'Brain trust' is driving Al Qaeda: K P S Gill

The Al Qaeda [ Images ] network may be driven by an extremist religious 'brain trust', operating behind the scenes and providing its followers with ideological underpinnings for terrorist attacks, according to counter-terrorism expert K P S Gill, who is credited with wiping out militancy from Punjab [ Images ].

"It is a brain trust bent on world conquest, Islamic conquest," Gill said in a speech at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington.

Echoing Gill's view, a senior US official was quoted by the Washington Post saying that the idea of a 'secret religious hierarchy behind the Al Qaeda network' was being investigated.

One key piece of evidence was the videotape obtained in Afghanistan, in which Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden [ Images ] is seen explaining the September 11 attacks, the official said.

On the tape, Laden spoke as though reporting to a Saudi cleric named Al Ghamdi.

Investigators are probing whether Al Ghamdi is connected to a network of Islamic extremist religious leaders who are behind Al Qaeda, the official said.

PTI