PRIMARY QUESTIONS FOR

PANEL ONE: AL QAEDA

Designated Commissioners: Gorelick, Gorton, Roemer

Panel One has been asked to draw on the expertise of its members to address al Qaeda as an
organization—including its emergence as an entity whose motivational focus, organization
complexity and global links to other terrorist groups were hidden for so many years from our
understanding.

Questions for Panelists

1. Where do you think al Qaeda stands today? Are we winning or losing the battle against it?
What do you see as the most significant trend lines—the key successes or failures to date in
the war against terrorism? How do you see al Qaeda changing in response to the severe
military and political pressure on it? Does al Qaeda continue to pose an extraordinary threat
to the US and its allies?

2. Al Qaeda is seen widely as essentially Bin Laden's creation. Plainly his personality shaped
al Qaeda, but so did social and political forces. Was Bin Laden the indispensable catalyst for
the creation of the organization, or did bigger forces at work make the emergence of
something like al Qaeda inevitable?

3. Would eliminating Bin Laden shatter al Qaeda? Or is al Qaeda now sufficiently organized to
survive his passing? Are there signs of factions or rivalries among al Qaeda's leaders? Over
what do they differ? Personalities? Policies? What would a post-Bin Laden al Qaeda look
like?

4. What motivates someone to join a group like al Qaeda? What reasons, and which countries,
produce the most al Qaeda recruits? Is this changing? Why?

5. Why do so many Saudis join al Qaeda? To what extent does the propagation of Wahabi
Sunni fundamentalism contribute to this?

6. Al Qaeda seems to have had relatively little success in finding support among Palestinians,
Syrians and Lebanese while attracting significant support from South East Asia .Why?

7. Has this ethnic and geographic mix of al Qaeda recruits produced identifiable tensions within
the organization? How has al Qaeda managed to avoid such problems?

8. How critical were Egyptian radical movements to Al Qaeda's emergence? How influential
are the Egyptians in Al Qaeda's current leadership, and what does their influence mean in
terms of al Qaeda's priorities and agenda?
9. What are the major Al Qaeda affiliates active today? How much of a threat do they pose to
the US?

10. Is there any sign Al Qaeda that is seeking tactical alliances with secular radicals and criminal
organizations. If so, where and why? Is there any sign that criminal or secular radical
groups are themselves seeking an alliance with Al Qaeda? Are we paying sufficient
attention?