They're everywhere!

They're in Afghanistan! No, wait, they're in Iraq! No, wait, they're in Afghanistan again! No, wait, they're in Yemen! No, wait, they're in Pakistan!

No, wait, they're in northern Africa!

While Europe's latest terror threat stems from militants in Pakistan, a potentially greater menace lies just across the Mediterranean: Well-organized and financed Islamic terrorists from al-Qaida's North African offshoot. ...

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb effectively rules a wide, lawless swath of the Sahara and is trying to overthrow Algeria's government. It's active online and media-savvy, and has the globally recognized al-Qaida brand name.

It's really gotten tiresome. Every group of thugs and criminals - the article links the group to a string of kidnappings for ransom and drug traffickers and credits one leader with "building a bridge with the criminal underworld" - so yeah every group of thugs and criminals which wants to seem more powerful and is possessed with the brains to include some radical Islamic messages in their recruiting pitch and the "media savvy" to invoke the name "al-Qaeda" becomes in official proclamations part of some organized worldwide network of which we must be obsessively frightened. ("International Communist conspiracy," anyone?)

The ability to promote that fear in that way may be fading - note the article refers to the "al-Qaida brand name" - but that won't stop them from trying.

Footnote: The link at ABC News has no date, but the cruise missile attack on Yemen to which it refers took place on December 16, 2009. It and an associated air strike by the Yemeni military (which may have been carried out with the assistance of the USAF) reportedly killed 120 people and wounded 44 more.