A Hundred Days to Make Me A Better Person - Day Five - Al-Qaeda

Now there's one way to get your blog flagged up by someone eh?

So, Al-Qaeda. I knew they are terrorists. I knew they claimed responsibility for 9/11. I knew little else. Now I know more. I've learnt some curious things too. Though Al-Qaeda translates as 'the base' - believed to be either in reference to the first training camp in Afghanistan or as 'the base' of the jihad - Robin Cook once suggested it meant 'the database' referring to the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen trained by the CIA to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda is, without doubt, one of those organisations littered with conspiracy theories, half-truths and untruths. The US created a monster that might, in time, be its undoing.