This book highlights terrorism trends and ongoing issues to provide a framework for detailed discussion. Al-Qaida (AQ) and associated networks remained the greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners in 2007. AQ and its affiliates seek to exploit local grievances for their own local and global purposes. They pursue their own goals, often at large personal cost to the local population. AQ also utilises terrorism, as well as subversion, propaganda, and open warfare; it seeks weapons of mass destruction in order to inflict the maximum possible damage on anyone who stands in its way, including other Muslims and/or elders, women, and children. This book examines these networks, which are adaptive, quickly evolving new methods in response to countermeasures. This is an edited, excerpted and augmented edition of a Country Reports on Terrorism publication.