Al Qaeda

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Al Qaeda is worldwide militant Islamist organization that was created by Osama bin Laden together with Abdullah Azzam among others. The organization was formed around the year 1988. The origin of the organization can be traced back to the Arab volunteers, that is, who took part in fight against the Soviet (Nicos Passas & Framis Gimenez-Salinas, 2007). It carries out its activities as a network that is comprised of a Wahhabi jihadist, extremist, Islamist group and multinational, stateless army. This organization has been given the name “terrorist group” by some countries and organizations. Examples of these organizations and countries are United States, the United Nations Security Council, Russia, and India among others. Many attacks have been carried out by this organization, especially on targets it considers to be a kafir.

Bin Laden together with other members of the organization decided to capitalize on this network that they had created so as to take jihad globally. The major objective was to build a vanguard comprising off elite fighter or soldiers who could play a significant role when it comes to leading the global jihad project and bringing together the many small jihad groups that are struggling, such as those jihad groups that are struggling against their current regime, but under a single umbrella. Around mid-1990s al Qaeda’s leader, Osama Bin Laden had a plan of reorienting the movement as a whole. The aim of reorienting the movement was to direct more focus of what was believed to be a bigger enemy that underwriting all the local regimes that were believed to be corrupt. This bigger enemy was the United States. All local jihadists that were pledging allegiance to this movement together with its leader and ready to adopt al Qaeda brand were to get access to a wide range of this from the large organization, that is, al Qaeda. Some of the things that these small organizations were going to obtain were training, expertise, logistics support, weapons, money, and assets.

The ideology of this organization is believed to be linked to Islamic movement and Islamic revival of the last three decades of the 20th century. It has been argued that Al Qaeda would have never existed without the writing of Islamic thinker and author known as Sayyid Qutb. The preaching of Qutb inspired this movement, that is, around 1950s-60s. Qutb preached that the Muslim world was no longer Muslim due to lack of sharia laws. He went ahead to state that a vanguard movement that is made up of righteous Muslims was required. This movement was to be one that will help establish true Islamic states. This was going to be possible through implementation of sharia laws and get rid of non-Muslim influences in the Muslim world. An example of -Muslim influences are concepts like nationalism and socialism. Enemies of Islam as per Qutb are wickedly opposed Islam, world Jewry, who plotted conspiracies, and treacherous Orientalists. These words of Qutb had great influence on Bin Laden and other members of the movement. He also influenced the mentor of Bin Laden together with another leading member of Al Qaeda (Ayman al-Zawahiri).  One of the most powerful ideas brought up by Qutb is that many people who argue that they are Muslims are not (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 2004). They are just apostates. This idea gave jihadists a legal loophole related to prohibition of killing another Muslim and also created a religious obligation with regards to executing self-professed Muslims. Some of the alleged apostates were leaders of Muslim countries. They argued that these leaders had failed to enforce sharia laws.

Information that was mostly gotten from Jamal al-Fadl gave American authorities some rough insight with regards to how the group is organized. Most of the current knowledge with regards to Al Qaeda was based n the testimony given to American authorities by Jamal al-Fadl. Osama Bin Laden turns out to be the most historically notable Senior Operations Chief and commander of the group. Another term that was given to him was emir. This is before being assassinated on May 1, 2011, by US forces. After the death of Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was al-Qaeda’s Deputy Operations Chief before to bin Laden’s death, took over the role of commander. This is as per an announcement that was made on June 16, 2011, by al Qaeda. Ayman al-Zawahiri replaced Saif al-Adel, who served as interim commander after the death of bin Laden. Osama bin Laden has advised a council termed as Shura Council. Shura Council was made up of senior al Qaeda members. It is believed that this council has approximately 20-30 individuals. Atiyah Abd al-Rahman was believed to be second in command, but this is before his death on August 22, 2011. In the year 2011, an announcement made by Pakistan intelligence showed that the successor to al-Rahman was killed in Pakistan, that is, Abu Yahya al-Libi. Another individual believed to be second in command, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, was allegedly killed in an air strike that was carried out by the United States. This was in June 2015. Nasir al-Wuhayshi was the leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen.

