Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Ayman al Zawahiri	Ayman al Zawahiri	al-Qaeda	Afghanistan-Pak-India	Egyptian	At Large	Second in Command	20051027	Link
	Ayman al Zawahiri	Gamaa Islamiya	Africa North				20060214	Link

-Land of the Free

The CIA Has a Podcast, Revealing Personnel to Be Even More Self-Important, Mediocre Than We Knew

2022-11-20

A taste. Much more pointing and laughing at the link. I keep hoping that all this is just a really, really clever cover for incredible depths of competence and effectiveness against America’s enemies.

[Breitbart] The CIA has launched a podcast called The Langley Files, and it’s even more boring and cringe than we could have imagined — but it also inadvertently reveals a level of mediocrity in the agency commonly suspected but rarely seen.

To spare the American public, Breitbart News has accepted the undertaking of listening to the four episodes released so far and can report that they broadcast an agency in embarrassing decline.

The show is hosted by “Dee” and “Walter” — last names presumably omitted for maximum super secret, super cool spy effect — who don’t disclose their role at the agency, but are probably millennial comms staff.

“At CIA, there are truths we can share and stories we can tell — stories of duty and dedication, stories of ingenuity and mission, stories beyond those of Hollywood scripts and shadowed whispers,” Dee says, as the first, “unclassified” episode opens. “Today, we’re taking a step out from behind those shadows, sharing what we can, and offering a glimpse into the world of the Central Intelligence Agency.”

Walter then introduces his first guest, CIA Director Bill Burns, who opens by acknowledging that “trust in institutions is in short supply,” and then proceeds for the following 15 minutes to patronize listeners with thinly-disguised propaganda and cloying personal anecdotes.

Burns — who by all appearances looks like the quintessential D.C. bureaucrat — helpfully informs us that he doesn’t “exactly fit the image” of James Bond and Jason Bourne, saying that he actually drives a “2013 Subaru Outback” and struggles to work his Roku.

Burns then goes on to tout the agency’s work helping Ukraine and the strike against Ayman al Zawahiri last summer — but stops just short of mentioning some of his agency’s other greatest hits, like the intelligence snafu leading to the droning of an innocent man and his children in Kabul just following the spectacular intelligence failure that was the Afghanistan withdrawal in the summer of 2021. The withdrawal debacle does come up later in the episode, but Burns awkwardly glazes over any responsibility his agency might have had, grouping himself with those who sacrificed their lives in the conflict, saying, “we” did “our duty” and “honored our profound obligation.”

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Did the U.S. Government Hide bin Laden In Iran? Alleged Whistleblower Releases Evidence to Make His Claim

2020-10-21

The writer appears to be a Q true believer. She started writing about it for American Thinker here. We addressed Mr. Parrot’s claims a week ago here.

Strolling through the Rantburg archives when I possibly should have been doing something more useful, I was reminded that after Al Qaeda was cornered in Tora Bora, Al Qaeda split itself in two. Twenty to thirty members of the management council, led by Al Qaeda #3 Saif Adel, fled to welcoming arms in northern Iran, taking most of Osama bin Laden’s wives and underage children. The Shura consultative council, led by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, broke into smaller groups and wandered from safe house to safe house across Pakistan. Some of them were found and arrested along the way, including the big guy himself in Abbottabad. Former #2 Ayman al Zawahiri is still out there, no doubt just as protected by the ISI as ever he was. With so many allies, no American collusion was needed.

Details from our files:
Northern Iran contingent: 20-30 Al Qaeda senior members of the management council including Saif Adel (AlQ #3 and operations chief), Suleiman Abu Ghaith (info chief, spokesmen), AlQ CFO Shaik Said, AlQ personnel director Abu Hafs, Abu Dahak (Yemeni, AlQ ambassador to the Chechen rebels), Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, two of bin Laden's teenage sons — Saad (drone zapped in Pakistan in 2009) and Hamza (killed in AfPak in 2019) — plus three Osama bin Laden wives and about 20 offspring. Iran Al Quds unit supported Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad and OBL’s Al Qaeda starting in about 1990 with significant weapons and logistics support and training. So they were very happy to put their clients under “house arrest” to keep the Americans off their backs. OBL’s youngest wife rejoined him in Pakistan in 2002, the two middle ones wandered back later.

