Al-Qaeda-related terrorism still poses as great a threat as ever

27 August 2004 – Despite international efforts, the threat from al-Qaeda-related terrorism remains as great as ever but the nature of that threat has changed, according to the first report from the monitoring team dealing with United Nations sanctions against the group and Afghanistan's former Taliban regime that sheltered it.

Al-Qaeda operations are not characterized by high cost and only the 11 September 2001, attacks against the United States required significant funding of over six figures, the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team says in its report released today.

The threat from the group is as real today as it has been at any time since October 1999, it adds.

What has changed is that al-Qaeda's key leadership is too preoccupied with its own immediate problems of survival to offer more than general guidance since the United States invaded Afghanistan, ousted the Taliban and sought to hunt down the terrorist group.

The findings in part echo a study by an earlier monitoring group last year which reported that al-Qaeda still posed a significant threat to international peace and security, including possible use of weapons of mass destruction.