Al Qaeda gets its finances from a wide range of activities. The United States has for a long time tries to eradicate sources of terrorist funding. Below are some of the funding for the organization:

Fundraisers

 Since its creation, this organization has always been carrying out some fund raisers aimed at soliciting money from many donors. A large group donor for the organization is based in the Gulf Area, especially Saudi Arabia. But there are donors in other parts of the world. There are those donors who are aware of where their money is going, but there are others who are not aware. A lot of contribution is made to money collectors. Other funds come from employees who are corrupt, especially those who work in some charitable organizations.

Charitable organizations

Charities organizations have some characteristics that make them vulnerable to exploitation when it comes to financing terrorism. Charities enjoy public confidence, and they have access to a lot of resources. The resources are normally in the form of cash. From the time it was created, Al Qaeda has been using charitable organizations to finance its activities. The charities make it possible for this organization together with others to collect, transfer, and distribute some of its funds for activities of indoctrination, recruitment, and training (Hoffman, Jones, Kagan, Kagan, Mahnken, & Zimmerman, 2015). They also make it possible for the organization to meet operational and logistical requirements. Charity is of the primary principle of the Islamic religion. This means that all the people that have a certain amount of money should pay zakat (2.5 percent annually of savings and assets). The strategy that has been adopted by Al Qaeda is to have as many as possible employees in charities so that they can divert cash from the charities’ social programs or legitimate humanitarian towards its illicit activities.

Offshore companies and entities

There are commercial companies that are being used by the organization to finance it activities and transfer funds. One good example of this organization is Barakaat, which is a network of entities. In the year 2001, Barakaat had been operating in 40 countries. It is operating a number of activities, such as telecommunications, money remittance, construction, and cash exchange services. This is from the United States to Somalia. Osama bin Laden has been using Barakaat so much to make cash transfers. This is because he had invested his money in the telecommunication network of the company.  Barakaat acted as a good source of financing for Osama. it also played a good role of making possible to transfer some cash. Most of the transactions of Osama bin Laden were carried out between Nairobi, Mombasa, Dubai, and Mogadishu. These transactions were interlinked with transfers carried out in the name of non-governmental organizations, such as the International Islamic Relief and Al Haramain organization.

Drug trafficking together with other crimes

            Al Qaeda taxes proceeds from drugs. Several points that are responsible for heroine business in Afghanistan are extorted. Poppy farmers, laboratories that process the drugs and traffickers who transport the drugs are taxed. This organization also plays a role when it comes to raising taxes for legitimate businesses that are planning to operate in Afghanistan.

Members of the Al-Qaeda are trained by the military committee. This committee has the role of training operatives, planning attacks, and acquiring weapons. The money/business committee funds training and recruitment of operatives. These two committees have been found to provide air tickets together with false passports, oversee profit-driven businesses, and pay all Al Qaeda members.

The main through which Al Qaeda uses when communication with its operatives and allies in Turkey are through face-to-face conversation, telephone, couriers, proclaiming attacks in mass media, and the Internet. One of the safe means of communication and clear utilized by the organization is face-to-face communication. High-level Al Qaeda members prefer this form of communication. This takes place through meeting at the home of a companion or meeting at a specified location. There are times when members meet at social activities. Communication by courier is done through individuals who deliver mails and packages. Most of the courier people are always members of the organization who deliver secret or open notes, money, instructions, weapons, and other items. There are local members of the group that uses the Internet, such as chat rooms. Higher management does not prefer this form of communication. Telephone communications are always carried out through telephone networks of international companies that run telephone shops.

Most reports related to Al Qaeda chemical weapons efforts show that the group is interested in acquiring and producing chemical weapons. As per the Encyclopedia of Jihad, that is, 11^th volume, there is information related to how to construct biological and chemical weapons. Furthermore, Osama used to state that acquiring weapons, chemical, and nuclear weapons, is a religious duty of a Muslim. In an interview that was carried out in the year 2001, Osama bin Laden stated that the organization has nuclear and chemical weapons. The organization stated that it was ready to use the weapon to counteract attacks from the United States.  Proof related to the organization being in possession of a chemical weapon was evident videotape depicting cyanide being experimented on dogs (United Nations, 2009). There are other reports which are stating that this organization is planning to use osmium tetroxide, sarin, and cyanide against a large number of people. The delivery method it through releasing the gas to the are being targeted, such as transportation hubs, government building, and shopping centers among other areas.

