Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Terror Networks

Does leadership decapitation lead to the demise of terrorist organizations? Study sez:

2019-11-11

[MITPressJournals] Does leadership decapitation lead to the demise of terrorist organizations? Can the United States undermine or destroy terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida by arresting or killing their leaders? What explains organizational resilience to leadership targeting? Leadership decapitation, or the killing or capturing of the leaders of terrorist organizations, has become a core feature of U.S. counterterrorism policy. Many scholars and analysts claim that it weakens terrorist organizations and reduces the threat they pose. Unsurprisingly, they saw the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, in Abbottabad, Pakistan, as a major tactical victory for President Barack Obama and for the broader war on terrorism. Despite the success of this operation and subsequent attacks on al-Qaida leaders, decapitation is unlikely to diminish the ability of al-Qaida to continue its activities in the long run. Rather, it may have counterproductive consequences, emboldening or strengthening the organization.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has killed or captured many al-Qaida leaders as part of a general campaign to decapitate the organization. It has employed a variety of military operations to achieve this objective, including raids by Special Operations forces. Both bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, were killed as a result of such raids. On October 5, 2012, U.S. forces captured Abu Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaida leader, in a raid in Libya. The United States has also relied heavily on drone strikes to target al-Qaida leaders and other militants in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen.

In June 2012, Abu Yahya al-Libi, then al-Qaida’s deputy leader, was killed in Pakistan in a drone strike coordinated by the Central Intelligence Agency. Highly experienced, al-Libi served an important operational function within the organization. Scholars and policymakers saw his death as a significant blow to an already weakened al-Qaida.2 Nine months earlier, a Hellfire missile fired from a U.S. drone killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric linked to a number of terrorist plots in the West. On August 22, 2011, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, believed to be the organization’s second-highest leader, was reportedly killed in a drone strike in Pakistan.3 Rahman served an important communicative function between bin Laden and lower-level operatives. Ilyas Kashmiri, reputed to be a senior member of al-Qaida and the operational commander for Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, was killed in a drone attack in South Waziristan on June 3, 2011.4 These examples illustrate the frequency with which the United States has targeted al-Qaida leaders and operatives over the past few years, speciªcally through the use of drone strikes.5

Despite these and other instances of successful targeting, al-Qaida remains a resilient terrorist organization. Applying a theory of organizational resilience, I examine why targeting al-Qaida’s leadership is not an effective counterterrorism strategy and, indeed, is likely counterproductive. A terrorist group’s ability to withstand attacks is a function of two factors: bureaucratization and communal support. Analyzing both when and why certain terrorist groups are able to survive leadership attacks, this article differs from existing work by providing a more nuanced lens through which to evaluate the effectiveness of counterterrorism policy.
The center of gravity of Islamic terrorism is their grievance that we occupy their countries and kill their people. Stop doing this and their grievance disappears. Attacking their leaders or footsoldiers will never, ever win the war.

The center of gravity of Islamic terrorism is that we have not surrendered and converted to their faith — that’s what their term for the non-Muslim world, Dar al-Harb, the House of War, means. There is only one way, from their perspective, for their grievance to disappear, and that is for us to become members of the Borg. But killing lots of them will discourage the jihadi faction for a while.

Link

India-Pakistan

Drone Attacks: 'The Best Of A Bad Set Of Options'

2012-05-20

There are a really nice set of graphs and maps at the link, brought to us by the same people who put out "Nuggets From The Urdu Press". The Friday Times isn't anything like the New York Times of Pakistan -- they hold themselves to a much higher standard.

Amid concerns that missile attacks by unmanned US aircraft on Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistain are against international law and cause civilian deaths, US President Barack Obama
I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody...
has allowed the CIA and the US military to carry out "signature" drone strikes on turban targets in Yemen. US counter terrorism adviser John Brennan admitted for the first time that civilians are sometimes killed in drone strikes. "It is extremely rare," he said, "but it has happened."