Pakistan contingent: the Shura consultative council included Osama bin Laden and #2 Ayman al-Zawahiri along with Abu Zubaydah (recruitment and training leader arrested in Faisalabad), Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Balochi, operations commander grabbed in Rawalpindi) and two of his deputies: Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Abu Faraj al Libbi (taken in Karachi and Multan). The ISI carefully has not noticed them or their supporters, even when they were neighbours in the military town of Abbotabad.

OBL’s first wife, Najwa bin Laden, left Afghanistan for her family in Damascus before 9/11, taking her handicapped son, but leaving most of the rest of her eleven children with their father.

[AmericanThinker] Alan Howell Parrot is an unusual character with a flowing gray beard and wizard’s turban who looks like he popped out of a movie. Born in Maine, he followed his fascination with falcons to the Middle East, serving as Chief Falconer to the Shah of Iran and organizing falconry hunts for the royal families of Saudi Arabia. His falconry skills often brought him into Iran, where he says he met Osama bin Laden six times. Parrot claims that both George W. Bush and Barack Obama were fully aware that bin Laden and more than 100 of his top Al Qaeda fighters were sheltering in Iran, along with their families. And he’s now released documents to support his claim, including an audio recording, that he has not denied, of Joe Biden's attorney admitting that Osama bin Laden was being kept in Iran as part of a deal with the U.S government.

For years, Parrot tried to alert the public about his disturbing experience with American intelligence agencies that he says refused to take action against bin Laden’s encampment. "John Brennan and Clinton and Biden outsourced the imprisonment of Al Qaeda leaders to Iran," Parrot recently told Charles Woods, father of fallen Benghazi hero Tyrone Woods. (You can watch their conversation here.) "My team planned a program to go in and get bin Laden in Iran. We were going to catch him while he was falconry hunting."

According to Parrot, U.S. intelligence agencies first ignored, then obstructed, and finally threatened him, warning they would alert the Iranians if he attempted to capture bin Laden. Eventually, Parrot says, Hillary Clinton arranged to move bin Laden to Pakistan for a "trophy kill" to ensure Obama’s reelection. In 2010, Parrott made a movie, "Feathered Cocaine," about his encounters with bin Laden, which was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. (Here’s the trailer.) In 2011, his lawyer, John Loftus, alleged more details of U.S. intelligence’s complicity in sheltering bin Laden in an article that included this intriguing tidbit: "My friend laughed and said, "Don’t you get it, John? The last thing they want is for anyone to capture bin Laden alive. Think of what he could say on the stand in a public trial." I didn’t believe him at first."

Last week, Parrot’s story started to get traction when Anna Khait, an independent journalist, published, via Twitter, documents and audio that she says Parrot had given her. The documents include a signed non-disclosure agreement between Parrot, Congressman Curt Weldon & Joe Biden's attorney (and fixer) Brian S. Ettinger, on information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden, letters asking why the intelligence on bin Laden is being ignored, and audio of conversations between Parrot, Weldon, and Ettinger, in which Biden’s attorney acknowledges U.S. government policy is to shelter bin Laden in Iran: "He is being protected by us. We don’t really want to get him...we want him under the radar screen because he basically made a deal with us that he’s not gonna uh...hit us here in the US." Neither Ettinger nor Biden has issued a statement denying it.

Parrot is not the only person making credible claims about bin Laden’s safe haven in Iran. Mike Moore, an intelligence expert and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, came to the same conclusion after interviewing government intelligence operators, informants, and lawmakers. Moore notes that Robert Mueller was the FBI Director during these events and that John Brennan was "neck deep" in arranging the bin Laden deal with the Saudis and Iranians. Mueller and Brennan, of course, were key figures in the coup efforts against President Trump.

Link

Iraq

Islamic State seeking alliance with al Qaeda, Iraqi vice president says

2017-04-18

[REUTERS] Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
is talking to al Qaeda about a possible alliance as Iraqi troops close in on IS fighters in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi said in an interview on Monday.

Allawi said he got the information on Monday from Iraqi and regional contacts knowledgeable about Iraq.