A total of six major attacks has been carried out by Al Qaeda. Out of the six, four are against the United States. All of its attacks are always planned years in advance. There is arranging for shipment of explosives and weapons and the use of its private businesses to offer its operatives with false identities and safe houses. Most of the attacks are through detonation of bombs while there are times when suicide bombers are also used. With regards to its propaganda, the organization has claimed to play a role in many terror attacks that have taken place in many countries.  There are times that it claims not to be involved in certain attacks, but gives a motivational message to the groups responsible.

Al Qaeda surveillance technique is based on shattered building glass, extolling the lethal power with regards to flying, assessing potential targets, and advising on methods that are effective for a deadly arson attack. The focus of this is on exploiting killing and destruction power of attack. A terrorist attack had been planned by this organization early this year in the United States, but terror threat levels were raised. The group was targeting several building, such as high-profile financial facilities in the country.

 

References

Hoffman, B., Jones, S., Kagan, F. W., Kagan, K., Mahnken, T., & Zimmerman, K. (2015). A

            Global Strategy for Combating al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. (2004). Monograph on

Terrorist Financing, Staff Report to the Commission. Washington, DC, p.13, [http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/staff_statements/]

Nicos Passas & A. Framis Gimenez-Salinas. (2007). “The Financing of Al Qaida’s Terrorism:

            Myths and Realities”, Review of Penal and Criminal Law, 2nd Semester, no.19, p.511.

United Nations. (2009). Tenth Report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Implementation

Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to Resolution 1822 (2008) Concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban and associated individuals and entities. New York: United Nations, note 47, p.22.

 

 

MAT540

Week 1 Homework

Chapter 1 

2.    The Retread Tire Company recaps tires. The fixed annual cost of the recapping operation is $60,000.The variable cost of recapping a tire is $9.The company charges $25 to recap a tire.

a. For an annual volume of 12,000 tires, determine the total cost, total revenue, and profit.

b. Determine the annual break-even volume for the Retread Tire Company operation.

4.    Evergreen Fertilizer Company produces fertilizer. The company’s fixed monthly cost is $25,000, and its variable cost per pound of fertilizer is $0.15. Evergreen sells the fertilizer for $0.40 per pound. Determine the monthly break-even volume for the company.

12. If Evergreen Fertilizer Company in Problem 4 changes the price of its fertilizer from $0.40 per pound to $0.60 per pound, what effect will the change have on the break-even volume?

14. If Evergreen Fertilizer Company increases its advertising expenditures by $14,000 per year, what effect will the increase have on the break-even volume computed in Problem 13?

Reference Problem 13:  If Evergreen Fertilizer Company changes its production process to add a weed killer to the fertilizer in order to increase sales, the variable cost per pound will increase from $0.15 to $0.22. What effect will this change have on the break-even volume computed in Problem 12?

20. Annie McCoy, a student at Tech, plans to open a hot dog stand inside Tech’s football stadium during home games. There are seven home games scheduled for the upcoming season. She must pay the Tech athletic department a vendor’s fee of $3,000 for the season. Her stand and other equipment will cost her $4,500 for the season. She estimates that each hot dog she sells will cost her $0.35. She has talked to friends at other universities who sell hot dogs at games. Based on their information and the athletic department’s forecast that each game will sell out, she anticipates that she will sell approximately 2,000 hot dogs during each game.

a. What price should she charge for a hot dog in order to break even?

b. What factors might occur during the season that would alter the volume sold and thus the break-even price Annie might charge?

22. The College of Business at Tech is planning to begin an online MBA program. The initial start-up cost for computing equipment, facilities, course development, and staff recruitment and development is $350,000.The college plans to charge tuition of $18,000 per student per year. However, the university administration will charge the college $12,000 per student for the first 100 students enrolled each year for administrative costs and its share of the tuition payments.

a. How many students does the college need to enroll in the first year to break even?

b. If the college can enroll 75 students the first year, how much profit will it make?

c. The college believes it can increase tuition to $24,000, but doing so would reduce enrollment to 35.  Should the college consider doing this?

Chapter 11  

18.  The following probabilities for grades in management science have been determined based on past records:

Grade	Probability
A	0.10
B	0.30
C	0.40
D	0.10
F	0.10
	1.00

 

The grades are assigned on a 4.0 scale, where an A is a 4.0, a B a 3.0, and so on. Determine the expected grade and variance for the course.