Drone attacks have killed more enemies of both Pakistan and the US than ground offensives or any other strategy attempted since 9/11

After he became president in 2008, Obama increased drone attacks against turban targets in Pakistain's tribal areas, slowing down only in 2012 after tensions rose between the two countries over American ~~Arclight~~ airstrikes that killed 24 Pak soldiers on an outpost on the Afghanistan border. Seeing drones as effective weapons against Al Qaeda, the B.O. regime has decided to increase their use to target turban groups linked to Al Qaeda in Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria and other countries in West Africa.

"In Pakistain's context, drone attacks have worked and brought remarkable results," says security expert Emma McEachan, who has served with NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
. "Paks have been cooperative, but quiet." She said there were limitations with how to verify who is being killed because the US had to reply on local agents rather than forensics. "Drone attacks obviously come with costs, but they are the best of a bad set of options."

"Drone attacks come with costs, but they are the best of a bad set of options

"An B.O. regime official who has a major say in the drone policy told The Friday Times the drone attacks would continue despite the trust deficit. "Privately, the Pak military officials tell us we are doing a good job. Publicly, they take a different line. That is understandable."

But Pakistain seems to be rethinking its drone policy. "We have raised the drone attacks issue with the US at various levels. We are trying to resolve this issue on a priority basis," Foreign Office front man Moazzam Khan told news hounds in a recent briefing.

An important argument against drone attacks is that they fuel more terrorism than they prevent. There is a significant backlash against the attacks in the Pak media, and a number of polls indicate a majority of Paks oppose them. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani admits drone attacks have killed key terror suspects, but has spoken against them in the parliament and on public forums.

But a poll conducted by the Aryana Institute in the tribal areas shows the local people support drone strikes. A top Pakistain Army commander stationed in FATA and fighting Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other turbans, told local journalists he favoured drone attacks. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), who are seen as enemy by the Pak military, have also been targeted in drone attacks. The TTP publicly acknowledged sending out a Jordanian jacket wallah who killed 14 members of CIA working at a drone command and control station in Afghanistan.

"In general, lethal force is legally permissible against bad boy in an ongoing war and such force may be used on the territory of a foreign state, if that state consents or if it is unwilling or unable to take action"

In June 2004, the first ever US drone attack killed Nek Muhammad Wazir in Wana, South

Wazoo. Since then, drone attacks have not only killed important leaders of Al Qaeda, but also killed turban leaders considered enemies of Pakistain, such as Baitullah Mehsud, Ilyas Kashmiri, and Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. Drone attacks have killed more enemies of both Pakistain and the US than ground offensives or any other strategy attempted since 9/11.

Mohsin Afridi, an activist who opposes drone attacks, says many of them have killed children. "While the US kills us from sky, Paks kill us on the ground in Dire Revenge™ attacks." He claimed more than 4,000 civilians have been killed in drone strikes. Other sources say the number of verified civilian deaths is much less.

"Pakistain needs a clear policy on drone attacks along with an above-board counter terrorism policy that doesn't pick between the good forces of Evil and bad ones," says Carl Adams, a former NATO commander. "For its part, the United States needs to realize that any policy on drones needs to be carefully worked out with Pakistain before any more strikes happen."

The use of CIA personnel to operate and conduct drone strikes has also become a serious legal issue. CIA personnel are not part of the US armed forces, are not subject to military command structure, and do not wear uniform. Under international law, they are therefore civilians directly participating in hostilities, much like the fighters they target.

But Matthew Waxman, adjunct senior fellow for law and foreign policy with the Council on Foreign Relations, believes there is legal justification for the attacks. "In general, lethal force is legally permissible against bad boy in an ongoing war and such force may be used on the territory of a foreign state," he said, "if that state consents or if it is unwilling or unable to take action."

Link

Terror Networks

The future of Al Qaeda

2012-05-13

Al Qaeda is said to have been weakened globally by the death of its leader the late Osama bin Laden
... who used to be alive but now he's not...
last year, but analysts say it is not clear if it makes it less deadly or more.