"The discussion has started now," Allawi said. "There are discussions and dialogue between messengers representing Baghdadi and representing

Link

Afghanistan

Pakistan's ISI funded deadly attack on CIA post at FOB Chapman

2016-04-15

[Times of India] WASHINGTON: Talk about biting the hand that feeds. Even as it bilked billions of dollars in aid from the United States, Pakistan is now revealed to have funded the 2009 attack on a CIA camp on its border with Afghanistan that killed seven American agents and contractors and three others.

The explosive disclosure comes in a declassified 2010 cable published by the national security archive, that, despite being redacted in parts, asserts unequivocally that "some funding for Haqqani attacks are still provided by the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, including $200,000 for the December 30, 2009, attack on the CIA facility at Camp Chapman."

The Camp Chapman attack was carried out by Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor and double agent, whom the CIA was trying to use to infiltrate al-Qaida in Pakistan in its hunt for Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. Instead, he was turned around the Haqqani group, a terrorist proxy for Pakistan's intelligence agency.

Al-Balawi's suicide attack on December 30, 2009 at the Camp Chapman forward post, which the CIA used to gather intelligence for drone attacks in Pakistan, killed ten people, including two female American CIA agents: Jennifer Lynne Matthews, 45, and a mother of three, who commanded the base, and Elizabeth Hanson, 30, a targeting analyst. The attack was memorialized in a movie titled Zero Dark Thirty.

While it has long been known that Pakistan's terrorism sponsorship has claimed the lives of Indian and American civilians and military personnel, the revelations about bankrolling the Camp Chapman attack, kept secret from the public so far, is certain to inflame tensions between the two sides, particularly their military-intelligence outfits. Successive US administrations -- particularly the state department led by John Kerry -- have long ladled out pabulum that Pakistan is a front-line ally in the war on terror while funneling billions of dollars of aid, despite multiple terrorist attacks across the world originating from Pakistan, including in San Bernardino, New York, and London.
The attack on FOB Chapman took place on December 30, 2009. Bin Laden was killed at Abbottabad on May 2, 2011. The goal was the neutralization of Bin Laden prior to the 2012 presidential election. The goal was met.

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Africa Horn

Al Muhajiroun -- Al Qaeda's New Branch In Kenya

2015-04-03

[Intel Briefs] Al Qaeda has established a new dedicated branch for Kenya. The branch, called Al Muhajiroun, is subordinated to Somalia-based Al Shabaab as it is still at its infancy. Later on, Al Qaeda hopes that it will exists an an independent functional terror outfit. Al Muhajiroun appears to be made up entirely of members of Ansar al Mujahideen. One of its senior leaders is Ahmed Iman Ali (alias Abu Zinnrah), the former leader of MYC (Muslim Youth Centre which has rebranded itself as Al Hijra) and former chairman of Pumwani Riyadha Mosque.

Ansar al Mujahideen has fought alongside Harakat-al-Shabaab-al-Mujahideen (HSM) in Somalia as a separate but cohesive unit made up of foreign jihadists. HSM has acknowledged, acceded and recognized their efforts in prolonging the lifespan of the Islamist insurgency in Somalia.

Al Qaeda, noting the limitations of Al Shabaab, has decided to create a new branch for exporting jihad into Kenya and East Africa in general; and Al Muhajiroun is the result.

Members of Al Muhajiroun are predominantly from Kenya, Canada, Australia and France. The members have made baya’ah (an oath of allegiance) to the emir of Al Shabaab,Sheikh Ahmad Umar Abu Ubaidah. Al-Muhajiroun – as Emigrants of East Africa – has also made a collective solemn and irrevocable baya’ah to Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of Al Qaeda; and also recognizes him as the overall leader of Jihadists in East Africa.

One of the senior leaders of al Muhajiroun is of Kenyan extraction and goes by the moniker Abu Salim al-Kenyi; and who SIS has identified as non-other than Ahmed Iman Ali.

Though the group main focus of operation is Kenya, its chief objectives are to spread jihad in East Africa as well as recalibrating Islamic discourse in the region so that it aligns to a strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic teachings.

Link

Africa North

Communications with Ayman al Zawahiri highlighted in 'Nasr City cell' case

2013-02-10

Egyptian prosecutors have uncovered a treasure trove of information in the so-called "Nasr City Cell" case, including correspondence between the terrorist who headed that cell and al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri. The Nasr City cell allegedly plotted various attacks inside Egypt and has connections to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

One of the two terrorists who led the Nasr City cell is Muhammad Jamal al Kashef (a.k.a. Abu Ahmad), who served Zawahiri in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in the 1990s.

