(AKI) - Osama Bin Laden is still alive but Al-Qaeda has lost the capacity to organise large-scale attacks, according to Italy's leading anti-terrorism expert, Stefano Dambruoso.Nevetheless, Dambruoso told Adnkronos on the anniversary of the 11 September attacks in the United States that Al-Qaeda was still a dangerous and widespread phenomenon that we would have to face for many years.
"Since then we have learned a lot, we have far more experience and capacity to better monitor sources of risk from this phenomenon with which we live, but we must remain on high alert," he said. "Italy, like many European countries, is certainly more secure because it has increased the capacity of the security forces to prevent organised attacks.
"However, it should be said, without generating alarm, that security forces would find it difficult to prevent a single Al-Qaeda member or small groups, that are not directly linked to a central terror group."
If the risk of destructive attacks like 11 September has fallen in the West, the phenomenon of 'Al-Qaeda franchising' is developing due to the widespread use of the internet. "Analysts believe today while Al-Qaeda has less capacity to organise events like 11 September, Al-Qaeda has grown so much that many have never met Bin Laden, been to a training camp in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
"Instead, thanks to proselytism they continue to feed themselves via the internet, decide to become martyrs, make individual Jihad and cause hundreds of deaths like what happened in Madrid."