"It has become desperate," says Air Vice Marshall (r) Shahid Khan, a defence analyst. "Its organizational structure has weakened, and it feels vulnerable."

Because of this desperation, especially after the Arab Spring that is being seen as an ideological defeat for Al Qaeda in the Mohammedan world, the world's top terror network may reorient its operations and ideology and continue to carry out major terrorist attacks, according to former US counterterrorism official Carl Adams.

Al Qaeda is in a new phase, with a new leadership and a new strategy. The consequences of that strategy are yet to be seen.

The leadership

Dr Ayman al-

Zawahiri
... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...

After Osama bin Laden's death on May 2 last year, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri became the leader of the organization on June 16, 2011. He had been the ideological head of what is now known as the Egyptian Group within the Al Qaeda network. He has a Master's degree in surgery from Cairo University and was a leader of the Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
group in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He became Osama's deputy after he merged Islamic Jihad with Al Qaeda in 1998.

Zawahiri has admitted in his book to have orchestrated the first suicide kaboom in Pakistain in 1995. The target was the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad.

Zwahiri was last seen, according to US intelligence reports, in Pakistain's

Mohmand
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
Agency. The Americans believe he resides in North Wazoo and operates with the Haqqanis. He has shown strong-arm tactics forging alliances with Pakistain's sectarian and jihadi organizations to attack targets in Afghanistan and Pakistain.

Abu Yahya al-Libi

A Libyan citizen who speaks fluent Pashtu, Urdu and English, Abu Yahya al-Libi is the second most big shot of Al Qaeda. He is the ideological and spiritual leader of Al Qaeda members fighting around the world, and heads the network's Sharia and Political Committee.

Jarret Brachman, a former analyst for the CIA, says the following about Libi: "He's a warrior. He's a poet. He's a scholar. He's a pundit. He's a military commander. And he's a very charismatic, young, brash rising star within Al Qaeda, and I think he has become the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden in terms of taking over the entire global jihadist movement."

Saif al-Adl

Saif al-Adl is a former Egyptian Army Special Forces Officer who came to Afghanistan and has trained most of the key fighters of Al Qaeda and Afghan groups in weapons and military strategy.

He is the head of Al Qaeda's military committee and wrote one of the most read jihadist manuals, The Base of the Vanguard. He still trains most of the fighters of Al Qaeda and its affiliate groups in military combat.

According to Pakistain's ISI, Adl has trained the beturbanned goons who attacked the PNS Mehran navy base in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
in 2011. Intelligence reports say he moves between North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

Adam Gadahn

I thought he was dead. Bummer.

An American convert from Pennsylvania who was falsely reported to have been tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up!
in Bloody Karachi, Gadahn is the global face of Al Qaeda influencing English speaking people around the world as Al Qaeda's chief front man and the head of its Information Committee. In his sermons, he urges Americans to stand up against their government.

In 2010, he released a video in which he offered Al Qaeda's 'peace plan'. Al Qaeda offered a truce in that video, if the US withdrew its troops from Mohammedan countries and stopped supporting Israel.

Other members of Al Qaeda's core council include: Khalib al-Habib (Egyptian), Adnan al Shukrijumah (Saudi), Atiyah Abd al-Rahman (Libyan), Hamza al-Jawfi (Saudi/Egyptian), Matiur Rehman (Pak), Nasser Abdul Karim al-Wahaysi (Saudi), Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud (Algerian), Fahd Mohammad Ahmed al-Quso (Yemeni) and Midhat Mursi (Egyptian).

A new strategy

After the death of Osama bin Laden last year and the killing of a large number of key operatives in US drone attacks in Pakistain, Al Qaeda has shifted its attention from South and Central Asia to Somalia and Yemen.

It has "outsourced most of its operations to various bad turban groups in Pakistain and Afghanistan", according to Art Keller, a former CIA official who had worked with the ISI to find Al Qaeda operatives in FATA.

