UNIT 10: International Crime

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 Internationa
l Crime

What is an
Discussion
internationa Al-Qaeda
questions
l crime?
What is an international crime?
According to International Crime Law , International Crime is a crime
against international law. A crime against international law is said to
occur when three conditions are satisfied:
1. if there is a violation of a criminal norm derived out of an
international treaty and other international customary law which is binding
on individuals.
2. the crime shows the characteristic of a crime that is punishable
under the International law.
3. the treaty establishes a liability for the act done, and this must be
binding on majority of countries.
There are wide varieties of instances that can be considered
as an international crime:
1. Crime against humanity.
2. Crime against peace.
3. War crimes.
4. Crimes coming under the international criminal law.
For example, Drug trafficking, arm trafficking, money
laundering are some instances of crime coming under the
international criminal law.
 Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda, broad-
based militant Islamist
organization founded
by Osama bin Laden in
the late 1980s.
Al-Qaeda began as a logistical network to support Muslims
fighting against the Soviet Union during the Afghan War;
members were recruited throughout the Islamic world.
When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the
organization dispersed but continued to oppose what its
leaders considered corrupt Islamic regimes and foreign
(i.e., U.S.) presence in Islamic lands. Based in Sudan for a
period in the early 1990s, the group eventually reestablished
its headquarters in Afghanistan (c. 1996) under the
patronage of the Taliban militia.
Al-Qaeda merged with a number of other militant Islamist organizations,
including Egypt’s Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Group, and on several
occasions its leaders declared holy war against the United States. The
organization established camps for Muslim militants from throughout the
world, training tens of thousands in paramilitary skills, and its agents
engaged in numerous terrorist attacks, including the destruction of the U.S.
embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (1998), and a
suicide bomb attack against the U.S. warship Cole in Aden, Yemen
(2000; see USS Cole attack). In 2001, 19 militants associated with al-Qaeda
staged the September 11 attacks against the United States.
Smoke and flames erupting from the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center after the
terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001; both towers subsequently collapsed
September 11 attacks, also called 9/11 attacks, series
of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed in 2001 by
19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-
Qaeda against targets in the United States, the deadliest
terrorist attacks on American soil in U.S. history. The attacks
against New York City and Washington, D.C., caused
extensive death and destruction and triggered an enormous
U.S. effort to combat terrorism. Some 2,750 people were killed
in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40
in Pennsylvania (where one of the hijacked planes crashed
after the passengers attempted to retake the plane); all 19
terrorists died (see Researcher’s Note: September 11 attacks).
Police and fire departments in New York were especially hard-
hit: hundreds had rushed to the scene of the attacks, and
more than 400 police officers and firefighters were killed.
 Within weeks the U.S. government responded by
attacking Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.
Thousands of militants were killed or captured, among
them several key members (including the militant who
allegedly planned and organized the September 11
attacks), and the remainder and their leaders were
driven into hiding.
The invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 challenged that country’s viability as an
al-Qaeda sanctuary and training ground and compromised communication,
operational, and financial linkages between al-Qaeda leadership and its
militants. Rather than significantly weakening al-Qaeda, however, these
realities prompted a structural evolution and the growth of “franchising.”
Increasingly, attacks were orchestrated not only from above by the
centralized leadership (after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, based in the
Afghan-Pakistani border regions) but also by the localized,
relatively autonomous cells it encouraged. Such grassroots independent
groups—coalesced locally around a common agenda but subscribing to the
al-Qaeda name and its broader ideology—thus meant a diffuse form of
militancy, and one far more difficult to confront.
With this organizational shift, al-Qaeda was linked—whether directly or
indirectly—to more attacks in the six years following September 11 than it
had been in the six years prior, including attacks in Jordan, Kenya, Saudi
Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Israel, Algeria, and
elsewhere. At the same time, al-Qaeda increasingly utilized the Internet as
an expansive venue for communication and recruitment and as a mouthpiece
for video messages, broadcasts, and propaganda. Meanwhile, some observers
expressed concern that U.S. strategy—centred primarily on attempts to
overwhelm al-Qaeda militarily—was ineffectual, and at the end of the first
decade of the 21st century, al-Qaeda was thought to have reached its greatest
strength since the attacks of September 2001.
On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was killed by U.S. military forces after
U.S. intelligence located him residing in a
secure compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, 31 miles (50 km) from
Islamabad. The operation was carried out by a small team that
reached the compound in Abbottabad by helicopter. After bin
Laden’s death was confirmed, it was announced by U.S.
Pres. Barack Obama, who hailed the operation as a major success
in the fight against al-Qaeda. On June 16, 2011, al-Qaeda released a
statement announcing that Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s long-
serving deputy, had been appointed to replace bin Laden as the
organization’s leader.
 Discussion questions
1.How many members are in Al
Qaeda?
2. What is the main difference
between ISIS and Al Qaeda?
 answer
1. Documents captured in the raid on bin Laden's compound in 2011 show
that the core al-Qaeda membership in 2002 was 170. In 2006, it was
estimated that al-Qaeda had several thousand commanders embedded in 40
different countries. As of 2009, it was believed that no more than 200–300
members were still active commanders.
2. One difference between ISIL and other Islamist and jihadist movements,
including al-Qaeda, is the group's emphasis on eschatology and
apocalypticism – that is, a belief in a final Day of Judgment by God
 reference source
https://www.britannica.com/topic/al-Qaeda
https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/9-11-attacks
https://
www.justiceinitiative.org/uploads/cf498f48-0f30-453a-9e4e-367015
12f646/mx-factsheet-icl-20160603_0.pdf
https://definitions.uslegal.com/i/international-crime/
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