One of the greatest changes in the recent trends is that terrorism is by no means militants" only strategy. They are armed with new weapons and experimenting with others, and using them with more indiscriminately. Terrorism has been defined as the threatened violence intended to spread panic in a society, to weaken or even overthrow present monarchy or leaders and to bring about political change (www.foerignaffairs.org ). .
This essay will introduce and critically identify three major terrorists network, Al Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
Al Qaeda is a radical group established by Osama bin Laden in the late 1980s, consists of groups of Arabs who fought in Afghanistan as volunteers against the Soviet invasion (http://college.hmco.com/currentconflicts). Al Qaeda's main goal is to remove Western influence from Islamic lands through its practice of eliminating American military, cultural and political influence from predominantly Islamic countries in the Middle East and Central Asia (www.foerignaffairs.org ). The group has been responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on America, car bomb attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, attack on France tanker off the coast of Yemen, explosion of a fuel tanker outside a synagogue in Tunisia and the bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Tanzania (www.terrorismanswers.com/groups/alqaeda.htm). The attacks can be the basis of evidence that proves that its consistently targets American and other Western interests as well as Jewish targets and Muslim governments it saw as corrupt or impious for example, the Saudi monarchy. .
The highly decentralized network is funded in several was, bin Laden's family runs a large construction company has provided funds for his vast inheritance, through established companies to provide income and charities that act as fronts and protection schemes, credit-card fraud, diamond and drug money (www.