In Somalia, Al Qaeda operates through Al-Shabaab

... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
, while in Yemen, bad turban organization Ansar al-Sharia
...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends...
works with Al Qaeda to fight a war to overthrow the Yemeni government.

In Pakistain, Al Qaeda has also found reliable partners in the Haqqani Network. Badruddin Haqqani, Nasiruddin Haqqani and Khalil al Rahman Haqqani serve as deputies of Sirajuddin and Jalaluddin Haqqani and organize attacks on major targets in Afghanistan.

Ties between Al Qaeda and TTP have worsened over the last few years. "In fact, Al Qaeda in Pakistain has found new friends in the Punjabi Taliban, through the Pak Al Qaeda leader Matiur Rehman," an American intelligence official said.

Documents seized from bin Laden's compound and recently declassified by the US government show the Al Qaeda leadership was not happy with Hakeemullah Mehsud's leadership style and had asked him to focus his energies on Afghanistan rather than Pakistain.

"We have several important comments that cover the concept, approach, and behavior of the TTP in Pakistain, which we believe are passive behavior and clear legal and religious mistakes which might result in a negative deviation from the set path of the Jihadi Movement in Pakistain, which also are contrary to the objectives of Jihad and to the efforts exerted by us," Osama bin Laden said in a letter. He said the killing of Mohammedans and using people as human shields were part of these "mistakes".

Eventually, in late 2011, four major Taliban groups in Pakistain formed the Shura-e-Murakeba - after a deal was negotiated by Abu Yahya al-Libi, Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mansour, an Al Qaeda's Abdur Rehman Al Saudi - and decided to fight the US and other forces in Afghanistan.

The future of Al Qaeda:

"Where Al Qaeda goes from here is hard to determine," says Carl Adams. "Although they are not as powerful as they used to be, Al Qaeda is neither resting nor going away anytime soon. It is desperate for a big breakthrough, and that makes it an unguided missile: formidable, disorderly, and injurious - even if sometimes crashing short of the intended targets."

Link

India-Pakistan

'Al Qaeda Sold Bin Laden Out'

2012-05-05

Brig (r) Shaukat Qadir says Osama's personal courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, his wife Khairiah, and other friends betrayed him

A year after the late Osama bin Laden
... who was potted in Pakistain...
was killed in a US raid in Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
, evidence uncovered by retired Pakistain Army brigadier Shaukat Qadir suggests friends in the Al Qaeda network betrayed the network's chief.

"My year-long research has shown that Al Qaeda sold bin Laden out to the Americans," says Brig (r) Shaukat Qadir, who was given exclusive access to bin Laden's residence and family.

His book, Operation Geronimo: The betrayal and execution of Osama bin Laden and its aftermath, will be published electronically by Amazon.com.

Brig Qadir said bin Laden's personal courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, his wife Khairiah, and other unidentified friends betrayed the Al Qaeda chief.

Khairiah, bin Laden's Iranian wife, had left him in 2003 and was insisting on reuniting with him in 2010. Al-Kuwaiti was bragging with several people in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar about his connections and the wealth he had amassed while he was in the Middle East.

Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a senior Al Qaeda leader, convinced bin Laden to accept Khairiah back. "But Khairiah was extremely jealous of Amal al-Sadah, the youngest wife of bin Laden," Brig Qadir said, because bin Laden had only been sleeping with Amal for four years.

On the night between May 1 and May 2 when American helicopters were hovering over bin Laden's compound, al-Kuwaiti warned his wife that the Americans had arrived. "How on earth did he know they were American helicopters and not Pak?"

He said al-Kuwaiti and his brother, living in the same premises, had Kalashnikovs, but did not fire even a single bullet on the raiding American commandos. "But it's a mystery why both of them were killed if they had reached any kind of deal with the Americans."

Some experts believe al-Kuwaiti was not a traitor, but became careless, and that helped the CIA track bin Laden down.