A computer recovered during a raid

O boy -- fun for certain clever lads and lasses, with mayhem to follow!

on an apartment in the Nasr City neighborhood of Cairo on Oct. 24, 2012 includes correspondence between Jamal and Zawahiri. Two such letters were discussed in the Egyptian press last week. The revelation is important for many reasons. For instance, Jamal's trainees reportedly participated in the Benghazi attack, which left four Americans, including a US Ambassador, dead.

The letters do not deal with the assault in Benghazi. They were written beforehand and summarize Jamal's various nefarious activities, including inside Libya.

Link

Africa North

A Major Benghazi Terror Bust Directly Tied To Al Qaeda.

2012-12-09

The Egyptian government has nabbed a major terrorist tied to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, according to the Wall Street Journal. And that terrorist has direct, longstanding ties to al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri

The captured terrorist is Muhammad Jamal al Kashef (a.k.a. Abu Ahmed), who served as a senior Egyptian 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...
(EIJ) terrorist in the 1990s and was imprisoned for years. The EIJ was headed by Ayman al Zawahiri, who merged the group with the late Osama bin Laden
... who has left the building...
's operation.

After his release from prison in 2011, Kashef established training camps in Egypt and Libya. Some of Kashef's trainees took part in the Benghazi attack, according to multiple reports.

Kashef is the most senior terrorist cooled for a few years
You have the right to remain silent...
in connection with the Benghazi attack to date. Importantly, the publicly-available details of his biography show that he has numerous al Qaeda connections.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Kashef "petitioned al Qaeda leader 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...
to establish a new Qaeda affiliate he called al Qaeda in Egypt" and also received financing from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Al Hayat, a London-based Arabic newspaper, previously reported that Zawahiri gave Jamal the go-ahead to launch terrorist attacks in Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere.

On October 24, Egyptian authorities raided an apartment in Nasr City, Cairo, arresting several bully boyz in the process. One suspected terrorist was killed during the confrontation when one of his bombs detonated, setting the apartment building on fire.

The Nasr City terrorist cell has ties to Kashef, the attack in Benghazi, as well as al Qaeda's operations inside Libya, the Egyptians say.

Days after the Nasr City raid, the Egyptians cooled for a few years
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
Sheikh Adel Shehato, an EIJ official who openly declares his adherence to al Qaeda's ideology. Shehato is accused of founding and financing the Nasr City cell. Shehato was reportedly locked away
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
en route to Libya with a large sum of cash.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD previously reported on Kashef and Shehato. It was the Egyptians' investigation of the Nasr City cell with help from American intelligence officials that led to Kashef's arrest.

Shehato was one of several al Qaeda-linked jihadists who helped instigate the Sept. 11 protest in Cairo. The other jihadists who incited protesters in Cairo are part of Kashef's circle, too. Later that same day, snuffies attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, killing four Americans.

Link

Africa North

Ansar al Sharia Egypt releases founding statement

2012-11-20

Ansar al Sharia Egypt has published its founding statement online. The group says that "preaching and jihad are two wings that are indispensable to the spread of Islam," according to a translation prepared by the SITE Intelligence Group. And the group outlines sixteen goals with that two-pronged approach in mind.

In addition to calling for the implementation of sharia law, and the resurrection of the Caliphate, the organization says it will work towards "the liberation of the Muslim lands from foreign invasion" and resist "modern colonialism, especially the Zionist-Crusader colonialism that is led by America and the West."

Ansar al Sharia Egypt also says, according to SITE's translation, that it will support "the mujahideen and their movements and groups in the different lands of the Muslims so as to resist the Zionist-Crusader colonization, and this comes at the head of our priorities."

The founding statement is signed by Ahmed Ashush, a high-profile jihadist who has longstanding ties to al Qaeda. During a recent television appearance, Ashush criticized Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi for not imposing sharia law. Ashush has consistently denounced the democratic process as well.

