“Unlike terrorist groups of the past, [al-Qaeda] operated not as a single, secretive organization but more like a global franchise,” Ms. Applebaum writes in Slate. “Organizations and individuals with various agendas could go to al-Qaeda for weapons and training. Afterward, they could, in effect, set up their own local branches, whose goals and methods might reflect the original, Saudi-inspired al-Qaeda ideology – or might not. … By definition, the members of such groups … would not be combatants in the ordinary sense of the word. They would not wear uniforms, follow rules or organize themselves into anything resembling a traditional army. And they could not, therefore, be fought only with traditional military methods …
“Perhaps the Mumbai gunmen will … turn out to be members of a homegrown, locally based, ad hoc organization …