Brig Qadir said al-Kuwaiti was first detected when he bragged about his business in the Middle East, told people he was running a pharmaceutical agency, and bought a bulk of medicines. The information reached the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). For reasons not yet known, the ISI did not show haste in following the trail.

It has recently been claimed that the ISI had given the American CIA al-Kuwaiti's telephone number, and that proved to be the most crucial lead to bin Laden. "The ISI gave the CIA the telephone number of al-Kuwaiti's brother," Brig Qadir clarified.

Dr Shakeel Afridi, who ran a fake polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccination campaign in the area at the CIA's behest, might have spoken to Khairiah on telephone, he said. "There is a possibility the CIA experts had her voice matched."

Brig Qadir said bin Laden's compound was not built to shelter the world most wanted man. It was an ordinary house which did not even have an emergency escape route. It had 10 rooms for 27 people. There were no secret chambers or basements for the residents to hide in case of a raid.

The owner of the six-kanal house was Ibrahim Khan from Kohat, he said. Earlier, the media had reported that one Arshad Khan owned the house.

An official Pak probe team called the Abbottabad Commission is investigating the events and circumstances that led to the presence of bin Laden in Pakistain and his eventual death. It has summoned several civil and military officials.

But analysts believe it would not reach a conclusion to the benefit of either Pakistain or the United States. "It is just a formality the government of Pakistain is fulfilling," an expert said.

Link

India-Pakistan

Osama bin Laden 'ordered al-Qaeda to kill Barack Obama and David Petraeus'

2012-03-16

Osama bin Laden ordered cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to shoot down a plane carrying Barack Obama and Gen David Petraeus, it was reported on Friday. According to a document retreived from the compound where bin Laden was shot dead by US Navy Seals last May, the al-Qaeda leader also told his deputy Atiyah Abd al-Rahman to focus attacks with the US rather than in Muslim nations.

Bin Laden told Rahman that without Mr Obama, the US would be thrown into "crisis" because Vice President Joe Biden was "unprepared" for the job, the Washington Post reported.
Biden actually was more prepared than Obama, which isn't saying much...
He also showed apparent regard for Petraeus.

"The reason for concentrating on them," bin Laden wrote in the 48-page document, "is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make (Vice President Joe) Biden take over the presidency. ... Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man of the hour ... and killing him would alter the war's path" in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden instructed Rahman to use Pakistani terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri for the attack. Kashmri was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan on June 2, 2011.

"Please ask brother Ilyas to send me the steps he has taken into that work," he wrote.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

US drone may have come down in Afghanistan, not Iran

2011-12-16

The CIA's RQ-170 "Sentinel" drone captured by the Iranians last week may have gone down in Afghanistan and then transported to Iran by friendly forces on the ground, a former officer in the elite Quds Force branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards told The Daily Caller.

The United States has never acknowledged that the drone was flying over Iranian airspace -- only that ground controllers "lost contact" with the drone and that it probably crashed. However, photographs and video footage released by the Iranians on Dec. 8, several days after they announced the drone's capture, clearly show that both wings had been neatly severed and then reattached.

The yellow bird doesn't look like a Sentinel, but go on with your story...

"This suggests that the drone landed safely and that its wings were cut off so it could be transported by truck," the former Quds Force officer said. "I believe it was captured by the Taliban inside Afghanistan and transferred to the Iranians, who then reattached the wings," he added.

The United States military has long complained that Iran supplies weapons, explosives, and money to the Taliban. The U.S. has identified camps inside Iran where Taliban fighters are trained.

Former U.S. Army intelligence officer Lt. Col Tony Schaeffer told FoxNews on Monday that he believed Iran's claims that it had interfered with the drone's command signal and forced it to land inside Iran. "If it had gone down inside Afghanistan, we should have blasted whoever had taken it before they could have moved it to Iran," he told TheDC on Tuesday.

