IT’S THE IDEOLOGY, STUPID

Former FBI agent Ali Soufan says we have been fighting an endless war with Islamist terrorist groups when we should be dealing with the ideology that drives those groups

Ali Soufan, CEO of The Soufan Group, is a former FBI agent who led the investigation into the attack on the USS Cole and investigated the circumstances surrounding 911. For years, Soufan has also tracked al-Qaeda. He believes we have been unsuccessful in destroying al-Qaeda and its affiliates because we have failed to deal with the ideology that is driving the Islamist groups.

Here is how Soufan answered a question by Martha Raddatz on Sunday’s ABC This Week:

RADDATZ: Ali Soufan, you've been quite critical of the approach to combating al Qaeda. You recently said that there was too much focus on Osama bin Laden and not on the bin Ladenism he spawned. What do you mean by that and what do you think we should be doing better?

SOUFAN: I think since 9/11, our tactics has been just tactics.

We have been, you know, dealing with al Qaeda, with the threat al Qaeda brings. We have been successful in diminishing some of the threat in the short term, but we never dealt with the ideology.

Today after trillions of dollars that's been spent, after thousands of lives around the world that have been lost, we have more people adhere to the ideology of Osama bin Laden in 2014 than we had in 2001. So that gives you an idea that the threat is not a group. The threat is in the ideology.

There are different groups, sometimes we call them ISIS, sometimes we call them al Qaeda, now people are calling Khorasan a new group. However, we never dealt with ideology, and that is a problem.

RADDATZ: How confident are you that we can beat them [ISIS]?

SOUFAN: Well, first, before I answer this question, we have to know our enemy. I mean, Sung Tzu said a long time ago, if you know your enemy and know yourself, you will win 100 times in 100 battles.

Look for example about the Khorasan group. Khorasan is a region in central Asia that includes part of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They refer -- al Qaeda refers to the leadership in northern Pakistan as Khorasan. So Khorasan is not a new affiliate. It's not a new group. It is simply al Qaeda as we know it and as we always knew it.

So first, we have to learn about our enemy. We have to identify the enemy. And if we don't do this with ISIS and if we don't target the incubating factors [the ideology] that are making ISIS popular among thousands of youth around the world, then I think we're going to have a lot of difficulties in dismantling it and defeating it.