. But in the eighties it was a vehicle in alliance with the US against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.

Influenced by the fundamentalist worldview and militant piety of seventh-century Kharijis, Wahhabism, and contemporary Egyptian extremist movements. That doesn't really help identify them for me.

Allied with the Taliban regime of Afghanistan; the alliance became a base for a network of organizations and cells throughout the Muslim world. This is a bit over the top. Alliance? Some were allowed to stay in Afghanistan just as some were allowed to stay in the US. OK, they did help the Taliban push out the Soviets, but again, they were in an alliance with the US then as well. What proof is there that this base in Afghanistan is really the same organisation in Iraq and elsewhere? Just because the US military and reporters choose to call all these bad guys al-qaeda?

Transnational in identity and recruitment; So they could be anyone

global in ideology, strategy, targets, economic transactions, and network of organizations.So they could be anyone.

Embraces extremist militant views that are rejected by mainstream Muslims. ok, but who are they?

It's just not very helpful in identifying who Al-qaeda is. Maybe because there really is no such organisation. Well, not maybe.