How many cells' are there?

How many cells' are there?

Jason Burke (Author) gives expert video advice on: What is Al-Qaeda?; What does Al-Qaeda want?; When was Al-Qaeda formed? and more...

It's very difficult at any stage to talk about numbers when you're talking about Al-Qaida It's very difficult to talk about how many militants there might be. Equally it's very difficult to talk about how many cells. We do not carry a membership card as someone who's part of Al-Qaida. Cells form they tend to form independently they then seek out Al-Qaida for resources, for direction, for help. How many of them are there is almost an infinite number you can't you simply can not put numbers on it. The most recent numbers for UK come from MI5 and they talked about 2000 people who are under surveillance. Are they members of Al-Qaida probably not, certainly not, are they active dangerous, we just don't know.