On Sept. 16, less than a week after the Sept. 11 protest at the US embassy in Cairo, Ashush released a fatwa online calling for the makers of the film "Innocence of Muslims" to be killed. "He who kills them is due the reward given to a mujahid from Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He," Ashush claimed, according to a translation by SITE. "So, hurry, hurry, O Muslim youth in America and Europe, and teach those filthy lowly ones a lesson that all the monkeys and pigs in America and Europe will understand."

BBC Monitoring reported that Ashush's fatwa "was advertised prominently on the main page of the key pro-al Qaeda website Shumukh al Islam, which has promoted the works of Ashush in the past."

After Ashush's fatwa was released, the Associated Press reported that he is an "al Qaeda-linked Egyptian jihadist...who was believed close to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda's current No. 1, Ayman al Zawahiri."

Link

Africa North

Egypt arrests a number of wanted jihadists in Sinai

2012-11-12

Over the past few days, Egyptian authorities have reportedly arrested a number of wanted jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula.

On Wednesday, Egyptian authorities arrested three jihadists, one of whom was reportedly in the possession of an Egyptian military uniform, according to Ma'an News Agency. On Friday, Egyptian officials announced that "a well-known leader in a Jihadist organization," Mohammad Abdullah Abed al Rahman, was arrested on Wednesday. It is unclear if his arrest occurred during a separate raid.

On Thursday, Ahmed Allam el Hefny, a wanted jihadist, was arrested in the town of Sheikh Zuweyid near the city of el-Arish in northern Sinai. El Hefny was wanted in connection with "a June 2011 attack on el-Arish's main police station and a bank," according to the Associated Press. In September, he was convicted in absentia; he will now be retried, however.

The brother of Ahmed el Hefny, Kamal el Hefny, has threatened to kidnap Egyptian policemen and army officers if his brother is not released. In addition, he reportedly "phoned a police station in el-Arish and threatened to bomb administration headquarters."

Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities have denied Arabic press reports that alleged that 20 jihadists fleeing to Gaza through a border tunnel and in possession of 30 automatic weapons, 3 RPGs, 5,000 rounds of ammunition, and a photo of Osama bin Laden, had been arrested. Officials have also denied that President Mohamed Morsy recently received a list of 7,000 suspected al Qaeda militants in Sinai and that a Palestinian was arrested carrying a handwritten letter from al Qaeda's Ayman al Zawahiri to jihadists in the Sinai.

Link

Africa North

Zawahiri says raids on diplomatic facilities were 'defeats' for US

2012-11-08

In a new audio message addressed to Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, Ayman al Zawahiri cites the raids on US diplomatic facilities in September as evidence of American weakness.

Shabaab has suffered setbacks in recent months, including the loss of its stronghold in the port city of Kismayo. But in what amounts to a pep talk, Zawahiri says Shabaab's spirits should be buoyed by the supposed losses suffered by America and its allies elsewhere.

"They were defeated in Iraq and they are withdrawing from Afghanistan, and their ambassador in Benghazi was killed and the flags of their embassies were lowered in Cairo and Sana'a, and in their places were raised the flags of tawhid [monotheism] and jihad," Zawahiri says, according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.

"After their consecutive defeats, they are working from behind agents and traitors," Zawahiri continues. "Their awe is lost and their might is gone and they don't dare to carry out a new campaign like their past ones in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Al Qaeda-linked extremists have been tied to the three assaults on US diplomatic facilities Zawahiri mentions.

Press reports have identified several al Qaeda-affiliated parties as being responsible for the Sept. 11 assault on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Members of a local militia named Ansar al Sharia participated in the assault. As first reported by the Daily Beast, members of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) were in contact with some of the Ansar al Sharia assailants. CNN has reported that members of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) are suspected of taking part in the assault.

Still another al Qaeda-linked network reportedly provided fighters for the Benghazi assault. Terrorists trained in Libyan camps set up by an Egyptian named Muhammad Jamal were among the attackers. According to The Wall Street Journal, Jamal "petitioned" Ayman al Zawahiri to establish a new al Qaeda affiliate and has also received funding from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Link

Africa North

Video reportedly shows key suspect from Benghazi attack

2012-10-31

One of the main suspects in the Sept. 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi appeared in a recent video posted online by an Egyptian media organization, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

Muhammad Jamal al Kashef (a.k.a. Abu Ahmed) is suspected of training some of the terrorists responsible for the consulate assault, during which Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

On Oct. 28, the Al Marsad News Network posted a short interview with Jamal on YouTube.

