CSIS analysts compared Al Qaeda’s persistence to carcinogenic cells.

Evidence

Having established the context for their activities through his notion of jihad, J.P. is then able to characterize the activities of Osama bin Laden, and others such as Ibn Khattab with whom Almrei was associated, not solely as part of an anti-Soviet rebellion in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Chechnya, but as something much more. These activities indicate a global network of terrorists who, although severely disrupted due to anti-terrorism efforts, have nonetheless reconstituted themselves and adapted, as indeed carcinogenic cells do. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 115