Pointed by a reader to this 11/30 post at the null device:

“Some believe that al-Qaeda doesn’t exist, and that the highly organised global terror network is a myth made up by Western officials…

In fact, I have been wondering whether or not, within a decade, ‘al-Qaeda’ will morph into an umbrella term for any resistance to neo-liberalism/globalisation/capitalism/The Man, with Latin American (non-Islamic) qaedistas waging guerilla war against US-installed authoritarian governments and right-wing death squads, whilst their French comrades torch McDonalds restaurants, and dreadlocked Nu Marxists all over McWorld replace their Che T-shirts with Osama ones.” [via walker]

dev.null takes off in part from this 11/28 sp!ked piece (“…it’s time we ‘defused the widespread image of al-Qaeda as a ubiquitous, super-organised terror network and call it as it is: a loose collection of groups and individuals that doesn’t even refer to itself as al-Qaeda…”) by Brendan O’Neill. FmH readers will know that I have, perhaps less succinctly, pointed to and espoused similar views in the past, e.g. here and especially here.