The United States lost a drone to insurgents in Iraq in 2007 who managed to overwhelm its digital signal, which was unencrypted. The RQ-170 drone is also believed to have used an unencrypted data link, making Iran's claims to have brought it down through some form of cyber attack more credible.

So between 2007 and 2011 we didn't start encrypting these signals...because?

A three-way relationship connecting Iran, the Taliban and al-Qaida was in place long before the 9/11 terror attacks, and those connections have become increasingly close in recent years.

In July, the U.S. Treasury Department revealed that Iran has been sheltering al-Qaida's top operations planner, the man who ultimately took over from 9/11-planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. In a press release that highlighted Iran's support for al-Qaida, Treasury said that Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, the terror group's operations commander, had been its "emissary in Iran, a position which allowed him to travel in and out of Iran with the permission of Iranian officials."

A former senior CIA operations officer told TheDC that most CIA drones are programmed to "return to base" if they lose contact with their controllers, using on-board GPS transponders to guide them. The fact that the drone crashed -- or was guided down by a hostile cyber-attack, as Iran has claimed -- proves a malfunction occurred, but not one serious enough to cause major damage during a crash landing.

"It's unconscionable there wasn't a self-destruct mechanism on board," the former CIA operations officer said. "Someone is going to have to be accountable for that. It was a clear oversight."

Link

India-Pakistan

Al-Qaeda's number two killed in Pakistan: US official

2011-08-28

[Dawn]

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistain, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the US believes to be on the verge of defeat, a senior B.O. regime official said Saturday.

The Libyan national who was the network's former operational leader rose to al-Qaeda's No. 2 spot after the US killed al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden
... who is no more...
during a raid on his Pakistain compound in May.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
said last month that al-Qaeda's defeat was within reach if the US could mount a string of successful attacks on the group's weakened leadership.

"Now is the moment, following what happened with bin Laden, to put maximum pressure on them," Panetta said, "because I do believe that if we continue this effort we can really cripple al-Qaeda as a major threat."

Al-Rahman was killed Aug. 22 in the lawless Pak tribal region of Wazoo, according to the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.

The official would not say how al-Rahman was killed. But his death came on the same day that a CIA drone strike was reported in Waziristan. Such strikes by unmanned aircraft are Washington's weapon of choice for killing Islamic fascisti in the mountainous, hard-to-reach area along the Pakistain-Afghanistan border.

Al-Rahman, believed to be in his mid-30s, was a close confidant of bin Laden and once served as bin Laden's emissary to Iran.

Al-Rahman was allowed to move freely in and out of Iran as part of that arrangement and had been operating out of Waziristan for some time, officials have said.

Born in Libya, al-Rahman joined bin Laden as a teenager in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.

After Navy SEALs killed bin Laden, they found evidence of al-Rahman's role as operational chief, US officials have said.

Link

Europe

German Jihad: homegrown terror moves to the next level

2011-05-10

Osama bin Laden may be dead, but al-Qaida is alive and well in Germany. Each month, an average of five Islamists leave the country for terrorist training camps in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area. Recent arrests in Düsseldorf show just how dangerous homegrown terror has become.

It isn't easy being a militant Islamist, as ~~Dieter~~ Abdeladim el-K. and ~~Hans~~ Jamil S. learned on a Tuesday two weeks ago. The two men were sitting in a two-room apartment on Witzelstrasse in the German city of Düsseldorf, complaining to each other about how complicated it is to build a functioning bomb. "Bomb is not so difficult as detonator," said Abdeladim el-K., "because detonator more dangerous than bomb."

The al-Qaida handbooks make it all sound so easy. You buy charcoal lighters and extract the hexamine, and already you have a component for a bomb. Apparently the method works everywhere, except possibly in Germany, where charcoal lighters have a different chemical composition than in other countries. In Düsseldorf, investigators would later discover a cooking pot the two men may have wanted to use to boil down the lighters.

