Twenty-five years after al-QaedaÕs founding, countering al-Qaeda radicalization and recruitment remains a key U.S. Government (USG) strategic objective. Al-Qaeda proclaims itself the true Islamic vanguard seeking to overthrow alleged anti-Muslim apostate governments throughout the Arab Muslim world. Conducting spectacular, carefully orchestrated anti-Western mass casualty terrorist attacks as a component of a broader pan-Sunni Islamist insurgent strategy, al-Qaeda deftly employs insidious propaganda. This propaganda creates Manichean alternativesÑÒThe Crusader-Zionist War Against IslamÓ versus ÒThe Vanguard Defender of the Muslim UmmaÓÑthat have not been decisively discredited despite a barrenness in fact. An underground of selfradicalizing individuals and small cliques incited by al-Qaeda agitation propaganda now also occupies the attention of the intelligence and criminal justice sectors of virtually every Western nation.