The undercurrents that exist throughout the world are quite sobering - al-Qa’ida seem to be raising its ugly head - or many heads - right across the spectrum. I have been trying for a very long time to understand what is happening. Now I see a part of the story. At first I thought those responsible for the Bali bombing were to a certain extent incompetent as they had so easily been tracked down through good detective work but I now realise it is far more complicated than that.

We attempt to stomp out the plague by destroying the source of infection. We hunt them and imprison them and occasionally we kill them but they still explode bombs in hotel lobbies and in night clubs killing innocent, men, women and children. But those responsible for such atrocities are not the real face of the terror we see but remain hidden under the layers created.

Al-Qa’ida is being reborn as an organisation that has no leaders, no structure, no purpose or plan other than to sustain the deadly spectre of terror. A solid structure is being built that is invisible, to develop the infrastructure of an organisation that would not exist, to plan operations that would appear to have no planning - operations that could be denied plausibly by the people who had ordered them. It is beginning to develop into an organisation that has no address, no footprint and eventually no name.

In the aftermath of each bombing or assassination there is only the blackness and anonymity of pure terror. Anonymity means cut-outs. Layers of people, witting and unwitting, interposed between the word and the deed. It means establishing dead drops in major cities and discreet communications. Building a network means expanding the frail infrastructure already in place. Underneath everyday life there is a ferment brewing of the long inert masses especially amongst the restless and energetic young people who have intense fanatical aspirations. All that hate, frustration, idealism and sheer raw energy which is being tapped into and manipulated.

Intelligence services in many countries have checked and cross checked their files, pulling the strands of information together. I believe a pattern has begun to emerge. It is difficult to hunt the nameless. Intelligence services would give anything to learn the names of the people involved, their whereabouts and headquarters. The recent atrocities prove that they have men and women scattered throughout the world gathering not only information on targets when required, but able to use extreme and damaging terror tactics if called upon. It implies a mastermind planning things on a massive scale, much wider than has been seen before. What we are seeing is only a single facet of this organisation at work. They work with others and have accomplished much more by exchanging vital information and resources. These groups have been given every possible means of assistance and co-operation which includes not only military assistance and provision of weapons, but electronic technology, training in the use of equipment and any other such means in the propagation of propaganda, dissidence and Islamic ideals throughout the world. We have not seen the end to this terror and more outrages are planned. It's one hell of a conspiracy and I can't even guess at its spread but it goes further than the Middle East, Europe and Asia.