Al-Qaeda's Plans for New Recruits

ISLAMABAD - With the United States on the brink of taking a decision on whether to send an additional 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, and with the leadership of al-Qaeda redefining its vision eight years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, a new phase in al-Qaeda's war is likely to begin.

Soon after top al-Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri surfaced for an exclusive interview with Asia Times Online (see Al-Qaeda's guerrilla chief lays out strategy Asia Times Online, October 15) to deny that he had been killed in a missile attack by a US Predator drone, US agents exposed a plot to use an American national for terrorist attacks in Denmark and India.