The apartment was under surveillance, as were the men's phones and computers. The police had been listening in on the two men's conversations for weeks, except when the sound of the television or the washing machine drowned out what they were saying. On Wednesday, when the men, speaking in broken German, began discussing "making an attack at bus stop" or possibly on a bus, the federal prosecutor's office decided to move in rather than wait until the would-be terrorists had built their bomb and were ready to use it.

On the morning of Friday, April 29, police arrested Moroccan national Abdeladim el-K., 29, German-Moroccan electrician Jamil S., 31 and German-Iranian student Amid C., 19, who was on the verge of taking his final examinations prior to graduating from high school.

At the center of the investigation in Düsseldorf was Abdeladim el-K., who investigators believe was the leader of the cell. He had allegedly brought the virus of Islamist terror from Afghanistan to Düsseldorf and had been in contact with Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a senior member of al-Qaida. The two men had apparently met in an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan, and it appeared that el-K. was al-Qaida's man for the Rhine-Ruhr region of western Germany.

Most Have Attended Training Camps

Much has changed in the Islamist terrorist scene in Germany in the almost 10 years since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but one constant has remained. Like the 9/11 attackers, the overwhelming majority of militant jihadists in Germany have attended training camps run by al-Qaida or affiliated groups.

In these camps, would-be terrorists receive instruction on terrorism techniques and are given orders to be carried out in Europe. The camps are still in the Hindu Kush region that straddles Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, but now they are somewhat farther to the south than before, in the border area between the two countries. The Western invasion of Afghanistan did not change that. Neither have countless military offensives or US drone attacks.

Osama bin Laden is dead, as are many of his closest associates. But the recruitment of new blood is still going strong. The terror network has been continually transforming itself, as new terrorists have come up through the ranks, running individual camps and smaller organizations, before disappearing from view again.

Al-Qaida today resembles an army whose battalions were torn apart after the invasion of Afghanistan and whose surviving troop units are now operating more or less autonomously. But there are still many soldiers willing to fight, including some from Germany. "So many people arrive every month that there are problems finding places for them to stay," says Rami Makanesi, a suspected al-Qaida member from Hamburg who also attended a training camp in the Hindu Kush region.

Paradoxically, the new structure, with its many splinter groups, makes it easier for Islamist fanatics to latch onto one of the organizations. "In the last few years, the threat level in Germany from al-Qaida has actually increased," says German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU).

Excerpt from the first part of a two-part report in the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Link

India-Pakistan

Atiyah Abd al Rahman Zapped? Or Not?

2010-10-11

Rumors abound but sources are fuzzy at best. It does look like there are probably some big fish in that small pond of North Wazoo, and they should be getting very nervous (if such is still biologically possible for them.)

You mean the ones who haven't already kissed their own drone?

A senior al Qaeda leader who serves as al Qaeda's ambassador to Iran, and is wanted by the US, is reported to have been killed in a Predator airstrike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan two days ago. The report has not been confirmed.

The first is Atiyah Abd al Rahman, a Libyan national who has been based in Iran and served as Osama bin Laden's ambassador to the mullahs. Unconfirmed press reports indicate that Rahman was killed in an airstrike earlier this week.

Atiyah Abd al Rahman may have been among one of four "militants" killed in an Oct. 7 airstrike on a compound and a vehicle in the village of Khaisoori in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. Another operative identified as Khalid Mohammad Abbas al Harabi was also reportedly killed.

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Iraq

Letter: Al-Zarqawi had falling out with al-Qaida

2006-10-03

CAIRO, Egypt - A top al-Qaida official warned Abu Musab al-Zarqawi six months before he was killed by a U.S. airstrike that he would be removed as the terror groups head in Iraq if he did not consult with the groups leadership on major issues.

An al-Qaida leader named Atiyah cautioned al-Zarqawi in an 11-page letter against the war he had declared on Shiite Muslims.

The letter also criticized attacks the Iraqi branch had carried out in neighboring countries an apparent reference to last years triple suicide attacks on hotels in the Jordanian capital of Amman that killed dozens.

