Re: Every orchestra requires a conductor

It's exactly like that! However, it's not as mysterious as you think. The conductors are are well known to our intelligence agencies and those who actually look beyond the media reports. I'll name a few in no particular order:

1. ISI - Pakistani Intelligence

They are the ones who created Taliban as a force against India and to wield power over Afghan territory. ISI also has extensive cooperation with Haqqani network and Al Qaeda. After all, they sheltered bin Laden for years. The terrorism that's happening daily in Pakistan are the chickens coming home to roost. US and India better have a plan to secure their nuclear stockpile because this is going to get a lot worse.

2. Iran

Iran has for years financed Hezbollah and Hamas to the tune of billions of dollars, as well as dozens more obscure terrorist groups. Hezbollah particularly is being used as deterrent against Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear program. They have stockpiled 10,000 grad missiles that would be used against Israeli civilian population centers, should a strike take place. Interestingly, Hamas has recently fallen out of favor because of their refusal to come out in support of Bashar Assad. Instead, Iran increased financing to Islamic Jihad and Bedouin groups in Sinai desert in Egypt. Thus recent attacks against Egyptian army, UN peacekeepers, and Israeli checkpoints. Hamas (same guys who brought you the initial wave of suicide bombings in 1990s) is now fighting to prevent attacks against Israel, as it stands the most to lose from Israeli retaliation. The irony is palpable.

3. Al Qaeda

Though largely eliminated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, they're have grown tremendously in North Africa and Arabian Peninsula. They've been distracted recently by the civil wars in Lybia, Yemen and Syria (where they are still fighting Assad). However, if the attack in Libya is any indication, that distraction is fading.

4. Muslim Brotherhood

People behind Hamas and the current Egyptian president Morsi. They are the largest Muslim org and have both political, charity, and militant arms. They depend in large part on donations from Muslims in the West, so try to avoid stirring up trouble directly, instead keeping and organization of ostensibly independent small militant groups that would do their bidding. Don't get along with Wahhabi Islam as promoted by Saudi Arabia.

5. Saudi Arabia

This is the singular source of the rise of modern Islamic extremists. While mostly responsible for spreading Wahhabi ideology and paying handsomely to anyone who does, rather than any terrorist acts (identity of 9/11 hijackers not withstanding), it has been the impetus behind the entire wave of Islamic extremism. Most Islamic fundamentalist groups (excluding Shia ones) can be traced to some Saudi cleric. Unfortunately, we don't confront it directly because we buy oil from them.

6. Good musician don't need a conductor.

There are a good number of Muslim leaders who, while being moderate themselves, know where their loyalties lie and know better than to go against "the street." This is why there is seemingly a high degree of coordination. You will notice that most Muslim governments condemned the movie, but few condemned the embassy attacks. This also applies to Turkey, which wants to be in the EU!

7. Mix it all together.

All the groups actually hate each other. Saudi Arabia is the Sunni power center and they hate Iran (Shia power center). The current conflict in Syria is actually about that. Syria is ruled by Allawites who are Shia, but majority of the population is Sunni. Pakistan in an explosive mix of both, hence the attacks. And ALL of them together hate Jews and Americans. This is also why Iran can't be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. The moment it does, Saudi Arabia will get one too. Then Turkey and Egypt. Of course, people who don't know history, geography, politics, and science will argue that Iran has an inherent right to a nuclear weapon because US has one.

Re: Every orchestra requires a conductor

"......It seems hard to believe that there is no conductor governing things....." The clue is in the name - al-Qassam was the original Islamist terrorist, first figting and losing to the French in Syria in the '20s and then the Brits in the Manadate in the '30s. This "brave warrior's" attempts at fighting the British usually revolved around trying to murder unarmed Jewish farmers. His other claim to fame was being best buddies with the Mufti of Jeruslaem (the one that was best buddies with Adolf Hitler) and getting his gang and himself shot dead by the local British police. Whilst the Palestinians and Lebanese tell some great tales about this "martyr's" final shootout the truth is he scarpered after his group were suspected of killing a local policeman, hid in a cave, then was shot when he refused to surrender. I'm guessing this is a a Lebanese group as it's unlikley the Palestinian telecoms have the bandwidth to use for a cyber-attack.