20. An investment firm is considering two alternative investments, A and B, under two possible future sets of economic conditions, good and poor. There is a .60 probability of good economic conditions occurring and a .40 probability of poor economic conditions occurring. The expected gains and losses under each economic type of conditions are shown in the following table:

	Economic Conditions
Investment	Good	Poor
A	$900,000	-$800,000
B	120,000	70,000

 

Using the expected value of each investment alternative, determine which should be selected.

26. The weight of bags of fertilizer is normally distributed, with a mean of 50 pounds and a standard deviation of 6 pounds. What is the probability that a bag of fertilizer will weigh between 45 and 55 pounds?

28. The Polo Development Firm is building a shopping center. It has informed renters that their rental spaces will be ready for occupancy in 19 months.  If the expected time until the shopping center is completed is estimated to be 14 months, with a standard deviation of 4 months, what is the probability that the renters will not be able to occupy in 19 months?

30. The manager of the local National Video Store sells videocassette recorders at discount prices. If the store does not have a video recorder in stock when a customer wants to buy one, it will lose the sale because the customer will purchase a recorder from one of the many local competitors. The problem is that the cost of renting warehouse space to keep enough recorders in inventory to meet all demand is excessively high. The manager has determined that if 90% of customer demand for recorders can be met, then the combined cost of lost sales and inventory will be minimized. The manager has estimated that monthly demand for recorders is normally distributed, with a mean of 180 recorders and a standard deviation of 60. Determine the number of recorders the manager should order each month to meet 90% of customer demand.

 

 

1. The coefficient of optimism is a measure of the decision maker’s optimism. TRUE/ FALSE

 

2. A payoff table is a means of organizing a decision situation, including the payoffs from different decisions given the various states of nature. TRUE/ FALSE

 

3. The maximin criterion results in the maximum of the minimum payoffs. TRUE/ FALSE

 

4. A state of nature is an actual event that may occur in the future. TRUE/ FALSE

 

5. The ______________ minimizes the maximum regret.

 

maximax regret criterion

minimax regret criterion

minimin regret criterion

maximin regret criterion

 

 

6. The maximin criterion results in the

 minimum of the maximum payoffs

 maximum of the maximum payoffs

 maximum of the minimum payoffs

 minimum of the minimum payoffs

 

7. A dominant decision is one that has better payoff than another decision under each state of nature. TRUE/ FALSE

 

8. The maximin approach to decision making refers to

minimizing the maximum return

maximizing the minimum return

maximizing the maximum return

minimizing the minimum return

 

9. The maximax criterion results in the maximum of the minimum payoffs. TRUE/ FALSE

 

10. Determining the worst payoff for each alternative and choosing the alternative with the best worst is called

maximin

minimin

maximax

minimax

 

11. The Hurwicz criterion is a compromise

for the maximin criterion

for the maximax criterion

between the maximax and maximin criteria

none of the above

 

12. The maximax criterion results in the

 maximum of the minimum payoffs

maximum of the maximum payoffs

 minimum of the maximum payoffs

 minimum of the minimum payoffs

 

13. Regret is the difference between the payoff from the best decision and all other decision payoffs.  TRUE/ FALSE

 

14. Regret is the difference between the payoff from the

best decision and all other decision payoffs

worst decision and all other decision payoffs

best decision and the worst decision payoffs

none of the above

 

15. The minimax regret criterion

 maximizes the minimum regret

 minimizes the minimum regret

 minimizes the maximum regret

 maximizes the maximum regret

 

16. The Hurwicz criterion is a compromise between the maximax and maximin criteria.

TRUE/ FALSE

 

17. The term opportunity loss is most closely related to

maximin regret

maximax regret

minimax regret

minimin regret

 

18. The equal likelihood criterion multiplies the decision payoff for each state of nature by an equal weight.   TRUE/ FALSE

 

 

19. The basic decision environment categories are

certainty

risk

uncertainty

all of the above

 

20. Expected opportunity loss is the expected value of the regret for each decision.

 

TRUE/ FALSE

1. Write the inverse function of?

2. What is the last step for solving a logarithmic equation? 

3. Simplify: .

4. What is the first thing you do to solve the given exponential equation   ?

Write the first step that you do.