It is not clear where or when the interview was filmed, but Jamal says he "always came to this place inside a State Security vehicle, and this is the first time" he did not. Jamal does not add much more.

The interviewer concludes by congratulating him, according to SITE's translation. "A thousand congratulations, Sheikh Abu Ahmed, a thousand congratulations, Muhammad Jamal Abu al Kashef. Peace be upon you O Sheikh!"

Jamal's ties to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. US officials cited by the paper said "initial reports" indicated that some of Jamal's fighters took part in the assault. In addition, the paper cited a former US official as saying that intelligence reports "suggest that some of the attackers trained at camps [Jamal] established in the Libyan Desert." Those same camps are being filled with recruits from Egypt and elsewhere. Suicide bombers are also being indoctrinated in the camps.

The Wall Street Journal's sources added that Jamal had "petitioned" Ayman al Zawahiri, "to whom [Jamal] has long ties, for permission to launch an al Qaeda affiliate and has secured financing from al Qaeda's Yemeni wing."

Link

Africa North

Zawahiri's Brother Defends Benghazi Suspect

2012-10-06

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that fighters "linked to" an Egyptian terrorist named Muhammad Jamal Abu Ahmad took part in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Ahmad was freed in 2011, after the fall of Hosni Mubarak's regime. The WSJ's account has clearly angered one of Ahmad's friends -- Mohammed al Zawahiri, who helped lead the protest at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo the same day as the attack in Libya. Mohammed al Zawahiri is the younger brother of al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri.

It's almost as if they all stick together...

Ahram Online reports today that Mohammed al Zawahiri is "slamming" the WSJ account. Mohammed al Zawahiri claims that "the Salafist movement does not commit acts of violence and that Ahmad is innocent."

Then, of course, his lips fell off...

He adds that the WSJ article is just an attempt to stir up trouble between Salafist groups and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

No one should take Mohammed al Zawahiri at his word. As a commander in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) organization, a core part of the al Qaeda joint venture, he has established a web of nefarious ties that go far beyond his brother. In fact, according to the very same WSJ article Mohammed al Zawahiri objects to, he helped put Ahmad in touch with Ayman al Zawahiri.

"U.S. officials believe [Mohammed al Zawahiri] has helped Mr. Ahmad connect with the al Qaeda chief," the WSJ reported.

The WSJ explains: "Western officials say Mr. Ahmad has petitioned the chief of al Qaeda, to whom he has long ties, for permission to launch an al Qaeda affiliate and has secured financing from al Qaeda's Yemeni wing."

Given that Ahmad's forces are suspected of taking part in the Benghazi attack, which reportedly involved other al Qaeda parties (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar al Sharia, etc.), it would be a mistake to assume that nothing came of Ahmad's petition of Ayman al Zawahiri. Not just anyone receives financing from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as Ahmad reportedly has.

This brings us back to Mohammed al Zawahiri. He denies everything, of course. Mohammed al Zawahiri denies that he has resumed his terrorist career. He also denies having anything to do with the ransacking of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, claiming that he only meant to launch a protest outside the compound's walls.

U.S. intelligence officials, judging by the WSJ account and other reporting, clearly don't believe Mohammed al Zawahiri's denials. So the question becomes, what (if anything) is Morsi's government going to do about him and his ilk?

The more important question is, what will the American government do about him and his ilk? We're drone-zapping bad boyz in Yemen and Pakistan without regard for the feelings of the host government. Perhaps we should similarly disregard the Egyptians...

Of course, it was Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government that paved the way for Egyptian Islamic Jihad members and other terrorists to be released from Egypt's prisons in the first place. Then there is this, from CNN, on September 11 of this year:

A source with direct knowledge of Egyptian government talks with jihadists in the Sinai says al-Zawahiri is helping negotiations. The source says al-Zawahiri has the respect of the Islamists and the trust of the new government.

So while U.S. intelligence officials believe that Mohammed al Zawahiri is helping to put terrorists in touch with the head of al Qaeda, the Egyptian government "trust(s)" him to help negotiate with terrorists in the Sinai.

It is safe to say there is a major disconnect here.

Thomas Joscelyn is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies

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