Al Qaeda's ranks are being replenished in Pakistan

The Christian Science Monitor published a report today on the new crop of al Qaeda recruits:

"Younger, educated recruits tapped for suicide missions like 9/11 typically came from Middle Eastern countries with long histories of pan-Islamic resistance. What sets this new breed apart is that they are joining from places like Pakistan, where the focus has been on regional grievances, like independence for the disputed area of Kashmir. But as the Al Qaeda leadership ranks begin to thin, men like [Atta-ur] Rehman are starting to climb the ladder.

'It is a new generation of Al Qaeda,' says Riffat Hussain, a leading defense and security analyst based in Islamabad, Pakistan. 'These are new converts to Al Qaeda. They may have no links with Al Qaeda in the past, but now they are willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause as they feel Al Qaeda is the name of defiance to the West. They are young and angry, and their number has swelled in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq.'"

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