Anyone who commits tyranny and aggression upon the people and causes corruption within the land and drives people away from us and our faith and our jihad and from the religion and the message that we carry, then he must be taken to task, Atiyah wrote, saying he was in the northwest Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan.

We must direct him to what is right, just, and for the best. Otherwise, we would have to push him aside and keep him away from the sphere of influence and replace him and so forth, he wrote.

Atiyah tells al-Zarqawi that on major issues he should consult with your leadership, Sheik Osama (bin Laden) and the doctor (Ayman al-Zawahri) and their brothers ... as well as your Mujahedeen brothers in Iraq.

Two government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said the letter is believed to be authentic. They said Atiyah is considered to be bin Ladens emissary to Iraq and served as a link between the al-Qaida leader and al-Zarqawi.

It wasnt clear when Atiyah, a 37-year-old Libyan whose full name is Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, took over that role or precisely how close to bin Laden he is.

One of the officials said he is a religious scholar with knowledge of the Koran and Islamic law and a veteran of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan. He joined al-Qaida in the early 1990s, when it was first formed, and spent some time in the mid-1990s in Algeria.

Atiyah is believed to be an explosives expert, the official said.

First revealed by Iraqs National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie on Sept. 18, The Washington Post reported in Mondays editions that the letter was the first document to emerge from what the U.S. military described as a treasure trove of information uncovered from Iraqi safe houses at the time of al-Zarqawis death.

Al-Zarqawi was asked in the letter to correspond with al-Qaida in Waziristan through reliable messengers and was told not to attack Sunni clerics in Iraq or abroad an apparent reference to the Sunni clerics who were assassinated after calling for Iraqis to take part in last years general elections.

The war is long and our road is long. What is important is to keep the good reputation of yourself, the mujahedeen and especially your group, Atiyah wrote.

The letter also praised al-Zarqawi, saying you have hurt America, the largest infidel Crusader forces in history.

It was dated the 10th of the Muslim month of Zhul Qadah, which was around mid-December last year and about six months before the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad.

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India-Pakistan

Al-Qaeda HQ 'based in Pakistan'

2006-10-02

A letter found when al-Qaeda's chief in Iraq was killed said the group's leadership was based in Waziristan, Pakistan, the Washington Post reports.
The December 2005 missive is said to be the first to emerge from what the US military calls a "treasure trove" after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death in June.
It was reportedly sent by a member of Osama Bin Laden's high command, who said he wrote from Waziristan.

That's about where we thought they were.

Bin Laden is suspected of hiding along the Afghan-Pakistani border. If accurate, the letter would confirm the location of the al-Qaeda leadership at the time it was written, the newspaper said.

The missive was uncovered from Iraqi safe houses at the time of Zarqawi's death in a US air strike, according to the Washington Post. A 15-page English translation of the Arabic document was released last week by a US military counter-terrorism centre, the paper reported.

The author said he was writing from al-Qaeda headquarters in the restive border region, where Taleban and al-Qaeda fugitives have been active. The paper said the letter was signed by "Atiyah," whom counter-terrorism officials believe is Atiyah Abd al Rahman, a 37-year-old Libyan who joined Bin Laden during the 1980s. "I am with them," the letter says. "And they have some comments about some of your circumstances."

The letter described the difficulty of direct communications between Waziristan and Iraq, and suggested it was easier for Zarqawi to send a representative to Pakistan than the other way around, the Washington Post reported. It also warned Zarqawi that he risked removal as the leader in Iraq if he continued to alienate Sunni leaders and rival insurgent groups, the paper said.

He did and he was. "Removed" from the living, that is.

The "brothers wish that they had a way to talk to you and advise you, and to guide and instruct you; however, they too are occupied with vicious enemies here," Atiyah reportedly wrote. "They are also weak. And we ask God that He strengthen them and mend their fractures."

Counter-terrorism officials reportedly deemed the document authentic.

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