Prediction of what is to come. terror sprouting tentacles

Dire prediction of terror yet to come.
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BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU


WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda is doomed, but brethren fanatics will multiply and spread, forcing the U.S. to wage a global war on terror for decades to come, a CIA panel predicted yesterday. Osama Bin Laden's terror group already is being supplanted by networks of loosely connected extremists, and the National Intelligence Council predicted the jihad movement soon will be completely decentralized, aided by communications advances and the Internet.

"We expect that by 2020 Al Qaeda will be superseded by similarly inspired Islamic extremist groups," a new report by the council says.

The panel consulted with hundreds of U.S. and foreign experts.

"The key factors that spawned international terrorism show no signs of abating over the next 15 years," the report says, predicting that young Muslims will join movements that challenge "unresponsive" governments."

The Internet will also spur Islam to expand at a faster rate than other faiths. The council's projected growth of the world's religions suggests that Muslims' numbers will swell 2.2% by 2025, while Christians - who outnumber Muslims - will increase their population by 1.6%.

The "2020 Project" report also predicts that Iraq's battlefields are substituting for extremist training camps such as those operated by Bin Laden in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Iraq and other possible conflicts in the future could provide recruitment, training grounds, technical skills and language proficiency for a new class of terrorists who are 'professionalized' and for whom political violence becomes an end in itself," the report says.

Islamists also "can be expected to continue" to seek nuclear weapons from Pakistan and Russia, the report says.