Regarding the National Intelligence Council’s (NIC’s) January 13, 2005, report on terrorism in Iraq: “[T]he report says that by 2020, al Qaeda ‘will be superseded’ by other Islamic extremist groups that will merge with local separatist movements. Most terrorism experts say this is already well underway. The NIC says this kind of ever-morphing decentralized movement is much more difficult to uncover and defeat. Terrorists are able to easily communicate, train and recruit through the Internet, and their threat will become ‘an eclectic array of groups, cells and individuals that do not need a stationary headquarters,’ the council’s report says. ‘Training materials, targeting guidance, weapons know-how, and fund-raising will become virtual (i.e. online).’ ”
– Dana Priest, “Iraq New Terror Breeding Ground,” The Washington Post, Jan. 14, 2005