5. What is the first step that needs to be done to solve  ? Write the first step.

6. True or false?

log⁡(x.y)=log⁡x.log⁡y

If false, write the above equation with correction

7. What is the change of base formula? Or write a formula for loga⁡M.

8. Write as a single logarithm.  2log⁡x+3log⁡y.

9. Simplify: ln⁡et.

10. Simplify log⁡(110k). (Hint: Use rule 1xm=x−m)

 

Q10-1: Compare fixed, variable, and mixed costs.

Q10-2: What do we mean by a Relevant Range?

Q10-3: A professional services business has fixed costs of €150,000 and variable costs of €15 per hour. How much does average cost change between 12,000 or 15,000 units?

Q10-4: Use the following information to determine the breakeven in units, breakeven in £, the number of units to get close to the Target Profit, and the amount of £ estimated from the unit sensitivity analysis:

 

Fixed costs= £240,000

Selling price per unit= £18.00

Variable costs per unit= £12.60

Target profit= £120,000

 

Q10-5: Looking at Q10-4above, if expected sales are 50,000 units what is the margin of safety?

Q10-6: BCD Inc sells its products for $12 each. The company’s volume has remained unchanged for some time at 10,000 units per month although it has spare capacity. Production costs are $10 per unit including fixed costs which average $3 per unit for the production volume. A customer has requested a special order of 2,000 of BCD’s products at a special price of $9. What should BCD do? Please show your work.

Q11-1: Define standard cost.

Q11-2: Compare job costing with process costing.

Q11-3: Little Known Tax, Ltd prepares tax returns for clients. The firm employs six bookkeepers who cost the firm £10,000 in total each week. Each bookkeeper is expected to charge 30 hours per week to client jobs. At the end of the week the total hours charged by the six bookkeepers to client jobs is 150. How much is spare capacity?

Q11-4: Last Group has a rental cost of €25,000 per month with a four-year lease term. Casual staff are employed on a weekly basis to carry out telephone sales. The cost of casual staff is €12,000 per month and telephone call costs are €5,000 per month. An offshore call centre has offered to carry out the telephone sales activity from its own premises and using its own staff and telephone services for a fixed payment of €15,000 per month. Should Last Group accept or reject the outsourcing proposal from the call centre? Please show all calculations.

Q12-1: An accounting consultant is paid a salary of £80,000 per annum and his employer pays up to of 18% of base salary for medical, life, and dental insurance. His employer also contributes toward a retirement plan at a maximum of 8% of base salary. Assuming the consultants works 250 days per year and is productive for 81% of that time, what is his daily cost rate?

Q12-2: Upper Central Consultancy (UCC) wishes to bid for a market research project. The cost estimates on which UCC will base its bid are shown below:

 

275 hours work in initial data collection and preparation of research questionnaire. The hours are broken down as follows:

 

·       135 hours are available from existing staff that are not currently utilized. Their total employment cost is £22 per hour.

 

·       140 hours will have to be bought in from a Temporary Staff Agency for a cost of £16 per hour.

 

UCC’s in-house existing library resources will be utilized to provide data for the project. The research data that will be used was purchased some months previously at a cost of £2,050. The data has never been used before and is unlikely to be used again. An additional updated report will however have to be purchased at a cost of £500.

Printing and postage of questionnaires will incur a cost of £1,100.

The in-house computer processing facility will process returned questionnaires. The computer facility makes an internal charge of £2,000 for each survey it processes.

The consultancy will have to purchase a specialist software package to undertake the sophisticated statistical analysis required at a cost of £1,750 and incur training costs of £600 to learn how to use the package. The package may be used again in the future.

A manager will be involved in the detailed planning, design and logistics for the research. The management time has been costed at 14 days @ £550 but he is very busy and will have to be remunerated through overtime at an additional cost of £3,500 in order for him to carry out other work that he is committed to complete.

A partner will supervise the whole project. An estimate of her time has been costed at £1,600 although the consultancy will not incur any additional costs for the project.

Using all of the above information, calculate the cost for the market research project based on absorption costing principles. Please detail all of your work.

 

Q12-3: Using the information from Q12-2 above, what are the relevant costs of the market research project?