You don’t need me to tell you that the case of Maher Arar (cited by Charlie Stross) has gloomy implications. So instead I’ll remark that I’m pleased to see in the article the phrase “a Qaeda member.” If any American paper were so pedantic as to agree with me that the definite article in Al Qaeda ought to be dropped in such phrases just because we’d do so with an English phrase like The Brotherhood, I guess the New York Times would be it.
I’ve also coined the mongrel noun Qaedista but never had occasion to use it.
The Italian press apparently does use the word qaedista.