Should We Talk To "Al-Qaeda"?

The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland thinks so. After all, he says, we negotiated with the IRA.

Well, so we did. But then, the IRA ever really existed, and indeed exists to this day. Whereas “al-Qaeda” is, at most, a tendency, possibly (but probably not) expressing itself as something just about coherent enough to count as a very loose network indeed. Certainly, such specifically “al-Qaeda” ideology as can be identified is a thoroughly Postmodern pastiche. Whatever else Irish Republicanism might be, it is not, and has never been, a Postmodern pastiche.

In any case, just as there was always continuous contact with the IRA in the midst of ferocious public denials, so I am prepared to bet anything you like that, even if through intermediaries, there is, and has always been, contact with each and all of the particularly irksome parts of that network (if such it be): Hamas (clearly), the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (clearly), the Saudi Wahhabi (clearly), the Maududians of Pakistan (clearly), the “Taliban” (clearly – we call them “tribal elders” and such like when they are in favour, but “Taliban” when they are not), and so forth.

Doubtless including Osama bin Laden.