The nature of al Qaeda and its International Islamic Front is a fount of confusion for most observers of the War on Terror. Often, al Qaeda is seen as a small group of Arab terrorists confined to the Middle East, with the main base of operations in Afghanistan prior to the country’s invasion in the fall of 2001. But the fact is al Qaeda is a global organization with extensive ties to regional Islamist groups in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. It is believed al Qaeda has networks established in well over sixty nations. But their ties to…