Introduction

In war, each opponent’s effectiveness is judged not only on its military capabilities but on its ability to achieve overall objectives in multiple areas. This scrutiny has been sorely lacking in previous examinations of the overall effectiveness of the terrorist group Al-Qa’ida (AQ). Part of the contributing factor for this has been the media’s tendency to credit AQ with any and all terror related incidents thereby attributing power and means to the terrorists that are non-existent. Despite not exercising direct operational control over the media, AQ is nonetheless well served as the media’s laziness and failure to do proper investigative journalism enhances the terror group’s Information Operation (IO) campaigns.